Start A Lawn Care Business

Lawn Care Business Tips and Advice

Archive for March, 2009

Pruning shears for the lawn care business

Mar 30

Posted by Lawn Care Business in lawn business strategies, lawn equipment, pruning | 1 Comment

by: www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com

Pruning Tools for your Lawn Care Business

Sooner or later your lawn care customers are going to ask you to prune
shrubbery branches or small tree limbs. Proper pruning is an art and as an
artist you must employ the proper tools for the job.

There are two types of loppers which will help you perform the
most common types of pruning jobs.
Shears are small handled cutting devices.  Loppers are very similar to
shears though loppers have longer handles than shears.
The two types of loppers are bypass and anvil.
 

Bypass Loppers

bypass lopping shears loppers pruning

The most familiar type of lopper is the bypass lopper. 
Bypass loppers are designed to cut through green and soft woody material. 
Bypass loppers should not be used to cut hard woods or softwood branches that
have hardened over time.  Overly tough cutting jobs will deform the cutting
blade.

Bypass loppers have two blades.  The
cutting blade severs the branch while the counter blade provides resistance
against the branch.

bypass lopper blades, cutting and counter


Anvil Loppers

anvil loppers for cutting hardwood

Anvil loppers are tougher than bypass
loppers.  Anvil loppers are designed for hard woods and branches that have
hardened over time.

Anvil loppers have one blade and one anvil. 
At the end of the cut, the blade comes to rest within a grove in the anvil. 
The anvil is often made of a soft metal which will not damage the cutting blade.

anvil and cutting blade

 

We advocate teaching new lawn care
companies how to properly prune low, small tree branches and shrubs. 
Proper pruning knowledge will gain you respect with your lawn care customers
allowing you to attract better quality customers that are willing to pay you a
higher price to do their lawn care work.

If you want to operate a better,
more profitable lawn care and landscaping business, check out our lawn care business program available from our website: 
www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com

 

 

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Storms mean big business for lawn care business owners.

Mar 29

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

By: Start A Lawn Care Business

I am sitting at my computer on a dark and stormy night.  The wind is howling outside my window and surely branches and limbs are falling in yards all over the city.  Tomorrow, storm damage cleanup will begin.  For any lawn care business owner searching for additional work or new clients, an overnight storm presents a perfect time to gain extra revenue.

The process comes far in advance of the storm.  Let your customers know early in your business relationship with them that you are always available for extra lawn care related work that needs to be done in their yards.  This knowledge will prime their minds that you are the person to call whenever they need a helping hand.

A forecast that calls for storms in the coming week is a great time to reassure your customers. 

Send a quick email to all your customers:  “If you need any emergency yard work this week, my number is: …….”

The morning after a big storm is the time for you to get on the telephone and make contact with all your customers.  Tell them that if there are any branches or limbs in their yard, you will be happy to drop by and clean the debris away.  Let them know your basic service rate when you call to make them aware you are offering your services for a fee and not just to be a nice guy.

Being quick on the draw will reassure your customers and put extra money in your pocket.

Pricing guidance and many more tips are available in our Lawn Care Business program available through our website:

www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com

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Bidding a lawn care job.

Mar 28

Posted by Lawn Care Business in bidding lawn care, how much to charge | 1 Comment

by: Lawn Care Business

How to bid a lawn care job.

Properly bidding a lawn care and landscaping contract involves a fine balance between covering your costs and knowing how much your customer will pay. Underbidding is one of the biggest problems that new lawn care business owners face.

The StartALawnCareBusiness.com estimating guidebooks give you extensive information and examples on how to bid lawn care jobs. Whether you are doing simple grass cutting or installing intricate landscapes, you must know how to properly bid your jobs or you risk going out of business. Below are 3 simple guidelines to follow.

1) Know your costs:

You should never bid on a lawn care job until you know your costs to perform that job. If you are bidding on a straight-up grass cutting job, your costs include: labor, equipment depreciation, supplies (gasoline, weedeater line, etc.) transportation costs, and office expenses (including all other expenses of operating your business.)
There are very few instances when you should ever do landscaping for less than your cost.


2) Know your customers:

Knowledge of your customers gives a good indication of the amount they are willing to pay for your services. A customer in an exclusive neighborhood with 30,000 square feet of finely manicure grass should be willing to pay more than $20/week to have the grounds maintained through the summer. It behooves you, as a lawn care business owner, to extract enough information from your prospective customer during your initial interview to help you determine the amount of money that customer is willing to pay for your services.

3) Know your competition:

Your competitors will always attempt to lowball and underbid your prices. Keep tabs on your competition. Learn what they are charging. Learn what tactics they are employing to steal away your customers. Counter their moves by providing top-quality services and charging fair prices for your lawn care / landscaping work.
 

