GopherHaul : Lawn Care Business, Software & Marketing Blog

I just read a great post by our new friend Eric on the Gopher Lawn Care Forum. We were talking about how to attract more lawn care customers via referrals from your current lawn care customer base.

Eric wrote: “My contracts were annual with a set monthly price.  Every bill had a stamped self addressed envelope enclosed.  I know I don’t like buying stamps to pay bills, so my envelopes came with postage already attached.

Back when a dollar meant something, I’d enclose a dollar bill and a business card.  I’d ask them to refer a neighbor or friend nearby.  The mowing service grew so big I had to sell it off after five years.  I do miss those customers, and especially those monthly checks in the mail.”

Now can you imagine that! When you are thinking about trying out this concept to attract new lawn care customers, keep in mind that Eric did such a great job with his lawn care business, he sold it and retired at age 34! Then he found himself bored and wanted to start a new business so he started Stealth Dump Trucks http://www.stealthdumptrucks.com.

Check out his new company and see his amazing line of landscape and lawn care dump truck conversions. Eric patented the “Over the Bumper Dumper.”

Thanks Eric for this great lawn care business referral idea.

You can join in on this discussion and ask Eric questions at the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum here.

Chuck made a post on the Gopher Lawn Care Forum here and he wanted to know which of his logos looks better.

He wrote “I bought a little logo design software & built the whole image from scratch…..
I was thinking about using it on some shirts for me & the employee(s) I’m about to hire.”

Lawn Care Logo #1

Lawn Care Logo #2

I personally like the second one with the sun in it. Both Chuck and I would like to hear your thoughts on it. Please let us know on the Gopher Lawn Care Forum here.

Thanks!

I wanted to thank Delle for allowing our readers the chance of trying out his new lawn & pet product, Doggy Oggy. He has offered a 30% discount to members of the Gopher Lawn Care Forum. Just type the word GOPHER to get the discount when you place your order at http://www.doggyoggy.com. This offer is available for a limited time so act fast.

What is Doggy Oggy? It is a product you spread on your lawn twice a month to “KILL 99.9% OF E. COLI AND OTHER DOGGY POO BACTERIA IN YOUR LAWN!”

I suggest trying it out and see if your customers would like to pay you for this additional upsell lawn care service. If you are already at their location, why not spread this product on their lawn and make more money.

Let me know how all this works out.

If you would like to ask the owner of Doggy Oggy a question and discuss this product with us, visit the post on this lawn care product at the Gopher Lawn Care Forum here.

There have been a bunch of questions lately on the Gopher Lawn Care Forum on how to bid the downing and removal of a tree. I hope some of these examples I post will help you get a better understanding of how to bid on a tree removal job.

Paul wrote in “I had a request for a bid to remove a tree. The tree is about 45 ft tall with a clear parking lot to drop it in to. They want me to cut and stack all the bigger wood, haul off all the smaller wood about 4 loads. I will have 3 men on the job, I think we can get it down and cleaned up in about 60 man hours. I have never bid a tree removal job before, so I need a little help.”

Here is a picture of the tree.

Brandon wrote in response “I remove a lot of trees. I do several a week. For a tree like this, with haul away too, I would be able to do this job in 1 day with 1 friend helping me. You should be able to get about $500 or more depending on you market area.
Here is how I would do it.
Start by removing the branches from the bottom working my way up, that way your helper(s) can pull them out of the way and trim them to fit in your trailer better. I use a 24′ extension ladder to get me into the tree and access the lower branches, then I can climb from there. Once all the branches have been removed then you can fall the trunk and cut it into manageable pieces. It shouldn’t take you more than 1 day if you have the right tools. How big is your trailer. It usually takes me more dump runs than I expect, but we have a place in our area that takes all our brush/wood for free and converts it into electricity.
Hope this helps.”

Pete suggested “I could do that tree for $575 one day worth of work. Very Easy”

Ultimately Paul bid the job a little lower than what others had suggested and got the job. He wrote us “We bid the job out for $350.00 and got it. We got the job finished in one day. Thanks for all the Help. “

If you have a question on this tree removal job, please feel free to join in this discussion at the Gopher Lawn Care Forum.

You can also post if you have lawn care or tree removal estimate question.

