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The Law of Scarcity

Jul 23

Posted by Lawn Care Business in estimate, lawn business strategies, lawn care business | 2 Comments

Lawn Care Business operators face an ongoing struggle with customers to help them understand the time value of their business.

Value Your Time So Others Will Value It Too

New lawn care business owners often have a difficult time conveying to their customers that their time is valuable.  New lawn care owners need customers more than customers need them.  Therefore they are often willing to give their customers extra time on each mowing job.

Give It Away and It Becomes Worthless

I remember my first year in the lawn mowing business.  Customers often asked me to do addtional jobs for them but did not offer additional money.  Since I was new, I did not want to lose their business and thought if I performed additional jobs they would be loyal to me.

Instead of being loyal, customers often lost respect for me and valued my time less as I gave them more of my time.  I quickly learned to let customers know that I had other work to do and could not hang around their property longer than it took to take care of their lawn.  If they needed other work performed I would be happy to give them estimates.

Once customers realized that I valued my own time, they began to value my time too.  They stopped bothering me to chit chat about unrelated discussions.  Instead, they would speak with me about needed work for their lawns.  They realized that once I was finished with their lawns I expected to get paid (customers who paid weekly) and they had payment ready for me when I was finished.

Demand Begets Demand

More importantly, customers realized my services were in demand from other lawn care customers.  They knew I did good work and when they recommended me they told their friends how busy I was.  The apparent scarcity of my time worked in my favor as I quickly built my client base.

If you are just starting out with your lawn care business.  Let your customers know you work as efficiently as possible since you have many other customers to service.  Don’t be short or rude with them but be professional and to-the-point.  Do your work quickly and don’t dilly dally.

Learn how to use the law of scarcity in your favor and you will become even more valuable in the eyes of your lawn care customers.

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Need help with your lawn care business?  The professional lawn care business program is available right now through our website.  We have it on sale but we will probably have to raise our price in the coming weeks.  Order today for the best price currently available.

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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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Wash your Lawn Mower

Jul 18

Posted by Lawn Care Business in lawn business strategies, lawn care business, lawn equipment, lawn mowers, maintenance | 5 Comments

Today is Saturday and this is my normal maintenance day for my lawn care equipment.  A big part of my maintenance schedule includes washing my lawn mower and other lawn care equipment.   I have identified 5 reasons why a lawn care business owner should keep his equipment clean.

1)  Maintain a Professional Appearance for your Lawn Care Company

Customers notice when your equipment is clean and well maintained.  They want to be proud of their lawn not only when you are finished working but also while you are working.

New customers or prospective customers you are estimating want to know your company will be reliable and not make them wait for service should you have equipment trouble or breakdowns.  Clean equipment says “professional” to your new clients.

2)  Oil and Grease Drips

After lubricating your lawn mower you will often find drips of oil or blobs of grease hanging from your oil fill tube, oil drain, or the numberous grease nibs on the mower.  These drips can make your maintenance area or trailer slippery which can lead to an accident.  Worse yet, a blob of grease might cling to the underside of your cutting deck just long enough to be deposited on your next customer’s lawn.

Thoroughly washing your lawn mower reduces the chance that oil or grease drips will cause problems.

3)  Remove Grime from Moving Parts

By their very nature, lawn mowers become very dirty during the course of their work.  Washing removes grime and build up of dirt, grass, and leaves from lawn mower’s moving parts.

Springs react better, pullies grip better, and blades spin faster when they are allowed to work unencumbered.

4) Familiarize Yourself with your Lawn Equipment (The Zen of Lawn Mower Repair)

If you are like most professional Lawn Care Business owners you like working with your equipment and you want to know every detail about the machine with which you make your living.  Washing your lawn mower lets you focus on each part of your lawn mower in a relaxed setting.  As you run water over a dirty spring or wipe off a grass-caked bushing you gain an innate understanding how the machine works and how you can work better with the machine.

5)  Check for Defects or Worn Parts

Lawn mower take lots of abuse.  Bolts shear, springs deform, and plastic & rubber parts decay.  Washing your lawn mower allows you to do a visual and hands-on maintenance check of each part of your lawn mower and other equipment.

Replacing a broken part in your shop at your leisure is much less inconvenient than having to perform hurry-up maintenance in the field.

Turn your lawn care business into a PROFESSIONAL LAWN CARE BUSINESS!

If you are struggling with your lawn care business or you just not making the money you know you should be making, WE CAN HELP!

