Start A Lawn Care Business

Make money with a lawn care and landscaping business.

Archive for February, 2011

Spring’s In Bloom, Start A Lawn Care Business!

Feb 25

Posted by Lawn Care Business in lawn business strategies, lawn care business, money, spring time lawn care | No Comments

Spring is time to start a lawn care business

The first daffodil of the mowing season.

YAY!!! Spring is in bloom over much of the United States. Yes, I know as soon as I get excited about this we will get a foot of snow to squelch my enthusiasm. But still, as I look outside and see the first colors of the season, I can’t help to look forward to another great mowing season.

As pretty as the daffodils are, they are not the only thing blooming and they are not the only sign of spring. While you probably won’t get many lawn care customers if you advertise that you will neatly mow down their daffodil, there is another form of green growth in springs that many customers will pay you good money to keep cut.

This time of the year, throughout much of the eastern half of the country, wild garlic sprigs are popping up in lawns everywhere. Wild garlic is commonly called wild onions. Wild onions do grow in lawns but it is a bit early for them to be popping up.

Wild Garlic and Wild Onions need to be cut. Start a lawn care business.

Can you guess which? Wild Garlic or Wild Onion.

The greenery this time of year is (most likely) wild garlic. Actually, it doesn’t matter what you or your customers call it, this greenery needs to be trimmed and this early need to tidy customers’ lawns make for a tremendous opportunity for you to get an early start on your lawn care business.

Listen, we know you are excited about the possibility of starting your own lawn care business. If you don’t know where to turn or how to get stared, we have developed a comprehensive business guidebook and software package that will GREATLY help you get started. We have been associated with the lawn care industry (started our lawn care business in 1992) for almost 20 years. We cover a tremendous amount of information and help you avoid a tremendous number of obstacles when you are first getting started. Don’t waste your time and money trying to figure it out yourself when we’ve already done that for you.

Our package also includes support. So, if you have any questions after your purchase, just let us know and we will do our best to give you specific information or share ideas with you.

Learn more about the guidebooks and estimating software business program on our main website:

START A LAWN CARE BUSINESS
http://www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com

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Selling (retiring from) your lawn care business?

Feb 18

Posted by Lawn Care Business in how much to charge, lawn business strategies | No Comments

While most of our blog posts (and our lawn care business program) are designed are with the new lawn care business owner in mind, we are often reminded of the fact that many people need advice at the end-stage of their lawn care business careers.

Growing a business to the point where it can be sold is a very viable exit strategy for even the smallest lawn care company.  If you have spent your time and efforts cultivating a profitable and successful lawn care company, you should not overlook the fact that your company is probably very valuable over and beyond the amount of revenue your company generates on a monthly basis.

If you have grown your lawn care business and are now thinking about quiting your business either to retire or to follow other pursuits, don’t make the mistake of letting your company fade away without it realizing it’s full profit potential.  Lawn care business owners can often sell their routes, equipment, business name, and company’s goodwill.

So, if you are thinking about selling your lawn care business after owning it for a number of years, our lawn care business program will be very valuable to you.  There is a section dedicated to helping you value your lawn care business if you are in process of selling the business.

To learn more about the entire program, please visit our main website:

http://www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com
Start A Lawn Care Business

Housing Authority Lawn Care Contracts

Feb 18

Posted by Lawn Care Business in bidding lawn care, lawn care contracts | No Comments

February is here and lawn mowing contracts are being bid in earnest.

As developers of the Start A Lawn Care Business training course we subscribe to many bidding lists around the nation.  We do this to keep our finger on the pulse of bidding trends across the nation.  Of course, we don’t intend to bid on all these mowing contracts but they help us keep you informed of increased bidding potentials in your market area.

A recent bid proposal came across our desks this morning for a housing authority mowing contract.  This particular contract caught our eyes because we have bid on many housing authority contracts over the years.  In fact, our first major mowing contract bid was for a large housing authority grass cutting contract.  This was in our first year of business.  We had little knowledge about how to bid contracts and since no other lawn care company would tell us how to do it, we basically stumbled our way through the bidding process.  We did not know the number of pitfalls associated with such a contract…and, believe me, there are MANY things you need to be wary of when bidding housing authority contracts.

That very first major bidding experience we had of bidding a housing authority mowing contract  is one of the reasons we developed the lawn care business.  So many lawn care business owners are in the dark about bidding lawn care contracts.  If you are considering bidding a lawn care contract your sources of information are very limited.  Your competitors certainly aren’t going to tell you how to bid a contract.  The contracting agency certainly isn’t going to help you bid a proper amount.  So, who are you going to ask?

Our lawn care business program contains a special section on bidding both small-scale and large-scale lawn care contracts.  We believe that teaching you how to bid these contracts strengthens our entire industry.

To learn more about the lawn care business package, please visit our main website:

Start A Lawn Care Business
http://www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com

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Commercial Lawn Mowing Equipment – Spring Tuneup.

