New Business starting problems?

[Steve]

Thats sounds pretty good... I have a few properties around here such as the one next door witch is always overgrown and looks really trashy( built but built wrong and they have to fix it .... permit problems or something)

I called 2 townships and a boro near my home the first one I had to leave a message , the second the person dealing with that was on vaction intill july... and the third was very rude and told me that they don't have any properties that need that kind of work (lie.... ) go figure the one that was rude should be renamed to amandon city...

I will probly send a letter to all three and call the message one back tomorrow and when the girl gets off vacation I will call her back....

You got a lot going on and I am happy to hear it! I love hearing all the updates. Don't give up.

I was thinking about something as I read your post. You called the towns up looking for properties to help clean up or town areas? Well, I am guessing if none of these people that are going to answer the phone are going to be too interested in this then why not just do it on your own. Find an area that has a lot of traffic and is an eye sore. Just clean the place up and take pictures of it as you go. Contact the local paper. Tell them how you tried to contact the town and no one seemed to care. Then tell them YOU CARE. You are a resident who also 'happens to run a lawn care business' and you want to make a difference. I bet this gets you some press attention. Also maybe create a little write up. In fact if you do something like this, we can help you do that on here. Then send it to the paper!

If you did this often enough, you would become the golden boy of the town!

That would be great for business.

[Little's]

Originally Posted by Steve

I was thinking about something as I read your post. You called the towns up looking for properties to help clean up or town areas? Well, I am guessing if none of these people that are going to answer the phone are going to be too interested in this then why not just do it on your own. Find an area that has a lot of traffic and is an eye sore. Just clean the place up and take pictures of it as you go. Contact the local paper. Tell them how you tried to contact the town and no one seemed to care. Then tell them YOU CARE. You are a resident who also 'happens to run a lawn care business' and you want to make a difference. I bet this gets you some press attention. Also maybe create a little write up. In fact if you do something like this, we can help you do that on here. Then send it to the paper!

If you did this often enough, you would become the golden boy of the town!

That would be great for business.

Hey Seve, that is a great idea. I think I might do that in my town. Although there is a group of fiesty old ladies that I might have to compete with.
You could really make a story if your town had you arrested for trespassing. But you know what they say, any publicity is good publicity!

[Steve]

Well say for instance you kept it simple at first. Say there is an area that has a lot of garbage around it. Like a park. Something where you could help out by cleaning up an eye sore without it being too much of a problem.

Could you get arrested for being on town property and cleaning stuff up? Maybe, but my view is, if you are helping out doing a good deed and people see it, no one is gonna bother you.

To get approval to do something like this at times is like trying to move heaven and earth to get through the bureaucracy.

Sometimes a little initiative is all it takes to get attention.

The world is full of places we can all lend a hand to help out if we just take a moment and think about where we would get the most bang for our buck.

You could really make a story if your town had you arrested for trespassing. But you know what they say, any publicity is good publicity!

I can't find the article now, but every once in a while a group will go out in a town and pay a parking meter when it's over due. It was a good will gesture that got them media attention and I do believe some people were arrested for it!

When people trying to do a good deed are arrested, it does seem to draw a lot of media attention.

Well heres some more going on..

Talked to a friend this weekend... also in business (tree biz) has a nice job he just finished for someone... and the guy is looking for someone to lay top soil down on his front lawn and seed it... any ideas on how to quote this...?

[Steve]

Check this post out on how to estimate top soil jobs.

http://www.gopherforum.com/showthread.php?t=7137

Does this help?

Also, being that he is in a complimentary business, can you co market with him? Like hand out door hangers with your company on one side and his on the other? Or maybe implement some other marketing ideas together?

Finally... got my first job...

well not quite lawn care but I guess it could be concidered landscaping but...


Well... friend in the tree biz called and said he just cut a tree down and prior to him bringing down the tree a large limb had fallen and broke the neighbor's fence... so its a repair job... but its still the first job so... theirs hope!!!

[Steve]

Congratulations! Did you take pictures?

no picture....

pretty much just a broken fence... and tomorrow it will be fixed... however they are looking to have a few shrubs planted...

[Steve]

Rob,

Consider taking pictures of everything you do. It will help you with your website to show before and after work. You can also use this in your marketing material!

Keep up the great work!