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.
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