Hi Everyone,

I was contacted by this company http://www.doggyoggy.com and they make a product that you spread on lawns to “KILL 99.9% OF E. COLI AND OTHER DOGGY POO BACTERIA IN YOUR LAWN!”

Now my question to you is this.

1. How much could you charge for this upsell service if you were to offer it twice a month?
2. How much would this product have to be priced at, to make this service profitable and worth while for you to offer?

Any insights you have on this I would appreciate.

You can also jump on our forum discussion of it here. Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum.

Thanks, Steve

Here is a landscape job estimate, from our friend Matt. Let us know what you think of the bid. Would you charge more or less? Join this post at the Gopher Lawn Care Forum here.

Matt wrote: “I have a flower bed(2 big flower beds)(the pic above)1 flower bed on each side of the sidewalk. I am trying to get, i have been pricing around on plants and trees and such. I am not going down the sidewalk like i thought i would, so just in front of the house.

my profit would be $775 for making flower bed from scratch and planting all material.”

Projected man hours to complete the landscape job: Matt said, “I would take 1 entire day. I can do the landscaping job by myself.”

If you would like to join in and ask a question or share your insight, join the post at The Gopher Lawn Care Forum here.

Doggie Doo Dumpster. What a great add on service for your lawn care business.

Another example of why the forum is such a great way to learn new business ideas, here is the latest example. One of our Gopher Lawn Care Forum members made this post, which I thought was brilliant. What a great idea and add on service.

She wrote:

“One of my girlfriends just got a sales job with a landscaping company and she ran into a lady that serviced these dog dumpsters or trashcans as part of a service that she was offering. In newer communities they now have these trash cans that are hung up and the owners drop their dogs pop into them. She changes the liners in the trash cans. Not sure how much she charges but any little bit is  a help. What do you guys think?”

I think this idea is excellent. This would be an amazing add on service for your lawn care business. In fact you could potentially install these dumpsters in your area and then get a contract to service them. Many times home owners are just fed up with people allowing their dogs to use their lawns as bathrooms. Maybe they would be willing to pay you to place one of these devices on their front yard and then pay a monthly fee to have you empty them.

You could also offer this service to condo associations, home owner associations and even your local towns! Why not! You could install these at parks and trails or where ever there is a dog problem.

Join in on this conversation here at the Gopher Lawn Care Forum.

I put this book out last year and there have been thousands of downloads of it since then. I have taken requests to make the book available in print version, so I said what the heck, why not!

if you want to get a print version of the book, you can now order it here.

Stop Lowballing! A Lawn Care Business Owner’s Guide To Success 

http://www.createspace.com/3342248

Topics covered in the book:

• How to start up your lawn care business.
• Finding your niche and finding profits.
• Lawn Care Equipment.
• Pricing & Estimating Lawn Care Jobs.
• Dealing With Customers.
• Dealing With Employees.
• Lawn Care Marketing Secrets.
• Lawn Care Business Tips.
• Getting Commercial Accounts without commercial references.
• Pitfalls of Commercial Accounts.

and it should be available through Amazon shortly.

Check out the site and I hope you enjoy it.

Most lawn care business owners will want to cut a lawn weekly. It is more profitable and it keeps the lawn from becoming overgrown. Overgrown lawns take more time to cut and wear down equipment faster. Sometimes you might run into a lawn care customer who only wants their lawn cut every other week to save on lawn cutting fees. How should you handle this? Let’s look and see how some of the members from the Gopher Lawn Care Forum handle it.

Aaron wrote about how he is just getting his mowing season started and in his post he said “I precalled my customers Tuesday night and let one know that if I am to mow his lawn bi-weekly its gonna get ugly. I pushed to do it weekly but he declined soI informed him the extra work for cutting a high lawn will increase the price. Went from 20 to 30 bi-weekly. He indicated he will contact me should he need it to change to weekly. That brings me to a point where I can make a profit from his lawn and not feel like I am cheap labor.”

