Hello from Texas

[anderson]

Hi, I am glad I found this forum. Steve, I want to thank you for all of the helpful information just by searching the blog and listening to your videos. I am currently in the oilfield and help run a family business, but we are extremely slow. We are all trying to get jobs or to do things on the side to make ends meet. My story is that I found this 61" scag at an auction a couple weeks ago, I allready had a 42" rider and so I said "man, I hardly have work in the oilfield right now, I have a couple of mowers, a 7x12 lowboy trailer, a truck to pull it with, and enough to comfortably invest a thousand bucks into a lawn care business. Why don't I go out there and get some mowing work!" So I started searching about how to mow professionally on the net and also about different types of grasses. Monday, I desigend a flyer, printed it on bright yellow card stock and went and handed them out to people. So far, I got 2 yards out of that on 1 day of handing out about 30 flyers. I also went door to door this evening and handed them to people. I have to admit that I feel a little intimidated by these neighborhoods that have been designed by developers because the yards are so green with St. Augustine. They are not big yards though and they are not fancy either, but they are nice. They are really small. So anyway, I went and bought an echo edger and an echo trimmer. I need to buy a blower....any suggestions....remember I am starting out, so I don't want to buy the extreme best, but I do want to buy something dependable and decent. Any ideas on what else I need to buy? Any ideas on more things I should be doing? Thanks for reading, Tim

[Steve]

Lawn care business tips

Welcome to our forum! Have you checked out craigslist.com in your area for some commercial grade blowers? Maybe something will pop up. Also check out this page for the most used leaf blowers. http://www.gopherforum.com/index.php...roduct-Reviews What kind of family business do you help run? Did you mean the oil field business?

__________________
- Subscribe to my Lawn Care Marketing Blog Feed and get daily tips sent to you. Free!
Download your Free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Software.

[arthur712]

Welcome to the forum!! Great to have you here.

Check out local Auctions, You can find them all over.
I go to the auction 2-3 times a week and I see tons of landscaping equipment going cheap cheap like a bird cheap cheap. Oops I am acting dumb again (I cant help it) lol

Are going to get any truck or trailer advertising. If you are let us know we know the best places to get it. I just used one guy to do a pair of full color
12X24 Magnet for my doors and his price is $18 + $11 shipping I paid $29
They came out great.

Thanks
Artie

[anderson]

Originally Posted by Steve

Welcome to our forum!

Have you checked out craigslist.com in your area for some commercial grade blowers? Maybe something will pop up. Also check out this page for the most used leaf blowers.

http://www.gopherforum.com/index.php...roduct-Reviews

What kind of family business do you help run? Did you mean the oil field business?

Steve,
Guess what! The day before yesterday I went knocking on doors in the evening and handed out flyers. Well....yesterday, I got a call from someone from that neighborhood that I knocked on doors at. He asked me if I could mow his lawn today. So, I went to home depot and picked up an echo blower. It is not the one with the backpack. It probably isn't commercial grade but it was $167.
Oh, and yes I did mean Oilfield family business. We service and inspect the natural gas pipeline valves. Me, my dad, and two brothers.
Tim

[anderson]

Originally Posted by arthur712

Welcome to the forum!! Great to have you here.

Check out local Auctions, You can find them all over.
I go to the auction 2-3 times a week and I see tons of landscaping equipment going cheap cheap like a bird cheap cheap. Oops I am acting dumb again (I cant help it) lol

Are going to get any truck or trailer advertising. If you are let us know we know the best places to get it. I just used one guy to do a pair of full color
12X24 Magnet for my doors and his price is $18 + $11 shipping I paid $29
They came out great.

Thanks
Artie

Artie,
I do want to put some sort of sign on my trailer. I think that is just an awesome way to advertise to other neighbors or people driving by while I work. Maybe the neighbor will ask my customer about my service and my customer recommend me. I could use a magnet, but I was also thinking maybe vinyl.
Do I just google local auctions to find these auctions or are they government auctions or what?
Tim

[Steve]

Guess what! The day before yesterday I went knocking on doors in the evening and handed out flyers. Well....yesterday, I got a call from someone from that neighborhood that I knocked on doors at. He asked me if I could mow his lawn today.

That is awesome! What did you think of that experience? Since you had done that, what would you have done differently about it now if you could have or would you not do anything differently?

Oh, and yes I did mean Oilfield family business. We service and inspect the natural gas pipeline valves. Me, my dad, and two brothers.

That is very interesting! How do you think the business skills your learned from working on a business with your family like that has helped you so far running your new business?

[arthur712]

Originally Posted by anderson

Artie,
I do want to put some sort of sign on my trailer. I think that is just an awesome way to advertise to other neighbors or people driving by while I work. Maybe the neighbor will ask my customer about my service and my customer recommend me. I could use a magnet, but I was also thinking maybe vinyl.
Do I just google local auctions to find these auctions or are they government auctions or what?
Tim

Tim, Here is a link of the guy that did my Magnetic signs.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=360112164473

I do feel that Vinyl letter is better. Having vinyl makes your business look real and Magnets could be any company putting magnets on a car, and people may look at that as fly by night company or scams. I have Both on my car.

You can go to my website and on my related links page has allot of vinyl lettering companies. www.mytakeacard.com.

Auctions, Just try to look up local auctions. They are just small auctions were people buy like storage units or businesses that go out of business, then they bring to the local auctions to sell.

Thanks!
Artie

[anderson]

Originally Posted by Steve

That is awesome! What did you think of that experience? Since you had done that, what would you have done differently about it now if you could have or would you not do anything differently?



That is very interesting! How do you think the business skills your learned from working on a business with your family like that has helped you so far running your new business?

The experience is nothing new to me. Years ago, I worked for a lifetime vinyl siding co. knocking on doors. Over time you don't let it bother you if people are rude, slam the door, or just turn you away. Most people just open the door enough to get their head through, wait till you finish talking, and say not interested. I just tell them "hello, I am Tim with quality lawn care and I am here this evening to Let you know that we are offering a variety of lawn care services." hand them flyer. "are you currently in need of any right now?". Some people want to talk about prices and are very nice. The whole point is to say the line, hand them flyer and SMILE no matter what. I am open to suggestions. The only thing I know to do different is to knock on MORE doors!
Tim

[Steve]

Years ago, I worked for a lifetime vinyl siding co. knocking on doors.

What other ways did they market their business then?

Also, have you thought about doing anything within your community to get more attention? Possibly any community project?

[anderson]

Originally Posted by Steve

What other ways did they market their business then?

Also, have you thought about doing anything within your community to get more attention? Possibly any community project?

I am sure they advertised but knocking on doors were their primary means of of getting their name out.
I have thought about community projects and I would like to do that but I don't know where to start. Do I donate time and materials in the community projects? I want to let you know that I am not a pro or a seasoned lanscaping and lawn guy. I want to be though and I have been doing a lot of reading to learn. Which one of your books would you recommend for me?
Tim