Archive for the 'How to Estimate Jobs' Category
If you are a lawn care professional there is no doubt you have to deal with customers who have pets and pets who leave a mess on the lawn. No one likes cleaning up after a dog but if the lawn is to be mower, someone has to do it. Should it be you? Should [...]
February 4th, 2010 | Posted in General Business, How to Estimate - Services To Offer, How to Estimate Jobs, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Mowing, Pet Waste Removal | No Comments
Here is a great question that came up on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum. Should you be looking to seal the deal everytime you go out for an estimate? One lawn care business owner initially seemed to be so focused on doing this at all costs, including his profits.
He wrote “I am going to [...]
February 1st, 2010 | Posted in Customer Retention, Direct Mail, General Business, How to Estimate - Services To Offer, How to Estimate Jobs, How to get, How to sell, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, Lawn Care Marketing, Marketing, Pricing, Referrals, Residential Customers | No Comments
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 [...]
January 19th, 2010 | Posted in General Business, How to Estimate - Services To Offer, How to Estimate Jobs, How to get, How to sell, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, Lawn Mowing, Operational Costs, Overhead Costs, Pricing, Start up | No Comments
A new member of the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum shared with us his experience with running a property management company and why he got out of it in order to focus on his landscaping business. This might help you gain some insight if you were thinking about expanding into property management in the future.
He [...]
January 17th, 2010 | Posted in Door hanger, General Business, How to Estimate - Services To Offer, How to Estimate Jobs, How to get, Internet, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, Lawn Care Marketing, Marketing, Marketing on Craigslist.com, Referrals, Residential Customers, Snow plowing, Word Of Mouth | No Comments
I love to showcase some of the landscape projects, members of the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum share with us. They are great learning tools because you get a chance to see a before and after image along with the bid price and the amount of profit the job generated. From this you can compare [...]
January 8th, 2010 | Posted in General Business, How to Estimate - Services To Offer, How to Estimate Jobs, How to get, How to sell, Internet, Landscape Project, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, Lawn Care Marketing, Marketing, Mulch Jobs, Residential Customers, Website, door to door | No Comments
Is it a good idea to give a kick back to get a lawn care bid? It seems when you start to go down this path, it has a tendency to get messy and the end results may become undesirable. This is a situation that was brought up on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum. [...]
January 6th, 2010 | Posted in General Business, How to Estimate - Services To Offer, How to Estimate Jobs, How to get, How to sell, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers | No Comments
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 [...]
January 4th, 2010 | Posted in General Business, GopherHaul, How to Estimate - Services To Offer, How to Estimate Jobs, How to sell, Landscape Project, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, Lawn Mowing, Mowing, Operational Costs, Overhead Costs, Podcast, Pricing | No Comments
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 [...]
January 2nd, 2010 | Posted in Commercial Customers, Estimate or Proposal Form, General Business, How to Estimate - Services To Offer, How to Estimate Jobs, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Contract, Lawn Care Customers, Lawn Mowing | No Comments
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, [...]
December 27th, 2009 | Posted in Commercial Customers, General Business, How to Estimate - Services To Offer, How to Estimate Jobs, How to get, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, Lawn Mowing | No Comments
As we have seen in many discussions on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum, the better the network you have, the more you will sell. Getting started though can pose a very tricky problem. How do you develop up a network to sell too?
Well chances are, you already have a network in place, you just [...]
December 24th, 2009 | Posted in Commercial Customers, Community Projects To Promote Your Business, General Business, How to Estimate - Services To Offer, How to Estimate Jobs, How to get, How to sell, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, Marketing, Referrals, Residential Customers, Snow plowing, Word Of Mouth | No Comments
When a business you have been competing with, stumbles or falls, you can do a lot to position yourself in such a way as to pick up some new customers. A member of the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum had this situation happen to him where a competitor who offered snow plowing, simply shut down [...]
December 23rd, 2009 | Posted in General Business, How to Estimate - Services To Offer, How to Estimate Jobs, How to get, How to sell, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, Snow plowing, Upsells | No Comments
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 [...]
December 12th, 2009 | Posted in General Business, How to Estimate - Services To Offer, How to Estimate Jobs, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Mowing, Mower, Mowing, Overhead Costs, Pricing, lawn care equipment | No Comments
The winter months can be difficult for the newer lawn care business to get through but one member of the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum found an additional service he could offer that will help him pave the way to pick up more lawn care customers in the Spring. He is now offering janitorial services.
He [...]
December 9th, 2009 | Posted in Commercial Customers, General Business, How to Estimate - Services To Offer, How to Estimate Jobs, How to get, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, Lawn Care Marketing, Marketing, Postcards | No Comments
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 [...]
December 8th, 2009 | Posted in Apartment / Condo, Commercial Customers, Edging, General Business, Hedge Trimming, How to Estimate - Services To Offer, How to Estimate Jobs, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, Lawn Mowing, Mowing, Mulch Jobs, Pricing, Property Management | No Comments
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 [...]
December 7th, 2009 | Posted in Commercial Customers, Door hanger, General Business, How to Estimate - Services To Offer, How to Estimate Jobs, How to get, How to sell, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, Lawn Care Logo, Lawn Care Marketing, Lawn Mowing, Marketing, Mowing, Residential Customers, Snow plowing, Start up, door to door | No Comments
A member on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum talked with us on a job he recently completed that involved a tree which was blown over. How much should you charge to cut up and remove an uprooted tree? Well of course it depends on your expenses but this should give you a little insight [...]
December 6th, 2009 | Posted in General Business, How to Estimate - Services To Offer, How to Estimate Jobs, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Tree Removal, lawn care equipment | No Comments
When things are slow and you are looking for an affordable way to drum up lawn care business, why not consider doing what this member of the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum did. He wrote us and said “don’t waste your time handing out flyers in mailboxes or all that other marketing junk we’ve talked [...]
