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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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Be Assertive Not Aggressive

Nov 24

Posted by Lawn Care Business in bidding lawn care, customers, lawn business strategies, sales | No Comments

by: Start A Lawn Care Business

At one time or another, we have all experienced annoyingly pushy salesmen. Whether it’s at the mall, a used car lot, on the telephone, or even at my own front door, annoyingly pushy salesmen turn me off and rarely gain me as a customer.

I was thinking about forceful selling tactics and how they relate to the lawn care business this morning during a business seminar. The presenter was talking about the art of getting your foot in the door. He told us that getting your foot in the door is the first step to acquiring a new customer account. “Since a prospective customer’s first inclination is to shut you out, aggressiveness is needed to surmount that first obstacle.”

Being in the lawn care industry for 17 years, I have to completely disagree with the “agressive foot in the door” principle. Instead of winning customers, this tactic drives customers away.

I like to be assertive instead of aggressive.  Assertiveness is when you use intelligent pursuasion to show prospective customers how you can be of benefit to them.

I want to give an example of getting your foot in the door using an assertive sales technique.  When I was in the early days of my lawn care business, I used to walk neighborhoods and knock on doors.  Most people politely refused my offer for estimates.  Some people gladly accepted.  Still, others rudely shut their door in my face.  I did not want to turn into an aggressive salesman so I developed a strategy of assertive behavior when met with a rude prospect.  One day, a gentleman seemed very annoyed when he opened the door, I gave him my quick 30 Second Elevator Speech but by the time I was 10 seconds into the pitch he skreetched “NOT INTERESTED” and proceeded to slam the door.  Before his door closed I yelled:  “YOU’RE KILLING YOUR SHRUBS!”

The door slammed and I walked off the porch with my head hung low feeling dejected from yet another “No.”  Before I reached the last step off the porch, this man opened his door and asked “WHAT DID YOU SAY?”

I told him he was killing his shrubs because his air conditioner’s condensation overflow was leaking into his shrub bed.  Slight watering is okay but the last two shrubs in his bed were standing in water.  He said “SHOW ME.”

Now, I was only new to the business and was intimidated by his attitude.  Being a beginner landscaper, I showed him the problem and offered an easy solution of  fastening a drip tube to water the entire bed evenly instead of only one section.

He appreciated my advice and asked me to bid on his grass cutting contract for the summer.  I told him the price and got the job immediately.

Aggressive sales would have never worked with this customer.  However, an intelligently assertive response as his door closed worked wonders and got me a long-term customer.

If you are interested in more sales techniques used to get customers for your lawn care business, check out our business guidebook package at our website:  Start A Lawn Care Business

Even if your not in the lawn care business, this package will help teach you sales, estimating, and customer relations.

 

People who purchase our Lawn Care Business Package learn how to be assertive instead of aggressive.

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How to Proceed? Take the Lead!

Aug 2

Posted by Lawn Care Business in bidding lawn care, customers, estimate, lawn business strategies | No Comments

I’ve said many times; the estimating process is one of the more tricky aspects of runing your own lawn care business.  This article helps you put your customers at ease when they request free lawn care estimates.

Unsure Customers

Customers who have never hired a lawn care company before may find it a bit frighening to call a stranger on the phone and request that person come to their homes and look at their lawns.

Likewise, new lawn care business owners may find it intimidating to mosey around a strangers lawn looking for imperfections.  As a business owner, you must realize customers look for you to be the professional and take the lead in the estimating process. 

I have done thousands of estimates.  Most customers have a general idea what needs to be done in their lawn and how much money they are willing to pay within $5 to $10 for weekly service.  But, they are unsure of how to go about getting everything set up to their satisfaction.  It is up to you, as a business owner, to lead the sales call.

Here are a few methods to help you take the lead during your sales calls:

1)  Practice your script.

You do not want to be fumbling for words or wondering what to say to a new or prospective customer.  Using our lawn care business material develop a script of what to say.  You want to be friendly with your customer but you don’t want to be best friend.  Keep chit chat to no more than a few minutes and get to the reasons why you’re there.  Your script needs to, at least, cover the basics: What work do they need performed? How often do they want the  work performed. How much are they willing to pay?  It’s good to listen to your customers but you must direct the conversation.

Once you develop your script, practice it.  I remember giving my first customer estimate when I started my lawn care business.  I didn’t want to make a fool of myself so I developed a script.  I would even close the door to my room and practice in front of a mirror.  Silly, right?  Maybe but it helped me build confidence and gave me the ability to speak with customers and get the jobs.

2)  Know your line of work.

