How important is an image when it lifts the bottom line?

[jasonw]

Ok so here is my situation. My personal appearance is very professional. I have 2 vehicles I can use for business. I have my SUV and my Toyota. The SUV looks nice but is very very expensive to use getting all of about 6MPG. The Toyota gets great millage but its old and 3 different colors and in my hay day I put a very loud obnoxious exhaust on it. A good example is it cost me $10 in gas to drive to a job yesterday as a posed to the Toyota which would have cost me about $2 in gas. Even though the Toyota is ugly should I use it instead of the SUV because it would give me a higher per job return or should I use the SUV because it looks nicer and just deal with the high expense of using it? My personal opinion is it should not matter. My work is good. I know it and the customers see it so better for me to keep the bottom line as low as possible. Also all gas and MPG aside. The SUV is just more expensive to use. It cost more to maintain and more frequently, Tires are more expensive. Air filters and plugs are more expensive so on and so forth. It is fairly important top me to have a vehicle for dedicated business use to I can take advantage of the tax right off. I know the SUV would give me a bigger tax write off but it will hurt more than help the pocket book now and that's what I am looking at "now" not next year. My eventual goal as soon as the business gets big enough to sustain it is to buy a new truck for business use. I just want to know what everyone thinks I should do for now.

[jasonw]

Lawn care business tips

I forgot to mention. My equipment is an very good shape. I know it sounds crazy but I use Mothers car polish as well as Armerall cleansing and protectent wipes on it all. My mower is 5 years old but looks like it just came off the shelf. All the equipment gets washed down ever day of use. The mower looks better than both cars lol.

[XtreemGreen]

Get the exhaust fixed and use the Toyota...

[jasonw]

Thats what I was thinking. Its an ugly car but the bottom line is it costs me about $20 per month to drive it to my 9-5 and the SUV is about 90 per week, its really horable. Also the Toyota is a wagon and can hold more with the seats down than the SUV can and its a 5 speed and pulls my lawn trailer better also. Thanks for the impute.

[Steve]

I want to say it is very important to keep expenses low when a company is new so it can quickly find profitability. However I also think it is ALWAYS very important to keep expenses low no matter where a company is in it's life cycle.

So I'd go with the Toyota too

Thats what I was thinking. Its an ugly car

If you want to experiment, you could get some latex house paint and paint the car one solid color with a house roller. It would be a flat paint job but it would be uniform and cheap.

[jasonw]

Thanks. I just got done loading all the stuff into the other car. I have my trailer but don't see any reason to use it unless I have to. Everything I need for the basic service I offer fits right in the car with the seats down. I hate shifting gears so I didn't like the idea of using the Toyota for personal use. Its nice to just put it in drive and go lol.

[Steve]

Great! Keep us posted on how all this works out. Are you going to get any signs on the Toyota?

[StartALawnCareBusiness]

Use your SUV to drive to estimates.


Most customers won't care what your work vehicle looks like as long as your equipment is professional and their lawns look great.

[jasonw]

I currently just have lettering on the SUV. The Toyota has nothing. I thought about getting something on the doors but worry it will look that much worse lol.

[jasonw]

On 2nd thought maybe the best idea is to have the driver door, fender and hood painted and the exhaust fixed as soon as the business will pay for it. hmmmm then it would not be so bad.