Archive for the 'General Business' Category
I got the latest version of LawnMail up on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum for you to download. This package of web code is jam packed with problem solving features.
First off, what is LawnMail? Basically it is a website platform that allows your lawn care customers to have more interaction with you.
February 9th, 2010 | Posted in General Business, Internet, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, LawnMail, Marketing, Software, Website | No Comments
If you haven’t gotten the phone call yet, you will. Soon your phone will ring and on the other end will be a salesman telling you about the wonderful marketing opportunities to be had with their mail-pak style mailers. You will hear these grand figures, reach 10,000 families in your area. It will only cost [...]
February 8th, 2010 | Posted in Direct Mail, General Business, How to get, How to sell, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, Lawn Care Marketing, Lawn Care Truck & Trailer Signs, Marketing, Newspaper Ads, Referrals, Residential Customers, Word Of Mouth, door to door | No Comments
We all like to know what works and what doesn’t when it comes to lawn care marketing. By reading such stories on the topic, we hope to cut out those marketing ideas that are ineffective. What amazes me about all the stories we see on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum, it’s amazing how one [...]
February 7th, 2010 | Posted in Direct Mail, General Business, How to get, How to sell, Internet, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, Lawn Care Marketing, Marketing, Newspaper Ads, Pricing, Referrals, Word Of Mouth | No Comments
Nothing gets under your skin more than showing up to mow a lawn and maintain a property only to meet the customer and have them tell you to come back next week. When a customer postpones lawn service, it not only messes up your schedule, but it costs you money.
What can you do about this [...]
February 5th, 2010 | Posted in General Business, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Business Sales Letter, Lawn Care Customers, Marketing | No Comments
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 are some Spring lawn care marketing ideas in both flyer and postcard format. I think they are all very creative and should hopefuly inspire you when you are working on your lawn care marketing material.
They all play up the selling point of taking your weekends off. You can read more on this at the [...]
February 3rd, 2010 | Posted in Free Lawn Care Flyer Template, General Business, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Marketing, Marketing, Postcards | No Comments
There is nothing like the feeling of running your own business and being an entrepreneur. You are in charge! You are calling the shots! It’s up to you to make it work! But sometimes, the realities of it are that you get burnt out. You take on too many responsibilities. You don’t delegate enough to [...]
February 2nd, 2010 | Posted in General Business, How to get, How to sell, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, Lawn Care Employees, Start up, buying customers | 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
If you have been looking for some ideas to create your own lawn care quote card, check out what this Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum member put together and was using to promote his Spring lawn care services.
He wrote “My lawn care marketing plan this year is to visit a few neighborhoods and just write [...]
January 31st, 2010 | Posted in Commercial Customers, General Business, How to get, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, Lawn Care Marketing, Marketing, Postcards, Residential Customers, Review My Lawn Care Marketing Material, door to door | No Comments
A new member of the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum wrote abut his situation. He had just recently gotten his lawn care business started and was finding there were plenty of things he needed to do in order to go legit. It’s pretty crazy the amount of hoops you gotta jump through to be legit, [...]
January 30th, 2010 | Posted in Commercial Customers, General Business, How to get, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, Marketing, Start up, Word Of Mouth | No Comments
There is a constant flow of new lawn care businesses that get started up every year as there is a constant flow of lawn care businesses that fail. Finding a niche and standing out is very important if you are going to find success. I think we all learn best when presented with examples of [...]
January 28th, 2010 | Posted in Coupons, General Business, Gift or Discount Cards, How to get, Internet, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, Lawn Care Marketing, Lawn Care Website, Marketing, Press Release, Start up | No Comments
Everyone is always looking for ways to save a buck or two. It’s the way of business. There are many cost cutting methods one can employee to keep their expenses in check, but when your lawn care business decides that it’s better to have independent contractors working than it is employees, you better make darn [...]
January 28th, 2010 | Posted in Business Failure, General Business, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Employees | No Comments
How do I get new lawn care customers? How can I find more success in the lawn care industry? These are two of the big questions we often see on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum. What amazes me is that all too often, business owners are looking for some secret to doing this when [...]
January 26th, 2010 | Posted in General Business, How to get, How to sell, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, Lawn Care Marketing, Lawn Care Truck & Trailer Signs, Lawn Care Uniform, Marketing, Referrals, Word Of Mouth | No Comments
If you keep your feelers out there listening to what’s going on in your area, every once in a while you will hear of a lawn care company that wants to sell their customer base for what ever reason. It might sound like a sweet deal at first or maybe the lawn care business owner [...]