Most  prospects know a few things.
A) The grass looks bad. 
B) I want the grass to not look this bad.
C) I don’t want to pay much to have it not look this bad. 

Ha Ha. Yep, that will sum up about 80% of all your free estimates.  If you know your subject (grass for this purpose) you can lead the discussion to explain why they should hire you.

3) Remove their guess work.

Until you show for the estimate, new customers have little idea what your proceedures are.  Once they are comfortable with the services you offer and accept your price.  They may not know what comes next.  If you’ve already read our lawn care guidebook you know to bring your equipment to every estimate.  Take your customers guess work away. 
Recommend a mowing schedule (example: Wednesday about 10:00).  Recommend a payment plan (example: Leave check under the welcome mat).
Recommend additional work (example: Flower beds need more mulch)

By taking the lead you will instill confidence in your customers making they feel good about having you as their lawn care person.

If you are thinking about starting a lawn care business or if you want to make an existing business even more successful, get a copy of our Lawn Care Business guidebook.  It’s on sale right now!  Visit our main site:  www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com

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Don't Be an Unpaid Consultant!

Jul 20

Posted by Lawn Care Business in bidding lawn care, customers, lawn business strategies | No Comments

Unpaid Consulting happens everyday to new lawn care business owners.

FREE ESTIMATES

One of the best ways to attract potential customers for your lawn care business is to offer free estimates on all your advertising material.  Offering FREE estimates is a no-brainer since no future customer will ever pay you for a small lawn mowing job estimate.

PAID ESTIMATES

Large job estimates and (especially) landscaping design estimates require higher levels of expertise and greater numbers of hours than simple lawn mowing estimates.  As such, job estimates which require dissemination of information should not be conducted for free.

Seasoned customers are wiley though.  Often, homeowners who need landscape work completed will call a lawn care business owner in an attempt to glean as much information as possible from a free estimate.

STEALING INFORMATION?

“What shrubs would look good over there?”  or  “How much mulch do I need for all my beds?”  Are questions often asked by these prospects.  “Sketch a draft of the landscaping ideas you have for my lawn and give me a free estimate for the work.”

These questions are designed to give the customer free specialized information not a free estimate.  In many cases, customers will accept your calculations, shrub suggestions, and design work.  In possession of this information, they will take it to the garden shop, purchase their own materials, and install the landscaping themselves.

Giving free estimates is fine but don’t fall into the roll of being an UNPAID CONSULTANT!

Start A Lawn Care Business

Are you tired of traps and setbacks?  Visit our homepage (StartALawnCarebusiness.com) to read about our full-bore, jam-packed lawn care business package.  It’s on sale right now and will help you start and operate your own, successful lawn care business.

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Lawn Care Cleanup for Foreclosed Homes

Jul 4

Posted by Lawn Care Business in bidding lawn care, lawn business strategies, lawn care business | 1 Comment

As hurricane season begins, communities in heavy weather target areas struggle to place lawn care cleanup responsibility for foreclosed homes.

http://www.carolinalive.com/news/news_story.aspx?id=307652

This is good news for lawn care companies who have their businesses registered with their local code administrator and purchasing manager.
Irrespective of your location in the country (in hurricane zones or not) lawns need to be cleaned after severe weather.  If homes are in foreclosure or if vacant property is not cared for by registered property owners, responsibility of cleanup often falls to public works departments.
These departments often do not have available manpower after inclement weather since they are working hard clearing public streets and other prioritized locations.
If you are known to their purchasing managers and are on their list of available lawn care vendors you will often get calls to bid on clean up.  If job costs fall below purchase price thresholds you may be allowed to perform work without completing a bidding process.

The Start A Lawn Care Business guidebook and business toolkit describes how to properly get on local bidding lists and preferred vendor lists.  You can purchase the guidebook by visiting our home page at:

http://www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com

Feel free to contact us to order the business program or purchase it directly from our website.

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Growing your Lawn Care Business

Jul 2

Posted by Lawn Care Business in bidding lawn care, how much to charge, lawn business strategies, lawn care business | 2 Comments

by: Lawn Care Business

Controlled growth and profitability is best for your lawn care and landscaping business.

As a note of caution to new business owners; control grow of your lawn care business and only accept profitable jobs to keep from getting too big too fast.

New lawn care business owners have a tendency to pursue all the business leads that come their way.  Aggressive marketing can bring many new prospective customers.  Another  tendency new lawn care business owners exhibit is dropping their prices to get as many customers as they can.

If you are a new lawn care business that is marketing agressively and underbidding all your jobs, you may quickly find your business in financial difficulty.

From the list of many attributes demonstrated by successful lawn care business owners controlled growth and profitability on every project rank high.