Visit hour home page:   StartALawnCareBusiness.com

The complete lawn care business package is on sale right now.  It will help you operate a more professional lawn care business.  Don’t face another day feeling like you don’t know what you are doing in your business.

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Lawn Care Do-It-Yourselfers

Jul 15

Posted by Lawn Care Business in fertilizer, landscaping, lawn business strategies, lawn care business, lawn chemicals | 1 Comment

As lawn care professionals we are often faced with prospective residential and commercial clients that would rather do the work themselves.

I came across a new article recently proclaiming residential customers can save money by fertilizing their own lawns.  Since a spreader is only $24 and a bag of fertilizer is only $15, the cost is about $40 vs. $65 for professional fertilizing:

http://maplewood.patch.com/articles/is-landscaping-taking-a-hit-2

The news article failed to mention three key components of hiring a professional perform lawn care work.

1) Time benefit:

Visiting a garden center, choosing correct fertilizer, reading instructions, donning protective gear, readying equipment,  fertilizer application, and equipment clean all take time.  A home owner can easily spend 4 or 5 hours trying to save $15.

2) Knowledgeable Application

Knowledge of fertilizer types, timing of application (weather), spreader settings, and dispersal densities all increase the efforts needed for correct fertilization of a residential lawn.

3) Professional Material Handling:

Being in the lawn care business since 1992, I have received dozens of calls from homeowners who have tried to fertilize their own lawns.  A typical caller asks if I can come fix their lawn because they either over applied fertilizer, accidentally broadcast lawn fertilizer into flower to shrub beds (killing their plants), or spilled a pile of fertilizer onto their lawn when they knocked their broadcast spreader over or the fertilizer bag split dumping contents into a pile on their lawn.

$15 Savings?

Is all this hassle really worth the $15 a home owner might save by doing it themselves?

Next time you are faced with a do-it-yourselfer let them know they are only saving a few dollars versus the tremendous amount of time, energy, and money they will expend attempting to get professional results.


Start Your Own Lawn Care Business

Have you ever wanted to start your lawn care business or are you hoping to expand your current business?  Our Lawn Care Business program can help you achieve a more successful business.

Check out our home page by clicking the
“How To Start A 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

Distractions of a Lawn Care Business Owner

Jun 27

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

Business Distractions

As long as I have owned my business, I have struggled against continuous outside distractions.  There is a never-ending supply of non-work activities available to fill every waking hour.  Self-motivation is difficult enough when internal distractions pull me away from my work but when distractions come from outside sources I often fight a difficult struggle to stay focused.

Flexible Time vs. Free Time

One of the reasons I started a lawn care business was to have free time and flexible time.  Free time and flexible time are great benefits.  However, without a time clock or boss marking my work hours, non-productive activities creep into my day to consume my valuable work time.

You may relate to a few of the distractions listed below.

1)  Your time is not respected by family and friends.

Physical labor of a lawn care business is only a small portion of your work life.  Especially during the early days of starting your business and building your customer list you may spend more than half your time developing advertising strategies, handing out lawn care flyers, calling contacts, and giving estimates.  Once your lawn care business has customers you will still spend many hours with office work, maintenance, customer relations, and research & development of the services you offer.  These ‘non-work’ hours are as important as the hours you spend performing physical labor of your business.  Friends and relatives may not understand the importance of these hours and may lure you to “take the afternoon off” since you don’t have lawns to do at that particular time.  It is very enticing to take the afternoon off when friends call you on their way to the lake.

Resist the temptation of neglecting non-mowing duties just to spend a fun afternoon with family and friends.  Let them know how important your work is and ask them to respect the fact you are trying to build your business.

2)  Need a friend?  Buy a truck.

People with trucks always have plenty of friends.  Lawn care business owners are lucky that we get to purchase nice trucks and big equipment trailers.  Once you have hauling capacity you will notice a steady stream of people needing couches moved or loads of lumber delivered from the hardware store.  They appreciate your help but they fail to realize the amount of time consumed.

By all means help friends and relatives when they truly need assistance but offer your help sparingly to prevent your flexible schedule being taken advantage of.

3)  Facebook, Twitter, Texting, CNN, CNBC, Talk Radio, The Latest Movie, Sleeping-In, Staying Out Late, Long Lunches, etc, etc.

Distractions come in all forms.  There are an infinite number of distractions which can completely consume your day.  Force those distractions to respect your time by setting goals, developing a work schedule, and forcing yourself to respect your own time and the demands of your growing business.

