Just started and looking for clients

[FourSeasons]

Originally Posted by [b Quote[/b] ]Save yourself some money and knock on doors. It works wonders. I am going to start doing this soon. When I first started I didn't have the courage to and when I went to hand out flyers if the customer was outside I would skip their house. I never really knew what to say. I'm comfortable talking to customers now though after a season of doing it. But I still don't want to knock on doors. Even though I'm going to have to. What do you say when someone answers? Besides introducing yourself. How should the dialogue go? Probably after I get a few out of the way I'll know what to say.

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Rob
Green Image Lawn & Landscape

\"If you don't feel the same way about Friday nights as you do Sunday nights, then you are not doing the right thing.\"

[Little's]

Lawn care business tips

I just say " Hi I am Brandon Little. I own Little's Lawn & Landscape. I am in your neighborhood introducing myself and offering free estimates on work. Is there anything you would like me to look at today?" **if no** "Ok, well here is my card, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to call." **if yes** "Id be happy to look at it and offer some advise." Then look at the work they are interested in, find out exactly what it is they want done and tell them what you would charge. I have found that the longer you can talk to them, the more likely they will give you the job, so don't rush it. It is only tough the first couple of times. I have a lot of experience talking to customers, so for me it is real easy. Good luck!

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Northern California

[Fernando's CleanCut!]

What really worked for me, is setting up some yard signs around Stop signs, traffic Ligths in nice neiborhoods and the best was, on the exits of Wal-Mart or big supermarkets. Then give away your Business Cards, very important, this will look like you are serious in this business and profesional, (got some really cheap in a local print store, or you can go to vistaprint.com). Maybe you might not be so lucky cuz the cold season is around the corner, but I t really worked for me in the summer. Def. im doing it again next year.
Good Luck.

-CleanCut!-

[Steve]

Fernando,

Did you get any calls from the town at all about the signs being up? Was there any negative fallout from this?

What do you guys feel about those Grab a Tab flyers at the bulletin boards at grocery stores and such?? Any good templates on here for one?? I know this time of year is dead and a horrible time for me to be starting my business, but whatever it takes to get a few things going would be great. I see a few ads in the newspaper under services, theres a section for yard work, but I'm sure that's just too expensive. Any suggestions on what is the best method of advertising with the best results?

Thanks,

ANDY

[StartALawnCareBusiness]

Andy:

Thank you for your message. You bring up very important points that lots of people struggle with this time of year.

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ]I know this time of year is dead and a horrible time for me to be starting my business,

I'll take an opposing view to this and say right now is a fine time to get started. The customers you get now will be on board with you when spring rolls around. Besides, there is crazy amounts of work to do this time of year. Leaf season was kinda weird this year due to the drought. Depending which part of the country you're in, there may still be lots of leaf jobs to get.

Really hammer the Winter Clean-Up jobs too. Lots of residents as well as business owners are starting to plan for Christmas get togethers and parties. They want their lawns looking nice. You might not mow lots of grass but there's definately work to be had. Team Gopher made a really cool flyer for Winter Clean-Up jobs. (It's on here somewhere, see if you can find it.) Do a test run of 100 of those flyers. Knock on doors, hand out those flyers and tell home owners you will do any kind of lawn clean up jobs. I can only imagine you will be inundated with customers.

You brought up a good question about where to advertize in the newspaper. If your paper is like ours, they have a "Business Services" section. Those ads are placed once per month and they generally cost about $180 for a one month run. Dollar for Dollar, I think those are the best ads because you get more eye balls looking at those ads than some of the other classifieds. Those people are motivated shoppers too instead of just tire kickers.

If you try the flyer idea, let us know how it goes. Also, if you get some requests to do crazy type jobs, let us know about those too.

Keith

[FourSeasons]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ]What do you guys feel about those Grab a Tab flyers at the bulletin boards at grocery stores and such?? Any good templates on here for one??

If there isn't any on here MS Word and MS publisher both have a few different templates you cand use for the tear off flyers. You can change them around and add pics or whatever. I made my own after looking at the templates.

[Steve]

Can you show us what you made?

[FourSeasons]

This is from when I first started. I used to post this on the bulletin boards in stores around town.
Oh yeah and the Liquor store. (my wife works there)

[Steve]

Oh that's great! Thanks for sharing the design with us!

Is there any technique you would suggest when hanging these flyers? Should you rip off a couple of tabs when you hang them up to make the flyer's service more desireable?

Would you then check around town to see if you needed to hang a new flyer? If so, how often would you do this?