marketing ideas new

[alex59195]

Im starting a new business in the landscaping/ lawn care industry and have some ideas as to how to set us apart. 1. Walk door to door with crispy cream donuts and just have a nice convo and hand them your card after. 2. door hanger that specify we will be on location and started within 20 minutes. kinda like a jimmy jons mowing service. (a idea and will need planning) 3.Neighborhood discounts. Go door to door explaining how the more people that want weekly care will decrease the price so the more the better and it puts pressure on neighbors from neighbors. 4. insentive program. 10$ for every contract. These are just some ideas. I also want to figure a way to acquire all the smalltime 3 man 2 man and 1 man crews to create one big company. any response will be nice. thank you and im excited to get this started The idea would be to grow the customer base then focus on profit. The plan is basicly act as the middle man between a cupple of crews.

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Last edited by alex59195; 07-23-2012 at 03:06 PM.

[wat5150]

Lawn care business tips

LOL!!! ummm LOL!!

[Hedgemaster]

#4 is the only thing that makes any sense to do.


As for being the "puppetmaster" of many lawn crews. Go for it if you think you can make it work.

I know a gut who farms out work for a percentage of the cuts. He gets the leads and other guys pay for them essentially.
I did it once (did a cleanup - gave him a cut - the they kept me on for lawn care), but couldn't see doing it again since I do just fine getting clients on my own.

[LawnBoy0311]

In any industry, middle men get pushed out very fast. People start pulling sneaky things and going around you, then you'll notice you got kicked to the curb.

[alex59195]

well thanks for the replies you guys got me thinking a little bit more.

How frowned apawn is stealing clients?
I was reading about how little effective flyers and door to door is. But what if you follow the compitition around and only market in those "areas" so that way your acually marketing to people that are already paying for the service. Or conduct a survey in that area to figure out what the pro's and con's are of the current company and come back later to say you started the company and now can take care of the issues they have.

Also i was thinking that with every client they can have a client sheet to the effect that they/you can keep notes of what they like and what they are picky about and every time your on that job you can be reminded.

(i know i suck at spelling and grammer lol)

Also with the being the middle man, i was thinking of a cupple more ideas. Might require a bit of selling and more thought and is just a idea, but if i was to start a corp. and issue stock to acquiring other small landscape companys and building the net worth of the company raising the stock price everyone wins. even tho i doubt this would work but is a idea.

No one have any comments on the jimmy jons lawn care idea?

Also i was thinking of a incentive plan. when we start making "this much" im going to start taking "this much"

the main goal is to grow a customer base. I would like to have a goal of every week of something like we have to add 3 cleints.

[Steve]

Welcome to our forum!

1. Walk door to door with crispy cream donuts and just have a nice convo and hand them your card after.

I don't know how this would go over. Some people might not want to accept food from someone they don't know.

2. door hanger that specify we will be on location and started within 20 minutes. kinda like a jimmy jons mowing service. (a idea and will need planning)

Why not just knock on a door and offer to mow the lawn right there on the spot?

3.Neighborhood discounts. Go door to door explaining how the more people that want weekly care will decrease the price so the more the better and it puts pressure on neighbors from neighbors.

You can try it but it's hard to get people motivated to do anything.

4. insentive program. 10$ for every contract.

Gift cards or free mowings can help to get referrals once you have a person as a customer.

Heck you might want to try them all out and see which one works best.

Originally Posted by alex59195

1. Walk door to door with crispy cream donuts and just have a nice convo and hand them your card after.

The idea is good, just not practical. I get the image of sitting down eating a couple donuts while talking to the potential client, drinking coffee. Everyone is comfortable and things are going well except you just talked to someone for over half an hour and it's the first house and your donuts are half gone. The other option is to give them a donut while you talk, so you might as well save the money and not buy donuts and just go door to door.

Originally Posted by alex59195

2. door hanger that specify we will be on location and started within 20 minutes. kinda like a jimmy jons mowing service. (a idea and will need planning)

No matter how much your plan this won't work. Sandwiches and pizza take minutes to make and deliver. Multiple stores in strategic locations keep the delivery time down. You would have to invest a HUGE amount of money in equipment and multiple crews to just sit in various parking lots just waiting for a call.

Originally Posted by alex59195

3.Neighborhood discounts. Go door to door explaining how the more people that want weekly care will decrease the price so the more the better and it puts pressure on neighbors from neighbors.

I did this. It worked, I had 3 accounts in a row because of the promotion. THen the drought hit and I only have one, and i'm stuck at the lower rate. This idea has potential, and could work if used properly.

Originally Posted by alex59195

4. insentive program. 10$ for every contract.

I did this as well. It's not worth the headache. If someone refers me now I take 50% off one of the mows on their next invoice. I don't let them know, I don't advertise, I just edit the price in Gopher to half off and type in an explanation for it.

Originally Posted by alex59195

These are just some ideas. I also want to figure a way to acquire all the smalltime 3 man 2 man and 1 man crews to create one big company.

This idea is based on the assumption that these smaller crews want to work for someone else when being our own boss is one of the biggest perks in this job. Plus why would i give a stranger a cut of the money I make on accounts I went out and worked to get?

[CHEESE2009]

I think you and I are very alike.

Which loony bin are you staying at, maybe I can get transferred?

-

In all honesty, keep it up. We need more guys like you to come up with game-changing ideas.

[Hedgemaster]

Originally Posted by JeffK26

(snippity-snip-snipped for brevity)

This idea is based on the assumption that these smaller crews want to work for someone else when being our own boss is one of the biggest perks in this job. Plus why would i give a stranger a cut of the money I make on accounts I went out and worked to get?

Exactly.
Before I started, a guy I know was thinking of hiring me. He scrapped the idea due to the cost involved with hiring an employee.

He said he could hire me as a subcontractor.
All I had to do was... well, EVERYTHING (insurance, etc) I needed to do to become my own business except I'd give HIM some of the money I made.

Wait, WHAT?


I guess subbing works for some people, but I just struck out on my own and keep the money all to myself.

[PVMS]

From what I have seen since I have been in business, and looking hard at how larger companys become successful, .....they are not focused at all on dreaming up schemes to either steal clients, or getting huge numbers of clients fast. What they actually do is
1, Hire the right employees and pay them above average wages.
2, understand marketing
3, They make sure a great job is the end result with great training for their employees.

There is far too much new work on offer out there without worrying about trying to sway somebody else's customers over to you. No enemy is a good enemy.
Being friends with your competition is a far more ethical and faster way to build your business. The industry has high casualty rates. I have already benifited well from a casualty of the industry. When he called it a day, he gave me all of his client list to take over.
Lucky I never made an enemy of him. I could of done ten times over.

I would not recommend neighborhood group discounts either. No point having a huge client base if they are not all profitable jobs. Every job needs to be either priced well, or replaced with one that is.