Summary: Hello and welcome to GopherHaul 19 â?? Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show. GopherHaul 19 In this episode we will be talking about * Please continue to submit your pictures for our outdoor holiday lighting contest. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=8;t=6159; * Our lawn care business forum member of the month is Tim. * Tim has shared with us three new contracts including a lawn cutting contract, a full service lawn care maintenance and a snow plow contract. You can download them here http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST&f=1&t=877&st=30&entry30713 * I added a new link on the left side of the forum for our lawn care business forum member to submit books they have read. I also added a new business book of the month to our list. The book is Guerrilla Marketing Success Secrets by Jay Levinson. * Our friend Tony submitted this great marketing idea to the forum. He prints out stickers that include your business logo and then puts them on buckets of ice melt. He suggests handing these buckets out to your current customer base to help promote your snow removal services or you could use them as a marketing tool to hand out to homeowners in your area who you would like to service with snow removal and lawn care services next spring. If you live in a warmer climate you could also offer potted plants instead of ice melt. Review the post here http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=33;t=6541;st=0;r=1;entry30532 * Our lawn care forum member Tim suggested buying poinsettia plants in bulk and handing them out to your current customers along with a holiday card. You could also give these out to potential clients you would like to provide snow plow or lawn care services to. Tim said he also sells the plants at a farmerâ??s market booth. He purchases the flowers for $2 and resells them for $5. Great idea! Read more about this post here http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=8;t=6488;st=0;r=1;entry30090 * Brian from Lawn & Garden Web Vision sent us this promotional video to show off his new website http://www.lawnandgardenwv.com Check out his site. Itâ??s full of many on demand education and training videos for the lawn and garden industry. * Forum member Tim posted that now is the time to send out letters to businesses asking them to put your company on their 2008 bid list. You can download the letter here http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST&f=1&t=1541&st=0&entry29810 * Bob from Plan-it Graphics has posted a design challenge http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST&f=23&t=6434&st=0&entry29599 There will be two winners chosen. Bob said â??You do not have to do anything graphic wise. You can simply submit your ideas in text. If your idea is to have a guy riding his motorcycle with the caption, â??This is much better better than lawn work!â?? then thatâ??s all you have to do. We are not looking for the best designer, we are looking for the best/unique way to market. Hopefully we can come up with ideas that are â??outside the boxâ?? of the traditional lawn/landscape marketing material. Itâ??s my job to convert your idea into print form.â?? * In the previous episode of GopherHaul 18, we talked about how you should stay off ladders as much as possible. One of our forum members posted a shop vac device that is a long extension pipe with a u bend at the end which allows you to suck leaves out of the gutter while safe and standing on the ground. Read this post for a product review http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=17;t=6603;st=0 * I hope all these ideas have helped you expand and grow your business and mind. So until the next time, always remember to Dream it, Build it, Gopher it!