Chuck joined the conversation by saying “If you are going to cut bi-weekly in the summer charge them for it.  I charge it as a cut & a half.  So a $30 lawn becomes $45 bi-weekly.  It takes nearly twice as long, more gas, & it’s harder on the belts & blades too.  If you alow them to save nearly 50% on lawn care expenses they will never shift over to weekly & have it done right.  There is a reason most operators won’t do this (actually several).
1) can’t make any money.
2) these are usually the same customers that don’t pay or are very slow to pay.
3) it’s abusing the equipment, even though most of us run commercial gear that can take it, it will last longer if you don’t abuse it.
4) The lawn will never bring you any referals because they look bad almost all the time,  By the time you get there after 2 weeks it looks like ####, then there’s hay left when your done so it looks crappy after too.  Or you spend extra time, everytime to keep cleaning it up.
Charge a cut & a half.  It will cover the added expenses & they might then figure for the lousy 25% they save they’d rather have the place look good & ask you to do it weekly.

Along the same lines….  when I get a call for an overgrown lawn I bid it pretty high.  example: If the lawn looks like I would normally charge say $25 & it appears to have 2 months worth of summer growth on it…. well thats approx 8 weeks that they should have spent $25/week = $200 so $125-$150 to knock it back down is not unreasonable. These lawns beat up your equipment, wear you out too, Dull your blades to #### (my blades run almost $40 bucks a set) & you’ll probably hit something you couldn’t see in there & ruin em’ anyway.  Which brings me to another point….  I have a disclaimer in my estimate stating If the lawn is so tall that objects like sprinkler heads, landscape lighting, well pipes etc. are not clearly visible, we are not responsible for damage to such items (or anything they may hit when they come flying out).  Cover your butt!   Your gonna hit this stuff.  I explain we try not too & we aren’t asking for a license to be careless but you can’t avoid what you can’t see.”

So you can see if you are going to agree to cut a lawn every other week, you are most likely going to need to charge more per cut. If you would like to join in on this discussion, visit this post at the Gopher Lawn Care Forum.

Tony posted a question on the Gopher Lawn Care Forum. He asked “What is the common cost for lawn dethatching and Aeration?”

Thankfully one of our business veterans, Tim, was there to jump in and give this great response.

“Here in KY I’m getting about $33 per thousand sq ft, so we charge $150 for the first 5000 sq ft. and $20 per thousand sq ft there after. Our avg lot size is about 5000 sq ft here. We charge the same for both type of service. over-seeding is included in the aeration = 5-6 lbs of a 4 blend seed per thousand sq ft. If the customer doesn’t want the seed then its $130.

If you rent a good core aerator it will cost about $60 per day and 50 lb bag of seed will run about $65, you should be able to get 2-3 customers from one bag of seed, and 5000 sq ft should only take about 30 min start to finish. So now for one customer it will cost you $125 + fuel and time getting equipment form rental Co and the time to do it, is $150 per to much, no its not, it should be just right if you have 3 or more customers, on Wed 4/8/08 we did 8 customers and here is the breakdown of the day.
COST;
Fuel (truck and equip.) $25
Seed $65 per bag x 4 = $260 (premium seed)
Rental Equipment $65
Labor 6 hours at $15 = $90
Overhead 8% of total cost = $35
Total cost to complete 8 lawns approx 5000 sq ft each = $475.00

Billed out $150 x 8 =$1,200 less cost = $725 profit.

Tru-Green and Scotts charges about $165 for the first 3000 thousand sq ft and $15 per thousand there after.

I know this to be fact in my area, (I called them and asked) we have taken on 40+ customers that use to be Tru-Green and Scotts customers. Because we offer Organic Fertilizer Programs as well.

I hope this gives you some insight on how these types of services should be charged.”

Thanks Tony for asking your question and Tim for responding. If you have a question about bidding a lawn care job, feel free to post it on our Gopher Lawn Care Forum.

Cedaniels post on the Gopher Lawn Care Forum that he needed a logo designed for his lawn care business.

Gene from http://www.yardsignswork.com/ responded on the forum by posting this logo he created.

If you are looking for a logo for your lawn care business visit this post on the Gopher Lawn Care Forum or you can download any of our FREE lawn care logos.

Our friend Jody made a post on the Gopher lawn Care forum. She was going to get a business ad in the yellow pages for her lawn care business.

She asked us “What exactly should we include in our ad?

Should we keep it short and simple?

Or mention all of our services.

But we plan to expand and handle landscaping as well, so we will want to add that also..

