Archive for the 'Lawn Mowing' Category

How I found commercial lawn care property bids in my area.

Finding commercial lawn care bids is not as difficult as you may think. Most times it comes down to picking up the phone and finding who to talk to or simply visiting the establishment and asking a few questions. That is what a member of the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum did when he found [...]

Do I need to bag the grass?

How does bagging grass clippings or leaving them on the lawn effect the lawn’s health? Do most lawn care customers want their grass clippings bagged or do they not care? These are some of the issues you have to take into consideration when you are running a lawn care business and are trying to determine [...]

How to charge for year round lawn care.

There are many situations you will run into as a lawn care business owner where you may wonder if you should be charging extra for certain services. A member of the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum had an interesting question along these lines when he asked “if you are providing lawn care for a [...]

Pricing lawn care and yard cleanups.

How to price lawn mowing or a yard cleanup seems to be one of the more popular questions asked on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum. Many new lawn care business owners tend to be lost with this and understandably so, it can be very difficult to wrap your mind around proper bidding concepts.
To help [...]

Worst lawn care customer.

Everyone who runs a business has customers. Sometimes those customers are a delight to work with while other times they can be nightmares. Everyone seems to do alright handling the happy customers but it can be a serious challenge to handle a difficult customer. Depending on the choices you make, such situations can be turned [...]

Create a vision and sell the vision.

For a lawn care customer, it can be very difficult to envision how their property can be transformed from a bland empty area into a well landscaped masterpiece. That is where you come in. You would be surprised on how many more landscape sales you could make if only you took a moment to see [...]

Should you charge more for out of town customers?

Do you have customers who own properties in your area but live elsewhere? Do they require you to perform additional tasks local customers don’t need? Servicing out of town customers can be more challenging than servicing local customers. Here is a great story that came up on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum. If you [...]

As you grow you want to focus.

Trying to generate positive cash flow is very difficult for any new business early on. Offering many additional services can be a way to prime the pump and get all the gears of your business working. But there is a point that some believe you need to stop offering those additional services that are not [...]

Don’t know what to charge that commercial property? Ask them.

This was a very novel approach to estimating a commercial lawn care job. I don’t often see this happen but I guess it goes to show you, it never hurts to ask. This is especially true when you are talking to a new client that is switching lawn care service providers. If you take the [...]

The biggest mistakes made by lawn care contractors.

Have you ever sat back and wondered what it is that is keeping your lawn care business from growing? Do you find it difficult to talk with new people? Do you have a difficult time trying to sell yourself and your services? If you do, you are not alone. I had a discussion on the [...]

Charge more for picky lawn care customers?

What do lawn care customers want? Their requirements can vary widely. Some may simply want the township off their back and not care how their lawn looks. Others will be very meticulous and want high quality lawn care service. What should you do when you service a customer with a smaller mower and then scale [...]

Apartment complex bid example.

Jumping from residential lawn care to offering commercial lawn care can be tough on a newer lawn care business owner because you just aren’t used to estimating larger properties. With no example to go by you may greatly underestimate the amount of time it would take you to mow and underestimate the amount you should [...]

Lawn care estimating for beginners.

Coming up with the proper rate to charge your lawn care customers can be difficult, especially when you are just getting started. It seems that newer businesses tend to underestimate the amount of time a job will take and therefor underestimate the price the job should be bid at.
A member of the Gopher Lawn Care [...]

Out giving a mowing estimate & neighbor called the cops.

When I read this discussion I really thought it covered a pretty big issue that I think the lawn care business owner just didn’t see. Then it got me thinking, we all might be doing things that we may just not realize we could be doing differently and getting better results. In this situation a [...]

Stand firm on your lawn care prices.

When you first get your lawn care business started you tend to be more desperate for work. You also are unsure of your costs and what you should charge so you tend to waiver a lot on your prices.
Over time as your lawn care business is around longer, you build up more confidence because you [...]

Telling lawn care customers your hourly rate.

When you are bidding jobs for lawn care or landscaping projects, should you let your customer know how much you are charging them per hour or should this be something you keep to yourself and simply bid on the job as a whole? That is a question that was brought up on the Gopher Lawn [...]

Watch out for goofy lawn care contracts.

Anyone can create a lawn care contract. All they need to do is put pen to paper and write whatever it is floating around in their head. Then when they ask you to sign it, no matter how goofy it is, you are agreeing to it. So think before you sign any contract. What may [...]

When to bid on commercial lawn care contracts?

When you are running a lawn care business in one geographic area only to be picking up to move to another, you may find the mowing season can differ greatly from what you are used to. That is what one lawn care business owner found when he mentioned in the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum, [...]

I need help dealing with my lawn care customers.

Actually starting a lawn care business is but a small step in a grand adventure. Immediately as soon as you open the doors, you are going to start having to deal with conflict. Conflict from customers, staff members, equipment and the list goes on and on. If everyday you are operating your business, you can [...]

Should I charge less since my new mower is faster?

If you mow a lawn with a push mower and it takes you a long time should you charge more than if you mow with a faster mower? Should your lawn mowing price be dependant on how fast you can get the lawn mowed? This was the topic we discussed on the Gopher Lawn Care [...]

A look at a $72,200 commercial lawn care contract.

Whether you are just looking to get into offering commercial lawn care or you are currently offering it and wanting to see what others are charging for their services, here is a great inside look at one condominium associations commercial lawn care contract. In this example discussed at the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum, a [...]

How to land commercial lawn care accounts without a mower.

You might read the title of this article and think to yourself, there is no way one can land a commercial lawn care account without having a mower, but this new lawn care business owner did. How did he do it? He knew the right people. But how did he meet the right people? That’s [...]

The customer wants you to scalp his lawn?

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where your lawn care customer asks you to do something that you know is no good for their lawn? How do you handle such a situation? Is the customer always right and do you do whatever they ask or will you stand your ground and not perform [...]

Commercial lawn care bid example of an ocean resort.

We all tend to learn best by example so here is a commercial lawn care bid example that was posted on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum. If you haven’t gotten into creating lawn care bids for commercial properties, this will at least shed some light on the process.
A member wrote “I tried searching the [...]

What’s your minimum price to mow a lawn?

Setting a minimum price to mow a lawn is very important. No matter what the size of the property, you are going to have a certain amount of expenses just to show up to the lawn and lower your landscaping trailer gate. Knowing your expenses can help you determine a minimum price to mow a [...]