Archive for March, 2010

I didn’t get anything done today in my Lawn Care Business.

Mar 27

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

Have you ever felt that way?

I think every lawn care business owner has the occasional day when you put the equipment away at the end of the day only to realize that you basically accomplished nothing. It’s disheartening when you feel like you’re wasting time and losing money. Spinning your wheels is especially difficult for newer lawn care business owners. Keep your head up though. The main point to remember early in the game is that you are gaining experience each day you work on your business.

What has kept you from getting work done today?

If we put our minds to it, we could possibly list 100 different things that keep you from getting work done. Instead of making a list so long, we’re going to hone it down to 3 main reasons for a new lawn care business owner not accomplishing anything during a work day.

1) No Lawn Care Customers – Most new lawn care business owners have days where there are no customers lined up. Don’t equate having no customers with having nothing to do. Stop sitting around moping in front of the computer waiting for your phone to ring. The next time you have no customers scheduled, get up early, load your equipment in your vehicle, and set out with the same frame of mind as you would if you had 10 customers. Go to the coffee shop early. Make sure people know you’re the owner of the equipment. If you don’t get bites by the time you’re finished with your coffee, let everyone know that you can’t hang around because you have a busy day (leave a few business cards). Head over to Lowe’s or Home Depot (or the nearest hardware store) and look at weedeater. When the guy comes over to ask if you need help, ask some questions about the best commercial weedeater they sell. Tell him you need it for your lawn care business and that you would love him to refer some new customers his way (hand him a business card). As the day wears on, think of other places you can stop where people congregate who might need your services. Hand out your business card and make contacts all day long. When you get home, even if you didn’t unload your equipment one single time, don’t be discouraged that you didn’t get anything done. You made great contact and pretty soon those contacts will turn into customers.

2) Lawn Care Equipment Failure – This is probably more disheartening than having no customers. Losing money is worse, to many people, than not making money. When all the people at the coffee shop (see above) are ringing your phone off the hook wanting their lawns done, it will madden you if your lawn care equipment is in the shop. Equipment failures happen. This is just a fact of life. There are a couple keys to reducing your downtime due to equipment failure: buy good commercial equipment and maintain that equipment properly. Change oil regularly, lubricate according to schedule, change filters, keep your outer stage air filter clean, sharpen your blades, and keep your belts in check.

3) Time Management of your Lawn Care Work Habits – Strategic planning is vital to increasing your efficiency as a lawn care business owner. Proper route planning is one of the biggest drains on a lawn care business owner’s time. After route planning, improper equipment selection and use of that equipment causes many lawn care businesses to lose the time value in their business. Knowing how reduce these time sappers will allow you work more efficiently an feel like you’ve actually accomplished something during your day.

If you have recently started your own lawn care business and you frequently feel that your just not accomplishing much in your business, we invite you to take a look at our main website. We have developed a great business package specifically designed for new lawn care business owners. Within the business guidebooks there is a tremendous amount of information that will help you attract new customers, select and maintain the proper equipment, and manage your time to work more efficiently and make more money per hour worked.

You can read more about us and check out the program at:

Start A Lawn Care Business www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com

Tags: customers, efficiency, equipment, lawn care business, money, startup, time management

Does moss grow on the north side of trees?

Mar 27

Posted by Lawn Care Business in environment, lawn care business | No Comments

I remember watching TV when I was a kid. The show was probably a rerun of Davey Crockett or some other nature-type program. One particular episode caught my attention. They were probably tracking Indians or trying to find their way out of the woods and the remark was made that moss always grows on the north side of a tree.

At first, I thought this to be a bit of folklore. Seriously, why would moss only grow on the north side of a tree. That makes no sense. Moss doesn’t have a compass. Moss doesn’t carry a map in it’s non-existent glove box. At the time, Mapquest and Google Earth did not exist. But still, moss doesn’t know how to turn on a computer or operate a GPS.
Alright, that’s silly but it is what I thought at the time.

It wasn’t until several years later that I finally realized moss does, indeed, tend to grow on the north side of trees. Moss does not only grow on the north side of trees, it also grows on the north side of rocks, garbage cans, and telephone poles.

You can see moss growing on the north side of this telephone poll.

