GopherHaul Lawn Care Marketing Business

http://www.gopherforum.com - There are plenty of things you can do to market your lawn care business in the Fall. What if you decorated a local store that has high foot traffic. You could really go all out and put a sign up in front to promote your lawn care business and your seasonal services. Maybe have a pick-a-card display on the sign so people can walk up and take one. If you are doing this for a local pizzeria, why not get a bunch of fall menu flyers to promote your fall cleanup services on one side and the pizzeria menu on the other side that the store could hand out to each person who has an order. You could also promote your Fall Halloween outdoor decoration services to other commercial establishments and homes. If you are in need of free lawn care marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at http://www.gophersoftware.com. We have hundreds of free lawn care logo, flyer, door hanger and web templates you can download and use for your lawn care business. We also have free lawn care business contracts, estimate and proposal forms. Download our trial version of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. Gopher will help your lawn care business schedule and invoice more customers in less time, allowing you more time to grow or enjoy your life. Check out my lawn care business blog at http://www.lawnchat.com and my lawn care business forum at http://www.gopherforum.com

http://www.gopherforum.com - When the leaves fall and you are hired to clean them up, a lot of times you are not only fighting with trying to collect wet leaves but with wind! How do you collect the leaves when the wind is blowing them all over? That is a question asked on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum. A business owner wrote â??I was wondering if anyone could help me with a fall clean up problem. I bought and a little wonder high output blower 2 years ago and have learned all of the tricks to getting the best performance and power out of my blower, except when there is wind. Some of my customers have very open properties that the wind can really blow across and I just have the toughest time blowing the leaves in any other direction than the direction the wind is blowing!! My buddy said there are â??techniquesâ?? he uses to be able to work on windy days, but he wont give up any of his techniques! Does anyone know of anything that might help so that the leaves donâ??t blow back over my head if I blow against the wind?â?? Another lawn care business owner shared his secret to collecting leaves on a windy day. He said â??I use a snow fence. Itâ??s cheap and you can reuse it again and again. Itâ??s like a tarp, but the wind blows right through it, catching more leaves. This is how I do it. I go out and get a roll of snow fence and they have those push in fence post so I use about six or so. When I set them up Iâ??ll put them in a U shape and blow the leaves to the trap. That way if its windy I donâ??t lose them when I vacuum them or bag them up. The whole process take about an hour to complete in a small lawn with about 4 trees. The snow fence comes in 25â?² rolls, I buy a lot for drive ways so I use whatâ??s left over. I will put it in the lawn about 40 ft or so away from the tree. It gives me a chance to have a big work area. I use only one most of the time. Space the stakes out about 4- 5 ft apart then put the fence on the post. I use a vac from the blower I have, itâ??s old. I vac them into garbage cans most all the time unless its windy.â?? If you are in need of free lawn care marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at http://www.gophersoftware.com. We have hundreds of free lawn care logo, flyer, door hanger and web templates you can download and use for your lawn care business. We also have free lawn care business contracts, estimate and proposal forms. Download our trial version of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. Gopher will help your lawn care business schedule and invoice more customers in less time, allowing you more time to grow or enjoy your life. Check out my lawn care business blog at http://www.lawnchat.com and my lawn care business forum at http://www.gopherforum.com

http://www.gopherforum.com - With many small lawn care businesses, the owners tend to feel there is more money when you get in and get out fast. However as we will see in this discussion, offering more services than simply lawn mowing can help you be on the job site longer. The longer you are on the job site, the better your chances are of meeting neighbors and others driving by. These meetings can lead to adding new customers. One of the members of the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum asked a question that kicked off this discussion â??I thought of a neat idea for all of us. Everyone will state what services we offer & explain how you go about doing them if you want. This will give everyone a clear idea on what services they might add to their business. Iâ??ll start. Services I Offered. Gutter Cleaning Weeding Spring/Fall Cleanups Topsoil/Fertilizer/Grass Seed Hedge Trimming Branch Cutting THE SERVICES I WANT TO START: Grub Eliminating Aeration, $50.00 a yard is the cost around here. Driveway Crack Sealing (iâ??d add dye to the sealant to create the aged color) THE SERVICES I DONâ??T WANT TO START: Gardening, plantingâ?¦ Tree Removal Anything that keeps me in the same spot for the entire day. I donâ??t like to stay in one spot doing a big job, which could bring me really nice income. I like lawn mowing because itâ??s quick & keeps me moving, I tackle a lot more & it feels great. I do weeding, but personally I hate at a job site for even more than 5 minutes. As for landscaping in general, even if Iâ??m good at something, I just donâ??t enjoy it. â?? A business owner then said â??I have to ask why you donâ??t want to offer those additional services? Personally I love jobs that keep the staff at one location for the day or hours at a time, your percentage of profit for the job will be far larger than moving around. Factor in down time (travel with no pay) gas, maintenance, insurance etc. I personally found the big jobs pay a significant profit margin. It also gives time for people passing by to see the work, itâ??s free advertising and in our experience it pays big time.â?? If you are in need of free lawn care marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at http://www.gophersoftware.com. We have hundreds of free lawn care logo, flyer, door hanger and web templates you can download and use for your lawn care business. We also have free lawn care business contracts, estimate and proposal forms. Download our trial version of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. Gopher will help your lawn care business schedule and invoice more customers in less time, allowing you more time to grow or enjoy your life. Check out my lawn care business blog at http://www.lawnchat.com and my lawn care business forum at http://www.gopherforum.com