Please give me your ideas!!” 

Here is the image of the ad she initially had in mind for her lawn care business yellow page ad.

Chestin from http://www.lawncaremarketingmagic.com had a bunch of great suggestions for Jody and he also created an ad for her.

Chestin wrote “Okay folks, here’s a sample telephone directory ad I came up with for Jody.  Keep in mind, this was put together in a rush so the layout/design could possibly use a bit of tweaking, but hopefully you get the idea.

Obviously, this would change if it were going to be a smaller size, but the goal should still be to include AS MANY of the above listed elements.  These will help you really stand out from the crowded field and I guarantee you you’ll see a dramatic increase in the effective of your directory ads.”

Here is the ad he designed.

Chestin always does such an amazing job. Make sure you check out his website.

Also if you would like to join in on this discussion, visit this link to the Gopher Lawn Care Forum.

I am trying to consolidate all the great content we have created at the Gopher Lawn Care Software site. Here is a great collection of all our lawn care business podcasts.

Check them out here

I was able to get together an episode guide of the GopherHaul show covering episodes 21 - 25. It’s really chock full a ton of great lawn care business material. Download it in pdf format GopherHaul Episode Guide here and read it cover to cover to make sure you didn’t miss out on any of the great discussions we have been having.

I saw this video for a new lawn mower attachment and was really impressed with it. I think it was very creative and I am a big fan of creativity.

Hello,

My name is Kin.

The tool you are about to see is going to revolutionize the lawn care industry like never before. I’m talking
about my new tool, the Armstrong Lawn Arm Tool. The Armstrong Lawn Arm is designed specifically
with the lawn care industry in mind.
If you are interested in saving time, money and physical exertion, then this tool is for you. This new tool is
made of solid steel and will last a lifetime. Now, with the Armstrong Lawn Arm there is a better way.
The Armstrong Lawn Arm attachment will allow you to cut the grass and edge at the same time. No more
walking long distances to edge the grass. Simply attach your edger to the your mower using the Armstrong
Lawn Arm and you are on your way to a simpler way of lawn maintenance.
The Armstrong Lawn Arm is particularly beneficial for maintenance of commercial properties such as long
streets, sidewalks, schools, parks, colleges, malls, golf courses or any other commercial properties.
Check out the video and purchase yours today!
Thank you,
Kin
Armstrong Lawn Arm Enterprises, Inc.

Check out their site as well http://armstronglawnarm.com/

Title: GopherHaul 25 - Lawn Care Marketing Business Show

Show description:

Hello and welcome to GopherHaul 25 - Lawn Care Marketing Business Show

In this episode we will be talking about

• GopherHaul breaks the 900,000 view mark! Thank you everyone for watching us!

Lawn Care Business Question:

“I need help selling my accounts.”

Read the rest of this entry »

As I was scrolling through all the great discussions we have been having in the Gopher Lawn Care Forum, I came upon this jewel I had forgotten to blog about. We were having a discussion about the importance to answering your business phone during the day, especially when you are running newspaper ads and then our friend Keith jumped in and shared with us his wisdom on what newspaper ads work best for lawn care businesses.

Keith wrote:

“ I think newspaper ads are still a very viable form of advertising.  Wording and placement are key.  If you give free estimates (and who doesn’t?) definitely put “FREE ESTIMATES” in your ad.  Also, if you do just one area of town, say so in your ad.  This will focus your calls to a centralized geographic location.

Once you place your ad, keep good records of the type of customers and revenue generated by the ads.  If it works for you, keep at it.”

Thank you so much Keith for your wonderful business insight. Don’t forget to check out his site and his lawn care business book at http://www.startalawncarebusiness.com

If you would like to read more about this post or add to the discussion, you can by visiting the Gopher Lawn Care Forum here.

Fernando made a post on the Gopher Lawn Care Forum and asked a question about how best to use craigslist.com to market his lawn care business.

He said:

“Hi, everybody!
Well I startet using cragislist.com last month and so far I’ve gained 4 new accounts, (so I guess it works for me), but how many here use or have used this site?”

Chestin from lawncaremarketingmagic.com had a great response I wanted to share with everyone.

