Mowing Schedule

[sunsetlandscaping]

I am just starting my landscaping business, and I plan on including mowing as part of my service. I just put an ad in the paper, passing out business cards, and hanging flyers at some of the hardware stores around here. When I start getting calls, I want to keep my routes tight for that specific day. Seeing how I am in Northern Michigan, everything is a little spread out. How do you simplify your mowing schedule to cut down on gas? I would hate to turn down work, but if it is on the other side of the county, and that is my only one, I don't see that it would even be worth my time. What do you do?

[Hedgemaster]

Lawn care business tips

When I started last season, I set a "10 mile" limit for myself. I live in a populated area, so that's easy to do. I took clients in all directions initially because I needed work. In time, I was able to shuffle people around so that I could get everyone in one area done on the same day - or at least work from the furthest point back towards home. After I had established certain "areas", I tried to concentrate on adding more clients from those areas. If a call came for an estimate in an area that wasn't convenient to me, I would politely decline.

[CHEESE2009]

1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9

5 = your home position on a map.

4, 1 = Monday

2, 3 = Tuesday

6, 9 = Wednesday

8, 7 = Thursday

5 = Friday

[Steve]

If a call came for an estimate in an area that wasn't convenient to me, I would politely decline.

How long into starting your business do you advise doing this? Should you do it right away or at first should you be taking anyone that calls?

[Hedgemaster]

Originally Posted by Steve

How long into starting your business do you advise doing this? Should you do it right away or at first should you be taking anyone that calls?

That's up to the individual. I needed work - I couldn't be choosy at first.

[cruzgardening]

Originally Posted by Steve

How long into starting your business do you advise doing this? Should you do it right away or at first should you be taking anyone that calls?

I live in Los Angeles County it is a huge county, so since the beginning i decided that i was only going to work on the east side of the county once i started to get more properties i decided i wanted to only service a section of the East side of the county which is called San Gabriel Valley now we are targetting this area like crazy but the only problem is that growing fast in this section has been more challenging then growing fast in the whole east side of the county... so you might encounter this problem later on.


But to the point you should get work as it comes and choose the areas you want to work at and target the areas with a lot of Flyers spend about $400-500 a month for flyers and you will get a good return.

[sunsetlandscaping]

I put an ad in the weekly paper. It was like 5 bucks a week, and I did 4 weeks, so 20 bucks, what do I have to lose? If this goes over well, I will do the direct door delivery thing the USPS is doing, which is only like 14-15 cents per piece of flyer delivered to a target street. Has anyone else heard about this.

I think I am going to start scheduling residentials on Friday, and work my way back through the week. Do businesses starting on Monday. What do you guys think of this?

[Steve]

Ultimately you gotta experiment what works best for you with the scheduling.

Also, it seems certain areas do well with news paper ads while others don't. There are always a lot of factors including the number of competitors, the placement of the ad in the paper and the ad itself.

Keep us posted on all that.