http://www.gopherforum.com - Buying used outdoor power equipment can be a great way to save money but it can also open a can of worms and end up costing if repairs are needed. How do you know if a used lawn mower is going to be a good deal? Thatâ??s what one of our forum memberâ??s asked when he wrote no the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum â??I have found a deal on a 2007 ExMark LZ25KC604 60â?³ with 25 HP Kohler with 240 Hours. I have been offered this for $3000.00. It appears to be in great shape. This is my first zero turn and I have been looking at Scags and Exmarks. What should I look for before I decide? I think this is a good deal. Any comments or suggestions appreciated.â?? Thankfully one of our forum members is a outdoor power equipment dealer and he knows his stuff. He responded â??First, are you buying this from a Dealer or from an individual? If from a dealer, will they give you any warranty? Since you have been looking at new mowers of the same brand, how much would a similar one cost you new? Assuming it has no warranty and passes the test as follows below, I would pay no more than about 60-70% of the new price of a similar piece of equipment. Do you know if $3000 is the lowest price you can get on it? Have you tried to get a lower price? Here are some questions you should ask the seller before you buy a used mower. 1. If you are buying from an individual, why are they selling it? 2. Was it used to mow their own yard only? or was it used for commercial use (to mow more than their own lawn). 3. Can you verify their answer to the first two questions without asking them directly or even indicating you are questioning their answer (they may answer â??I no longer need this big of a mowerâ??, or â??I decided to get out of the lawn care businessâ??, orâ?¦.. Just think, â??does their answer make sense?â??) 4. Do they have maintenance records? Will they provide these records to you to preview before the purchase? Will they provide these records to you with the purchase? 5. Can they tell you who serviced the equipment when it was serviced? Can you verify this? 6. If buying from a dealer, have they serviced the mower including sharpen the blades, check the belts, change spark plugs, Air Filter, Fuel Filter, and oil? 7. Have they ever serviced this mower before buying it? 8. Did they sell the mower new? 9. Why did the original owners sell it? (Again, think about their answer to see if it makes sense or not. Typically power equipment dealers are considerably more honest than car dealers but there are a few here and there that may still lie to youâ?¦.) There are more questions to ask, review them here http://lawnchat.com/?p=640 If you are in need of free lawn care marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at http://www.gophersoftware.com. We have hundreds of free lawn care logo, flyer, door hanger and web templates you can download and use for your lawn care business. We also have free lawn care business contracts, estimate and proposal forms. Download our trial version of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. Gopher will help your lawn care business schedule and invoice more customers in less time, allowing you more time to grow or enjoy your life. Check out my lawn care business blog at http://www.lawnchat.com and my lawn care business forum at http://www.gopherforum.com

http://www.gopherforum.com - Are you afraid of hearing the word no? Is it keeping your lawn care business from growing? This fear afflicts more of us than we would probably care to admit. A new lawn care business owner shared with us his insights as to how fearing the word �no� had stifled his growth for some time. He wrote us on the Gopher Lawn Care Business forum and said �I have been in the lawn care business since 1973 and it is still one of my passions of life. I have worked for large corporations and small landscapers and have taken every opportunity to learn as much as I can. I now work for myself. I hope to continue learning from you folks and have no problems at all with sharing my experiences and knowledge with any of you. I have great customers and am looking to expand on services I offer and neighborhoods I service in my area. I�m going to do this a little at a time in steps so as not to scare people off.� You have been in the business for quite some time! What do you feel about the differences between working for all those companies and running your own business? Any thoughts as to why you decided to make the jump and how you did it? �I would suggest to all that I have NEVER been afraid to tell a lawn care customer or potential customer that I didn�t know the answer to something, but I always made it a point to get back to them with an honest, sensible solution to problems they presented to me. It took me a long time to accept that some people can have differing views of things that will not agree with what you are presenting. For the longest time, I was scared to death to hear �NO�. I suffered economically, physically, and psychologically to keep from hearing that dreaded two-lettered word. I would suggest that we have to accept some failures in order to appreciate our successes. None of us wants to lose money in our daily endeavors, nor should we. I decided to go out and start my own because at a certain point, I figured out I can take my knowledge to the public and not be stuck or limited by my �boss�s� imagination. The freedom to be my own representative out there in the world was too strong to ignore. I�ve gone back to work for other people from time to time but have finally settled on my independence and am truly enjoying myself. Yeh, I think I�ll do this until I�m forced to retire.� With all of your experiences, what advice do you have for the new lawn care business owner who is trying to attract customers? What have you found that works and what doesn�t? �My advice to everyone would be to make up some fliers or have them made up for you. You can be as fancy as you can afford but be careful not to make it too long. Keep it short and sweet. Identify your services offered and maybe your service call policies, along with guarantees and licenses. We all have differing ideas about details but getting to the point is more a plus than a minus. You can always expand on what you are offering once you get in the door. Eyeball to eyeball is still the best way to sell yourself to anyone. I speak from experience, folks.� So if we can learn from his year of experience, it�s that should constantly try to learn from others. Don�t be afraid to hear the word no and to really sell yourself, get out there and talk to people eyeball to eyeball. If you are in need of free lawn care marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at http://www.gophersoftware.com. We have hundreds of free lawn care logo, flyer, door hanger and web templates you can download and use for your lawn care business. We also have free lawn care business contracts, estimate and proposal forms. Download our trial version of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. Gopher will help your lawn care business schedule and invoice more customers in less time, allowing you more time to grow or enjoy your life. Check out my lawn care business blog at http://www.lawnchat.com and my lawn care business forum at http://www.gopherforum.com