Defend Your Hours

I am not ungrateful for my friends and family members (and for Facebook and Talk Radio).  I relish my ability to spend free time with them.  I also know they are not purposely consuming the time I should be spending on my business.

It is up to me (and you) to steadfastly defend the work hours needed to reach our goals of building a successful business.

Are You Succeeding With Your Lawn Care Business?

If you are not making the money you know you should be earning, our lawn care business guidebook can help you get on the right track.

Visit our website:  www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com
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Bikini Lawn Care

Jun 25

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

Bikini Lawn Care

Several times each year we get questions from business owners wanting to start a Bikini Lawn Care business.  The most famous of all bikini lawn care companies was Tiger Time Lawn Care out of Memphis, Tennessee.  Tiger Time found world wide fame in 2007 when a local television news station reported on one of his bikini’d workers mowing a residential lawn.  Afterward, hundreds of television news stations, newspapers, radio shows, and blogs scurried to find more information about Tiger Time Bikini Lawn Care.

Bikini Lawn Care: Long Term Success?

We have not kept track of Tiger Time Lawn Care but we can tell you that out of the dozen or more lawn care companies we know about that have taken the bikini lawn care route none of them have found long term success solely offering bikini services.

Problems Offering Bikini Lawn Care

There are inherent problems offering bikini lawn care:

1)  Even when properly attired, lawn care workers face dangers on the job.  Lawn mowers are loud and weedeaters sling rocks and debris.  Protective clothing is essential.  Headware, safety goggles, hearing protection, work gloves, long pants, and work boots help protect lawn care workers.  A bikini doesn’t seem so erotic once it is covered up with layers of protective clothing.

2)  While lawn care companies thrive on repeat (weekly) customers, bikini lawn care customers only hire companies for one time services such as Father’s Day, a birthday celebration, retirement party, etc.   A bikini lawn care company needs a roster of hundreds of customers hiring them once or twice per year instead of only 40 to 50 customers needed for a typical lawn care company.

3)  If you have read the Start A Lawn Care Business Training Manuals you know that community respect is the cornerstone of many lawn care businesses.  You have a relationship with your customers.  If you do good work for them they will recommend you to their friends, relatives, and business associates.  Lawn care companies need to be taken seriously by their clients.  This is how larger contracts come about.  If you offer bikini lawn care, you really have to consider if you will garner the respect you desire for your business.

Bikini Lawn Care may sound like a great idea to generate quick cash and publicity but before you don your bikini or hire a cadre of scantly clad lawn babes consider whether or not it will lend to long-term success of your lawn care business.

Lawn Care Business Program

For more information on how to operate a successful lawn care business, visit our home page: StartALawnCareBusiness.com

Lawn Care Advertising: To Tree or Not To Tree

Jun 18

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

Have you ever seen obnoxious advertising that turns you away from a company and years later the memory of that advertising still leaves a bad taste in your mouth and you won’t do business with them because of an advertisement you saw years earlier?

On the opposite side, does GOOD advertising have as much a long-term impact?

Two advertisements involving trees.  One good.  One bad.

I came across two forms of advertising signs this week.  Neither of them deal with lawn care but they both have something in common.  Trees.  Both advertisements make use of trees outside their buildings.  One of the advertisements is an obnoxious banner hung lengthwise down a tree’s trunk.  The other advertisement is a positive and tastefully designed sign which incorporates trees on the business’ property.

Advertising sign #1

IMGP4758_1
As you can see from this photograph, a financial services company strapped a white banner to a tree in hopes of luring customers into their business.   This banner is a distraction, it’s ugly, and it is completely out of place hung from an otherwise very attractive tree in a residential-type neighborhood.

Advertising sign #2

IMGP4761_2

The second sign is for a health wellness center.  The company has named itself “The Wellness Tree” and it incorporates a beautiful shade tree just outside the front door.

The sign includes a wrought iron rendering of this tree.

IMGP4761_1

The Wellness Tree honors the trees on their property and invites clients to enjoy their beauty and shade.  The other company degrades their trees by hanging ugly banners from them.

As silly as this may sound, I will forever remember the gaudy banner hung by the financial services company.  It will always be a deterrent to my doing business with them.

As you design your lawn care company’s advertising, consider the aesthetic of your placements and how they fit in with their surrounding landscapes.

If you are just starting your lawn care business and you want to know more about marketing to your customers, our Lawn Care Business program offers a large marketing guide to help with your advertising.

Visit our home page to learn more: www. StartALawnCareBusiness.com