Free Lawn Mowing Guaranteed!

[JP Landscaping]

hey guys, so I put an ad in the paper: Free Lawn Mowing Guaranteed!! (company name) gives back to (town name) contact: Name 555-555-5555 ______________ -I'm offering 2 free lawn mowings with an annual agreement -1 free mowing for each referral who signs an annual agreement -10 referrals or more = free lawn mowing for the season! * I figure if somone can get me $10,000 worth of work, and perhaps more if the referral stays with me for more than 1 year, then they deserve 30 minutes of my time each week. What do you think of this? I'll keep you posted as to how many calls I get from this. I would think a lot of people will call.

[MountainViewGreenskeeper]

Lawn care business tips

Love the idea but afraid to impliment could you imagine 10K in work refered from 1 client that would be a wow moment I think..... Would you wait the full year of 10 clients maintained and give them the next years worth of work off when season starts again or how would you work that??? Just wondering....

__________________
Colton
Mountain View Greenskeeper proudly offering yard care in the East Valley of Arizona.

[JP Landscaping]

basically an annual agreement for lawn care here is about 30 to maybe 34 mowings. If one person refers to me 10 customers with an annual agreement...meaning 30-34 mows.... I will mow the referring customer's lawn for the remainder of the season. If the the referring customer refers all 10 at the beginning of the season, then they get the entire season mowed for free.

additional work is billed separately, like weeding, mulch, fertilizing, etc.
If they wanted a full maitenance contract we could do that too but the referring customer would only get the mowing, trimming, blowing, and edging free for up to the 34 mowings in the season.

I just finished up a retaining wall job for a lady that works at a hospital. I told her about how she could get free mowing for the season. She jumped at the offer and said she would post my offer through her job. she says she could probably get me way more than 10 customers. I told her if she could get me 20 customers this year. I would mow her lawn for free for 2 seasons!

It makes sense to me if she could get me $20,000 in work this year and $20,000 next year with the same clients. $40,000 or more worth of work for approximately 30 hours of my time in a span of two years.

If we want to split this into $. Then it would cost me about $5 to mow her lawn. times 60 times in 2 years = $300 for $40,000 or more worth of work. figure the return on investment of that 13,333%.

what do you think?

[jasonw]

Personally I would not even call you. Its misleading and nothing is worse than a misleading add. If you cant get business with hard work and honesty then I would not give you my money "you figuratively speaking of course"

[CHEESE2009]

Referrals don't work.

Keeping track of all of the incoming information will hurt your brain. You have to be seriously organized.

I'd make the free mowing(s) available in 2011, at least you'll get a chance retaining your customers. You might also be getting referrals late into the season.

Someone might sign with you, but for the last month of the season. Does the homeowner get a free mowing, or the person who referred him to you?

[shadrach]

Is all the "fine print" in the ad that you are running?

[StartALawnCareBusiness]

In my experience, good customers don't like gimmicks. They want good work for a fair price. Customers that are drawn to "free mowing" incentives will game the system and you will find yourself giving away more free mowing than you anticipate without the benifit of long-term customers.

JMHO

Keith

[JP Landscaping]

First off the stuff below the dashed line is not in the ad. due to limited ad space.

But it's not a gimmick. I am giving them Free lawn mowing with the acceptance of an agreement. Basically they get the 15th and 30th mow free. This allows me to get paid for at least 14 mowings before giving them a free mowing.

The person referring gets 1 free mowing for each referral. They get it at the end of the season as long as the referral is upholding their agreement and doesn't cancel after a couple of mowings.

as soon as the referring customer has referred 10 customers, I start mowing their lawn for free. if the referred customers drops to less than 10, then I stop mowing their lawn for free. That will all be explained to the referring customer.

And I do honest hard work. this is a way to get the phones ringing. ad space is limited so you need to be catchy to get phone calls. when they call about the ad. I will explain it's that simple. I give them a free no obligation estimate. if they accept, then the 15th and 30th mow are Free.

this way it doesn't matter what time of the year I get them started. Whether it's in the beginning of the summer or the end.

And referrals DO work. We all talk about word of mouth being the best way to advertise. referrals are word of mouth. A home owner tells his neighbor, friends, or relatives and that's how a lot of business is produced.

[Steve]

You never know how any marketing idea will work until you try it.

But like Scott said, keeping track of referrals and all that gets very tricky. So be prepared.

[JP Landscaping]

True. It is a little more work but not too complicated. I do this with my landscaping clients. I'll offer them like 1 yard of free mulch or 1 free hour of labor or something of the sort with every landscaping referral.

I always ask the new clients where they got my info from. A lot say from a friend or relative and they tell me their name. I then go home to my list of clients and write the name of the referred customer so I have all this info. After I get paid from the new customer, I write to the referring client to thank them and ask they would like the yard of mulch or a free hour of labor. Some take the mulch some save the hour of labor.

I had a customer refer 3 other landscaping customers and she accumulated 3 free hours of labor that she used up for a fall clean up.

I think little things like this are what makes my business personal and customers like that attention.

What do you think?