He posted:

“There’s already been a ton of great comments on this one so I won’t beat a dead horse, but I did want to address one aspect of the conversation.

My experience is that people on Craig’s list are mostly bargain shoppers.  That being said, probably not the ideal customers for long term stability.  However, as Rob stated, it’s still a great place to advertise for free with just a small amount of effort.  At the end of the day, just realize it’s just one way to get new customers.

As you look to grow your business, you should employ as many marketing methods as possible.  I’ve always said, I don’t know one single way of attracting 50-100 new customers.  But I do know at least 50-100 different ways of attracting at 1 new customer.  And I look to employ as many of those methods as I profitably can.

In terms of creating a strong ad, you should keep all the same principles in mind when creating any other type of marketing piece.  They should include:
- a strong benefit laden headline
- convert features to benefits
- present a valuable offer (something specific to get them to act)
- include a strong call to action (tell the EXACTLY how to respond)
- provide 3rd party proof such as Before&After photos, testimonials, or endorsements
- include bonuses or premiums
- provide risk reversal such as satisfaction guarantees, saying ‘no commitment or obligation’, etc.”

Thanks to Chestin and Fernando for asking and sharing with us their insight. If you would like to take part in this discussion, you can review the post here at the Gopher Lawn Care Forum.

I thought this was a great idea posted by our friend Keith in this post at the Gopher Lawn Care Forum.

Keith wrote:

“This time of year if you stand still for more than just a few minutes you will notice your skin coated with a thick layer of yellow pollen.

I can imagine a flyer showing a sneezing homeowner with watering eyes and a big red nose attempting to mow his lawn.  Another picture is of your lawn care company cutting his grass while he sits inside an air conditioned house.”

Jason, a new member of the Gopher Lawn Care Forum, is just getting started with his lawn care business and he posted a bunch of questions that I think many new lawn care business owners might have. I hope this discussion helps you grow. You can join this specific post by clicking on this link to the Gopher Lawn Care Forum.

Jason Wrote:

“Hello guys, my name is Jason, I am 16 and I am starting a lawn mowing business in my local area. I need a lot of advice and stumbled upon this great looking site.
I decided to start one up because I have been mowing my neighbor’s yards and loved the money that came from them.

Heres some of the things I need advice on,
1. I have a old walk behind mower that I can use but I am going to buy a new one…..What kind should i get? (price range:$0-800)
2. How should I charge my future clients?
-per sq. ft.?
-base price?
-difference in price every week to every two weeks
3. I am looking to employee 1-2 people to work with me (fellow students)—I have told them $8.50-$9 an hour is this a reasonable price?
4.Since I am under 18 I can’t apply for a business permit.—Does this mean that someone can steal my name?
5.I got to buy a truck for the business but also as my first personal car.—-Any ideas???
6. When it comes to advertising WHAT KIND OF PAPER ARE BROCHURES PRINTED ON?!?!(I have looked forever…Its the thin type paper not copy paper or thick paper)
7. Should I go door to door and personally pitch my business?

I am sure I will think of many more questions as time progresses…

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Sincerely, Jason”

Gerald then responded by saying:

“Hey congratulations on making the jump to start your own business. Run your old mower until it falls apart. no need to spend money on a new one right off the bat.

I would definitely ask your parents to get the business permit in their name if possible. You want to do this right and legal so get the name registered with your local area and also check on business liability insurance.

With the price of gas i would go with a smaller truck to help save money on gas. I have a 2005 f=150 4×4 and i get like 10.5 miles per gallon. my truck drinks gas quickly so go smaller right now to start.

As far getting business cards and flyers made up to hand out. I just started my business this week and thats what i had made first to get my name out there and generate some business. Heck pay a few friends to go with you and put out flyers everywhere asap to get your name out there.

Also remember to do a good job for every customer. There will be people that are ##### but remember try to treat everyone the same way that you would like to be treated. Alot of your business can come by word of mouth and you want that word to be good. Sure there will be bad days but try to do consistently good work and it will pay off in the long run. You may also want to think about getting some signs made up to put on your vehicle for when you are driving around. Nothing beats free advertising. This site is awesome and most of the people on here are very helpful so don’t be afraid to ask any questions that you are unsure about. Remember the only stupid question is the one you don’t ask. good luck and let us know how things work out for you.”

