8 reasons why DoodyCalls is a perfect add-on business for lawn care services

[shadrach]

Originally Posted by Johnny_boy02 Now why would you want to add this to your lawn care business? Because you you can increase you service cost by $9-13 for five extra minutes of work. Is this something you do as a once a week service? more often? less often?

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Evansville Lawn Care
Newburgh Lawn Care

[Johnny_boy02]

Lawn care business tips

Originally Posted by shadrach Is this something you do as a once a week service? more often? less often? 99% of the time it is once a week. I have a couple customers with 4 dogs so I go twice a week. It costs more of course. The two business really do go hand in hand, it is just one more thing to "up sell" . Nothing against the DoodyCalls, they are a huge very successful nationwide company but if you are one man company like me it does not make sense to franchise. If you are lawn/ landscaping company with multiple crews, a good reputation and live in decent sized city it would make sense to hire a guy, buy a truck and offer this service. Again I dont think it makes sense to franchise since you will already have the skills to bill, schedule, etc.

[monoshock]

Think I'll make up my own company name for this service.

Sh1tter-Getters

[Fisher]

I can see adding this service as like I mentioned before I'm sure the profits are better than basic lawn care services. I just can't see buying into a franchise to offer it.

[Fisher]

Originally Posted by Ducke

I still wouldn't Shovel Sh!t for any money.
I have way more work then I can handle now and as for winter I'll be smiling sitting in my toasty warm house while someone else scoops Frozen Crap.

besides if I wanted to shovel Sh!t i would have gone into Politics.

Ducke, that's when you hire someone. One man and a small vehicle while you are sitting home warm or doing something different would probably net you an extra $20 per labor hr and all you have to do is the paper work.


Really, how hard would it be to screw a job like that up.

[DoodyCalls Franchises]

Originally Posted by Johnny_boy02

The two business really do go hand in hand, it is just one more thing to "up sell" . Nothing against the DoodyCalls, they are a huge very successful nationwide company but if you are one man company like me it does not make sense to franchise.

If you are lawn/ landscaping company with multiple crews, a good reputation
and live in decent sized city it would make sense to hire a guy, buy a truck and offer this service. Again I dont think it makes sense to franchise since you will already have the skills to bill, schedule, etc.

@Johnny is correct. Franchising isn't necessarily a great fit for everyone. It really comes down to how the individual wants to run their operation.

The primary draw of a franchise - be it DoodyCalls or any other franchise in any industry - are the systems and support. Now, that may sound like a hokey cliché, but in reality, there's a lot more to it.

For the sake of conversation, let's say you have a lawn care company and you decide to add on scooping services. Chances are, you'll be able to upsell a pretty high percentage of your current pet-owning customers. You've just increased the value of your existing customer base in no time flat - and that's great news.

But unless you're actively (and effectively) marketing the service in your local area, how many new clients are you pulling in?

Pet waste removal is a market in and of itself. There are potential clients - both residential and commercial, mind you - who have not called you for the services you currently provide, but who may be prompted to call for pet waste removal. (Naturally, many of these clients can be converted, but it's the poop scooping that made them want to get to know you first.)

The systems and support of a franchise system - DoodyCalls in this case - help you grow that customer base far more effectively than you can on your own. We didn't become the largest pet waste removal company in the US because we know how to scoop poop better than anyone else. We got to where we are because we know how to attract customers and build strong local businesses.

Every DoodyCalls franchise benefits from and has full access to:

- A large and growing collection of professionally designed marketing materials
- Tested marketing & business development plans
- Advanced scheduling, route management and invoicing systems
- Training, plans and materials for landing commercial accounts
- In-house public relations support, including PR campaigns in your local market (our PR team is really good, too - see for yourself: http://doodycalls.com/about_doodycalls_media.asp)
- Our Sales & Customer Care Center

To elaborate on that last point, our Sales & Customer Care Center is one of the greatest support systems we provide to our franchisees. The team is available seven days a week so that your clients can always call 1-800-DoodyCalls and reach a live person.