http://www.gopherforum.com - Fear is an interesting topic. It is amazing how the fears we have can effect how we see the world and what we do in the world. A member of the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum brought up a great topic that has popped up in the past, leading me to think many lawn care business owners may share this fear. He wrote �I had a nightmare about gaining 1,000 lawn care clients. The problem was, I couldn�t afford to serve them. I didn�t have the equipment, or the crew. In my dream I wanted to serve all of the lawn care clients, I didn�t want to lose any of them. I was afraid that they�d never think of hiring me again if I said no this time, so what happens? I wake up� Now imagine if the nightmare was true. In the Spring you send out 10,000 flyers and BAM, everyone calls you? Wouldn�t that be worse than not having enough customers to fill your schedule? I guess it�s good to know what your maximum number of clients is. You never know what kind of trouble you�ll have if you get too many. So you have to think, how many lawns can you mow (comfortably) in a day, multiplied by 5 days a week? I�d say 11-12 customers a day, 5 days a week is good for ONE PERSON. If you have a partner, 20 lawns a day, 5 days a week will be a walk in the park! At first I did believe after my marketing, that everyone would call me. Though I simply said, �I�ll take what I can get, and leave the rest for other companies.� The problem as you get bigger is, saying no to potential customers will fill me with regret. Saying no might effect me later. When you can�t take on more customers, they might remember you as �too busy� or the �no company� or most likely move on to a company who COULD take them. Advertising comes in steps I guess. I hardly got any lawn care customers from my first attempts. The real gains I�ve gotten were from people seeing me work & walking up to me and asking for an estimate. Or referrals.� You bring up a really good point when talking about this fear. I think many entrepreneurs have a similar fear. It concerns them when they are doing their marketing. Many times I have seen forum members post things like, �I don�t want to do too much marketing because I don�t want to be swamped with customers.� I think first off, if you can realize you won�t be swamped with customers, you will be better off. Once you realize that, you will see you need to really overshoot your goals when you are marketing because no matter how many customers you think you will get out of what ever marketing campaign you are doing, ultimately you won�t get anywhere near that amount. This especially comes into play when a lawn care business owner is preparing to do some direct mail marketing to potential customers in their area. If you don�t send enough pieces of mail out, you might not get any responses. I don�t think it is possible to send out too many marketing pieces to your service area. At most we usually see a 1% to 2% response rate from direct mail or distributing door to door flyers. Another lawn care business owner said �Seeing is believing for most people. If you are mowing in an area where people can see you do a good job, they will come up to you. This has happened to me many times. A person will normally walk up to me and say �you mow my neighbor�s lawn, can you come give me an estimate? I�m just down the street.� Marketing in my opinion, can only build the base of what�s to come in time. Everything will branch off from there. One customer who initially got your flyer can refer you their neighbor. The neighbor can refer you to their friend, etc. Here is a list of which lawn care marketing methods have worked for me. Ordered BEST to WORST: * People who have seen me work, who ask me for an estimate. * Customers who have referred my lawn care company to their friends. * Confronting people who look busy, and telling them I can mow your lawn for a price of $X.XX. * Business Cards * Flyers * Craigslist.� If you are in need of free lawn care marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at http://www.gophersoftware.com. We have hundreds of free lawn care logo, flyer, door hanger and web templates you can download and use for your lawn care business. We also have free lawn care business contracts, estimate and proposal forms. Download our trial version of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. Gopher will help your lawn care business schedule and invoice more customers in less time, allowing you more time to grow or enjoy your life. Check out my lawn care business blog at http://www.lawnchat.com and my lawn care business forum at http://www.gopherforum.com