Rob has some great advice as well. He said:

“Actually # 1 should be to make sure you finish school!

1. I would recommend a Honda mower of some kind. The Honda brand not just a mower with a honda motor on it. I never have any problems or here complaints about them. They can be a little expensive but well worth it. Try to buy the best I can

2. Figure out how much it is going to cost to operate your business. Gas, Insurance, Paying employees, money for parts, saving for emergency break down,  etc. You need to know how much all the parts of running your business however small of big it might be.
Then figure out how much you need to make per hour to get to the profit margin you want.
Do some measuring and figure out how long it takes to mow edge and trim a given amount and you can use that as a base when giving bids. Don’t just eyeball it and guess. You can lose money on bigger lots like that.
And have a minimum that you charge no matter what. Like mine is $30.

3. I would suggest working by yourself until you really need some help. Once you get a full schedule then hire someone. You can make more by yourself until then and even more with a helper when it gets to that point.

4. Talk to some one at the county clerks office or city hall as to what your options are concerning this.

5. If your just doing mowing then start with a small truck like a S-10 or something similar. You don’t need a huge truck to pull around lawn mowers. Gas is to outrageous.

6. Go with flyers and business cards and base it off of what Chestin posted in the other thread… Maybe Steve knows where the link is for it…For the sample flyer…

7. I here that works well. I’ve never done it myself though.

Thats all I can think of for now. Its late for me.”

Lastly to round out all this great advice, Kenneth LaVoie III, author of the book “How to start a lawn care business a whole new way” shared with us some insight as well. Ken said:

“1. I have a old walk behind mower that I can use but I am going to buy a new one…..What kind should i get? (price range:$0-800)

I PERSONALLY WOULD KEEP MY EYE OUT IN WHATEVER SERVES AS YOUR USED ITEMS FLYERS. WHETHER IT BE THE CLASSIFIEDS OR THROWAWAY TYPE OF PAPER. I WOULD BE ON THE LOOK OUT FOR A 32-36 COMMERCIAL WALK BEHIND. I THINK YOU HAVE THE BEST CHANCE OF FINDING THAT IN THE PRICE RANGE YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT.

2. How should I charge my future clients?
FOR MOWING, I’D SAY TO KEEP IT AS SIMPLE AS YOU CAN. $60 PER HOUR IS GOOD IF YOU CAN GET IT. USUALLY THOUGH SPRING MOWING TAKES LONGER, SO THIS CAN BE DECIEVING. WE MAKE $40 PER HOUR IN MAY AND PARTS OF JUNE AND $65 PER HOUR IN LATE AUGUST EARLY SEPT MOWING THE SAME LAWNS, SO KEEP THIS IN MIND. I PERSONALLY SHOOT FOR A $26 MINIMUM, $40 THE MINUTE I HAVE TO USE A PUSH MOWER. MY TYPICAL PRICES ARE 26, 35 - 40 AND UP. AFTER A WHILE YOU JUST GET TO KNOW A “40 LAWN” WHEN YOU SEE IT. THIS MIGHT NOT SEEM OVERLY TECHNICAL OR PROFESSIONAL, BUT OFTEN TIMES, ADDING FORMULAS AND DOING THINGS BY SQ. FT. CREATES MORE MISTAKES AND BIDDING ERRORS THAN JUST A GOOD GUT GUESS.

(I CANNOT COMMENT ON WAGES AS I AM NOT IN YOUR AREA)

4.Since I am under 18 I can’t apply for a business permit.—Does this mean that someone can steal my name?
USE YOUR OWN NAME FOR NOW … WORRY ABOUT BRANDING LATER.

5.I got to buy a truck for the business but also as my first personal car.—-Any ideas???
TOYOTA!! YEAR AFTER YEAR, TOYOTA HAS FAR FEWER COMPLAINTS THAN THE BIG 3. ALSO EXPENSIVE. IF YOU HAVE A SMALL TRAILER AND 36 INCH MOWER, YOU PROBABLY CAN INDEED GET BY WITH  A SMALLER TRUCK

(NO COMMENTS ON MARKETING. I JUST WAIT FOR THE PHONE TO RING!) - THOUGH IF YOU HAVE A BUSINESS LINE, YOU CAN USUALLY GET A FREE ONE LINE YELLOW PAGES AD, WHICH IN AND OF ITSELF SHOULD ACTUALLY GENERATE SOME BUSINESS.”