Moss grows well in environments that are damp, cool, and shady. In a thick forest with full coverage of shade, moss will grow on all sides of a tree. However, if there is a break in the tree coverage where the sun penetrates, moss will find the sunny side of the tree inhospitable. Therefore it won’t grow where there is sunshine.

Think about the sun’s orientation in the northern hemisphere’s sky. During winter, the sun is well south of the equator. Since the sun is in the southern part of our sky, all shadows are cast north. During our summer, the sun reaches its azimuth on or about June 21. On this day, it is just barely directly overhead. Therefore, the north side of almost any object is still partially shaded. Moss, which loves the shade, is still protected from sunlight and continues to thrive.

I’ve always believed running a lawn care business gives us a higher sense of nature than most people understand. We learn how things grow by understanding their habitats and how they react with nature.

Tags: business, habitat, lawn care, moss, nature

Ya’ Gotta Start Somewhere

Mar 20

Posted by Lawn Care Business in bidding lawn care, lawn care training, start a lawn care business | 1 Comment

Start A Lawn Care Business

I took a picture today I have to share with you because it brought back a flood of memories of when we first started our lawn care business way back in 1992.

I am not sure the driver of this van is operating a lawn care business (and I’m not sure if that lawn mower is properly secured) but I do know a lot of lawn care business owners get their start with a similar setup. I remember the days we first started our lawn care business humping around a push lawn mower in the back of a Chevy hatchback. It wasn’t ideal but is was much better than sitting in the accounting office where I used to work.

Before long, we bought a truck and upgraded to commercial equipment. Better equipment and more knowledge of the lawn care business allowed us to grow and attract better customers that paid more money. We all want brand new trucks and expensive commercial lawn mowers inside fancy enclosed lawn mower trailers. All that comes in due time. But ya’ gotta start somewhere.

The main lesson here is to start with what you have. You don’t need a brand new truck and expensive lawn care equipment to get out there and start making money right away.

What you DO need is knowledge. People who start their lawn care businesses the right way have a better chance of success than those people who buy the wrong equipment and price their customers all wrong.

In our lawn care business program, you will learn how to buy the proper equipment and how to price your customers. Pricing is a difficult strategy but we also include our lawn care estimating software to help you estimate and bid your lawn care customers.

Read more about the complete program at: www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com

Tags: get started, lawn care business, lawn mower, money, start up

Today is the first day of spring.

Mar 20

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

Start A Lawn Care Business

Today is the first day of spring. For astronomers, the vernal equinox is the day in the earth’s orbit around the sun when the sun appears to creep back over the equator into the northern hemisphere. For lawn care companies, the first day of spring means warmer weather, vigorous grass growth, and new lawn care customers.

I took a drive through a few local neighborhoods at the crack of dawn this morning. The sunrise was magnificient. Once the weather warms, I like to get an early start. It makes me feel like I have a jump on the rest of the world. Already, I saw several homeowners working their yards and tending their gardens. As early as it was, they had a jump on me.

If you are starting your own lawn care company this year or if you are hoping to expand a lawn care business you owned last year, you can still get an early start in acquiring new customers and lawn care contracts. Right now is the PRIME time of year to go after new customers. Homeowners and business owners want their yards to look great for sping. By self-promoting your business this week, you should be able to fill a few holes in your schedule. Customers are motivated to hire competent lawn care people this time of year.

Getting customers early means you will have them all year long and you will be able to upsell them on many services. Spring cleanup is one of the first add on services you can sell to your customers. Even if your customers’ lawns are in decent shape from last year, you can sell them on a “Spring Cleanup Special.” Spend extra time raking leaves out of their flowerbeds, pickup fallen twigs and limbs, and offer to remulch flower and shrub beds.

If you’re like most lawn care companies, the extra income is needed in the spring after such a long winter. Spring cleanup is only one of the many add ons you can offer.

Tags: business, customers, grass, lawn care, money, spring, vernal equinox

Lawn Care Business Scheduling Verification with Foursquare

Mar 18

Posted by Lawn Care Business in customers, gutter cleaning, lawn business strategies | 1 Comment

Whether you are a small one-man (or woman) lawn care operation or a large multi-crew lawn care company, you already know the importance of setting a schedule and staying to that schedule. Ordinarily, a lawn care company verified their schedule by keeping a day planner and checking off their lawn care customers as the service was completed.