Feb 17

Posted by Lawn Care Business in lawn equipment, lawn mowers, leaf blowers, maintenance, start a lawn care business | No Comments

Spring is here and it is time to pull the tarps off the lawn mowers and prepare them for the busy mowing season ahead.

As much as I have always liked to maintain my own equipment, I believe it pays to have lawn mowers, blowers, and weed trimmers professionally serviced at a favorite commercial lawn mower repair shop at least once per year.  Changing oil, oil filters, air filters, and gas filters as well as lubrication service is well within the reach of most all lawn care business owners.  However, perfectly dialing-in a lawn mower is a skill reserved for the repair professionals.  Perfect tracking, carb adjustment, and preventative maintenance inspections will help keep your equipment running smoothly.

Commercial Lawn Mower RepairIf you are like many lawn care business owners, you are well capable of routine maintenance  on your lawn care equipment.  But paying a professional lawn care repair center will help ensure perfectly operating equipment and less downtime in the months ahead.

If you are starting your lawn care company this year and want to know more about proper landscaping equipment selection for your business, we include an equipment selection manual in our lawn care business guidebook.

Learn more on our homepage:

http://www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com
Starting A Lawn Care Business

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Free Advertising for your Lawn Care Company? Think Again!

Feb 10

Posted by Lawn Care Business in advertising lawn care, Lawn Care Advertising, lawn care customers | No Comments

Lawn care is a competitive business.  As with any competitive business, you have to advertise your company to get customers.  Right now is one of the best times of the year to advertise heavy.  Customers that you acquire right now will, likely, be with you for the rest of the year.

As with all business principles, there are right ways to advertise and wrong ways to advertise.  I am noticing a disturbing trend that lawn care companies are using to advertise their businesses this year.  And I think they are making mistakes. 

After I finishing for the day, I stopped into a gas station to fill up my truck to prevent an empty tank tomorrow morning.  As I reached for the gas nozzle, I noticed about 1/2 a dozen stickers with the name of a local lawn care company printed on them.  The stickers covered the panel of the gas pump and a few of them were placed to obscure the gas price display.

Lawn Care Advertising

Improper Lawn Care Advertising

Do you think this lawn care company will attract good customers by using this type of advertising scheme? 

Personally, I think this is the wrong way to advertise a lawn care company.  Very few potential customers will respond favorably to this type of advertising.  More-so, potential lawn care customers are turned off by this tactic.  Instead of attracting clients, this company will garner complaints, destroy their goodwill, and potentially lose existing customers.

If you are thinking about using this type of marketing for your lawn care service, please think twice.  There are legitimate forms of free advertising available that are not nearly this obnoxious.

If you are starting your lawn care business this year or if you are attempting to advertise heavily to expand an existing business, our lawn care business guidebook package includes a great section on advertising your company.  Proper advertising will gain your company many more clients than resorting to placing stickers on gas pumps.

For more information, visit our home page:

http://www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com
Start A Lawn Care Business

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Landlords as Lawn Care Customers

Feb 6

Posted by Lawn Care Business in advertising lawn care, lawn care customers | No Comments

Spring is almost here and we have been blogging quite a bit lately about attracting new lawn care clients. 

What kind of clients are you trying to attract this year?  Individual residences, homeowner’s associations, real estate agents, and business complexes should all be within a lawn care business owner’s customer mix.  A diversity of clients makes a stronger lawn care business.  If there is a downturn in one sector of a lawn care company’s client list, the other sectors will buffer the hardship.  For example; we received an email from a lawn care business owner last year who focused all his attention in previous years on a single industrial complex.  The money was great and his drive time between customers was minimal.  However, at the beginning of last year businesses began suffering greatly due to the economy and the lawn care business owner lost over 75% of his revenue from that one complex.

There is one customer we did not mention above; landlords.  As the nation’s economy begins to get back on track this year, we think landlords, once again, are a great source of revenue.  Landlords definately want a bargain for their money but on the positive side most landlords own multiple units and they can give you a steady stream of work to fill gaps in your schedule.  Landlords understand the value of curb appeal and they are more than willing to pay you a fair price to keep their properties looking great for their renters (and prospective renters).

Do you want to add a landlord or two to your lawn care customer client list?  Do you want to charge these landlords more than they are willing to pay.  Landlords are very protective of their property investments and a great strategy of proving your worth to a landlord is to show him you will care for his property when you are mowing.  Landlords hate having to make repairs and they hate air conditioner problems.  When you are speaking with a landlord about mowing his property mention that you always take special care to blow the grass away from the air conditioner unit.  Grass can clog the cooling fins and repairs are costly.

Grass and leaves can cause air conditioner problems

Grass and leaves can cause air conditioner problems.

Impressing a landlord client will mean you can charge more money and he will tell his other landlord friends about your services.