Well that certainly was a lot of great advice from people in the know. These lawn care business owners are out there day in and day out making a living at this and I am glad they were able to share their words of wisdom with all of us. If you would like to add anything to this discussion or ask any further questions, please join this post at the Gopher Lawn Care Forum.

A new lawn care business owner will often need a logo and marketing material to get themselves up and running. If you have ever visited our Gopher Lawn Care Software site, you know that we have hundreds of FREE lawn care logo templates, lawn care flyers, lawn care door hangers and much much more. So you say you visited our site, downloaded one of our free templates and are now wondering how to edit it to fit your needs? That’s the exact situation our friend Gerald found himself in and he wrote to us:

“Hey guys i see alot of ya’ll design your own logos, postcards, ads, etc. and was wondering what software do you use to do these things. I really want to do alot of my own designing but have no clue as to the actual software i need. i see there are several different softwares out there for these purposes but need help in deciding what software i will need. also where do they sell the software at pretty reasonable prices. i looked at some and the prices are outrageous. I did some flyers with microsoft works but really want something good to really make it look professional for my logo and stuff.  any help is greatly appreciated thanks.”

So in response to his quesionts here are a few answers that might help him and you. For making flyers, have you considered downloading openoffice.org? It’s free. It’s like Microsoft’s Word but it’s FREE.

Chestin from Lawncaremarketingmagic.com suggested:

“Definitely check out OpenOffice.org, as Steve suggested.

Also, for a GREAT, Photoshop alternative that comes at a FANTASTIC price….FREE….check out Paint.net.  It’s similar to Photoshop and comes with a bunch of plugins you can add to enhance it’s capabilities.  You can download it here:

www.getpaint.net “

Richard Murphy from thelawnblog.com had yet another suggestion:

“The best ‘FREE’ graphic editor I have ever used is GIMP.

http://www.gimp.org/

I bit of a learning curve…but easier than photoshop.”

Now with all these free lawn care templates and free software to edit them, you should be able to get your lawn care business up and running in no time at all!

If you have further questions, join in on this specific discussion at the Gopher Lawn Care Forum.

One of our friends from the Gopher Lawn Care Forum, Chuck, posted his latest lawn care postcard design and wanted some feedback on it. We got some really great responses I wanted to share with you as you may be designing your own lawn care postcard now as well.

If you have any thoughts you would like to add to this, please visit this specific post on the Gopher Lawn Care Forum and share with us your advice.

Jon Torres from http://www.xcelprinting.com offered his advice:

“1) The offer: I think both offers on there are fine, because it’s actually 1 offer with 2 options, options are good, and you are K.I.S. (I will leave the “stupid” out), you are keeping it simple with just 1 offer and 2 options, it would be different if it were 1 offer with like 5+ options, that would be confusing.

2) “FREE”, If you are going to use that word, I as a consumer will be expecting something FREE, if I get a piece of marketing material and it says FREE really large to get my attention but I don’t see anything free, then I will be pissed that the advertiser “conned” me into reading their offer, and I lose respect for the company…Unless you are going to say “FREE” to read this advertisement”, don’t do it, you don’t see free nowhere on my website, well, yes you do, for the shipping, and why, because it IS FREE.

3) Regarding the artwork, thanks Rich for mentioning the 300dpi. Don’t take this the wrong way Chuck, not everyone is a graphic designer, so when someone with limited experience or resources attempts to design their own piece, you can usually tell, unlike having it done by an “actual” Graphic Designer…in this case you can tell it is done by someone with limited experience, for one I would use an image related to Lawn Care, the image you have on there is stretched. Be careful on how you put text in front of an image, this is where using a Graphic Designer comes in.”

And then our friend Chestin from http://www.lawncaremarketingmagic.com had this great advice:

“Wow, I wish I’d seen this post earlier because it’s a great discussion on a subject I LOVE talking about, so forgive me if I get a bit long-winded here.

First off, don’t be afraid of lots of text. Yes, people are in a hurry BUT if you have an offer that appeals to them, makes their life easier, solves their problems, etc., they’ll read it.

