Hi Everyone:
I just want to take a minute to post on here and wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.
I hope everyone is taking a few days off of this busy time of year to relax and spend time with family and friends. There is still much work to be done on your lawn care customer’s lawns. Leaves still need to be raked and lawn winterizing needs to be performed before harsh winter weather sets it.
Have a nice long weekend.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING
If you live in the Southeast part of the country, you have probably seen this “fruit” from a tree. They fall this time of year and will make a mess in your customers’ lawns if you mistakenly hit them with a lawn mower. They are about 5″ to 6″ inches in diameter and weigh about 1/2 a pound.
Today’s contest winners will earn the pure satisfaction of knowing what this is when most people don’t.
If you have a guess, leave a comment below. Also, if you have a guess and you are a lawn care business owner with a website, feel free to add a link to your lawn care business website.
Good luck and check back for more Lawn Care Questions of the Day.
http://www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com
Have you ever been at a party; laughing, talking with people you don’t know, and trying to impress cute girls only to find that people don’t want to talk to you or if they do talk to you they just stare then walk away laughing? After that party, did you leave wondering if something was wrong with you (or “what was wrong with all those idiots”)? Then, as you’re driving away, you look in your rearview mirror to see that there is a big piece of stupid broccoli or lettuce between your teeth?
“WHY DIDN’T SOMEONE TELL ME I HAD BROCCOLI BETWEEN MY TEETH???”
The other guys at the party are your competition and they’re certainly not going to tell you about your problem. And the girls? Well, they’re just going to laugh at you and leave with some other guy who doesn’t have broccoli in his teeth.
Running a lawn care business is similar to being at a party. If you have a problem with your advertising or your lawn care pricing, your competition certainly won’t give you any hints and your customers will just pass you over and hire a different lawn care company. One of the reasons we developed the “Start a Lawn Care Business” guidebooks and training course is to help you develop your lawn care business to such a professional level that your customers will not pass you by.
Why are lawn mowing customers passing you by when they choose a lawn care provider? Are you charging too much money and forcing your customers to hire your competition? Are you charging too little money and suffering from a perceived lack of quality? Are your marketing efforts catering to people who never hire lawn care people? Does your mowing equipment look (and cut grass) like pieces of junk? Does your own personal attitude need refining to effectively deal with and retain your lawn care customers? Do your lawns look like they were cut by a non-professional after you are finished with your work?
The “Start a Lawn Care Business” course will tell you what you need to know to operate a professional lawn care company that customers will flock to. We have been in this business for almost 20 years and we’ve been on the consulting side of the business for almost 10 years. The advice in our lawn care package pulls no punches. We’re here to give you honest, hardcore, real-world advice about how to run a SUCCESSFUL lawn care business.
If you didn’t make the money you know you should have made in 2010 then there is something about your business that is screaming: “DON’T HIRE THIS LAWN CARE SERVICE!!!”
Where is the red flag? What is telling potential customers to pass you by? Is it your advertising, your pricing, your equipment, your service, your attitude? Whatever it is, I am sure you want to know so you can fix the problem.
Pssst!!! Hey buddy, you have broccoli in your teeth.
More than likely your lawn care company just has a piece of broccoli in its teeth. Our business program will not only tell you about the broccoli but we’ll show you the best way to pick it out. Okay, that’s disgusting. But seriously, out of the hundreds of Lawn Care Business owners we have consulted the last several years, most of them simply have one or two small problems that need to be fixed.
If you feel there is something holding you back from making great money with your lawn care business, our program will likely be able to put you on a great path to success in 2011.
To learn more about the Start a Lawn Care Business training course and Estimating Software, visit our main website at:
www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com
How To Start a Lawn Care Business
by: Start a Lawn Care Business
Ouch! My neck hurts.
No, it doesn’t hurt because of a recent car crash or an old football injury. It hurts (figuratively) because I’m getting whipsawed back and forth with this November weather.
November weather is notoriously fickle in the southeast and this November’s weather is no exception. Two weeks ago, we had freezing overnight lows, last week we were into the high 70’s with cloudless skies, and this week is starting on a bleary note with showers and highs in the mid-40’s.
Ahh, November, it keeps life interesting for a lawn care professional.
