Welcome Peter Serrano !!!!

[Steve]

Originally Posted by [b Quote[/b] ]Hi My name is Peter Serrano. Owner and operator of Serrano Landscaping, Im located in Emmaus PA and business is pretty slow for me. Im sorrounded by 20 LLC in my town. I've been in business for 6 months now. 5 residential accounts and 1 commercial. I came to Gopher to get help and learn more. Im currently a Penn Foster Student going for my Landscaping Diploma. And i cant wait for 2008, things should be a little better for me and the business. thanks Serrano Landscaping 484 201 7056 Here is your new banner Hi Pete, Welcome to our forum! What got you to start your own business? What are you studying in college?

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What got me started in this business was 2 of my buddies own their own business in Landscaping and Lawn Care. I learned alot from them and it got me motivated to get started. Im attending Penn Foster Career School to become a Professional Landscaper. Is a good school and you can do all the classes online. thanks for the banner. It looks good is there a way i could use this banner for my webpage. How can i get the link for this banner.

[Steve]

Save the banner to your computer and then upload it to your website. Maybe place it at the top of your site. If you have trouble with the html let us know.


What kinds of things are you doing to market your business?

So far i've been passing out flyers 30 mile radius of my house. Lots of driving and .6 cents X 500 flyers every weekend. Been doing it for 3 months now.:blush: Also i placed a Ad in the local news paper. My truck has some pretty nice decals.. I get atleast 2 Lawn care customers a month. And about 3 Landscaping jobs in a month. This month has been the best one so far. Im doing fall clean-ups and snow removal as well.

I dont want to Advertice in the yellow pages. Too much money. Word of mouth has worked for me. Im planning on doing some free cuts for churches near me in return i just want to place myyard sign. Maybe i'll get 1 or 2 call from this.

The only bad thing is there's 20 Lawn care and landscaping Company in my area. I say about 25% of these LLC are legit and are making bank. 75% of these guys are just part time and are giving there service for cheap. So is very hard to even compete cause no one want to pay my minimum $33. They rather pay $25 and have ****ty work. :blush:

[Steve]

Have you thought about finding something to specialize in? Creating a niche?

When you hand out your flyers, are you talking to many of the home owners on no?

I Offer many services. I have the knowledge and equip to do just about everything. I've been around landscaping for over 5 years but just this year i grew some ***** to start my own. Since im only in the bizz for 6 month not many homeowners heard or seen me around. But i try to meet alot of people when i hand out my flyers. I do know that the 1st year is *hard, and even the second year aswell. But i just want to stand out just a little bit from all the other companies in the area. Should i advertice my on my truck more than what i already have? should i get bigger and more bolder lettering? Or do i lower my minimum charge? *

I was thinking about placing bids on alot of commercial properties just in case i get lucky and get called for next years contracts.

I want to focus on Fall Clean-ups on my next batch of flyers, I want to keep the flyer simple. If i get called to give an estimate and lucky enough to get the job then maybe i could convince them to try me out for next years lawn care services. I was in the sales business so i have a way to convince customers to try my service atleast.

Im going to place a bid tomorrow on a Turkey hill. Maybe i could post a picture and you guys can tell me what you will charge for Cut, trim, Weeding. The manager is my ex so i have a 99% chance to get this job. I just dont want to over bid on the job and have to with her. *

Well i'll let you know how the mesurements went on this Turkey Hill..

Does anyone know where i can find a sample letter from a LCO to a Realtor. My next step is to write an email to few realtors in my area, offering my service on properties they have in the market.

Im not very good writting letters.

[Steve]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ]Im going to place a bid tomorrow on a Turkey hill. Maybe i could post a picture and you guys can tell me what you will charge for Cut, trim, Weeding. The manager is my ex so i have a 99% chance to get this job. I just dont want to over bid on the job and have to with her.

Can she tell you what they paid last year and what range they are looking at this year?

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ]Does anyone know where i can find a sample letter from a LCO to a Realtor. My next step is to write an email to few realtors in my area, offering my service on properties they have in the market.

In another post, we were talking about working with realtors where they could use your services to help sell their houses. For instance, they offer the home buyer a year of free lawn care and the realtor pays you to do this service. What's your view on that idea?

Otherwise, what were you looking to say to the realtors? Just like an introduction?

Also we do have some lawn care customer letters here.

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ]In another post, we were talking about working with realtors where they could use your services to help sell their houses. For instance, they offer the home buyer a year of free lawn care and the realtor pays you to do this service. What's your view on that idea?

I will like to learn more about this. Can you post the link to this thread. Thanks.

I want to write a decent email to introduce my self and my service. But like i said i want to learn more about this before i write something thats not going to make any sense to the realtor.

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ]Can she tell you what they paid last year and what range they are looking at this year?

Should i ask her this then?