Worm Man's Worm Farm

Title: GopherHaul 27 – Lawn Care Software Business Forum Show

Show description:

Hello and welcome to GopherHaul 27 – Lawn Care Software Business Forum Show

Intro.

First off I’d like to say hi to everyone after this summer’s hiatus from producing the GopherHaul Show.

There has a lot that has been going on.

If you haven’t noticed, the Gopher Forum has gotten a make over and a new website. http://www.gopherforum.com

I have been busy trying to organize all the great lawn care business content on there to provide you with an easier way to read and learn.

Also I got a bunch of lawn care business and lawn care marketing books published. There are some on sale too so jump on this. Click on the link on the Gopher Lawn Care Business forum. Here are a listing of the new lawn care business books.

Stop Lowballing! A Lawn Care Business Owner’s Guide To Success

http://gopherforum.com/showthread.php?p=40902&posted=1#post40902

The GopherHaul Lawn Care Marketing & Landscaping Business Show Episode Guide.

http://gopherforum.com/showthread.php?p=40903&posted=1#post40903

How to get customers for your landscaping and lawn care business all year long. Volume #1 & #2

http://gopherforum.com/showthread.php?p=40904&posted=1#post40904

The Big Lawn Care Marketing Book

http://gopherforum.com/showthread.php?p=40905&posted=1#post40905

How to use Gopher Lawn Care Business Billing & Scheduling Software.

http://gopherforum.com/showthread.php?p=40906&posted=1#post40906

The landscaping and lawn care business plan startup guide. This one is just about to be published.

Fall leaf clean up letter.

I want to thank Gary for sharing with us this fall lawn care business leaf clean up letter. Before fall comes along, why not send out this letter in your invoices to your lawn care customers. Ask them how you should handle their leaf clean up and also offer other additional fall services like gutter cleaning.
Gary also suggested when bidding out your gutter cleaning, he charges $60 per hour. This should help you when you are estimating your jobs.

Read more about this discussion and download the letter here

http://www.gopherforum.com/showthread.php?t=7455&page=2

http://lawnchat.com/?p=213

How to get your lawn care business on commercial lawn care bid lists?

Ron wrote “Hi me and my brother have mainly had residential accounts and a couple commercial accounts. We are trying to get 2 to3 town homes this next season. The only problem is that we are not sure how we get a meeting with the association. We are hoping that somebody could help us out on this, and maybe tell us how they came about getting townhomes.

If you are looking to get commercial lawn care accounts next year, now is the time to get on their bid lists. This also applies to home owner associations and condos. There is a new free lawn care business letter for this in the letter section.

http://www.gopherforum.com/showthread.php?t=7209

Lawn Care Marketing Idea

This fall when your lawn care business is looking for more services to offer, why not consider offering your lawn care customers, stump grinding services. Our friend Bob from plan-itgraphics.com put together this great flyer concept to help you sell your stump grinding services. Why not get some of these flyers printed up and then hand them out in your area. Try and schedule as many stump grinding services as closely together and then rent a stump grinder for a couple of days.
You could also consider placing an ad in a local paper and mentioning 10% off stump grinding services if you contact us by xx/xx/xx. Or you could use a catchy headline like GET RID OF THAT EYESORE STUMP.
Service your lawn care customer’s stumps and make some great money to get your through the winter!
If you are unsure about how to price your stump grinding services consider this and visit the post on this discussion at the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum.
Large stump grinding services range around $150-$300. Small stumps are about $75.

http://lawnchat.com/?p=214

http://gopherforum.com/showthread.php?t=7356

If our show or forum has helped you, or if you have any business questions, please let us know and send an email or make a post about your experience! I hope all these ideas have helped you expand and grow your business and mind. So until the next time, always remember to Dream it, Build it, Gopher it!

If you are in need of free lawn care marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at http://www.gophersoftware.com. We have hundreds of free lawn care logo, flyer, door hanger and web templates you can download and use for your lawn care business. We also have free lawn care business contracts. Also download our trial version of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. Gopher will help your lawn care business schedule and invoice more customers in less time, allowing you more time to grow or enjoy your life.

Ken Chiarella…instantly.

Title: GopherHaul 21 – Lawn Care Marketing Business Show

Show description:

Hello and welcome to GopherHaul 21 — Lawn Care Marketing Business Show.

In this episode we will be talking about

GopherHaul breaks the 500,000 view mark! Thank you everyone for watching us!

For a more in depth reading of our show, make sure you download the latest GopherHaul episode guide in pdf format. You can download this and previous episode guides here.

Inspirational Story:

When you are having trouble envisioning yourself starting your own business and you just can’t imagine it happening. Or you feel the odds are stacked against you, I want to share with you two stories that will inspire you to say yes you indeed can get your business started.
I was able to get a chance to meet two great entrepreneurs who run their own lawn care business. What’s so unique about them? They are both 14 years old and don’t even have a drivers license yet!

The first entrepreneur I want to talk about is Mitch. He wrote me a short time ago to say “My name is Mitch, and I’m fourteen years old, and own my own lawn care company, DreamScapes Landscaping. I started when i was ten, mowing my neighbors yard and things have grown a lot since then! Either my dad or my grandma tows me around with my dad’s Jeep and this year I can drive with my permit with my new truck! I just bought a 1999 Chevy 2500.”

Check out the post he made and see pictures of his fleet with includes his truck, trailer and several mowers and trimmers! Mitch is an inspiration to us all. Now let’s also meet Luke.