Plus, you’re trying to get them to spend money. Why in the world would they want to make the decision to spend money with you after reading just a few lines of text? If they didn’t care about quality, customer service, or any of the other things you’re building your business on, it isn’t going to matter what you say other than ‘CHEAP’. You can’t convey the things that set you apart from your competition in a few short lines of text.

When you go to meet a new customer, perform an estimate, and ultimately sell them, do you limit yourself to less than 200 words? Of course not. You’re going to say as much as you need to say in order to convince your prospect that you’re the best person for the job because of X,Y, and Z.

And even though your postcard is only trying to convince people to pick up the phone and call, your challenge is still the same. When you limit your postcard (or sales letter, or flyer, or door hanger, etc.), you’re severely limiting your chances of actually geting a call.

So again, DON’T BE AFRAID OF A LOT OF TEXT. I know this will rankle quite a few people here, but studies have shown again and again that when trying to sell a service (like lawn care), more text pulls better than less text.

Now, in terms of the design of the 1st postcard, here are a few things to keep in mind:

1. Replace the name of your company with an attention grabbing headline. When you use your company name as the headline, it becomes a ‘deadline’. You have 2 seconds to convince your prospect to read the rest of your postcard and you won’t do that with your name. Try something like, ‘Save 50% On Your Year Round Lawn Care’ or something else that immediately conveys the main benefits of your offer.

2. Translate your various services into benefits. What benefits will they get as a result of these services?

3. You’ve already presented a good offer, but consider rewording it to make it a little less confusing.

4. As you already mentioned, included a deadline to create some urgency. This will help motivate your prospects to pick up the phone RIGHT NOW instead of sticking it up on the fridge or in a drawer, only to be forgotten.

5. If you can, include a testimonial from one of your satisfied clients. This helps reinforce your message and offer.

Again, don’t worry about using too much text. Write as much text as it takes to convince your prospect to pick up the phone and call. If they toss it in the garbage immediately (they’ve at least read the headline by now), they’re not a good candidate for your service anyway.”

Now with all this insight, you should be able to really jump start your spring lawn care marketing by designing it yourself. If you have questions about your design, please visit our Gopher Lawn Care Forum and post your design for FREE review and advice.

I saw an article the other day about Fort Collins, CO offering their residents a $50 rebate if they traded in their gas mower and purchased an electric powered mower instead. Then Clean Air Lawn Care jumped on this current event by offering a discount if you signed up for an annual lawn care contract with them. The connection between the two stories is that Clean Air Lawn Care provides lawn care service with electric powered equipment. The local newspaper picked up this story and wrote an article about it, giving Clean Air Lawn Care free publicity worth thousands of dollars.

Chestin from lawncaremarketingmagic.com also made a great point about this that I wanted to share with you. He said:

“In order to establish name recognition with prospects, it’s important to contact them often.  But to ensure you don’t become an annoying pest, you want to always have a ‘reason’ for contacting them.

This rebate is a perfect opportunity for any LCO to create a special offer and contact their prospects with.  Instead of just offering $50 off, which is a great promotion to begin with, they tied in something that was news headlines in that particular area and I imagine they got a great response as a result.”

So next time you are trying to come up with ways to get your business mentioned in a newspaper article, read the your local paper and be aware of current events. Then jump on opportunities that present themselves and send in a press release to your local paper. They are always looking for news to write about.

You can read about this article and jump into the discussion by visiting the post here in the Gopher Lawn Care Forum.

I wanted to send a big thanks to Chestin for taking part in one of our lawn care business discussions on our forum. If you would like to join in on the post where Chestin included this flyer you can by visiting the Gopher Lawn Care Forum here.

Spring Lawn Care Flyer from Chestin of http://www.lawncaremarketingmagic.com

Thanks Chestin!

Download larger image file here. Make sure you logged into the forum to download all files

I thought this was a really creative idea. One of our Gopher Lawn Care Forum embers, Rick, created a bracket and mounted this yard sign onto the back of his mower. Now when he is towing his trailer around town, this sign on his mower will be see by everyone. It will also be seen while his is mowing.

If you would like to take part in this specific discussion, join the topic post at the Gopher Lawn Care Forum here.