Start A Lawn Care Business

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Archive for June, 2009

Distractions of a Lawn Care Business Owner

Jun 27

Posted by Lawn Care Business in lawn business strategies, lawn care business, time | 1 Comment

Business Distractions

As long as I have owned my business, I have struggled against continuous outside distractions.  There is a never-ending supply of non-work activities available to fill every waking hour.  Self-motivation is difficult enough when internal distractions pull me away from my work but when distractions come from outside sources I often fight a difficult struggle to stay focused.

Flexible Time vs. Free Time

One of the reasons I started a lawn care business was to have free time and flexible time.  Free time and flexible time are great benefits.  However, without a time clock or boss marking my work hours, non-productive activities creep into my day to consume my valuable work time.

You may relate to a few of the distractions listed below.

1)  Your time is not respected by family and friends.

Physical labor of a lawn care business is only a small portion of your work life.  Especially during the early days of starting your business and building your customer list you may spend more than half your time developing advertising strategies, handing out lawn care flyers, calling contacts, and giving estimates.  Once your lawn care business has customers you will still spend many hours with office work, maintenance, customer relations, and research & development of the services you offer.  These ‘non-work’ hours are as important as the hours you spend performing physical labor of your business.  Friends and relatives may not understand the importance of these hours and may lure you to “take the afternoon off” since you don’t have lawns to do at that particular time.  It is very enticing to take the afternoon off when friends call you on their way to the lake.

Resist the temptation of neglecting non-mowing duties just to spend a fun afternoon with family and friends.  Let them know how important your work is and ask them to respect the fact you are trying to build your business.

2)  Need a friend?  Buy a truck.

People with trucks always have plenty of friends.  Lawn care business owners are lucky that we get to purchase nice trucks and big equipment trailers.  Once you have hauling capacity you will notice a steady stream of people needing couches moved or loads of lumber delivered from the hardware store.  They appreciate your help but they fail to realize the amount of time consumed.

By all means help friends and relatives when they truly need assistance but offer your help sparingly to prevent your flexible schedule being taken advantage of.

3)  Facebook, Twitter, Texting, CNN, CNBC, Talk Radio, The Latest Movie, Sleeping-In, Staying Out Late, Long Lunches, etc, etc.

Distractions come in all forms.  There are an infinite number of distractions which can completely consume your day.  Force those distractions to respect your time by setting goals, developing a work schedule, and forcing yourself to respect your own time and the demands of your growing business.

Defend Your Hours

I am not ungrateful for my friends and family members (and for Facebook and Talk Radio).  I relish my ability to spend free time with them.  I also know they are not purposely consuming the time I should be spending on my business.

It is up to me (and you) to steadfastly defend the work hours needed to reach our goals of building a successful business.

Are You Succeeding With Your Lawn Care Business?

If you are not making the money you know you should be earning, our lawn care business guidebook can help you get on the right track.

Visit our website:  www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com
Start A Lawn Care Business

Bikini Lawn Care

Jun 25

Posted by Lawn Care Business in lawn business strategies, Lawn Care Advertising, lawn care business, Uncategorized | No Comments

Bikini Lawn Care

Several times each year we get questions from business owners wanting to start a Bikini Lawn Care business.  The most famous of all bikini lawn care companies was Tiger Time Lawn Care out of Memphis, Tennessee.  Tiger Time found world wide fame in 2007 when a local television news station reported on one of his bikini’d workers mowing a residential lawn.  Afterward, hundreds of television news stations, newspapers, radio shows, and blogs scurried to find more information about Tiger Time Bikini Lawn Care.

Bikini Lawn Care: Long Term Success?

We have not kept track of Tiger Time Lawn Care but we can tell you that out of the dozen or more lawn care companies we know about that have taken the bikini lawn care route none of them have found long term success solely offering bikini services.