http://www.gopherforum.com - Understanding what insurance you need when you are just starting your lawn care business can be quite overwhelming. I have been able to have a few discussions on landscape contractor insurance over the years to help you understand the topic better. In this most recent discussion I had an opportunity to talk with an insurance agent who sold insurance mainly to the lawn care industry. Here are some of the insights he shared on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum that I hope you find beneficial. What kind of insurance does a lawn care contractor need? �What insurance coverage a contractor needs is dependent on the type of work he or she engages in as well as the risks associated and protection desired. The general purpose of contractor insurance is to provide financial backing for a contractor who is liable to a client who hires the contractor to perform a certain job. The most purchased type of contractors insurance is general liability insurance. As with other types of insurance, contractor general liability offers the widest protection and is most useful to a company or individual engaged any many facets of contract work. There are maximum payouts on the insurance, generally $1 million to $2 million for each type of protection. Contractors protected by a good plan are usually secured against reasonable financial loss due to problems linked to the contractors work. The most complete protection can be found from adding some more specific types of coverage to the general liability protection.� Let�s talk about those some of those more specific types of insurance. How about worker�s compensation. Can you tell us a little about that? �Worker�s compensation is a common contractor insurance purchased by many contracting companies for their employees. Workers comp insurance is a compulsory type of coverage. This protection helps the employer cover the financial burden of an employee who is injured on a job. The workers compensation insurance generally offers income, medical and rehabilitation benefits for injured employees involved in work related accidents. Some plans also include a death benefit payable to survivors. Business owners/principles may choose to exclude their payroll (and coverage) in some states, with coverage rated only on employee payroll.� How about inland marine insurance? This isn�t one we hear about often but it is helpful to know about. �Inland marine insurance is another specialized type of contractor insurance. This contractors insurance protects goods that are in transit over land. Many contractors move materials and goods routinely and this allows them to expect the high costs of those items. Tools, equipment and installation floaters are all considered inland marine insurance and are considered essential types of insurance for contractor.� What about disability insurance? �Disability insurance is another common type of contractors insurance used by contractors and many companies, for that matter. This provides for the income needs of people displaced from work for a period of time due to injury. It is commonly referred to �Accident and Health Protection�. Health and life insurance are other types of coverage purchased by contractors. If you are in need of free lawn care marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at http://www.gophersoftware.com. We have hundreds of free lawn care logo, flyer, door hanger and web templates you can download and use for your lawn care business. We also have free lawn care business contracts, estimate and proposal forms. Download our trial version of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. Gopher will help your lawn care business schedule and invoice more customers in less time, allowing you more time to grow or enjoy your life. Check out my lawn care business blog at http://www.lawnchat.com and my lawn care business forum at http://www.gopherforum.com

http://www.gopherforum.com - One of the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum members recently made a trade with a local publisher. He offered to do lawn care in return for ad space. In this discussion we learn how creating a �squeeze page� on your website can help you collect potential customer contact information to allow you to market to these people later via email. We also learn what your advertising should say in order to get as many people as possible to want to click through your internet banner advertisement. If you would like to read more about this topic, check out my newest lawn care business book 'GopherHaul Extreme Lawn Care Business Tips.' You can read more about it here http://www.gopherforum.com/showthread.php?p=56597#post56597 He wrote �I made a trade with a local advertising business a few weeks ago for them to do a magazine ad for me in return for me to do her yard for so a certain period of time. I have been working on her yard off and on since the ad was published. They want to put a banner with my business name on their website and have it linked to my website. They also want me to write an article in the (ask the expert section) of their website on the topic of fall/winter upkeep advice to help people. I will also be in the coupon section.� Another member responded �In terms of the banner ad, your concept looks great but if you want MORE people to respond you need to give them a reason. Sure, some people will respond because they need something right now, but what about all the people just THINKING about a particular service you might offer? What about the people that have a service provider, but aren�t very happy with them and are considering getting someone else? If you include some type of offer that gets people to at least click on the banner so you can take them to your website to continue or begin the relationship building process. And keep in mind that �FREE Estimates� or some type of discount aren�t very effective anymore because EVERYONE�S doing them." He then asked �do you have any ideas on what I could put in the banner ad to get them to click on it. The ad rotates with others so it only pauses on mine for 2-3 seconds. I currently have on the ad 'call for details', but i doubt that would get them to call. Any thing catchy up your sleeve?� �Free mowing might attract a few people, but one thing to remember is that you want to get as many people as possible into your sales funnel as possible. Saying �Free Mowing� will definitely get a few people to respond, but I bet you�d get even more if you offered a free report titled, �5 Secrets to a Thick, Green, Weed-Free Lawn�, then include your call to action like, �Click Here�. Then what I�d do is instead of sending them to your regular website I�d set up a special web page called a squeeze page. All it is is a web page who�s only purpose is to get people to submit their name and email address in exchange for this free report. You don�t mention anything about the 15 different services you offer, or how you�ve been in business since 19XX, or how�..well, you get the idea. Then once they submit their information, THEN you could take them to your regular website because you now have their contact information and you can communicate with them via email for free. Remember, marketing is a step-by-step process and if you try to take your prospects from A to Z in one giant leap, you�ll lose more than you�ll manage to keep!� I asked �Can you give us a little more insight as what this squeeze page is?� The other member said �you want to offer the free report BEFORE taking them to your regular web page. It�s called a squeeze page and it�s only purpose is to capture visitors name and email. On most websites there are WAYYYYY too many places someone could get lost. A confused mind doesn�t act/buy so the key is to create a web page who�s ONLY OPTION is to submit their contact information. If you are in need of free lawn care marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at http://www.gophersoftware.com. We have hundreds of free lawn care logo, flyer, door hanger and web templates you can download and use for your lawn care business. We also have free lawn care business contracts, estimate and proposal forms. Download our trial version of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. Gopher will help your lawn care business schedule and invoice more customers in less time, allowing you more time to grow or enjoy your life. Check out my lawn care business blog at http://www.lawnchat.com and my lawn care business forum at http://www.gopherforum.com