As much as you might like to complain about the weather, I hope you realize what a blessing November weather is for your lawn care company. For instance, if you are in the southeast, last week was a perfect time to aerate and overseed all your customer’s lawns before this rainy spell kicked in. Aeration before seeding allows perfect seed-ground contact. Seeds will have a great oportunity to germinate and set roots as the rains moisten the soil before harsh winter weather.
We are already hearing from many of our readers in the North and their issues with the first snow plowing jobs of the season. And, as always, sunny south Florida and Texas are the envy of us all being able to mow practically year-round.
No matter in what part of the country you reside, November weather brings its challenges. However, if you play it right, November can be a very profitable month for your lawn care business.
Don’t forget, if you need to learn how to properly price-estimate all your lawn care customers, pick up a copy of our lawn care estimating software on our main web page: www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com
Nov 11
I am in a unique position that I get to speak with lots of people who are just getting started with their lawn care businesses. Since today is Veteran’s Day, I am thinking about many of the people who have purchased the “Start A Lawn Care Business” training guide this past year because they are either retired military or they are thinking about what to do with their time (and how to make extra money) once they exit military service in the near future.
It is always interesting to see a FPO as an address when we ship a lawn care guidebook to a member of the military. We always wonder about your service to our country. Our best wishes go out to you that your service has been a beneficial one to your life and that your return to the civilian life will be a safe and healthy one.
Thank you for your service:
by: Start A Lawn Care Business
Too often in the lawn care industry, we think of success in terms of number of jobs per day, number of crews, or number of clients on a roster. For full-time lawn care companies, these criteria are important to the overall well-being of a company. However, the industry should never overlook the needs of the small lawn care business owner or the solo part-time guy just looking to make an extra several hundred dollars per week doing a handful of residential and commercial customers.
Though many large-scale lawn care business owners purchase our “Start A Lawn Care Business” training package to gain new ideas how to grow their businesses, the majority of the purchasers of our business program are aspiring entrepreneurs looking to either start a new lawn care business or current small business owners who are looking to expand their business, go full-time, and add employees.
I was speaking with a guy last week who saw on of our Leaf Raking Videos on YouTube. The video stirred his interest and he is about the take the plunge, purchase a commercial leaf blower, and start finding clients. The main question he has is how to bid leaf raking and leaf blowing jobs. We run into these questions very often and this is exactly why we developed the “bidding tutorial and estimating software” sections in our lawn care business program. There are too many variables to do flat rate pricing on leaf cleanup jobs. Our estimating tutorial teaches you how to properly bid jobs without overpricing (or underpricing) your work.
If you are a one-man operation wanting to start or grow a successful lawn care business we encourage you to learn how to bid your jobs properly and grow your business correctly. We believe the strength in the Green Industry lies in the hands of small lawn care business owners.
For more information on the Lawn Care Business training guidebook and software package, visit our main webpage at:
by: Start A Lawn Care Business
Though it is quite unlikely any of us will actually ever make a billion dollars cutting grass, I found an interesting statistic earlier this evening while researching the economic impact of the lawn care industry in the United States.
According to a University of Florida Extension Office report, the total economic impact of the Turf Grass industry in the United States is $62.2 billion (2005 dollars). Of that $62.2 billion, nearly $19.8 billion is comprised of the lawn care services. Within this $19.2 billion is the addition of over 295,000 jobs associated with lawn care services.
This impact isn’t just dollars and cents though. It is calculated, on average, a commercial lawn mower in use by a lawn mowing business burns 2,000 gallons of gasoline each year. That is more gasoline than a typical car. Lawn mowers in the United States consume more than 1.2 billion gallons of gasoline and commercial mowing accounts for 35% of this total.
I find these statistics on the size of the lawn care industry in the United States interesting. However, one thing is for sure; if any of us are going to make a billion dollars, we’re going to need a bigger mower.
Want to make a billion dollars cutting grass? Well, I can never guarantee that kind of success. However, if you want to increase your business in 2011, I encourage you to purchase our Lawn Care Business guide and software package.
Learn more about it on our main webpage: http://www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com
Sources:
http://www.afdc.energy.gov/afdc/pdfs/48369.pdf
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fe632