Start A Lawn Care Business

Make money with a lawn care and landscaping business.

Commercial Lawn Mowing Equipment – Spring Tuneup.

Feb 17

Posted by Lawn Care Business in lawn equipment, lawn mowers, leaf blowers, maintenance, start a lawn care business | No Comments

Spring is here and it is time to pull the tarps off the lawn mowers and prepare them for the busy mowing season ahead.

As much as I have always liked to maintain my own equipment, I believe it pays to have lawn mowers, blowers, and weed trimmers professionally serviced at a favorite commercial lawn mower repair shop at least once per year.  Changing oil, oil filters, air filters, and gas filters as well as lubrication service is well within the reach of most all lawn care business owners.  However, perfectly dialing-in a lawn mower is a skill reserved for the repair professionals.  Perfect tracking, carb adjustment, and preventative maintenance inspections will help keep your equipment running smoothly.

Commercial Lawn Mower RepairIf you are like many lawn care business owners, you are well capable of routine maintenance  on your lawn care equipment.  But paying a professional lawn care repair center will help ensure perfectly operating equipment and less downtime in the months ahead.

If you are starting your lawn care company this year and want to know more about proper landscaping equipment selection for your business, we include an equipment selection manual in our lawn care business guidebook.

Learn more on our homepage:

http://www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com
Starting A Lawn Care Business

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Free Advertising for your Lawn Care Company? Think Again!

Feb 10

Posted by Lawn Care Business in advertising lawn care, Lawn Care Advertising, lawn care customers | No Comments

Lawn care is a competitive business.  As with any competitive business, you have to advertise your company to get customers.  Right now is one of the best times of the year to advertise heavy.  Customers that you acquire right now will, likely, be with you for the rest of the year.

As with all business principles, there are right ways to advertise and wrong ways to advertise.  I am noticing a disturbing trend that lawn care companies are using to advertise their businesses this year.  And I think they are making mistakes. 

After I finishing for the day, I stopped into a gas station to fill up my truck to prevent an empty tank tomorrow morning.  As I reached for the gas nozzle, I noticed about 1/2 a dozen stickers with the name of a local lawn care company printed on them.  The stickers covered the panel of the gas pump and a few of them were placed to obscure the gas price display.

Lawn Care Advertising

Improper Lawn Care Advertising

Do you think this lawn care company will attract good customers by using this type of advertising scheme? 

Personally, I think this is the wrong way to advertise a lawn care company.  Very few potential customers will respond favorably to this type of advertising.  More-so, potential lawn care customers are turned off by this tactic.  Instead of attracting clients, this company will garner complaints, destroy their goodwill, and potentially lose existing customers.

If you are thinking about using this type of marketing for your lawn care service, please think twice.  There are legitimate forms of free advertising available that are not nearly this obnoxious.

If you are starting your lawn care business this year or if you are attempting to advertise heavily to expand an existing business, our lawn care business guidebook package includes a great section on advertising your company.  Proper advertising will gain your company many more clients than resorting to placing stickers on gas pumps.

For more information, visit our home page:

http://www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com
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Landlords as Lawn Care Customers

Feb 6

Posted by Lawn Care Business in advertising lawn care, lawn care customers | No Comments

Spring is almost here and we have been blogging quite a bit lately about attracting new lawn care clients. 

What kind of clients are you trying to attract this year?  Individual residences, homeowner’s associations, real estate agents, and business complexes should all be within a lawn care business owner’s customer mix.  A diversity of clients makes a stronger lawn care business.  If there is a downturn in one sector of a lawn care company’s client list, the other sectors will buffer the hardship.  For example; we received an email from a lawn care business owner last year who focused all his attention in previous years on a single industrial complex.  The money was great and his drive time between customers was minimal.  However, at the beginning of last year businesses began suffering greatly due to the economy and the lawn care business owner lost over 75% of his revenue from that one complex.

There is one customer we did not mention above; landlords.  As the nation’s economy begins to get back on track this year, we think landlords, once again, are a great source of revenue.  Landlords definately want a bargain for their money but on the positive side most landlords own multiple units and they can give you a steady stream of work to fill gaps in your schedule.  Landlords understand the value of curb appeal and they are more than willing to pay you a fair price to keep their properties looking great for their renters (and prospective renters).

Do you want to add a landlord or two to your lawn care customer client list?  Do you want to charge these landlords more than they are willing to pay.  Landlords are very protective of their property investments and a great strategy of proving your worth to a landlord is to show him you will care for his property when you are mowing.  Landlords hate having to make repairs and they hate air conditioner problems.  When you are speaking with a landlord about mowing his property mention that you always take special care to blow the grass away from the air conditioner unit.  Grass can clog the cooling fins and repairs are costly.

Grass and leaves can cause air conditioner problems

Grass and leaves can cause air conditioner problems.