http://www.gopherforum.com - How often are you performing a service on a customerâ??s property when you see a problem that you feel you could fix? Do you mention this problem to the customer? If not, why not? Offering basic weekly mowing services is a great way to open the lines of communication with a customer that can lead to bigger profits if you know what to do. One of the members of the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum shared with us some of his suggestions on how he makes big money with upsells to his current lawn care customers. He wrote â??I have three crews that do the lawn mowing, pressure washing, clean up jobs and I worked with them this week just to see how things were going. I try to encourage them to look around, look for things we do and talk to the client. I realize itâ??s not in everyoneâ??s blood to simply hit up a conversation and say I happened to notice you could useâ?¦..this is something we offer if you like. Staff even ask me is it ok to talk to the customerâ?¦.I wonder whyâ?¦my response is always by all means they are the ones that sign your pay cheque. I picked up 8 additional jobs from current jobs this week so far, I took various staff members to talk to the owner. A classic was yesterday, I checked in on a crew doing a mulching job and it looked excellent, I walked around the house and noticed it really needed a pressure washing, I asked staff if they noticed and they did, they said and they are right. Itâ??s clear on our lawn care marketing post cards that we do this. I knocked on the door and had an employee with me. I said Linda I stopped by to see how things were going and to me it looks excellent, what do you think so far? Then I said you know you have a beautiful home and location, I couldnâ??t help but notice the mold on the side and back of your siding which we see very often, if you are interested we provide this service and can give you a quote. Her response was I didnâ??t realize you did this and was going to look a company up in the yellow pages, what would it cost, I replied $425.00 and explained the process, she said do it please. I see this on probably 60% of the places we visit, we have to be proactive and I believe based on my experience if we are, you will get additional work and some of this work is very high profit, besides that you already have the gear there and the longer on a site the more prople notice that are walking or driving by and as the property transforms, people stop and start asking questions, the neighbour feel slighted as his place no longer looks better and he wants it toâ?¦â?¦play into thatâ?¦. Just a thought for the dayâ?¦..Today I am digging two fish ponds. I picked these up while with a mowing crew and talking to the customer, one is a day care and one is a home with a lot of those small water falls you buy at the big box storeâ?¦.it will be a very easy $600.00 job(s), I had simply walked the property with the owner and said, a fish pond would be an interesting additionâ?¦.â??You do thoseâ?????â?? So as you walk around and service a customerâ??s property, think to yourself, what other services could they use? Then offer the customer those services and you just might see a big boast to your bottom line. If you are in need of free lawn care marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at http://www.gophersoftware.com. We have hundreds of free lawn care logo, flyer, door hanger and web templates you can download and use for your lawn care business. We also have free lawn care business contracts, estimate and proposal forms. Download our trial version of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. Gopher will help your lawn care business schedule and invoice more customers in less time, allowing you more time to grow or enjoy your life. Check out my lawn care business blog at http://www.lawnchat.com and my lawn care business forum at http://www.gopherforum.com

http://www.gopherforum.com - Iâ??d like to first thank our friend Mike from the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum for sharing with us some of the pressure washing marketing material he successfully uses. I asked him some questions on the topic of marketing that I want to share with you. Steve: â??What advice do you have for newer lawn care business owners when it comes to successfully distributing such marketing material? How should one go about using the postcards or door hangers to get the most effective results?â?? Mike: â??Just like in real estateâ?¦. Itâ??s all about location, location, location. In this case, itâ??s list, list, list! Who gets your marketing material is more important than how or what they get. I donâ??t market to folks that canâ??t afford or shouldnâ??t be hiring out contractors. If they canâ??t afford it, then it is a waste of my efforts. If they shouldnâ??t be affording it, then it too will be a waste because they will want the work cheap. As for what the marketing material should sayâ?¦. well, I like promoting what I sell. I stopped selling Pressure Washing once I found that is was only worth so much. I started selling something more valuableâ?¦ Time and convenience. Thatâ??s why the card doesnâ??t have a mower or pressure washer on it. It has what I propose hiring me will give themâ?¦ Time to enjoy their free time.â?? Steve: â??That is a really good point that I think a lot of new lawn care business owners miss. Do you have any advice on how a lawn care business owner can or should determine who canâ??t afford them?â?? Mike: â??As long as I was telling the customer about pressure washing, I was getting that look ofâ?¦ â??Itâ??s just pressure washing, why so much moneyâ??â?¦ When I started sending a different message to a different mindset client, I noticed more yeses, no matter the price. We went from charging $250 for house pressure washes to $450+ house washes in one season. And started selling more of them at the higher rate. Silly, how a different approach can sell the same pressure washing service for more $$. As for determining the marketing target, I look for neighborhoods where there is lots of activity. Work vehicles coming and going. These folks out source this work. I target business owners. Their time is valuable and they also understand us. We have something in common. Hey, a lawyer that is billing $500/hr thinks I am a bargain at $300/hr. Also, donâ??t price based on YOUR numbersâ?¦ Base it on THEIR numbers. I sell house washes that would take the typical homeowner a whole weekend to do. I base pricing on that production rateâ?¦ Not my own. I can clean their home in an hour, but not going to price it at that rate. Iâ??m going to sell them that I am saving them money versus the time it would cost THEM to do it. Hell, even to have the local handyman do it. Not to knock the lawn guys, but I can wash 5-6 times faster than most of them, but I ainâ??t gonna price it for faster. Iâ??m gonna stay at same $50/hr that lawn/handyman is going to price at, but make more because Iâ??m faster. So Iâ??ll make the $300/hr.â?? These are great concepts to be considering when you are selling your pressure washing services. In fact you can use these marketing and selling concepts when you sell any of your lawn care business services. If you are in need of free lawn care marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at http://www.gophersoftware.com. We have hundreds of free lawn care logo, flyer, door hanger and web templates you can download and use for your lawn care business. We also have free lawn care business contracts, estimate and proposal forms. Download our trial version of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. Gopher will help your lawn care business schedule and invoice more customers in less time, allowing you more time to grow or enjoy your life. Check out my lawn care business blog at http://www.lawnchat.com and my lawn care business forum at http://www.gopherforum.com