In 2005, we began advocating the use of GPS technology. Quite simply, the tracks from a GPS serve as proof that you were at a client’s property. The track data from a GPS also tells you the time period you were at each property. By analyzing the track data you can make your lawn care company run more efficiently. You can also make some interesting discoveries such as customers that warrant a price increases based on the time it takes to finish.

I am still a believer in tracking your progress through your work day with the use of GPS technology. However, in recent weeks the use of GPS enabled phones has taken a HUGE leap forward. There is a new service called Foursquare.com. Foursquare is an app that you download to your GPS enabled phone. They have apps for Iphone, Droid, Blackberry, and a host of other mobile devices. Though I have just signed up for their service a few days ago, I am so excited about this new GPS-related service that I am going to tell you about it before I’ve even had a chance to review it fully.

Foursquare allows users to “Check In” when they have reached a destination. The user checks in on his phone using the app. Once the user checks in, a notification is sent to the user’s Facebook account or Twitter feed.

Here’s how I envision Foursquare working for lawn care companies. Let’s say you have 10 yards to do on Monday. When leaving first think in the morning you can send a message saying “leaving.” Later, when you arrive at your first client’s yard, you can check in and type in “arrived at Mrs. Smiths.” When your through with Mrs. Smith’s yard you can type in “leaving Smith’s.” When you arrive at your second yard, type in “arrived at Mr. Lewis (wants gutters cleaned, also).”

Now, there are two great things about this service.

1) When you get home, you have a visual reference of your timeline through out the day. You know when you arrived at each clients house and how long it their work took you to perform.

2) If you run lawn care crews, you can check your crews Twitter feed and know exactly where they are in their scheduling. If Ms. Smith calls and wants to know what time your crew will be at her house, you can tell her that she is next on the list and the crew started the last yard 15 minutes ago and should be at her house within the next 30 minutes.

The possibilities are tremendous for this technology.

As good as Foursquare is, they are not proclaiming to be a business application. They have a gaming scheme built into their app where you can win points visiting resturaunts. Irrespective of their initial motives, I belive the business community will quickly latch onto this app.

I’ve not put this into practical application yet so I am sure you need to read the disclaimers from the Foursquare company regarding such things as privacy issues and other concerns. Also, I know Foursquare has some competitors.

If you have tried Foursquare or any of their competitors, please tell me what your experience has been. Do you find it cumbersome to use? Does it post correctly to your Twitter feed? Is privacy a concern (keeping your Twitter feed private and not keeping your schedule and your clients private and not available to the Foursquare audience)?

As always, if you are interested in growing your lawn care business and using technology in the lawn care business to make money mowing grass and doing landscaping, we have developed a great business package that will help you Start (or Expand) your lawn care business this year.

Check us out on our main webpage: http://www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com

Tags: app, blackberry, crews, droid, foursquare, gutter cleaning, iphone, lawn care business, money, scheduling

Bidding on Government Lawn Mowing Contracts

Mar 17

Posted by Lawn Care Business in bidding lawn care, contracts, lawn care videos, start a lawn care business | 2 Comments

March is already half over and if you are thinking about bidding on Government lawn mowing contracts you may have already missed the majority of the contracts that have been let for bid for the upcoming mowing season. Don’t fret because there are likely several contracts that have been delayed or are being rebid for one reason or another.

Before you bid on a Government lawn mowing contract you should be aware that Government contracts follow a different code of conduct than many other requests for proposals. I’ve made a short video for you highlighting a few finer points of an example Code-of-Conduct manual. Understanding and agreeing to this manual is the first step in getting your lawn care company on a Government’s bidding list.

Proposal Forms: I want to highlight a few finer points of this contract bidding instruction booklet. The first point is the Proposal Forms. Most bidding packets come with a series of bidding forms. You must complete the bidding forms that come with the bidding packet. Do not fill in your own forms or simply write your prices on a sheet of paper. Your bids may be rejected if you fill them out on anything but the bidding forms that come with your bidding packet.

