Hey Everybody! How Ya Been??

[musician/lawnman]

Well I did actively work at upselling these add on services to existing clientel. Yes, almost anything is more profitable than just mowing, however it is what keeps you in front of your clients all the time. A nessesary lose leader. Yes, once you serve a client for a while, answer their questions & inform them of any problems with the lawn, or plants, & trees... They tend to trust you more when you recommend another service should be performed. It all adds up even little trim & prune jobs... $25 for that tree, $30 for those bushes etc. adds up to another $100/day = an extra $2,000 + for the month. Now add a couple little landscape jobs in each month, a couple ferts & your adding $3-5k each month on top of your lawn revenues. Not counting the occasional (rare in this economy) complete landscape overhaul.

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[Steve]

Lawn care business tips

Yes, almost anything is more profitable than just mowing, however it is what keeps you in front of your clients all the time. A nessesary lose leader. Because lawn care is highly competitive, is it ever worthwhile taking on a customer if you feel that the mowing end of it will break even at best? In hopes they can be upsold to? Do you find all customers can be upsold or should you only keep customers that you can upsell to and get rid of the others?

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[musician/lawnman]

Steve, I am not interested in doing anything at a break even rate. I really don't need the practice at this point. Not everyone will buy the upsell type services & that's ok. No I dot drop customers for not buying other services.
My point was that lawn care can keep you in business & keep you from starving day to day, the other services turn better profit typically.

Originally Posted by musician/lawnman

Steve, I am not interested in doing anything at a break even rate. I really don't need the practice at this point.

Right on m/l

I can't even justify starting my truck for under $30 an hour. This is not easy work in the FL sun, and our equipment is not cheap. There is no reason in the world to work for free, EVER!

[musician/lawnman]

1st time in a while checking back in.....
Busy as hell already. It's going to be a long season. We've had a mutant amount of rain for march for this area... some clients wanting weekly service already but of course they are monthly folks for whom weekly services as early as march is not worked into the annual rate. It's been fun... New clients are signing on, I am dropping the slow payers & PITA clients from last year (so if your in the area & are just dying for a headache give me a call, they're all yours). Business is good. I am sunburnt brown already, like I said, it's gonna be a long season. Here we grow boys !

good stuff Chuck
slammed here in St Pete too
Life is good

[swstout]

Welcome back.

I came out a little better than break even in 09 business wise. This was after paying myself a $500.00 per week salary. My wife makes good money so we can keep up with our bills nicely.

I plan on spending about $25k this spring on equipment upgrades. A John Deere X749 PTO tractor with tiller, box blade, and a bigger sprayer. I have orders that will pay it off this season. I picked up 5 sod jobs so far this week (till, level, spray and sod). I will not be doing any mowing this year other than current customers. I refer to another who pays me 7.5% for the work. Concentrating this year on organic soil upgrading.

I also started internet sale of organic products to homeowners. Pre-mixed organic chemicals in quart, half gallon and gallon quantities. Starting to take off (not as well as I hoped, but the orders are starting to come in. http://organiclawncarestore.web.officelive.com/default.aspx

Steve

[musician/lawnman]

John, Glad to hear you are busy too. It's nice ain't it?

Steve, That's great to hear your other ventures (service & product lines) are starting to take off, I know it can be slow at 1st but things tend to gain momentum. I never did get into organics...? I remember you recommending that I do, I don't really know where, but I guess that idea went by the wayside somewhere. I should look into it further.

I have 1 renovation next week that the back yard lawn was Xerscaped about 13 yrs ago, now it's overgrown with weeds, bushes & trees, some areas are rock, some shell some mulch etc. It's all coming out, I am bringing in about 23 Cu yds of top soil, regrading it, then an irrigation company will replace the irrigation system (which I will inevitably destroy in the process), & then we'll lay the new sod. It's a pretty good size job for us. Looking forward to it... (we'll kinda).

[Steve]

Chuck,

You always have so much going on down there. How many crews are you looking to run this year? Do you forsee a certain employee goal by the end of this season? Or is that not a big issue?

I also started internet sale of organic products to homeowners. Pre-mixed organic chemicals in quart, half gallon and gallon quantities. Starting to take off (not as well as I hoped, but the orders are starting to come in. http://organiclawncarestore.web.offi...m/default.aspx

Would putting a link to this in your signature help?

[musician/lawnman]

Not sure Steve, I may keep it to the 1 truck/3 guys as I have in years past, I may blow it up. Expanding is a commitment I am having trouble making. Business is still growing & I want to expand it, but 1) I can't help but be a little nervouse about a shakey economy 2) I lack that key trustworthy, reliable, responsible employee to head the 2nd crew.
This mental battle has been going on for over a year now, I hate it.