http://www.gopherforum.com - We can always learn more about sales. Without sales we would have no income and without an income we would have no business. So to boost your lawn care business sales let�s have a talk with Nick, a fellow Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum member. Nick used to be a car salesman before he moved on and decided to stop making others rich and start making himself rich. I got a chance to ask him to share with us some of his insight into how a lawn care business owner can improve their sales and here is what he had to say. Most any business revolves around sales, and in most cases you will sell something at least once in your life. A simple sale can be broken down into steps. There are many different forms of the steps to the sale but here are the ones I use: 1. Meet and Greet The meet and greet is the first and most important part of a sale. A lawn care customer is going to decide if they are going to buy something from you within the first 15 seconds of meeting you. During the meet and greet you should shake your prospective customers hand, look at them in the eyes and state your name and why you are on there door step(or where ever). Remember this customer could lead you to more sales so take them as they are your monthly salary, your child�s next meal, the new zero turn mower, etc. 2. Fact Find When you fact find all you are basically doing is finding out the needs of your lawn care customer. Ask your questions and when they answer just sit back and listen. The best way to lose your credibility is to interrupt the customer when they are talking. The best way to build confidence is to listen and give an educated response to what ever they said. 3. Diagnose I was always told in the car sales industry, what if a doctor gave medicine without finding out what is wrong with the patient? That would be bad right? Yes it would be awful. Giving a proper diagnosis with each customer can boost profit enourmously. This step is the most commonly misconstrued part of the sales process. �Medicine with out prognosis is MALPRACTICE!� John Walters 4. Present This step is where you have to use those superior vocal tools, those sly words, basically you sell. you need to get the customer excited about the product now. With �diagnose� you have selected the product or service with the customer, now concentrate on selling it. When the lawn care customer says that the service is over priced you need to overcome the objection, DO NOT SWITCH THE SERVICE OR PRODUCT!!! Switching is not forbidden but should be done only if you are about to lose the sale. Most people feel that they picked the product you are trying to sell them so when you try to switch it they feel that the swindler salesman you are is trying to screw them and rip them off. Do not switch unless necessary. If you are in need of free lawn care marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at http://www.gophersoftware.com. We have hundreds of free lawn care logo, flyer, door hanger and web templates you can download and use for your lawn care business. We also have free lawn care business contracts, estimate and proposal forms. Download our trial version of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. Gopher will help your lawn care business schedule and invoice more customers in less time, allowing you more time to grow or enjoy your life. Check out my lawn care business blog at http://www.lawnchat.com and my lawn care business forum at http://www.gopherforum.com

http://www.gopherforum.com - I just love the creative marketing ideas that get posted on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum. There are so many ideas posted, you will never run out of ways to promote yourself. Letâ??s talk about the latest great idea. One of our members shared with us a story on how he uses napkin dispensers to promote his real estate business. He wrote â??I advertise in about 25 to 30 restaurants right now. I went and bought these great Napkin Holders that you can put ads on both sides. None of the restaurants charge me anything at all to put these dispensers in their location. When I recently bought the napkin holders, they where only $5 bucks each. I not only sold a couple house from those ads, but people run into me and say they are sick of seeing my face all over the place. That is good! I also bought a bunch of the large stand up napkin holder that have my advertising on the front of them. I have them in about 20 gas stations next the fountain drinks. The good thing about gas stations, they get tons of traffic to see the advertising. I put my outdoor business card holders on the top of these so people can Take A Card and the card holder does not fall open or go all over the place if someone knocks it over or when they put more napkins in the holder. They work great for me. THINK OUTSIDE OF THE BOX! You can see a picture of this display here http://lawnchat.com/?p=868 I do so many weird things because that is what works.â?? After seeing this I asked him how do you go about getting them in the stores? Do you offer to pay for the napkins or do they refill them, themselves? He replied â??For the gas stations I will supply the napkins for the first like 6 month or all year, They only use about a half case. Case of napkins are only $50 dollors. With the restaurants, I just give them the holders and they get the napkins from their suppliers. But when I bring the holders into the facilities just about everyone of them love the napkin holders and they say yes! I put them in one gas stations and with in days I got calls from other gas stations asking for them. The owners are all family and are really great/smart business people. â?? I asked him how often does he go back to refill these dispensers and he said â??I go back to them as much as possible, I have to show my face because I always like to talk to them about whatâ??s new. They recommend people to me.â?? Consider this lawn care marketing idea the next time you find yourself walking around in a gas station or at a restaurant, you just might pick up more customers than you know what to do with! If you are in need of free lawn care marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at http://www.gophersoftware.com. We have hundreds of free lawn care logo, flyer, door hanger and web templates you can download and use for your lawn care business. We also have free lawn care business contracts, estimate and proposal forms. Download our trial version of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. Gopher will help your lawn care business schedule and invoice more customers in less time, allowing you more time to grow or enjoy your life. Check out my lawn care business blog at http://www.lawnchat.com and my lawn care business forum at http://www.gopherforum.com