Late Bids: Make sure you get your bids in on time. If you are late on a bid, the purchasing agent will, most likely, reject your bid. I have seen lawn care companies attempt to turn their bid packets in 2 minutes after the bid-closing times and the purchasing agents have rejected those bids. 9:00AM means 9:00AM and not 1 minute after 9:00. Acceptance of a bid is a violation of the request for proposal and could cause the job to be rebid. I like to submit time sensitive bids a couple days in advance. Rushing to get your bid in at the last minute will cause you to make mistakes. Taking your time with bid preparation allows you to calculate your prices with a clear head.

Submittal of Bids: Bids must be presented in a special bidding envelope that comes with your bidding packet. The envelope will be time stamped by the Purchasing Agent as proof that your submittal was within time cut off of bid acceptance.

Competency of Bidder: Purchasing agents can reject bids from lawn care companies that are deemed incompetent to complete the work. A company that does not posses proper equipment, skills sets, or manpower can be rejected from the bidding process if they are unable to demonstrate their ability to complete the job. Likewise, if a company does not have proper insurance or if they have defaulted on a previous contract, they might be deemed incompetent and their bid rejected even if they are the low bidder.

Performance Bond: A performance bond is a financial instrument stating that you will complete the work as stated in the contract. If you do not complete the work, you may lose your performance bond. A performance bond is designed to keep lawn care companies from bidding jobs that they do not have intention or capability of completing. Take a performance bond seriously. Also, a performance bond will cost you some money or it will tie up some of your financial resources. So, take the additional cost into consideration and work that into your contract.

Collusive Bidding: Bidders of many government contracts are not allowed to discuss their pricing or estimating strategies with other bidders of the same contract. Price setting is highly frowned upon by purchasing agents. Collusion can cause all bids to be rejected by the purchasing agent. Worse than having your bid rejected; collusion can have you banned from the bidding list and can bring even harsher penalties upon the collusive bidders.

This is just a brief overview of a Code-Of-Conduct example to get your companies name onto a bidding list. It can be nerve-wracking attempting to navigate the bidding process. If you are interested in bidding government contracts, we include an in-depth discussion of the bidding process in our lawn care business guidebooks. We have lots of experience bidding these type jobs and our bidding tutorial as well as our estimating calculators will help you give the best bids for these larger-scale contracts. Take a look at our website for more information on the Start A Lawn Care Business program

Tags: bidders list, bidding, code, contracts, government, lawn mowing, manual, rules

Lawn Mower Racing

Mar 10

Posted by Lawn Care Business in equipment, lawn care business, lawn equipment, lawn mowers | 2 Comments

I’ve heard about lawn mower racing for a number of years. Though I had never been to a race, I had heard they were great fun. So, a few weeks ago, I discoverd a lawn mower racing track about 30 miles from my home and I decided to check it out. I took some video for you. I hope you enjoy:

As I watched the races, I couldn’t help think how a lawn care company could take advantage of the marketing aspects of lawn mower racing. There are a few options, I suppose. A lawn care company could sponsor a team and have their logo affixed to the lawn mower and on the sleeves of the race crew. OR (and I think this would be the most fun) a lawn care company could run their own mower in the race and give out free tee-shirts to all the spectators. I think this would be a huge marketing tool to get their name into the community.

There’s a downside to this though, I spoke with a few of the racers. They say they spend way more money on their sport than they make in sponsorships from advertisers.

Still, I think it would be great fun and an interesting way to advertise your lawn care business.

Tags: lawn mower races, lawn mower racing

Chemical Application – Additional Regulations

Mar 8

Posted by Lawn Care Business in environment, fertilizer, lawn care training, lawn chemicals | No Comments

After yesterday’s blog posting on new lawn care business owners’ need to carefully consider applicator’s licenses before applying chemicals to their customers’ lawns, we received several emails from large national lawn care companies.

At first, we thought the emails were going to complain that we were overly cautious in telling new lawn care businesses to be cautious about risking stepping afoul of applicator’s guidelines. To the contrary, the overwhelming majority applauded the fact that we told new companies of the risks they take when applying chemicals without proper permits. In fact, a few emailers said we didn’t go far enough in warning of the perils of operating an illegitimate chemical application business. They wanted us to mention a few additional regulations. We will mention them below.

Before you think we’re siding with the large lawn care companies, we’re not. This blog is dedicated to the small-time lawn care operator. We are all for the guys who are starting small and trying to grow their businesses customer-by-customer. It’s a tough business but it you do it right you can make a lot of money cutting grass and doing small landscaping job. We have to give the big guys credit though. When it comes to chemical application, regulations are designed to protect the environment, your customers, and yourselves from improper use of lawn care chemicals.