What to do?

Next up. What do you do when you recently bought a lawn care business and your largest client leaves? Let’s find out.

Our new friend Amy got on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum and told us how she bought a landscaping business and lost a big client and now might lose her house. Read the post she made here.

She wrote “I bought a commercial lawn business a little over 2 years ago and it has been nothing but heartbreak ever since. Lost our biggest customer (about 40% of revenue) and we’ve been going downhill ever since. I am desperate to hold onto this business since I am in debt up to my eyeballs. I’ll lose my house if I don’t since it was used as collateral for the SBA loan.”

“My big push right now is cold-calling, letter sending to commercial accounts, etc. Which do you think is more effective and does anyone have any tips on letters?”

Tim jumped in and had offered these suggestions: He said “You can crawl out of this,” and had a list of things she should consider doing.

First thing is to contact your Accountant and do a complete audit on the business. Look for every possible expense cut you can make, this is restructure time.

DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT go out there looking for that one big job or contract to get you out of this, chances are greater you’re not going to get it in a fast way, If you do great but most probably not going to happen.

Look for quantity, the more recurring you can generate the stronger your business will be, do not limit yourself to only commercial, get out there and hit up the res market just as hard as if you where just getting started in business, hit those res areas multi-times not just once.

Then slam those small businesses the same way with letters and mailers, cold call, and phone calls. Get in their face. Step it up a notch. The accounting dept. or GM of the larger commercial facilities are the ones to contact most generally for being put on the bidders list.

Amy then posted a sales letter she was considering sending out to commercial facilities in her area and asked for suggestions on editing it. Tim edited the commercial lawn care sales letter and posted it here, where you can read it and possibly edit it to fit your own needs.

If our show or forum has helped you, or if you have any business questions, please let us know and send an email or make a post about your experience! I hope all these ideas have helped you expand and grow your business and mind. So until the next time, always remember to Dream it, Build it, Gopher it!

If you are in need of free lawn care marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at http://www.gophersoftware.com. We have hundreds of free lawn care logo, flyer, door hanger and web templates you can download and use for your lawn care business. We also have free lawn care business contracts. Also download our trial version of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. Gopher will help your lawn care business schedule and invoice more customers in less time, allowing you more time to grow or enjoy your life. If you are on myspace send us a friend request. We are located at http://www.myspace.com/teamgopher.

Ken Chiarella

http://www.gopherforum.com With the economy taking a down turn, there are going to be many new opportunities for entrepreneurs to get started with their own business. A lot of times people will think about starting their own business but if they have a full time job, the job will most likely take priority over starting a business. But if you get laid off, you then can jump on the opportunity to finally start the business you wanted. Here is a great question and a great example of an entrepreneur taking advantage of his resources and his knowledge to get his new business off the ground. In the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum he wrote â??Hi I am totally new to all of this. I mowed lawns while I was younger and through high school in my neighborhood and can do just about anything there is. I was just recently laid off at a excavating business because people are not wanting to build new houses or buildings right now.
Right now as I am just starting it is frustrating trying to get new accounts. Beyond lawn care, I also am doing snow removal. I am not too good at this whole internet deal but I managed to start up my own website as well. I am trying to make a flyer right now with my plan to make around 1,000 flyers and just start going door to door. I do not know any other way to just get my name out there.

What are the best ways to go out there and get customers? Are there any suggestions out there to make my company look better than the others? I just want my company to stand out more than others so we look like we have been in business and so people would come to me more than other lawn care businesses
Thanks to everyone that helps!�

I think first off you should jump on promoting services you can offer now that can make you money now. If your new business doesnâ??t start making money quickly, you may lose interest in it or others around you may push you to consider other alternatives. There is nothing like making a profit to show the nay sayers they were wrong and you were right.

So how do you do this? Get on the Gopher Forum and download some of the winter snow plowing templates. I have a bunch of them for snow plowing and holiday light decorations. Edit the flyers as you need to and start handing them out to family members and friends. Get business cards made up and hand them out to everyone you know. In fact, give them a couple each. Tell them you are just getting started and you would appreciate any work you can get.

Review the concentric circle marketing chart I posted in the forum and on my blog. It gives you a graphical representation of what you should be doing. Market to your inner core first. That would be friends and family. Have them become spokespeople for your business and have them help get the word out about your business too by telling their friends, co-workers and community organization members. Hang up flyers where ever you can, such as in local stores. Go door to door and hand out flyers that promote your winter services. The more people you meet, the better your chances are of landing a new customer.

You had also asked about standing out more so than others. First off you have to remember, people will prefer hiring someone they know vs someone they donâ??t. So if someone knows you, that is the best way to stand out. Second off, you can get yourself set up with a uniform. Figure out a color scheme you want to wear and get a shirt and khaki pants along with a hat to match. This will help you look professional and presentable. Then get signs for your truck and trailer. If you need a business logo, remember I have hundreds of free lawn care business logo templates you can download and use from the Gopher Forum. Thirdly answer your phone and always be friendly and approachable, this should help you win many people over.

You can join in on this discussion further at the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum. http://www.gopherforum.com If you are in need of free lawn care marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at http://www.gophersoftware.com. We have hundreds of free lawn care logo, flyer, door hanger and web templates you can download and use for your lawn care business. We also have free lawn care business contracts. Also download our trial version of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. Gopher will help your lawn care business schedule and invoice more customers in less time, allowing you more time to grow or enjoy your life.

Ken Chiarella