Podcast Thursday 4/10 8pm est

[Steve]

I got a great podcast lined up this Thursday 4/10 at 8pm est with author Ken LaVoie. Check out his site at http://www.lawnguru.net. He wrote the book "How to start a lawn care business a whole new way." Some of the topics I want to cover with him: Talking about his experiences of getting started and what happened when he bought too much new equipment. The pitfalls of buying too much new too soon. How ego effects business decisions. Then we will talk about what marketing ideas worked and what didn't. When and how you should integrate your first employee into your business. And this will be a fantastic topic Finance, Debt and Growth - "The 50/50 Rule and stay in the black with the 20% Rule!" If you have other questions you would be interested in asking him, either make a post of it or call in that night. How to participate: Call in: 1. Dial: (724) 444-7444 2. Enter: 15950 # (Call ID) 3. Enter: 1 # or your PIN Join from your computer: 1. Click here to join the call or just listen along 2. (Optional) Become a TalkShoe member FREE Listen to the Recording: If you missed this event or want to hear previous recorded episodes click here.

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[justin_time]

Lawn care business tips

Why isn't it through Skype ? Some people have to call long distance for that

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Justin Pitre
Just in Time Yard Services

[Steve]

It's a lot easier managing the show through talkshoe.com.

Remember you can listen to the simulcast online and I will have the recording of it available too for download.

[justin_time]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (Team Gopher @ April 08 2008,12:51)]It's a lot easier managing the show through talkshoe.com.

Remember you can listen to the simulcast online and I will have the recording of it available too for download.

Yeah I am aware of that

Some people were just started to get used to Skype and you quikly switched to Talkshoe

[Steve]

I was talking with Richard last night and we might use both in the future for different types of shows.

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (justin_time @ April 09 2008,7:10)]

Yeah I am aware of that

Some people were just started to get used to Skype and you quikly switched to Talkshoe

If you look at this link http://www.talkshoe.com/se/about/TSAbout.html it says you can use skype to access the show.

[Steve]

Now that was a blast! The recording of the show should be available right now.

We had the most members yet taking part in the show and Ken just had so much great content to talk about.

What was your review of the show?

Here is the recording of the show.

Well this is a forum and it is open for discussion, so here's my commentary. In the first ten minutes that I listened to, if you check out the previous post I submitted in Dec 2007 you will find I had made post on the new vs used equipment, (keeping up with the JONES) the 20% growth rate but I posted 25%, also the first guy that called in is exactly right if you purchase any NEW equipment there better be 40% revenue over and above the cost of such equipment. example $10k mower there better be $28K just to cover that mower. This is basic business 101. I will say this again if you cant do the book keeping your self then hire a CPA or at the very least a good book keeper and they will tell you if you can afford a new piece of equipment from your revenue to debit reports. Just because you have that one big contract and you think your on the highway to big money, doesn't mean you can afford it, to many unpredictable things can happen at any given time. MOST of all your business should never rest on one customer being over 20% of your business, if you have all your business or over 50% depending on the revenue generated by one client you are headed for disaster and you better start working harder on getting more customers to balance your business better. HINT we have a projection of 200k + in revenue this year (2008) and not one customer totals more than 20% of that revenue. BTW April 1st was our 1 yr date. this is only our second season and we survived the worst drought in 30yrs, most didn't. How did we? by not putting all our eggs in one basket, buying new trucks and equipment, I bought used mowers and when we generated enough to buy more I did but only when I had 2 times the cost of that equipment, We just bought a NEW Super Z 72" got it for almost 11k and its paid for, we own it! Last year we wrote off over 8k in bad debit to add to the unpredictable things that can happen. So think long and hard, think of all the bad things that could happen before you jump and start having big equipment payments.

As you know I never have anything bad to say about anyone, and I want everyone to know and understand I'm not now either, I just never heard any straight answers, I haven't read the book, so I have no real opinion of it, what I hear sounds like a lot of business information gathered together and put into an order. I do not agree with the low-balling doing it for 10 dollars less just to get the job kind of guy, I don't agree with the grab what ever you can theory, nor do I agree with the picking only certain types of customers to market, I was burned by a very upper class family and once by a department President of P & G when the family broke up and the President was FIRED! So that theory goes right out the door to me. I have been and will continue to provide excellent service at a fair and reasonable rate and I will let the client decide if they can afford it. I was surprised once by the looks of a property, when the man handed me 10 k in cash before I even stated and when I completed he paid that day in cash. Now this client never appeared to have 2 nickles, but looks are deceiving in all neighbor hoods. Think about it, don't limit yourself, and always protect your self in some way, shape or form.

Thank you for reading
Tim

[Steve]

Tim,

Thank you so much for your reflection on all this. Ultimately I think the best thing we all can do is offer different perspectives and insights into a topic and let the reader choose the path that is best for the them.

One of the things I was amazed with when talking with Ken was how the one type of marketing that worked best for him was word of mouth and nothing else he ever did worked as well as that. He has been doing this for 20 years too.

Early on Ken was mowing part time and working as a chef in a restaurant. When he had a disagreement with his boss and was fired, he found himself having to make his part time mowing into a full time job. The first thing he did was put an ad in the newspaper and then he was off and running. He said the newspaper ads tended to get a lot of price shoppers but to get himself going, this was all he needed. Later he got a small ad in the yellow pages and that seemed to bring in more profitable customers.

[justin_time]

So when's the next one ?