How many hours a week are you working?

[Steve]

How many hours a week are you out in the field working? How many hours a week would you like to be?

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[Billz]

Lawn care business tips

it looks like me and my partner will be out about 24 hours only this year! :-( I lost some big accounts, about a full 8 hours per week at least.

[Steve]

Billz do you work part time elsewhere or is this it?

During the off season, when I do snow removal I am out in the field approx 7 hours a week, during the busy season I am actually only out in the field 25-40hrs a week. It has gone down in the last two years though, because I have been cutting back. In 2004, I was averaging about 65hrs a week in the field.

I also keep track of my hours not only out in the field, but in the office, and in the shop. I highly recommend everyone to keep track of their hours

[Steve]

Here is a thought I had for you Troy.

If you aren't yet at 40 hours a week and you still have time to do things to promote yourself more, how about this.

Create the 'tiedeman challenge' and treat half of a persons front lawn for free. Maybe put this in the form of a card that a neighbor can give to other neighbors in the area. Show them how you can make a difference in their lawn.

An idea for kc2006 or others who mow would be this. Create a free mowing card that you can distribute to your customers so they can give to a neighbor of friend in the area. It must be used within a certain period of time. Maybe you have to meet up with the new potential customer first to talk with them before you mow it. It will give you a chance to talk with them and then let them know how much it would cost to continue the service if they need it. You could also offer an upsell of anything else they may need. You might also want to limit it to a certain sq.ft. or grass height. Then maybe give them a few free cut cards to hand out to other friends or neighbors.

It's just an idea. But if you have unused time during your week, you should do things to leverage that time to get new customers.

Tell me your thoughts on this.

[kc2006]

That's a good idea about the card, i have boxes of those little print at home business cards that are perferated and you just break them apart after you print them, I could make little cards with them.

Right now I'm only in the field 16 hours, between mowing, mulch jobs, clean ups, shrub trimming is coming into play too now.

This year's goal was until I fill the schedule up, to be otu promoting my business one way or the other. So far I've been doing that, if I'm not working, I'm putting flyers out. I'm calling a friend this week to have vinyl cut for the truck, right now I just have door signs, I'm getting the phone number in 6" numbers to run all the way across the fenders, and the company name in 6" letters to run all along the bed, I think it will stand out, so now just driving around will help promote too. I noticed 1800-got-junk does that, they just drive the trucks around empty to be seen.

Well, the probably is, I am in the office for approx 20 hrs a week. Cold calling, putting together marketing material....screwing around