Hey Everybody! How Ya Been??

[musician/lawnman]

I've been off the forum here for a few months. Business is good & time is pretty limited. All said & done I closed out 09 strong. Was a pretty good year for us. I hope you all did just as well.

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AAA QUALITY CLEAN CUT, LLC.
LAWN CARE & LANDSCAPING
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[XtreemGreen]

Lawn care business tips

Welcome back Chuck... Glad you had a good 09...

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In Memory of My Dad..1943-2008..Gary "Snuffy" Smith

[justin_time]

Omg your back, i didn't know if you changed planet, it's been so long since i've seen you on this forum

Welcome back

[musician/lawnman]

Yeah Justin, I found the lawns on mars grow better & the martians pay better
How have you been dude?

[justin_time]

Originally Posted by musician/lawnman

Yeah Justin, I found the lawns on mars grow better & the martians pay better
How have you been dude?

I'm doing fine, doing part time work at an outdoor rink. It pays the bills. If i wouldn't have this job, i would be having it rough so it ain't so bad even though I have to travel 1 hr there and back.

I am getting anxious to fire up my ZTR for spring...

That's about it...

[Little's]

Hey Guys. Been off for a few months too. Just decided to check by today. Finished 09 better than 08, so thats a good sign!

09 was good 2010 should be even better

[Steve]

Hi! Oh this is fantastic to see everyone

What do you all feel made last year different from previous years? It's great to see when you can get traction and push things forwards in a positive direction.

So many business owners seem to never get traction no matter how hard they try.

Why is this the case?

[musician/lawnman]

In 09 I lost a ton of vacant rentals I was maintaining in 08 through a couple property management companies, not because I lost the account but because most of the rentals had tenants. That kinda sucked.
However, I gained a bunch of new year round clients on agreements. I did more landscape design & install work, More trimming/pruning, & added fertilization as a service.

I actually was cutting a few less lawns per week than in 08' but was doing more volume of work from each existing customer. So by taping into my current client base I was able to increase revenues significantly over my 2008figures.


I think some guys fail to get off the ground because of poor business management & going about their business the wrong way. If you try to be the cheap "budget" service provider, you'll go broke. there is always somebody cheaper, customer loyalty sucks that way. You (hopefully) realize your not making money so you speed up & quality suffers. Customers are mad that the quality stinks, your mad cause the money stinks, nobodys happy & the neigbors certainly aren't going to hire you. They often figure they need more clients & since people aren't hiring their lousy service at $20 bucks a cut they need to drop it to $15 a cut right? WRONG! Yer an idiot & you'll be working at Mcdonalds by mid August. Thanks for stopping by the industry! Don't come back.

Provide quality at a fair rate.... be reliable. Business will grow.

[Steve]

I did more landscape design & install work, More trimming/pruning, & added fertilization as a service.

I actually was cutting a few less lawns per week than in 08' but was doing more volume of work from each existing customer. So by taping into my current client base I was able to increase revenues significantly over my 2008figures.

I think this is brilliant! What led to offering this? Was it just that your customers were asking for more or were you looking for it and promoting them as upsells?

I think a lot of newer lawn care businesses arent going to see this, but do you feel that there is a higher profit margin in offering these add on or upsell services than there is in mowing? So in a sense does offering the mowing services, open the door to selling more services to your clients?