Couple things...

[Big Lebowski]

Alright. Two things. First, anybody using the gopher software? I want to hear about your thoughts on it. I was "this close" to buying it and went with another unnamed software. I never used the scheduler before and this morning I started setting it up and what a mess! It moves customer properties to other accounts, it wont show who I put in etc. It is in one word a disaster. I don't have time for this sh#t. I took on a personal life policy some years back and it is in a nut shell this: "At the first sign of trouble, walk away." It has worked out tremendously for me. I no longer get walked on and I never need to constantly keep waiting for improvement or things to change. Don't get me wrong here, there are some flexibility to these rules like family. But here's how it works. I see this older lady pushing her lawn. I consider stopping and offer my services, I go by on my way back from doing a lawn, shes still at it. I say to her, looks like tough work... she asks how much. I go in low thinking I need accounts and could adjust next year. I am there for 2 hours doing stuff for this lady. (I know, I know - it's written all over it already). But I want the account, I have 3 more right down the street, and it's great visibility for future customers. But anyway I charge her for the cheap mow and come back next week. What does she say? Well I thought about it and I'm not sure I like you coming on Monday and would prefer Friday. We discuss how that doesn't work for me and she says go ahead today and I will think about it. Insert my personal plan here. I didn't waste another second on this lady and got in my truck and left. She never called. I won't even tell you how much I got for my 2 hours. You'd think I was lying. So I've had a couple issues with the software but not anything that my policy would apply, but it certainly doesn't help the cause. So here I am. Secondly, I had my computer crap out. I lost everything. Including my logo. There is no recovery. I had plans to change my company name to something easier. I have already picked out the name and worked on a logo from the stock on this site. It was on that computer also. I was waiting to get through this season before I made a change since I just had some signs and business cards made. But since I want to change it up I thought I would start the process of getting the new logo and so on. But I am not that sold on paying the $75 I spent last time for somebody to give me something I could have done myself, which is what I got. I lost my editing software too. I was extremely disappointed when I found my logo on pages of this site and then others in my area using something so similar it could be confused for the same. So I am just putting that out there. Anybody interested in talking about a logo for my new name. I refuse to use the hack I used last time. Like I said, I realize $75 is cheap for a logo but come on. At least be upfront about it. This time I am going into it knowing that the one I want is on this site. PM me.

[CheapNEasy]

Lawn care business tips

Hey buddy, never used the software have no clue about it. As for the logo, I can help ya out some. Give me some specs on what you are looking for and we can go from there.... If I get you something you like, you can make a donation if you like but not required. I dont mind helping out a bit. My logo below, simple and classy. Made grass blades into a shrub, and put some "Mulch" around it lol.... Give me some info, business name and such and I can design one for you or you can tell me the design you'd like. Ill send in Jpeg and PNG format so you can get all the layers and such and edit it how you like.

[justin_time]

I use Gopher everyday and every time I use it, i keep telling myself why didn't i buy this software long time ago. So if you have questions about Gopher software just let us know, someone will have the question/answer

[Big Lebowski]

Thanks guys. Anybody using the palm? This interests me tremendously.

What I'm interested in knowing is, can one make notes with the palm? For example, Mrs. Smith asked that I spray her weeds on the next visit. Does the palm work this way? Otherwise I would think pen and paper still rules the routes.

Anybody using the palm?

Steve could you pm me with the payment options you offer? Do you work outside paypal? I despise them. They held onto $1200 of mine for 6 months because they wanted to and i wouldn't give them my SS#. And they were within their rights per the little clicky box everybody clicks to get an account. But that is another story for another day.

[picframer]

We record notes as tasks in our Blackberries while on site, they all sync to my laptop as they are saved and I receive a notification, from there I prepare a work order using Simply Accounting, if it is something that will reoccur, it is input as such. Paper IMHO is not a good idea, it's can and does get lost in the shuffle.

At home the crews meet every morning, quick group talk, team leaders take their file for the day, give me cheques with work orders from the following day. I prepare the following weeks folders by day, by team leader, then off everyone goes. If a team took on a big job and need help I let the team leaders work it out, I stay out of it unless a client complains, it's funny to hear them between each other, my team will help you spread soil at that big job if your team helps me with a pressure washing job, goal here is to build team spirit and make sure everything gets done, it works and works very well.

Sometimes during the week we all meet at a coffee shop for our meeting, it's good marketing, IMHO.

I have the Gopher software, it is good, it is solid and they have thought of just about everything, I wrote my own as I wanted to incorporate a lot of other things from Inventory control to contracts, quotes and estimating.

Andy