Episode 2 of the Landscaper is now online

Episode #2 of the Landscaper A Slice of Halloween is now officially online. You can check it out by using the link below. The episode is divided into 4 parts to help those with slower internet. Please let us know what you think, and if you would like to see more variety type episodes, or if you are more of a fan of the traditional strictly landscape project episodes http://www.unitedenvironment.com/Landscaper.html

[Steve]

Lawn care business tips

I would say first off you all get an A+ for creativity. This entire project was creative from beginning to end. All 3 of your hosts seemed to really be into making the video. I really liked the end result. If the goal of the video is to try and spark that creative fire in those watching, I'd say this video did that. I applaud you all. Here are some suggestions. I would really try to get companies who want to reach this target audience and sell nationwide to advertise in your videos. Even if you have to give them away for a few times. I think it would really fit in better and the company sponsoring the show could potentially also help you promote it by putting a link for the video on their site. If you did this, I think it could help you then actually sell ad space in the future because then you would have a sample to show future advertisers and you could get testimonials from the advertisers who you gave a free spot too. Keep up the great work!

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wow, thanks for the kind words. I truly felt this one came out pretty good, much better than the previous. But hay, I dont think I have ever really seen a great pilot episode. I just hope the viewers at this trade show feel the same way. We are already down a host due to apendicides (dont have a clue how to spell that). We are definately going to look into that avenue of marketing once we feel out the responses from the show this weekend. Again, thanks for the praise.

[Steve]

Could you tell us and others viewing your show, do you feel there is a market in creating such halloween displays as you have?

How many man hours would you say the display took to make?

How much could an LCO look to charge for creating such a display?

well, if you go to the right crowd there is without a doubt a market for such displays, but from experience its tough to get into. The first job Environmental Design & Management ever did was a Halloween display. We price by time and Materials. $30.00 per man hour, all the decorations we price as rentals, and add a fee for taking it all down and storage for the year. I have found that although on a smaller scale, these displays can be marketed towards homeowners, however store fronts and commercial are definately the way to go. Its tough getting a homeowner to fork over $1500 for halloween decorations, because unfortunately it is very time consuming. We probably spent a total of 7 hours on site with three people putting it together, and then what we charge for materials, it racks up pretty quick for a fun day of work. Another draw for commercial businesses is that the displays do attract attention. For instance, Master Pizzas sales go up 35% the month of October, and he himself has stated that its because kids want to stop and see the display. Now homeowners cant make money off there house, so for businesses it can be viewed as an investment. But you need some kind of portfolio of a display in order to get paid well. Nobody will hand over that kind of money for a halloween display on good faith. We put up one for a family memebers business first for practically nothing. They paid for the materials and we worked practically for free.
We actually put a lot of time into this episode in editing as well.
The DVD has some decent bonus features as well, such as a history and timeline of the Guillotine,
The facts about the myth of people still remaining alive after having there head taken off.
Deleted scenes
and we threw the teaser on there as well cause we liked it so much

[Steve]

Very interesting!

What price range would you suggest would best sell to home owners when creating holiday decorations?

For Halloween or Christmas?

What would this price include?

well the numbers are the same, its just the size of the job is much smaller scale, for instance. you saw how many things we had at master pizza, now at your average residential home, there not gonna have all of that on there lawn, or at least thee not gonna pay that amount, we did a few homes last year, and they averaged around $300 all together, its quick cash, but on a commercial account you could easily quadruple that.

I have to head to the show today, but after I get back I will get into christmas displays, and Ill let everyone know how we did with our live show

[Steve]

How did the show go?

Well, in all honesty, the Home Design Show was a giant flop this year.

They estimated a minimum of like 25,000 people, I would be suprised if there where a maximum of 1,000 people coming through.

All the vendors where complaining like crazy.

Anyway, thats how the show itself was, as for us, we did well, we landed some Landscape work, the film department landed some commercials, and training videos. All in all business was great for how much came through.

Now as for our live episode of The Landscaper, where to start...
Well, for one they screwed up on the advertisements and called us a seminar for avoiding mistakes in landscaping, which wasnt too bad, but they advertised us to the papers and on the radio as a live episode of The Landscaper on building an arbor, so there was mass confusion at the ticket booths, and people did leave as a result, now if that wasnt bad enough, it was scheduled to begin at 4pm, and 15 minutes prior, they are supposed to make an announcement, never happened. The guy who was supposed to make the announcements was out to dinner, and so we had to delay the start time, more people left as a result. Then came the actual start of the show. Once the release forms came out, we lost a few more. So when the show began, the crowd was small, however, people began gathering as it went and we ended up with standing room only for a while, untill security actually made people leave because they where a so-called fire hazard. We had to cut it short because we blew an electrical fuse. (power in that place was a nightmare, and cost way too much to boot). But still, it all worked very well, we got about 25 minutes worth of footage out of it, and we sold a good amount of DVDs afterwards.

all in all, we sure as heck did not become millionares over night, but we did prove that there is a huge interest in our concepts. We know now, that with time this will be a popular thing, and we will push forward with our plans to keep bringing more shows and ideas to the table. Pictures will be on our site from the show within a week.

[Steve]

What a story! I agree there is interest in your concept and I can't wait to see what you all come up with next!