In the process of obtaining your applicator’s license you will learn a tremendous amount about proper mixture, storage, transportation, and application of chemicals. You will learn to protect yourself and your customers (and their children and pets) from dangerous chemicals. Not-the-least you will learn proper application techniques.

Anyone reading this who does not have an applicator’s license should make a goal of speaking to their local county extension office and making plans to start their course work.

Before I end this blog, I wanted to share a couple ancillary items lawn care companies must consider when handling chemicals. Though I was aware of these items, a couple readers wanted me to point them out specifically.

1) Many states (Illinois included) have containment regulations. “These regulations are designed to prevent environmental contamination from pesticides and/or fertilizers. Illinois law mandates that a containment area must be used for the loading of lawn-care products for distribution to a customer. The purpose of the containment area is to intercept, retain, recover, and reuse pesticide spills, wash water, and rinse water from application equipment or other items used for the storage, handling, preparation for use, transport, or application of pesticides to turf areas. Any application or handling of fertilizers only, application to trees and shrubs only, land areas located within a public or private rights-of-way, or land areas utilized for turf research or commercial turf production are exempt from these regulations.” http://web.extension.illinois.edu/ipr/i4147_829.html

2) Do you know (quite honestly we were not aware of this) that in many states (Massachusetts included) it is against the law for a homeowner to hire an unlicensed applicator “even if it is a well known over-the-counter product that anyone can purchase?” In states where this statute exists not only will you get in trouble but the homeowner who hires you will get in trouble too. That can’t be good for public relations and word-of-mouth advertising. http://www.malcp.org/faqs.htm

Okay guys; take care of yourselves and make sure you are properly licensed. We’ve upset a good many people who thought they weren’t doing anything wrong applying Monsanto’s Round-Up to their customers’ lawns.

This blog has taken a serious turn the last few days. We’ve got some fun stuff coming up for you later this week so be sure to subscribe and check back with us.

Take care:

Start A Lawn Care Business

Tags: applicator's license, business, chemical, lawn care, regulations, round-up

Do I need a license to spray lawn chemicals.

Mar 8

Posted by Lawn Care Business in environment, lawn chemicals, start a lawn care business | 2 Comments

We are commonly asked by lawn care business owners if they need a license to spray chemicals on their customers’ lawns. Unfortunately, this is a complicated question for us to answer specifically since chemical application is governed, at least in part, at the state level. Every state has different laws.

For new and small lawn care business owners, the question of proper licensing often arises as to the use of over-the-counter products such as Monsanto’s Round-Up herbicide. If you are a new or small lawn care business owner, do not be lulled into complacency by the fact that you are using a general purpose store-bought chemical. The regulatory agencies in most states make little distinction between general use chemicals and restricted use chemicals when they are applied by a commercial operation.

If you are reading this blog, you obviously want to grow your lawn care business and make the best money possible from your customers. It is difficult to turn down a customers who want you to spray round up on the weeds in the cracks of their driveways. However, before you touch that spray bottle (or even begin to consider applying any chemical) you owe it to yourself to check your local laws and follow guidelines within the licensing regulations of your state and community.

Seriously, guys; if you think that enforcement agents are too busy to worry about one person lawn care operators or small lawn care companies then you need to think again. There were a bunch of cases in our area last year where lawn care operators were given $5,000 fines for violating applicator’s licensing requirements. A $5,000 fine is enough to put many small lawn care companies out of business. I would hate that to happen to you.

For more information and help starting (and expanding) your lawn care business, check out our main website at: www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com

Tags: chemicals, lawn care, license, money, round-up, spray

Start A Lawn Care Business

Lawn Care Business Tips and Advice

Archive for March, 2010

I didn’t get anything done today in my Lawn Care Business.

Does moss grow on the north side of trees?

Ya’ Gotta Start Somewhere

Today is the first day of spring.

Lawn Care Business Scheduling Verification with Foursquare

Bidding on Government Lawn Mowing Contracts

More lawn mower racing videos.

Lawn Mower Racing

Chemical Application – Additional Regulations

Do I need a license to spray lawn chemicals.

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