AUGH! I have to lower prices?!

[upnorth]

So I started my lawn care business and am pushing garden tilling as one of my services. I took some advertising advise from here and advertised for just tilling and then my other services seperatly. There weren't many ads out there for tilling and I was getting good response. I was giving estimates for $90 bucks plus labor to till and got a couple jobs. Now there are a ton of ads and one guy is pounding craigslist everday saying he"ll do most gardens for $35 to $55! So, being new I feel like I need to till for dirt cheap and not make a profit!

[Steve]

Lawn care business tips

Do you think this is because they saw your ad or was this more because the gardening season picked up? What are you thinking you may do because of this?

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[upnorth]

I didn't post any of my prices on the ad so i dont think its that unless they e-mailed me for a quote and they got it that way. Alot of people are just e-mailing with the size to be tilled and asking for a quote. Maybe I need to ask to give a quote on site instead via just e-mail. That way I can verify that they arent the competition getting a feel of my prices. But, I hate to scare people off tho by saying I wont give a quote via e-mail based on their dimensions and requesting a site visit.

I may lower my price a bit, but i'm not tilling a garden for $35 bucks when it costs me that much just in gas for truck and tiller.

I may have to throw in there that I will till and offer a package deal and sell it that way. Your thoughts?

[Steve]

Looking over the site and presenting your estimate is your chance to sell and stand out from your competitors. If you don't go to the site to look things over, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage and placing your service into the commodity category.

Once you are onsite, you can look over the property and see what other services the customer could benefit from.

So consider trying this out and seeing how it effects your results.

Keep me posted.