Impressing a landlord client will mean you can charge more money and he will tell his other landlord friends about your services.

If you want to learn more about how to generate a proper mix of lawn care clients for your lawn care and landscaping business, our lawn care business strategy guide book will show you how.  Also, our estimating software will help you with your quotes so you can operate a successful and profitable lawn care business.

Learn more on our main page:

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

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Lawn Care Question of the Day – Whut Iz It? Giant Bean?

Feb 4

Posted by Lawn Care Business in landscaping photography, questions | No Comments

Today’s lawn care question is bound to garner great responses.

I have been rifling through pictures taken in June of last year on a trip to Ohio.  This picture is of a very familiar tree to landscape professionals.  However, I am sure that many of our readers have often seen this tree and thought “I didn’t know green beans grew on trees.”

Can you guess what it is?

If you have a guess please leave a comment.  If you have a lawn care business website, please feel free to add a link to your site.  Also, we would love if you would add a link to our website.

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Scheduling your Lawn Care Customers

Feb 4

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

Proximity Scheduling for your Lawn Care Customers

Our lawn care business program is a heavy-duty course in how to run an efficient, successful, and profitable lawn care business.  We believe that, in order to be successful in your lawn care business, you MUST be efficient in your business practices.  One of the problems new lawn care business owners face is proper scheduling of their lawn care customers.  In our lawn care business program, we teach a practice we call “Proximity Scheduling.”

Drive time, load time, and unload time are huge drains on your productivity.  Having lawn care customers all over town is very inefficient.  Driving to your customer, stopping your lawn care truck, unloading your lawn care equipment, mowing the grass, loading your lawn care equipment, and driving to your next customer half-way across town is a tremendously inefficient way to operate your lawn care business and schedule your customers.

Proper scheduling of lawn care customers can more than double your lawn care business productivity.

Since springtime has yet to begin, right now is a perfect time to take a serious look at your scheduling habits for the upcoming year.  Have you developed a proper strategy of customer scheduling?  Our “Proximity Scheduling” philosophy begins when you start advertising your company.  Proper advertising, initial customer interview, customer setup, route selection, and mowing patterns are all integrated to help you complete each customer as quickly as possible.  The more efficient you are in your lawn care customer scheduling, the more money you should make with your lawn care business.

To learn more about running an efficient lawn care business, please visit our main home page to learn about our lawn care business program:

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

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Lawn Care Request for Bids – Contracts.

Feb 2

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

Are you a lawn care business owner that is tired of doing 100% residential jobs?

Though there is great money to be made mowing residential lawns and creating small landscapes, we suggest many lawn care companies can greatly increase their revenue by adding a few larger-scale mowing contracts into their customer mix. If you have ever wanted to take your lawn care business to the next level, February is a perfect time to bid on larger scale lawn mowing and landscaping contracts. City and county governments, government agencies, industrial plants, retail establishments, and apartment complexes are letting out bids for lawn care work during February.

Successfully bidding a large-scale grass cutting contract is not as easy as it might sound. We have seen many people fail at successfully bidding mowing contracts. Common mistakes in bidding on these contracts include: misunderstanding the scope of work, improper equipment selection, under bidding in an attempt to lowball your competitors, over bidding in an attempt to make more mone from the contracting agency, and insufficient business requirements (lack of insurance, incomplete permits, unproven ability to complete the work.)

If you would like to learn how to properly bid on lawn mowing and grass cutting contracts, our Lawn Care Business guidebook and software program can help you. The program includes estimating software and an excellent guide to bidding lawn mowing contracts.

Learn more on our homepage:

http://www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com
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Lawn Care – February 1, 2011

Feb 1

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

Time waits for no man.

The first month of 2011 has passed us by. If you are a lawn care business owner, you are very likely cheering that Springtime is one month closer. Though there are still many cold days ahead of us this winter, the sun is beginning to creep up on the horizon and a few warmer days are showing up in the forecast. For many of us here in the southeast, we saw temperatures in the high 60’s last weekend and I even saw the first sprouts of wild onions and wild garlic in yards last week.

If you are starting a lawn care business in 2011, RIGHT NOW is the time to get started….like TODAY. Customers are already thinking about getting their lawns cleaned up for springtime and plantings in their landscape beds. Lawn care companies should already be advertising to acquire these ‘earlybird’ lawn care customers.

You surely have many questions about lawn care business startup, equipment selection, advertising, bidding and estimating, and growing your lawn care business. If you are just starting out or if you’re new to the business and want to expand more this year than you did last year, we have developed a comprehensive lawn care business program that will answer you questions about starting and expanding your own lawn care business.

Read more about the business program on our main lawn care business web page:

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

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Is Lawn Care a Luxury?