1)  Controlled Growth of the Lawn Care Business

Growing a lawn care business is a careful balance between developing capacity by purchasing the correct equipment and gaining customers to fill that capacity.  Ideally, a lawn care company should gain profitable customers slightly ahead of increasing their company’s capacity.

2) Profitability on Every Job

Successful lawn care business owners know the costs of every job.  Even jobs as small as $25 lawn mowings have associated costs.  Equipment depreciation, gasoline, trimmer line, travel time, and  opportunity costs all have to be calculated.  Successful lawn care business owners will not bid less than the  job’s total revenue.  If costs out strip revenue the job is not profitable and should not be accepted.

Start and Expand your Lawn Care Business

If you want to grow a successful lawn care business, check out our lawn care business material by clicking the “How To Start A Lawn Care Business” link at the top of this page.

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Lawn Care Business Fireworks

Jul 2

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

A very happy Fourth of July to you from everyone at www.StartALawnCareBusness.com

On a related note, lots of your potential customers are having cookouts this weekend for family and friends. As they are busy prepping food and buying drinks. they don’t have time for worrying about their yard.

It’s a great time to pick up a few extra lawn care customers. Canvas your neighborhood Thursday and Friday to drum up extra business.

Good luck and Happy Fourth!

There is still tons of money to be made this season. Check out our lawn care business program (on sale right now) at StartALawnCareBusiness.com

Tips for Starting a Lawn Care Business

Apr 29

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

by: Start A Lawn Care Business

The lawn care business program available from our website: www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com is packed with information about how to operate a lawn care business.  Sometimes we are asked: “What is your number one piece of advice for someone brand new to the lawn care business?”

No individual tip can sum up all you need to know about running your own business, knowing how to price your services is a tremendously important lesson to learn about running your business.

Pricing is subjective in the lawn care industry.  No one can tell you exactly how much to price each job.  Therefore, it is very important for you to develop a strong pricing strategy. Know your costs, know how much your time is worth, and know what price the market will bear. If the market won’t bear the amount you need to cover your costs then don’t do the job. You can’t make money by losing money. DUH…right? You’d be surprised how many people don’t know that basic concept.  Companies go out-of-business everyday because they can’t cover costs.

Additionally, don’t let customers talk you down in price or intimidate you because you’re new to the business…they’ll do that, trust me. If a lawn care or landscaping job is worth $30 hold firm to that price. If the customer won’t pay, walk away and find someone who will. Don’t sacrifice your rightful profit just to get a lawn care customer.

Our lawn care business package has a huge section on how to bid and estimate lawn care and landscaping jobs.  Estimating calculator software is also included with the package.  The lawn care estimator will help you estimate your lawn care jobs.

You can purchase the lawn care business package, on sale right now, from:

http://www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com

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How to get lawn care customers: a view from the other side.

Apr 8

Posted by Lawn Care Business in bidding lawn care, customers, lawn business strategies, Lawn Care Advertising | 2 Comments

by:
Lawn Care Business

How to get lawn care customers: a view from the other side.

Do you miss out on lawn care jobs and wonder why your customers pick your competitors?  This article will show you a view from a residential customer’s eyes.

Being associated with the lawn care industry for over 17 years and developing lawn care business software, I don’t often have the opportunity to hire green industry companies in a retail type setting.  When I do hire companies it is mainly for sub-contract work.  Sub-contractors work on a professional level.  Hiring and working with them, I don’t gain a full understanding of a residential relationship.

What can lawn care companies learn from a tree service?

Last week, I had the opportunity to search out and hire a tree service to cut down a tree that was threatening a neighbor’s house.  I called several companies to judge their price, estimating skills, and delivery of service.  Although this was not a lawn care company, I approached this process with the mindset of a residential customer trying to find a lawn care service. Hiring the tree company gave me good insight to our lawn care customers.

Your customers are excited to call you.

I have watched this tree lean at an ever increasing angle for the last two years.  During this year’s spring storms, I have had nightmares about awakening to a knock on my door from an angry neighbor with a tree on his house.  Though I wish I could do this job myself, I was excited to find a company able to handle the work so I wouldn’t have to do the heavy lifting and risk destroying a house.
Lawn care customer are equally excited about hiring a professional company. When doing your initial estimates, approach your client with the same enthusiasm you expect from the companies you hire.

Lawn customers employ a variety of advertising media to find you.

In my search for a tree service, I employed word-of-mouth advertising, business cards, internet search, flyers, and those signs you see on telephone polls.

lawn care companies can learn from tree service
Dangerous tree leaning toward a neighbor’s house

Your lawn care business can avoid complaints.

