Head Start Program

[Steve]

Here is the information for Project : Appalachian Landscape and Lawn care. Review other Head Start Projects here.

__________________
- Subscribe to my Lawn Care Marketing Blog Feed and get daily tips sent to you. Free!
Download your Free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Software.

[Steve]

Lawn care business tips

Appalachian Landscape and Lawn care is a single man operation, two-man when needed, located in Leicester, NC and serving the greater Asheville area. We offer expert grass cutting, pruning, planting, and residential landscape installation. Unlike other companies who may have employees "just doing a job", we have an obsession with perfection and doing things the way we would have them done for us. Almost five years of golf course and landscape management have given me the confidence and know-how to start my own business. services offered: grass cutting pruning planting chainsaw work pressure washing gutter cleaning general handy man / minor home repairs general carpentry i would like to have 2000 man hours 1 man 2 weeks vacation i currently have 5 houses i maintain and some other odd jobs that pop up every once in a while I have about $8k in equipment and hope to have it all paid off before the end of the season. I'd like to pick up about 20 or so new customers this year, but i think it might just be difficult to do so. monthly expenses: equipment $300 maintenance $40 gas $100 advertising $15 cell phone$45 insurance health/ liabilty $120 maybe $620? something like that. word of mouth advertising, business cards, magnetic signs on truck, flyers Equipment List: 21" honda hrx w/ hydrostat tranny 48" exmark metro hp stihl fs250r trimmer echo 403t blower echo 150 hedge trimmer

__________________
- Subscribe to my Lawn Care Marketing Blog Feed and get daily tips sent to you. Free!
Download your Free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Software.

[Steve]

Hi Appalachian Landscape,

There was a bunch of questions missed from the Business plan questions located here. You might want to review that and answer them before we move forwards. It will really make you think and help with your future plan.

I"m not sure I know much about marketing strategy and analysis. I guess I'm just going to bust my butt to do everything in such a way that competitors will have a hard time matching my quality. I don't really care who my customers are as long as they pay me. They all live in or around 28806. I'd like to have only millionares as customers so I could charge them enormous amounts of money for perfection, but that's not a reasonable thought right now. The competitors are the same here as every where else, a few huge companies with many crews and disgrunteld employees who do the bare minimum to keep thier job, a few established guys who do a great job and have full customer lists, and the low baller guys who half-*** everything. I'm trying to get to the point where I'm one of the guys who does a great job and has the full customer list.

[Steve]

I see you want to have a total of 2000 for the year. How many billable hours do you plan on working each month of this year? Because your seasons will change, they may effect your workload based on the services you provide.

Jan total billable hours =
Feb =
Mar =
Apr =
May =
Jun =
Jul =
Aug =
Sept =
Oct =
Nov =
Dec =

Yearly total billable hours = 2000

Also what is your goal to bill per man hour?

maybe it would be a good start to shoot for this
jan= 80 hrs
feb= 100 hrs
mar=120 hrs
apr=160 hrs
may=160 hrs
july=160 hrs
aug=160 hrs
sept=160 hrs
oct=120 hrs
nov=100 hrs
dec= 80 hrs

1400 total billable hrs

and I try to get $20/ hr for labor, but I would like to get $30/ hr just labor no other costs figured in

[Steve]

Hi appalachian landscape,

Here is a pie chart that shows your annual expenses.

[Steve]

Here is our customer goal chart for this year ending in August to help motivate you. Now that we have these goals, we will be able to chart your progress throughout the season.

Each month you should report back here and let us know your latest customer count to see where you are at in your goal. You might want to print out this chart and put it somewhere where you will see it each day to inspire you.

Let us know if anything needs to be changed.

There is no difference in the charts easy, moderate or difficult category because you said your goal is 20 customers plus the current 5 you have.

[Steve]

If you need a logo, you might want to do is look through our gallery and see if we could create one for you based on a design you see there.

Also do you want some sort of tag line in it as well?

[Steve]

Customer analysis based on zip code provided by appalachian landscape (28806) of service areas and data provided by ESRI Business Solutions.

Census data provided by census.gov