http://www.gopherforum.com - When a lawn care customer decides mid-season they want to save money and only have you mow their property every other week, how should you handle this or even bill this? This was a dilemma that was presented to the members of the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum. The member wrote â??Iâ??ve had this weekly mowed lawn care customer since I started my business and now they want me to cut the grass every 2 weeks because they are â??seniorsâ?? and they are getting low on â??moneyâ?? (thatâ??s an excuse I think) This yard I do, takes me 2 hrs with my tractor and another 15 to 20 minutes to trim all his stuff all over the yard. I donâ??t want to lose this customer. I was talking to him about my possibly getting a ZTR and he was like, oh yeah that means you can lower your price. Why do old folks think this way ??? That when itâ??s mowed faster, you can charge less ??? He complains all the time my bill is too high and stuff.. and things like that Not sure what to doâ?¦â?¦â?¦â?¦â?? One lawn care business owner wrote â??my bi-weekly lawn care customers get charged a premium. I usually charge them 1 1/2 times the price of a weekly mowing. So if a lawn costs $40.00 per cut weekly, Iâ??ll charge them$60.00 per cut bi-weekly. That way it allows me to clean up any extra mess or bag the lawn. People need to understand that it is not a cost saving alternative. Weekly lawn mowing is best. Bi-weekly cuts usually take too much off the blade and can be detrimental for the turf. If you are going past the customerâ??s home every week I would contact the client and let them know of the length of their lawn and let them know of concerns for their turf. If they care about how the lawn looks they should understand.â?? Another lawn care business owner agreed and shared â??cutting every other week makes it necessary to raise the price. I suppose it depends on how much you are making on the property but itâ??s always a bad idea to let the customer dictate when you can and canâ??t cut the lawn. It always turns out that they call you when itâ??s 28 inches high, takes 4 hours instead of 2 hours to mow. I was put in the same situation last week. A customer of mine decided they wanted their yard mowed every 2 weeks instead of weekly. Well I explained to them that the clippings will be left on the lawn and itâ??s gonna look terrible. The only thing worse is sharing the job with the home owner. Theyâ??ll cut the lawn when itâ??s easy and call you when itâ??s 4 feet high. I have an interesting technique when someone complains about my prices. I tell them that they can get someone else to come in and give them bid on cutting their lawn. Theyâ??ve never taken me up on the offer yet.â?? Lastly donâ??t forget cutting higher grass puts added wear on your lawn mower. You will be adding more wear and tear to your machine. This can lead to a shortened mower life which then will raise your operational costs. So keep all these things in mind the next time a weekly lawn care customer is looking to get you to cut their lawn every other week. If you are in need of free lawn care marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at http://www.gophersoftware.com. We have hundreds of free lawn care logo, flyer, door hanger and web templates you can download and use for your lawn care business. We also have free lawn care business contracts, estimate and proposal forms. Download our trial version of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. Gopher will help your lawn care business schedule and invoice more customers in less time, allowing you more time to grow or enjoy your life. Check out my lawn care business blog at http://www.lawnchat.com and my lawn care business forum at http://www.gopherforum.com

