Start A Lawn Care Business

Lawn Care Business Tips and Advice

Archive for January, 2010

Tenacity of a Small Business Owner. AKA: Too Stupid To Quit

Jan 31

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

As Winston Churchill said:

“Never give in–never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”

How many people do you know that are immediately successful in what they do?

I bet you can name a few people who seem to be successful at everything they do. However, if you were to truly speak with those people you would find a different story come to light. You will hear tales of failure after failure until one day, out of nowhere, their businesses began to see the light of day. And slowly, ever slowly, they began to make progress.

A never-ending, relentless striving is what you will find behind almost any seemingly “over-night” success story.

In addition to the smart and shrewd businessmen you know, I bet you also know a few dim-witted, bull-headed people who have made a success in spite of themselves. Do you? Yeah, I do too. Years ago, when I first started my lawn care business, I knew a man who was very successful in business. He ran a contracting business (not lawn care) but he was definitely not the brightest light bulb in the box. He was a nice guy but education and intellect just wasn’t his thing. But, MAN!, was he successful and happy. He would even joke about this sometimes and I asked him once about his success. He told me that he was just too stupid to quit and too dumb to take “no” for an answer.

Now, in reality, this man wasn’t dumb at all. But, his words (and Churchill’s) illustrate a great point in business. Tenacity wins (almost) every time. We all face obstacles. Everyday there are speed humps on the journey to our business goals. If we let speed humps arrest our progress, we fail. Pure and simple…Tenacity Wins.

We help people Start and Expand their own Lawn Care Businesses. This is what we do and we know the obstacles faced everyday by Lawn Care Business Owners.

If you’re tired of being impeded in your goals of operating a successful lawn care business, take a look at our Lawn Care Business package. There’s no need to face the speed humps alone. We can help.

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

Never give in–never, never, never, never…

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RFPs for your LCB

Jan 31

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

Hidden in reams of papers, buried deep within a website’s menu hierarchy, or ambiguated by legal jargon in rarely seen publications, RFPs can bring great profits to your lawn care business.

RFP are “Requests For Proposals” that are sometimes less-than-adequately advertised by businesses, public entities (such as libraries or schools), and government agencies.

Requests For Proposals are voluminous toward the beginning of the year and often cover work to be completed during the upcoming year’s mowing season. Many of these RFP are not heavily advertised. Sometimes, an agency is happy with their current lawn care maintenance company and they refuse to advertise more than is required by their charter for bids to upcoming contracts. Other times, a purchasing manager may not have a large enough budget to properly advertise for bids. For whatever reason they are not correctly advertised, you cannot bid on a contract unless you know it exists.

As a lawn care business owner, your duty is to be a sleuth in searching for RFPs. If you are attempting to grow your business by pursuing contracts, uncovering RFPs should be as large a part of your business as all your other advertising efforts combined.

Knowledge on where to look for RFPs and how to chip away at layers of corporate and government bureaucracy will greatly enhance your ability to successfully bid large-scale mowing, lawn care, and landscaping contracts.

Are you ready to start bidding big lawn care contracts this year?

Our lawn care business guidebook, video training, and estimating software will help you search out these hard-to-find contracts and bid them successfully.

We have years of experience bidding these types of contracts and there is a section in our program devoted to bidding larger scale contracts.

If you are interested in growing your lawn care business and making more money than you ever expected, look at our website for more information. We have a special sale price on the program right now.

Visit our website:

http://www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com

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2010 is 1/12 over.

Jan 29

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

Remembering back 1 month ago, 2009 seemed to fly by and was ended long before I though it would. 30 days later I see that the first page of 2010’s calendar is ready to be flipped.

Where does the time go?

February 2010 is upon us. Although February is the shortest month of the year (and often the most wintery), this is the month where you need to work harder than most any other month getting contracts and lining up new customers for your lawn care business.

Municipalities, small businesses, government agencies, and homeowners alike are all beginning the search for this year’s lawn cutters. If you are not out right now pounding the pavement and getting your name in front of these customers, you are missing a potentially huge market of new customers.

Getting customers right now can make the difference between a great year and a financially misserable year.

Early customers are important for a number of reasons. First, you want long term customer for your business. Clients who start with you today have the potential of having their grass cut for the entire mowing season. Secondly, customers refer other customer via word-of-mouth. If you hump it right now, you may very-well be able to fill your roster by the end of February. Can you imagine having a full client list before March arrives. The third reason why you should get busy now is because lawn mower dealers are running early-bird specials this time of year. They want your business early and if you already have money coming in (or, at least, guaranteed contracts) you will be able to get some great deals on commercial lawn mowers and other equipment.

Are you at a loss on how to get customers and lawn care contracts? We have developed a lawn care business guidebook and training package which will help you Start and Expand your lawn care business this year.

Learn more about our business package at our website:
http://www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com

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Tax Day – January 15, 2010

Jan 15

Posted by Lawn Care Business in Lawn Care Business Taxes | No Comments

This is a quick heads-up for all lawn care business owners that pay their taxes quarterly; today is January 15, 20010 and it’s time to make your last quarterly payment for the 2009 fiscal year.

If you’re unsure of your tax liabilities for 2009, pay a quick visit to your accountant today. You don’t want to be surprised on April 15 by paying too little today.

If you are searching for good Small Business Accounting Software, the Amazon links below may prove beneficial to you.

or

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That’s Hot!

Jan 10

Posted by Lawn Care Business in equipment, lawn care business, lawn equipment, maintenance, toys | No Comments

Like me, one of the things you probably love about operating a lawn care business is your ability to buy new toys and gadgets.

Toys and gadgets can be expensive lawn mowers and 4 wheelers to pull a spray tank. Or the toys can be less expensive tools that are fun to use while still providing a beneficial service for your company.

I received a neat device this morning that is sure to come in handy for your lawn care business. I want to quickly pass along the information in blog format. Check out our YouTube Lawn Care Business channel for an upcoming video.

Today’s neat device is the Ryobi IR001 Infra Red Thermometer.

This “non-contact thermometer” remotely measures the temperature of any object. Quite simply, you point the device at an object you want to measure, pull the tigger, and you are giving the object’s temperature to within 5 degrees.

Now, you might wonder how this non-contact thermometer can be useful to a lawn care business. I’ve already found two uses.

1) Checking the spindle temperature helps determine if lawn mower blade spindles are lubricated and functioning correctly. This will be especially handy on lawn mowers with multiple spindles. Comparing temperatures between spindles will help you determine if one spindle is functioning better than the other. If one spindle is significantly hotter than the others, the hot spindle may be misaligned or undergreased. A hotter spindle mean more friction. More frictions means harder work performed by your engine and more wear and tear on your components.

2) Engine temperature. Abnormally high operating temperatures can cause premature engine damage. The IR temperature gun can give you an indication of high engine and/or exhaust temperatures which may lead to discovery (and repair) of an existing problem.

I’ll include an Amazon.com link for you below. They are offering a decent price with FREE SHIPPING.

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