January 25th, 2010 | Posted in Customer Retention, General Business, How to get, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, buying customers | No Comments
When you are looking to scale up your equipment and expand the services your lawn care business offers, instead of simply buying the next larger sized ZTR mower, why not consider a tractor? A member of the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum did and it has opened the doors to many new services that make [...]
January 24th, 2010 | Posted in Direct Mail, General Business, How to get, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, Lawn Care Marketing, Lawn Care Truck & Trailer Signs, Marketing, Postcards, Referrals, Tractor, Word Of Mouth, door to door, lawn care equipment | No Comments
The vast majority of lawn care businesses that exist are solo operations. What I mean by this is that they are a one man show. There are good sides to running your operation like this because it’s easy to get started and you get to keep all the profit. There are downsides too. The big [...]
January 22nd, 2010 | Posted in 1 Man Lawn Crew, Business Plan, General Business, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Employees, Partnership | No Comments
Are you getting your Spring lawn care marketing campaign together yet? A lot of lawn care business owners are. Here is a lawn care postcard that a member of the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum got printed up. He will be sending out these cards soon.
He wrote “I ordered these lawn care postcards about 10 [...]
January 20th, 2010 | Posted in General Business, How to get, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, Marketing, Postcards, Residential Customers, home show | 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
Combining your love of multiple interests can really help set you apart from competitors and give you a unique marketing angle that is all your own. A member of the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum was doing just that when he wrote us about a local outdoor cooking competition he was taking part in and [...]
January 18th, 2010 | Posted in Community Projects To Promote Your Business, Free Giveaway Contest, General Business, How to get, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, Lawn Care Marketing, Marketing, Residential Customers, Word Of Mouth | 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
There are many ways to market your lawn care and landscaping business. The best ways tend to be the ones where you can visit person to person with members of your community. Saying hello to them, shaking their hand, and getting to know them all help you sell. A member of the Gopher Lawn Care [...]
January 15th, 2010 | Posted in Community Projects To Promote Your Business, General Business, Goodwill, How to get, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, Lawn Care Marketing, Marketing, Newspaper Ads, Press Release, Residential Customers, Word Of Mouth, publicity stunt | No Comments
How often have you created a new landscape project or hardscape project and thoughts to yourself, ‘if only the neighbors could see this place, they’d all want me to do this for them.’ This thought may come up especially as the scale of the project increases as well as the amount of profits.
There are plenty [...]
January 14th, 2010 | Posted in General Business, Hardscaping, How to get, How to sell, Landscape Project, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, Lawn Care Marketing, Marketing, Residential Customers, Word Of Mouth | No Comments
A member of the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum shared with us a postcard he had designed for his lawn care marketing campaign. In the postcard he was promoting an annual contract fee that would include all sorts of services a lawn care customer would get throughout the year if they signed up with him.
When [...]
January 12th, 2010 | Posted in General Business, How to get, Internet, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, Lawn Care Marketing, Marketing, Postcards, Pricing, Residential Customers | No Comments
We all know you need liability insurance when you are driving around in your car. You also need liability insurance when you are running a lawn care business just in case you injury someone. But what happens if you are out on a job site working on a lawn and you get injured? Things can [...]
January 11th, 2010 | Posted in Business Failure, General Business, Insurance, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business | No Comments
If you are a lawn care business owner you would probably agree with me when I say no matter where you go there will most likely be heavy competition. This is a discussion we were having on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum. Another business owner shared “I feel this is correct. Where I am, [...]
January 10th, 2010 | Posted in Business Plan, General Business, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Employees, lawn care equipment | No Comments
Have you been trying to find ways to reach out further in your service area and attract more lawn care customers? Local home & garden trade shows can be a great way to meet and talk with home owners in your area. Here are some suggestions members of the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum offered [...]
January 9th, 2010 | Posted in Business Card, General Business, How to get, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, Lawn Care Marketing, Lawn Care Truck & Trailer Signs, Marketing, Residential Customers, home show | 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
Are you looking for more ways to improve your sales skills? A new member of the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum shared with us some of sales secrets. He wrote “I have 7 years of sales experience in retail and business. What got me to start my lawn care business is one day when I [...]
January 7th, 2010 | Posted in Business Card, Commercial Customers, General Business, How to get, How to sell, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, Lawn Care Marketing, Marketing, Marketing on Craigslist.com, Newspaper Ads, Residential Customers, 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
Have you ever experimented with advertising your lawn care business in local newspapers? Did you find you got good results from your ad or no results at all? There are so many variables that can effect the results of your marketing campaign, it’s mind boggling. Did you know that the category your ad appears in [...]
January 5th, 2010 | Posted in General Business, How to get, Landscaping Business, Lawn Care Business, Lawn Care Customers, Marketing, Newspaper Ads | No Comments