November 29th, 2009 | Posted in General Business, How to Estimate - Services To Offer, How to Estimate Jobs, How to get, How to sell, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, Marketing, Residential Customers, door to door | No Comments
When you are out on a potential job site to perform an estimate, pointing out issues on a home owners property, do you find you are able to make more profit on the upsells either immediately or soon after, once you get the customer to sign up for what they initially called you for?
I would [...]
November 25th, 2009 | Posted in General Business, How to Estimate - Services To Offer, How to Estimate Jobs, How to get, How to sell, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, Lawn Care Marketing, Marketing, Referrals, Seasonal Promotion Ideas, Tree Removal, Upsells | No Comments
There are many ways to give a customer an estimate for lawn service. Some lawn care business owners don’t want to be bothered with going out to visit a site before they bid, so in their minds they think giving a quote over the phone or through email is a real simple way to do [...]
November 24th, 2009 | Posted in General Business, How to Estimate - Services To Offer, How to Estimate Jobs, How to sell, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers | No Comments
Depending on how you present your snow plowing bid can have a direct result on if you get hired or not and what kinds of services your customer will sign up for. I asked a member of the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum about his methods for estimating snow removal services and how he gets [...]
November 23rd, 2009 | Posted in Commercial Customers, General Business, GopherHaul, How to Estimate - Services To Offer, How to Estimate Jobs, How to sell, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, Overhead Costs, Podcast, Pricing, Snow plowing | No Comments
Are you just getting started offering snow plowing services this year but you are unsure of how to go about it? This situation was discussed on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum when a new member wrote “I’m going to be plowing this winter for the first time with my own truck. I don’t know [...]
November 22nd, 2009 | Posted in Estimate or Proposal Form, General Business, How to Estimate - Services To Offer, How to Estimate Jobs, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Contract, Overhead Costs, Pricing, Snow plowing | No Comments
As a lawn care business owner, you are probably always looking for ways to make more money from your current customer base. There are many services you could offer and your customers could use, but plenty of times you just can’t think of them. In a discussion on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum the [...]
November 21st, 2009 | Posted in General Business, How to Estimate - Services To Offer, How to Estimate Jobs, How to get, How to sell, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, Tractor, lawn care equipment | No Comments
Finding work in the Fall and Winter can be more challenging at times than picking up mowing accounts during the Spring. Many lawn care business owners seem to struggle finding customers to service and end up having a rough time when the mowing season slows down. But this doesn’t have to be the case. In [...]
November 20th, 2009 | Posted in Fall Leaf Cleanups, General Business, How to Estimate - Services To Offer, How to Estimate Jobs, How to get, How to sell, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, Lawn Care Marketing, Marketing, Referrals, Word Of Mouth, door to door | No Comments
Have you had difficulties landing commercial snow plowing accounts? It can be difficult to break through a companies layer of insulation before you get to the person in charge of making such decisions. Persistance seems to be a big part of the key to success. Let’s look into this discussion that took place on the [...]
November 14th, 2009 | Posted in Commercial Customers, General Business, GopherHaul, How to Estimate - Services To Offer, How to Estimate Jobs, How to get, How to sell, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, Marketing, Podcast, Snow plowing | No Comments
Have you ever taken a look at your customer’s home and seen moss on their siding or on their deck? Did you ever stop to talk to the customer and ask them if they would like it removed? There is money to be made in offering such services. A member of the Gopher Lawn Care [...]
November 3rd, 2009 | Posted in General Business, How to Estimate - Services To Offer, How to Estimate Jobs, How to get, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, Pressure Washing, Pricing | No Comments
Do you have trouble coming up with a way to estimate and invoice your snow plow customers? If you do, you’re not alone. Plenty of new businesses get stuck on this but thankfully I got to talk with a snow plow business owner who shared some great advice on how to estimate and bill your [...]
October 26th, 2009 | Posted in General Business, How to Estimate - Services To Offer, How to Estimate Jobs, Invoicing, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, Lawn Care Employees, Snow plowing | No Comments
Many of us over time create a list of rules we try and live by. We create rules for our day to day lives like don’t smoke and always wear your seat belt in a car. We also create rules for our businesses. But there are times, for whatever reason, we break these rules and [...]
October 23rd, 2009 | Posted in General Business, How to Estimate - Services To Offer, How to Estimate Jobs, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Mowing | No Comments
As we have seen in the Gopher Lawn Care Busines Forum, there is quite a bit of money to be made when you offer your clients irrigation system winterization services. But it seems a lot of lawn care business owner just don’t offer it because they don’t know how to do it. Well thank to [...]
October 19th, 2009 | Posted in Fall, General Business, How to Estimate - Services To Offer, How to Estimate Jobs, How to sell, Irrigation, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Marketing, Marketing, Seasonal Promotion Ideas, Word Of Mouth | No Comments
In a discussion on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum, we talked about how breaking landscape projects down into sections can really help you sell larger projects. If the customer knows that at anytime they can say ok this is enough. Or if they feel their budget is shrinking to pay for the landscape project, [...]
October 17th, 2009 | Posted in General Business, How to Estimate - Services To Offer, How to Estimate Jobs, How to get, How to sell, Landscape Project, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, Lawn Care Employees | No Comments
Why travel around so much when you can sell more staying put at the same location. You may not think you are missing out on potential upsells until you read this. One of our Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum members shared with us his view on staying put and making more on upsells. He wrote [...]
October 17th, 2009 | Posted in General Business, How to Estimate - Services To Offer, How to Estimate Jobs, How to sell, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, Lawn Care Marketing, Marketing, Word Of Mouth | No Comments