The Customer Care Team signs up new customers for you by answering inbound calls from your territory and by performing outbound sales calls as well. The team also takes care of time-consuming customer service oriented tasks such as fielding general inquiries, managing service requests and changes, and helping to resolving any customer complaints.
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Is a franchise for everyone? Certainly not. It really comes down to your personal and professional goals. However, by integrating a strong franchise system like DoodyCalls, attracting more customers and building a larger business becomes a lot easier.

You get what you pay for. If that weren't the case, DoodyCalls wouldn't be in business.

[Fisher]

Originally Posted by Johnny_boy02

Like I said above I started as pet waste removal and added lawn care.

My insurance didnt know how to classify me so they put under lawn service. So I am assuming the cost would be near the same.

It's surprising sometimes learning what your not covered to do. I started out in concrete placement which involved some excavation as well as pressure washing to expose aggregate/pea gravel driveways and clean up. I moved into doing some site prep and excavation work as well as re-washing and sealing the driveways I had installed. Though they were part of concrete services, excavation, pressure washing, and site clean up had separate insurance classifications. Started doing landscaping which had a whole other classification. My goal was to do all the outside work for at least one of our larger home builders from the initial clearing to the finished lawn and landscaping.
Whether it was included or not in what I was doing insurance wise none of these supported the other. Lawn care was the last service to be added which of course is a different class than landscaping. At this point I believe there isn't anything to be done outdoors that I'm not covered for.

However, I would imagine If I started to clean this mess up that at some point someones dog would get sick and fault us for not properly sanitizing our tools after cleaning up next door where a sick dog had been. There I'd be without the proper clean up or sanitization coverage.

[Fisher]

This is just a sample from one of the many that offer services close to my area. From what I've gathered most are assuming a back yard of 2,500-6,500 sq ft to be cleaned. Now I know this service is making more up front than some of the low ball lawn care service providers would for these size areas.


1 Dog once a week - $12/visit ($52 monthly)
1 Dog twice a week - $10/visit ($86.60 monthly)
1 Dog every other wk - $18/visit ($38.97 monthly)
1
2 Dogs once a week - $14/visit ($60.62 monthly)
2 Dogs twice a week - $10/visit ($86.60 monthly)
2 Dogs every other wk - $22/visit ($47.63 monthly)
2 Dogs every other week - ($47.63 monthly)
3 Dogs once a week - $16/visit ($69.28 monthly)
3 Dogs twice a week - $12/visit ($103.92 monthly)
3 Dogs every other wk - $26/visit ($56.29 monthly)
3 Dogs every other week - ($56.29 monthly)
4 Dogs once a week - $18/visit ($77.94 monthly)
4 Dogs twice a week - $14/visit ($121.24 monthly)
4 Dogs every other wk - $30/visit ($64.95 monthly)
4 Dogs every other wk - $30/visit ($64.95 monthly)
5+ Dogs once a week - $20/visit + $2 ea additional
5+ Dogs twice a week - $16/visit + $2 ea additional
5+ Dogs every other wk - $34/visit + $4 ea additional
5+ Dogs every other wk - $34/visit + $4 ea additional

ONE TIME CLEANINGS are available for a minimum fee of $40 for up to 30 minutes. Actual cleaning time in excess of 30 minutes, will be charged at $30 per half hour. Only on rare cases does yard clean up service take longer than an hour.

Our routes are designed to cover specific areas of Middle Tennessee on a given day. Therefore, you can generally expect service on the same day each week. If you must have service on a specific day and/or time, we will need to charge you significantly more due to additional drive time (charged at $1 per minute).

[shadrach]

Saint Bernard surcharge?

[Fisher]

Originally Posted by shadrach

Saint Bernard surcharge?

I was kinda wondering about that myself. When picking up where the dog left off there is a big difference i'm sure in the work between a couple of teacup chihuahuas and well a Saint Bernard.