My biggest complaint with companies I called was their failure to return my call.  Generally, if I call a service company, I expect a return phone call within one business day.  If you really want to impress me, return my call within an hour.

Tree Service Company #1 and #2

I found the first company by seeing their phone number on their truck about 5 miles from my house.  I called and spoke to the owner of the company who assured me he would come by the same afternoon to give an estimate.  Two days later, he had still not showed up. 
The second company was found through a web search.  This company did not return the message I left on their answering machine.

Tree Service Company #3

I found this company through a business card pinned to a grocery store bulletin board.  The business card caught my eye by being bright green with bold black type on the front and back of the card.  The business card mentioned several services offered but it did not specify if they carried insurance.  Knowing that one misstep could bring a tree down on a house, I needed a company with insurance.  The business card listed a gmail address but did not mention a website.  I googled the company name and found a positive article in a local newspaper speaking about environmental consciousness of this company.  I called them.  The owner was friendly and talkative.  He said he would call back to schedule a time when he and the climber could review the tree.  Two days later, he called back to say that he had out-of-town guests and would not be able to estimate the job for another two days.  Two days later, he called and said he would be over in 15 minutes.  He showed up as scheduled and gave an estimate of $350.  I asked him about business liability insurance.  He said they were insured but he answered in such a way that I questioned whether he really had coverage or not.  He was not ready to work and said he needed a 2 day lead to get the tree down.  I thanked him and he was on his way. 
Almost one week had passed since I first called him.

Tree Service Company #4

I saw a sign on a telephone pole with a phone number.  I also had a flyer left on my mailbox with a number.  I asked a friend if she knew of a reliable tree company and she gave me a phone number.  All three numbers where the same company.  I called this telephone number on  Friday morning about 11:30 and left a message. 
By 12:30, the owner of the company called to ask for my address.  At 1:00 a 4 man crew showed up at my property.  The lead tree climber surveyed the tree and gave an estimate of $300.  I told them I was looking to spend about $200.  They called the owner and he refused to budge from their price since the tree needed to be pieced down to guard against it damaging a house.

lawn care tree care knowledge and ability sell jobs
Knowledgeable tree climbers can teach a lawn care businesses how to successfully bid and estimate lawn care jobs.

Your lawn customers seek your confidence.

This crew was confident, knowledgeable, and ready to work immediately.  Knowing a storm was brewing that evening and knowing that I wanted my weekend time off to clean any mess left by the tree cutters, I gave them the green light to proceed with the work.  Within 5 minutes, the climber fitted his harness and was making his way up the tree.  Branches were falling 10 minutes after the workers had arrived at my property.

A dogwood tree, a fence, shrubbery, and a house all risked being damaged by falling branches.  All items were safe as this crew expertly dropped each branch and each section of tree exactly where needed to protect my property.  Within an hour this four man crew had performed their work and were loading up their equipment, $300 richer.  I am happy with their work and I will likely call them back if there is ever a tree I cannot handle myself.

bring lawn equipment to your estimates
Show up for you lawn care estimate with your lawn mower and other equipment. 
These guys got the job because they came ready to work.

Your lawn care / landscaping company can learn a few pointers from my experience.

1)  Your customers are excited to call you.  They have thought hard about finding a lawn service.  They wish
they could do the work themselves but they are pleased with their decisions to hire a knowledgeable and professional company to perform the work.  Once they make that call, they expect you to be responsive and quick to show up for an estimate.  If you drag the estimating process out too long, they will find another company.

2)  Your prospective customers have a general idea what they will pay for their lawn care work.  If your price is a few dollars over their expectations and you can prove to them why the estimate is fair, they will likely hire you.  However, if you are significantly over their expected price and you are not professional in your presentation, they will look elsewhere for a better estimate on the lawn care or landscaping job.

3)  Your lawn customers expect to be treated with respect.  When you give a date or time for your estimate, keep
to your time table.  Making a customer wait is disrespectful.  Also, your customers are proud of their yards and they want their property treated with respect.  In addition to giving a professional cut, do your best to avoid impacting any property, such as lawn furniture, which may obstruct your cutting path.

4)  Show up ready to cut the grass or do the landscape work.  Once a customer calls you to do their work, they
are ready to have it done immediately.  This isn’t true in all cases but normally if a customer agrees on your price you can count on them letting you do the work right away.

Next time you hire someone to perform a service (oil change for your car or having your hair cut) analyze how you are treated to see what you can learn.

Our Lawn Care Business package contains our complete manuals teaching you how to operate a professional and profitable lawn care business.  The package also includes a full software suite, video tutorials, and estimating calculator software.

Visit our site at: 

http://www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com

 

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