http://www.gopherforum.com - Have you spent much time thinking about your lawn care customer sales funnel? Many newer lawn care businesses don�t think about this so I thought it would be a good idea to bring it to their attention. What is a sales funnel? Well think of it as a big scoop. You want to go out there and scoop up as many potential customers as you can when you broadcast your marketing message. Then you want to reel them in step by step. You want to offer something and then get something from the potential customer. Then offer a little something more and then get something more from them. You keep this process going in your sales funnel until you have the customer signed up for services. Ultimately you want to take the customer from step A to step Z, one step at a time. A lot of newer lawn care businesses don�t understand this and they tend to rush the sale with the end result of losing it. They want to take the potential customer from step A to step Z all in one step. So how do you take the potential customer in step by step. Say for instance first off in your advertising, you say call my phone number 24 hours a day and listen to my voice recorded message on the 7 secret steps every homeowner needs to know to obtain a full and lush green lawn. What this then allows the potential customer to do is call your number knowing full well you won�t pick up the phone. They can call and listen to your 7 secret steps and not have to be on the defensive from an sales pitch. The potential customer also can feel free to call 24 hours a day at any time. At the end of the message you can say something to the effect of, �if you�d like further help or assistance in maintaining your lawn please leave your name and number at the beep and I will promptly return your call. I offer free estimates with no obligation and I am fully insured.� This then will prompt the potential customer to leave their contact information so you can take your interaction with them to the next step. You gave them a little helpful information and they give you a little helpful information. They will feel comfortable and you will feel good that they feel comfortable. Another similar concept you can do even before the phone call is to have a business card distributor on your vehicle or trailer when you are out and about in town. Many potential customers will see your truck parked while you are working or at lunch and they may not feel they want to approach you at that time. They may or may not have a pen to write down your phone number from your truck, but if you have a business card holder on your vehicle they will feel more comfortable taking one. This allows the potential customer to not have to feel like they are going to have to be on the defensive from a sales pitch. They can simply walk up to your truck, take a card and then call you later when they feel more comfortable. And remember the whole goal is to make the customer feel comfortable each step of the way. Now to show you how helpful such devices can be, I am lucky enough to be able to give away 3 vehicle business card holders compliments of Artie at http://www.mytakeacard.com as well as 3 sets of 500 business cards compliments of Ely at http://www.bizcard.com If you are interested in taking part in this giveaway, just make a reply in the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum here http://www.gopherforum.com/showthread.php?t=9362 and say you want in. I will pick 3 winners. I hope once you try this out you will see how important this whole lawn care customer funnel process is. If you are in need of free lawn care marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at http://www.gophersoftware.com. We have hundreds of free lawn care logo, flyer, door hanger and web templates you can download and use for your lawn care business. We also have free lawn care business contracts, estimate and proposal forms. Download our trial version of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. Gopher will help your lawn care business schedule and invoice more customers in less time, allowing you more time to grow or enjoy your life. Check out my lawn care business blog at http://www.lawnchat.com and my lawn care business forum at http://www.gopherforum.com

http://www.gopherforum.com - Nothing helps us learn how to be successful than to hear stories from those who have found success and then ask them how they did it. A new lawn care business owner shared with us his story on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum on how he went from 3 to 20 lawn care customers in all of 3 months. I was able to talk with him and get some insights as to how he did it. I hope this discussion really helps you grow your lawn care business. He wrote �¢����I just opened up my very own lawn business. I am very fortunate to have opened it when I did, because my first few months I have seen a jump in clientele. I first got started in the lawn care business by working with my father doing property maintenance at his home building company. My job included mowing all of his model homes and properties. I serviced 25 properties for 3 years. As I worked for him, together we set up a lawn trailer including a Toro 52�¢���³ z-turn, John Deere 48�¢���³ walk behind and assorted sticks edgers and trimmers, and back pack blowers. So having all of this equipment in my hands I decided to start my own company and expand it past his properties. At the same time I started leasing his equipment from him. This made it very easy to start since I did not have to go out and purchase most of this equipment in one lump sum. I have the experience of cutting grass, but it�¢����s with the buisness side I need to become an expert on to make lots of money. That is what has brought me to this forum. I have learned a lot just by reading others comments. I have a few ideas of my own and have a lot of motivation to make my company prosperous.�¢���� You sound like you have a fantastic foundation and are off to a great start, can you tell us a little about your view on growing your lawn care business? He responded �¢����A lot of people have different philosophies about how to run there company and here are just some of mine. 1. My start up phase - The first thing I did other than put numbers together and get my licensing and insurance was to start spreading the word. I told every person (and still do) about the services I provide (spelled out below). From my parents to the grocery store clerk, I told every person I came in contact with. The first month I opened with 3 accounts, now in my 3rd month I have 20. ALL WORD OF MOUTH. I had a buddy of mine meet with me to go over logos and flyers and so forth, low budget marketing items, such as business cards. Business cards are probably the number one item ANY business person should never leave the shop without. I spread the word EVERYWHERE I GO. WORD OF MOUTH IS MY NUMBER 1 MARKETING TECHNIQUE. It goes much further than a piece of paper. 2. Professional Image - This item I think gets over looked because of the common excuse that it�¢����s a dirty job. My state is littered with lawn care companies and you can�¢����t go down the road with out seeing at least 3 rigs. Even though 10 passed me, I remembered only 3 because they looked good. But I think it�¢����s very important to BE and look professional. I went to Target and bought these Champion duo dry shirts (one they are cheap, two they are pleasant to work in, and three they look very professional.) I got my logo and and phone number put on them, and you would be surprised how a property owner reacts (especially in high end neighborhoods) when they see a professional looking company making there lawn look PROFESSIONALLY done. He shared with us some very fascinating insights. I hope these thoughts and concepts help you grow. If you are in need of free lawn care marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at http://www.gophersoftware.com. We have hundreds of free lawn care logo, flyer, door hanger and web templates you can download and use for your lawn care business. We also have free lawn care business contracts, estimate and proposal forms. Download our trial version of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. Gopher will help your lawn care business schedule and invoice more customers in less time, allowing you more time to grow or enjoy your life. Check out my lawn care business blog at http://www.lawnchat.com and my lawn care business forum at http://www.gopherforum.com