great to a part of the forum

[DenisD]

Hello everyone. I am new to the forum. I own and work my own lawncare buis. This is my second season cutting. I had a full time job running a large offshore service company for someone else. I hated it. The guy I worked for was a real looser. Anyway after 17 years I had enough and they had enough of me. I parted with a real nice severance package and started my own lawncare buisness. Last season I got a late start and still had 20 full time contracts, residential only. This year I decided to go big come hell or high water. I started agresivly marketing residential and commercial. I just recently had the oppertunity to bid on 5 large apartments. These are very good money and could launch me into the 6 figure area. I will hopefully be signing the contacts next week. I am keeping all of my residential customers and will grow that side as well. I will definatly have to hire some help this year. I will also have to buy more equipment. I have found that the key to sucsess in this buisness is like any other. You have to aggresivly market your buisness and strive to do the best job posible. Anyway I have read a lot of good ideas here. I look forward to adding some of my own.

[Steve's Lawn Care]

Lawn care business tips

hey denis im also in my second year.. Sounds like your doing very well and have the right idea with marketing.. best of luck this year!!!

[Steve]

Hi Denis,

Welcome to our forum!

I have found that the key to sucsess in this buisness is like any other. You have to aggresivly market your buisness and strive to do the best job posible.

What kinds of things do you include in an aggressive marketing campaign?

[DenisD]

Originally Posted by Steve

Hi Denis,

Welcome to our forum!




What kinds of things do you include in an aggressive marketing campaign?

Hi Steve. As far as marketing I do it all. I have signs in locations that I want to work. I run newspaper adds in the local paper. I visit all real estate companies. I also drive around town and look for more customers. I stop at apartments, Doctors offices, truck stops etc... I will stop and ask for buisness wherever I can. I hand out cards to everyone I meet and give cards to all my friends and family to hand out.

The most important thing is to market to my existing customers. This type of marketing is differant than most, they know you and trust you. I always go the extra mile to help them and make thier yards the best in the neighborhood. This helps me to go to them and ask them to help me find more work. They reccomend me every chance they can. For every new contract that I sign from them I give them a $25.00 Visa card.

I also advertise that I take Visa and Mastercard. This is a very good selling point for a lot of customers.

In addition I became a member of the Service Magic group. They do the advertising and when a job comes up in my area they send me the contact. I in turn pay them between 5 and 18 dollars for the contact. This has worked out extreemly well.

I am not shy about my buisness. I tell everyone about it and I ask for the work.

[DenisD]

Originally Posted by Steve's Lawn Care

hey denis im also in my second year.. Sounds like your doing very well and have the right idea with marketing.. best of luck this year!!!

Is this full time for you?

How many customers do you have now? How many do you want?

[Steve]

The most important thing is to market to my existing customers.

What kinds of things should a lawn care business owner be doing to market to their existing customers? Also what kind of message should they be marketing to them?

In addition I became a member of the Service Magic group. They do the advertising and when a job comes up in my area they send me the contact. I in turn pay them between 5 and 18 dollars for the contact. This has worked out extreemly well.

In the past we have talked about this on here and members have said that it costed them too much to have to bid on small under-priced jobs.

What is your thought? Have you found that you had to price yourself too competitively to win bids? Do a lot of other companies bid on the same jobs too, thus lowering the potential profit of the job?

[DenisD]

Originally Posted by Steve

What kinds of things should a lawn care business owner be doing to market to their existing customers? Also what kind of message should they be marketing to them?



In the past we have talked about this on here and members have said that it costed them too much to have to bid on small under-priced jobs.

What is your thought? Have you found that you had to price yourself too competitively to win bids? Do a lot of other companies bid on the same jobs too, thus lowering the potential profit of the job?

Marketing to your existing customers other services. For example I offer weeding of the flower beds, trimming low hanging trees, pressure washing, and gutter cleaning. I even cleaned a backyard pond and painted shutters. These are all services that I look for when I am on a job.

In addition I ask them to refer me to there friends and family, even if they do not have a lawn service at this time. I find that if they can get me in contact to offer a free quote I can work my magic and get something from them. Once the door is open I have the oppertunity to sell.

As far as the Service Magic leads, I have not changed my cost at all. I bid against other locally approved conpanies. I don't get every one but with the cost of the leads being so low, I can incorperate that cost into the bid. One annual contract more than pays for the full years worth of leads that I get from them.

Most of my new buisness comes from the phone book and newspaper adds. This is also the most costly form of advertizing that I do. Again one or two annual contracts pays this for th entire year.

[Steve]

In addition I ask them to refer me to there friends and family, even if they do not have a lawn service at this time. I find that if they can get me in contact to offer a free quote I can work my magic and get something from them. Once the door is open I have the oppertunity to sell.

What do you feel is the best way to go about doing this? How does it work best for your customer to get you in contact with their friends or family?

[DenisD]

Originally Posted by Steve

What do you feel is the best way to go about doing this? How does it work best for your customer to get you in contact with their friends or family?

I just ask. If they like my work to please refer me. I also offer a $25.00 Visa card for every new annual customer I get from thier referal. I offer the same deal to the new customers as well. This gives me many people besides myself selling my buisness.

[yard machine]

hey guys, if your door knocking for business... how do you go about getting the new client to sign a yearly contract. I'm not trying to sound negative, but if I were the client and i'm meeting the lawn service guy for the first time, I dont know if i would sign a contract,seems intimating to me. I'm just asking because it sounds like a great plan, but whats the odds of getting a first time client to sign one??