These are just a few tips on pricing your lawn care jobs. In our 17 years of lawn care experience we have performed jobs from small $20 duplexes up to large 90 acre industrial complexes and multi-year government contracts. We have poured our pricing experience into the lawn care business program. If you are interested in learning how to properly price your jobs, our estimating guidebook and estimating calculators will help you give better bids.

Our Lawn Care Business program is on sale right now at:
www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com

 

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Lawn care mowing equipment. The importance of buying the right mower.

Mar 28

Posted by Lawn Care Business in lawn equipment, lawn mowers | No Comments

by: Lawn Care Business

Commercial lawn mower selection.

Getting a “good deal” on a lawn mower isn’t a good deal if you buy the wrong mower.

We consult with thousands of lawn care business owners. Every year, we see the same problem over and over. Many LCO’s purchase equipment based on price alone and they wind up buying the wrong equipment.

1) Know your lawns:

Are your lawns large or small, flat or hilly, rough or smooth? Knowing the types of lawns you will be mowing will help you with your lawn mower selection. There is no need to purchase a 72″ ZTR if the majority of your lawns are 1/4 acre lots with fenced back yards.

2) Know your budget:

If your company is starting small and you are only going to service 5 or 10 customers per week, it makes little sense to spend $12,000 on the latest 24hp, propane powered, floating deck finishing mower. A good rule of thumb is to spend 1 month’s projected revenue on your lawn mower. If you expect to service ten $30 lawns per week, you should budget $1200 for your lawn mower. For $1200, you can get a quality used commercial walkbehind that should allow you to mow for the entire season and save enough money to purchase better equipment next season as your business continues to grow.

3) Know your abilities:

We all have different physical abilities. You must feel comfortable with your lawn mower. If you have reduced hand strength, pick a mower with easy to use controls. If you are not physically able to walk for hours on end during the heat of the summer, choose a riding style mower such as a ZTR or a walkbehind mower with a sulky or velky.

Choosing the correct lawn care equipment will help your lawn care company be more efficient and profitable.

There is a large guidebook on equipment selection in our Lawn Care Business program available through our website: www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com

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Grass Clippings: To bag or not to bag.

Mar 27

Posted by Lawn Care Business in composting, mulching | 1 Comment

by: Lawn Care Business

Grass clippings: Bag, Compost, or Mulch?

As environmentalism continues to become a dominant issue in the lawn care industry, LCOs are continually faced with running their businesses in manners not harmful to our environment.

One issue you may be challenged with is what to do with grass clippings on finely manicured lawns.

1) Bagging the grass clippings:

Bagging is the least desirable method of dealing with grass clippings.  Bagging takes tremendous effort on your part
in extra time and extra work.  The bags themselves are expensive and you must either absorb the cost of the bags or pass the expense to the customer’s invoice.  Bagged grass clippings must either be disposed of in a landfill or dumped elsewhere.  Bagging is wasteful in so many ways and there are much better options for grass clippings.

2) Composting grass clippings:

If you must remove grass from your customers’ lawns talk your customers into having a compost area on their lawns. Compost areas can be as small as 2′x2′.  A compost area can contain household wastes such as banana peels, coffee grounds, and other similar items that otherwise will be sent to the landfill.  Grass can be added to the compost.  In as little as 8 to 12 months the compost will decay into rich soil that can be used in garden beds or to level rough areas in your customers’ lawns.

3) Mulching grass clippings:

The best solution in dealing with grass clippings is to mulch the grass right back into your customers lawn with your lawn mower.  Schedule your cutting appropriately so you do not have any grass to rake, bag, or haul off.  Though some of your customers may ask you to cut it as short as possible, raising your blades and cutting less off the top of the grass during each mowing cycle will give your customers’ lawns better stands of grass.  Slightly longer grass also chokes out weeds by depriving the weeds of sunlight and water. 

If there is excess grass, you are either cutting it too short, not cutting it often enough, or cutting it wet. Proper cutting disperses fine grass clippings into the lawn.  Grass clippings have lots of nutrients which continually feed the lawn and this is beneficial to new growth as the season wears on.   Some customers may ask about thatch buildup.  Once again, proper scheduling and height adjustment of your lawn mower blades will increase the health of their lawns and reduce the need for dethatching.

Professional lawn care companies know the correct methods of reducing waste and running their companies with an environmental state-of-mind.  Most customer appreciate this attitude and will follow your lead when you tell them bagging is not necessary.

Our Lawn Care Business Program gives you many methods of running a profitable, eco-friendly lawn care company.  For more information and to purchase the program, visit us at: 
www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com

 

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