If you want to learn more about how to generate a proper mix of lawn care clients for your lawn care and landscaping business, our lawn care business strategy guide book will show you how.  Also, our estimating software will help you with your quotes so you can operate a successful and profitable lawn care business.

Learn more on our main page:

http://www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com
How To Start A Lawn Care Business 

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Lawn Care Question of the Day – Whut Iz It? Giant Bean?

Feb 4

Posted by Lawn Care Business in landscaping photography, questions | No Comments

Today’s lawn care question is bound to garner great responses.

I have been rifling through pictures taken in June of last year on a trip to Ohio.  This picture is of a very familiar tree to landscape professionals.  However, I am sure that many of our readers have often seen this tree and thought “I didn’t know green beans grew on trees.”

Can you guess what it is?

If you have a guess please leave a comment.  If you have a lawn care business website, please feel free to add a link to your site.  Also, we would love if you would add a link to our website.

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Scheduling your Lawn Care Customers

Feb 4

Posted by Lawn Care Business in bidding lawn care, lawn business strategies, Lawn Care Advertising, start a lawn care business | No Comments

Proximity Scheduling for your Lawn Care Customers

Our lawn care business program is a heavy-duty course in how to run an efficient, successful, and profitable lawn care business.  We believe that, in order to be successful in your lawn care business, you MUST be efficient in your business practices.  One of the problems new lawn care business owners face is proper scheduling of their lawn care customers.  In our lawn care business program, we teach a practice we call “Proximity Scheduling.”

Drive time, load time, and unload time are huge drains on your productivity.  Having lawn care customers all over town is very inefficient.  Driving to your customer, stopping your lawn care truck, unloading your lawn care equipment, mowing the grass, loading your lawn care equipment, and driving to your next customer half-way across town is a tremendously inefficient way to operate your lawn care business and schedule your customers.

Proper scheduling of lawn care customers can more than double your lawn care business productivity.

Since springtime has yet to begin, right now is a perfect time to take a serious look at your scheduling habits for the upcoming year.  Have you developed a proper strategy of customer scheduling?  Our “Proximity Scheduling” philosophy begins when you start advertising your company.  Proper advertising, initial customer interview, customer setup, route selection, and mowing patterns are all integrated to help you complete each customer as quickly as possible.  The more efficient you are in your lawn care customer scheduling, the more money you should make with your lawn care business.

To learn more about running an efficient lawn care business, please visit our main home page to learn about our lawn care business program:

http://www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com
Start A Lawn Care Business

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Lawn Care Request for Bids – Contracts.

Feb 2

Posted by Lawn Care Business in bidding lawn care, lawn care contracts | No Comments

Are you a lawn care business owner that is tired of doing 100% residential jobs?

Though there is great money to be made mowing residential lawns and creating small landscapes, we suggest many lawn care companies can greatly increase their revenue by adding a few larger-scale mowing contracts into their customer mix. If you have ever wanted to take your lawn care business to the next level, February is a perfect time to bid on larger scale lawn mowing and landscaping contracts. City and county governments, government agencies, industrial plants, retail establishments, and apartment complexes are letting out bids for lawn care work during February.

Successfully bidding a large-scale grass cutting contract is not as easy as it might sound. We have seen many people fail at successfully bidding mowing contracts. Common mistakes in bidding on these contracts include: misunderstanding the scope of work, improper equipment selection, under bidding in an attempt to lowball your competitors, over bidding in an attempt to make more mone from the contracting agency, and insufficient business requirements (lack of insurance, incomplete permits, unproven ability to complete the work.)

If you would like to learn how to properly bid on lawn mowing and grass cutting contracts, our Lawn Care Business guidebook and software program can help you. The program includes estimating software and an excellent guide to bidding lawn mowing contracts.

Learn more on our homepage:

http://www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com
Start A Lawn Care Business

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Lawn Care – February 1, 2011

Feb 1

Posted by Lawn Care Business in advertising lawn care, questions, start a lawn care business | No Comments

Time waits for no man.

The first month of 2011 has passed us by. If you are a lawn care business owner, you are very likely cheering that Springtime is one month closer. Though there are still many cold days ahead of us this winter, the sun is beginning to creep up on the horizon and a few warmer days are showing up in the forecast. For many of us here in the southeast, we saw temperatures in the high 60’s last weekend and I even saw the first sprouts of wild onions and wild garlic in yards last week.

If you are starting a lawn care business in 2011, RIGHT NOW is the time to get started….like TODAY. Customers are already thinking about getting their lawns cleaned up for springtime and plantings in their landscape beds. Lawn care companies should already be advertising to acquire these ‘earlybird’ lawn care customers.

You surely have many questions about lawn care business startup, equipment selection, advertising, bidding and estimating, and growing your lawn care business. If you are just starting out or if you’re new to the business and want to expand more this year than you did last year, we have developed a comprehensive lawn care business program that will answer you questions about starting and expanding your own lawn care business.

Read more about the business program on our main lawn care business web page:

http://www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com
Start A Lawn Care Business

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