Problems Offering Bikini Lawn Care

There are inherent problems offering bikini lawn care:

1)  Even when properly attired, lawn care workers face dangers on the job.  Lawn mowers are loud and weedeaters sling rocks and debris.  Protective clothing is essential.  Headware, safety goggles, hearing protection, work gloves, long pants, and work boots help protect lawn care workers.  A bikini doesn’t seem so erotic once it is covered up with layers of protective clothing.

2)  While lawn care companies thrive on repeat (weekly) customers, bikini lawn care customers only hire companies for one time services such as Father’s Day, a birthday celebration, retirement party, etc.   A bikini lawn care company needs a roster of hundreds of customers hiring them once or twice per year instead of only 40 to 50 customers needed for a typical lawn care company.

3)  If you have read the Start A Lawn Care Business Training Manuals you know that community respect is the cornerstone of many lawn care businesses.  You have a relationship with your customers.  If you do good work for them they will recommend you to their friends, relatives, and business associates.  Lawn care companies need to be taken seriously by their clients.  This is how larger contracts come about.  If you offer bikini lawn care, you really have to consider if you will garner the respect you desire for your business.

Bikini Lawn Care may sound like a great idea to generate quick cash and publicity but before you don your bikini or hire a cadre of scantly clad lawn babes consider whether or not it will lend to long-term success of your lawn care business.

Lawn Care Business Program

For more information on how to operate a successful lawn care business, visit our home page: StartALawnCareBusiness.com

Lawn Care Advertising: To Tree or Not To Tree

Jun 18

Posted by Lawn Care Business in lawn business strategies, Lawn Care Advertising, lawn care business, Uncategorized | No Comments

Have you ever seen obnoxious advertising that turns you away from a company and years later the memory of that advertising still leaves a bad taste in your mouth and you won’t do business with them because of an advertisement you saw years earlier?

On the opposite side, does GOOD advertising have as much a long-term impact?

Two advertisements involving trees.  One good.  One bad.

I came across two forms of advertising signs this week.  Neither of them deal with lawn care but they both have something in common.  Trees.  Both advertisements make use of trees outside their buildings.  One of the advertisements is an obnoxious banner hung lengthwise down a tree’s trunk.  The other advertisement is a positive and tastefully designed sign which incorporates trees on the business’ property.

Advertising sign #1

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As you can see from this photograph, a financial services company strapped a white banner to a tree in hopes of luring customers into their business.   This banner is a distraction, it’s ugly, and it is completely out of place hung from an otherwise very attractive tree in a residential-type neighborhood.

Advertising sign #2

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The second sign is for a health wellness center.  The company has named itself “The Wellness Tree” and it incorporates a beautiful shade tree just outside the front door.

The sign includes a wrought iron rendering of this tree.

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The Wellness Tree honors the trees on their property and invites clients to enjoy their beauty and shade.  The other company degrades their trees by hanging ugly banners from them.

As silly as this may sound, I will forever remember the gaudy banner hung by the financial services company.  It will always be a deterrent to my doing business with them.

As you design your lawn care company’s advertising, consider the aesthetic of your placements and how they fit in with their surrounding landscapes.

If you are just starting your lawn care business and you want to know more about marketing to your customers, our Lawn Care Business program offers a large marketing guide to help with your advertising.

Visit our home page to learn more: www. StartALawnCareBusiness.com

100 Door Knocks: A Free Lawn Care Business Marketing Campaign.

Jun 17

Posted by Lawn Care Business in customers, lawn business strategies, Lawn Care Advertising, lawn care business | 7 Comments

Free Advertising for your Lawn Care Business

Far too often new lawn care business owners are lulled into a false sense of imminent success.  Afterall, how hard can it be to start a lawn care business?  Tack up a few flyers on telephone poles and hang a few door hangers.   Put an advertisement in the news paper and distribute 1000 business cards you designed yourself at Office Depot. Develop a website and pay someone to make a really cool logo.

Before getting started in the lawn care business, you have to ask yourself:  How much do you really know about your customers, their needs, and their willingness to pay?