Jan 27

Posted by Lawn Care Business in advertising lawn care, economy, lawn care customers | No Comments

Dave Ramsey, the financial guru, answered a question recently from a listener to his radio program:

Dear Dave,

We currently pay to have our lawn mowed each week. This expense is figured into our monthly budget, but we’re not quite out of debt yet. My wife says this is a luxury at this point, and I should cut the grass myself until we’re out of debt. What do you think?

Dave’s answer to this lawn care question was very close to the way we would have answered this question.

We believe most financial questions should be answered from a standpoint of a cost/benefit analysis.  In essence, does the cost of the product/service outweigh the benefit of that product/service. If the cost outweighs the benefit then it is a luxury.

Dave Ramsey mentioned that a Doctor or a Lawyer with a high income can easily afford to hire a lawn care company. In fact, high income households SHOULD hire lawn care companies instead of doing the lawn themselves as they will make much more money performing their careers than they will pay for lawn care. Ramsey goes on to state that someone earning $12/hour will probably not earn enough at their job in the amount of time they would save by hiring a lawn care professional, therefore, they should cut the grass themselves.

We think Dave’s answer if pretty good. However, we can think of many examples when a $12/hour employee would hire a lawn care company and a Doctor would cut his own grass. Ability to take time off work is a great example. $12/hour employees often have their work lives dictated to them by their bosses. They often have to work double shifts and weekends because their bosses tell them to. They are often scrambling for extra hour of overtime they can get to increase their paychecks.

Doctors, on the other hand, often have much more autonomy in their jobs. They are able to take time away from work and if gardening or lawn care is their hobby then they don’t want to hire lawn care professionals even if they can afford it.

As a lawn care business owner, it is wise of you to consider your customer’s cost/benefit analysis. Seeing their budget through their eyes can help you point out how valuable your services are. Yes, we all want roster full of high income clients. However, sometimes, a $12/hour employee often needs, and is willing and able to pay, you to cut their grass on a weekly basis.

Our lawn care business guidebook has a great section showing you marketing strategies to help you gain a wide range of lawn care customers. We believe you need a good mix of lawn care customers to have a truly successful operation.

Learn more at our main website:
Start A Lawn Care Business
http://www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com

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Hispanic Labor in the Lawn Care Industry

Jan 26

Posted by Lawn Care Business in lawn business strategies | No Comments

A recent Huffington Post article discussed the labor crisis in America and how undocumented Hispanic laborers are stepping in to jobs that require very demanding work such as lawn care and landscaping.  A response to the article stated:

“I have a friend who has a lawn care service and he pays 10-15 per hour with a guarantee of 20 hours per week, rain or shine. He rarely gets Americans to apply.”

Through our website, www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com, we get to speak with many lawn care business owners and people who are thinking about starting their own lawn care businesses.  It is no doubt that the Hispanic labor force has had a dramatic impact on the lawn care industry from a labor standpoint.

Since have almost 20 year’s experience in the lawn care industry, we speak with many people who are thinking about or in the beginning stages of starting their own lawn care companies.  We are noticing an increase in the number of Hispanics calling us to ask advice about starting their own lawn care companies.  In fact, many Hispanics who have worked as lawn care laborers are now taking the first steps in starting their own companies.

Tell us what you think about this.

Are you a lawn care operator who employs a Hispanic labor force?  Has your lawn care company been impacted?  Are you Hispanic who is thinking about starting your own lawn care company?

We attempt to stay up-to-date with all of the latest trends of the lawn care industry.  So, if you have a minute, write to us and let us know your thoughts.

You can contact us here:  Lawn Care Business Contact Form

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Money Raking Leaves – Even in January

Jan 26

Posted by Lawn Care Business in bidding lawn care, leaf blowers, leaf raking, money | No Comments

If you think the leaf raking season is over, you might want to think twice before putting the leaf rake away until autumn.

Last week, after a 7″ snowfall had finished melting, I was driving through a few local neighborhoods checking on lawn conditions.  Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a sign proclaiming: “Leaf pickup. This area next. Last Round.”   This morning, I heard the familiar high-pitched whine of the county’s leaf vacuum as it made one last pass through our city’s streets.  If you’re still hoping to make money raking leaves, don’t give up yet.

While most lawn care customers have long since composted all their leaves, late leaf fall due to winter winds and a procrastinating public make it necessary for leave trucks to make one last pass during January.  If you are in an area of the country where leaf pickup is an ongoing concern even during January, it’s time to grab your gloves and leaf rake so you can make some much needed money during this long winter season.

Don’t forget, if you want to make money raking leaves, proper pricing is essential so you can make great money for your lawn care business.  Our “start a lawn care business” training package teaches you how to bid lawn care jobs including leaf raking.  You can learn more on our main website:

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

Make Money Raking Leaves - Even in January

Leaf Pickup. This Area Next. Last Round

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