Before you go to all the expense of starting your business and before you pay one penny toward marketing, take $50 of your start-up capital and buy yourself a new pair of shoes.  With those shoes, start walking.  Pound the pavement of your local neighborhoods and knock on doors.

Forget the sales pitch.  Forget the flyers.  Forget the door hangers and business cards.  Forget trying to gain even a single customer.  You are on a learning mission.  Don’t try to make any sales at all at this point.  Let them talk while you listen.

Some people won’t talk to you but many WILL.  They will tell you about weeds in their flower beds and mulch that has been bleached by the sun which needs to be replaced.   A young couple will be working overtime and not have the energy to mow their grass and an elderly gentleman won’t be able to clean his gutters like he once did.

When potential clients see you are trying to learn and not pressuring them into a mowing contract they will be more willing to talk with you.

Be tenacious. Set your goal at 100 doors and don’t stop until you have knocked on all 100  (not 70 or 80…..100). If rude customers close doors in your face just smile and walk to the next door. If you knock on 30 doors and everybody refuses to speak with you just smile and start knocking on #31.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t gain a single customer. By the end of the day you will know infinitely more than when you started. You will have a “feel” for your potential clients and you won’t have to guess what lawn care and landscaping  services to offer.

At the end of your day compile your notes.  Group similar comments and requested services.  What are most people looking for in a lawn care company?  What did they dislike about their last company?  How much are they willing to pay?  How often are they willing to have their work performed?

Grouping your comments will help you define a core set of services to offer potential customers.  Drawing a graph of prices customers are willing to pay will help you maximize your profit potential.

When you have finished your research, visit those same 100 doors, knock on them, and thank the people for helping you decide to start your own business.  Then, ask if you can give them an estimate.

This type of marketing is free and potential clients respond to it much more readily than flyers or door hangers especially from a new company like yours. For a new lawn care company, face-to-face advertising is the best marketing tool available…and it’s free.

If you decide to use this free marketing strategy, let us know results from your “100 Door Knocks” campaign.

For much more information on starting your own lawn care business, visit our website by clicking on “HOME” at the top of this page.

Quarterly Tax Payments Due 6/15

Jun 14

Posted by Lawn Care Business in Lawn Care Business Taxes | 1 Comment

If you are a small lawn care business owner who makes quarterly estimated tax payments, don’t forget that your payment should be postmarked no later than 6/15.

Make Estimated Quarterly Tax Payments On Time

Making appropriate estimated tax payments greatly reduces your chances of surprises when the fiscal end-of-year tax due date comes around.

Lawn care business owners (especially new business owners) are often surprised at tax time when they calculate how much tax is owed for the entire year. 

Making quarterly payments helps take the sting out of a huge bill at the end of the year. 

Quarterly tax payments has a few unintended beneficial consequence too:

1)  They force business owners to keep their books up-to-date.
2)  They help small business owners keep tabs on how well they are doing through the year.  If goals are not being met, business owners can step up their game.

Here is an IRS publication which explains quarterly estimated tax payments:

 http://www.irs.gov/publications/p505/ch02.html

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Lawn Care in Weird Places.

Jun 11

Posted by Lawn Care Business in urban lawn care, weeding | No Comments

I am constantly amazed at the tenacity of plants to grow almost anywhere.

Lawn Care Can Take You Odd Places

It is often annoying when weeds grow through cracks in a patio or through 4 inches of dense landscape mulch in a flower or shrub bed.  However, some lawn care jobs make grass in a crack seem much less annoying.

Look at this picture I took recently of a woody stemmed weed growing within the morter space of a large building.

Lawn Care in Weird Places

Natural decomposition processes such as weathering crumble stone into finer particles.  If those particle accumulate in a crevice, rain may make it hospitable to plant growth.  Seeds blown by the wind may land within the crevice and grow into an annoying, hard to reach, weed.

Next time you are dealing with weeds for one of your lawn care customers, think of the guy who has to deal with this weed problem.  It will make your job seem much easier.

If you want to expand your own lawn care business, see our home page.