www.gopherforum.com If you are looking to submit some bids this season to clean leaves out of your customers gutters make sure you read this article first. John got on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum and asked his gutter cleaning question. He wrote I have been asked by a neighbor to do a gutter cleanup. She has gutter shields in place but wants to make sure everything is cleaned out and down spouts are good. Her house is 2200sq. and about half of the home has gutters. I do not think this job will take over 1.5 hours but have no idea what to charge her. I have never done this for money just on my own and folks house. Any help would be appreciated. One of our forum members responded by saying I charge .00 per foot for a single story and .00 per foot on a 2 story. For people I have lawn contracts with I do it free Spring and Fall. I found that a 2 liter soda bottle (cut down) works well for cleaning the gutters. Its pliable enough to get down into the gutter. Take a bucket with you to but the debris in. If you just dump it on the ground, the mess is harder to clean up than the gutters are. I have been doing a national survey with those who provide gutter cleaning services and the charge of to per linear ft seems to be standard across the country. You would charge more for gutters that are higher up or more difficult to get to than lower ones. Here are some common beginner pitfalls lawn care business owners find when offering gutter cleaning. * On my first job …
Hello everyone and welcome to Gopherhaul! If you don’t start your business this year, you’ll be at least 1 year older when you do so get started today! GopherHaul is a show for entrepreneurs and new business owners. In it we discuss business tips and tricks we have learned over the years and share with you some real world experiences on how to help your lawn care business or any other business grow. Thanks for watching. Our lawn care entrepreneur business forum has just been jam packed with amazing business and marketing ideas since our last show and I am in no way going to be able to cover it all now but I do hope to cover a bunch of it. If you want to read more get on the forum at www.getgopher.com In this episode we will be talking about: * How you can make money in the fall with Halloween decorations. * How to use myspace to market your lawn care business and your holiday decoration service. * I put up a couple new free lawn care business door hanger templates you can download and edit to fit your needs. * Advice on estimating leaf cleanups from our friend Keith of startalawncarebusiness.com We will announce the winner of our previous shows Door Hanger and Postcard giveaway thanks to plan-itgraphics.com * We will also be letting you know of a new free giveaway of vinyl signs from Tony of amw-graphics.com If you are in need of free marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at www.gophersoftware.com. We have hundreds of free lawn care logo …
Use Google Earth and www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com lawn care estimating calculators to estimate a large mowing job. The grass will be cut using a 61″ Scag lawn mower.
When sharpening a power mower blade, remove the blade from the machine, secure it in a vice, and run the file down the blade in a single direction. Keep mower blades sharp for the best results with advice from a professional landscaper in this free video on lawn maintenance. Expert: Dan LeSieur Contact: www.dklesieur.com Bio: Dan LeSieur performs both residential and commercial work, specializing in landscaping, painting, home repairs, remodeling and corporate re-imaging. Filmmaker: Lisa Fenderson
www.gopherforum.com Before you spend a dime on any landscaping or lawn care marketing make sure you play with the figures before you enact your plan. Use this new Lawn Care Marketing Return On Investment calculator to see how much money your marketing campaign will bring you, before you go…
www.gopherforum.com - We can always learn more about sales. Without sales we would have no income and without an income we would have no business. So to boost your lawn care business sales lets have a talk with Nick, a fellow Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum member. Nick used to be a car salesman before he moved on and decided to stop making others rich and start making himself rich. I got a chance to ask him to share with us some of his insight into how a lawn care business owner can improve their sales and here is what he had to say. Most any business revolves around sales, and in most cases you will sell something at least once in your life. A simple sale can be broken down into steps. There are many different forms of the steps to the sale but here are the ones I use 1. Meet and Greet The meet and greet is the first and most important part of a sale. A lawn care customer is going to decide if they are going to buy something from you within the first 15 seconds of meeting you. During the meet and greet you should shake your prospective customers hand, look at them in the eyes and state your name and why you are on there door step(or where ever). Remember this customer could lead you to more sales so take them as they are your monthly salary, your childs next meal, the new zero turn mower, etc. 2. Fact Find When you fact find all you are basically doing is finding out the needs of your lawn care customer. Ask your questions and when they answer just sit back and listen …
Hello everyone and welcome to GopherHaul. GopherHaul is a show for entrepreneurs and new business owners. In it we discuss business tips and tricks we have learned over the years and share with you some real world experiences on how to help your lawn care business or any other business grow. In this episode we are going to be talking about: - Tiger Time Bikini Lawn Care gets new uniforms for their staff. Check this out! - We see a new business start up success story. We see how an Army Veteran started his business called Landscape Warrior without even owning a lawn mower! - We have free postcard and door hangers to give away. - Also we have Free Fluid Film samples. - We talk about how you can use an autodialer to market your business. This is a device that makes outgoing calls from a computer while you are out working. Then when you get back you can listen to the messages of people who want an estimate. - We talk about the difference between an ‘estimate’ and a ‘21 point lawn care analysis.’ If you are going to be in business, don’t ever give up. If you are in need of freemarketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at 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 …
The first step in troubleshooting a weed eater is to check with the owner’s manual for any common quick-fixes. Check all of the major components of a weed eater with advice from a professional landscaper in this free video on lawn maintenance. Expert: Dan LeSieur Contact: www.dklesieur.com Bio: Dan LeSieur performs both residential and commercial work, specializing in landscaping, painting, home repairs, remodeling and corporate re-imaging. Filmmaker: Lisa Fenderson
www.gopherforum.com - Id like to first thank our friend Mike from the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum for sharing with us some of the pressure washing marketing material he successfully uses. I asked him some questions on the topic of marketing that I want to share with you. Steve What advice do you have for newer lawn care business owners when it comes to successfully distributing such marketing material? How should one go about using the postcards or door hangers to get the most effective results? Mike: Just like in real estate. Its all about location, location, location. In this case, its list, list, list! Who gets your marketing material is more important than how or what they get. I dont market to folks that cant afford or shouldnt be hiring out contractors. If they cant afford it, then it is a waste of my efforts. If they shouldnt be affording it, then it too will be a waste because they will want the work cheap. As for what the marketing material should say. well, I like promoting what I sell. I stopped selling Pressure Washing once I found that is was only worth so much. I started selling something more valuable Time and convenience. Thats why the card doesnt have a mower or pressure washer on it. It has what I propose hiring me will give them Time to enjoy their free time. Steve: That is a really good point that I think a lot of new lawn care business owners miss. Do you have any advice on how a lawn care business owner can or should determine who cant afford …
GopherHaul 28 - Landscaping and Lawn Care Marketing Business Forum Show. My latest book The landscaping and lawn care business plan startup guide is now available. You can order it along with my other lawn care business books here. gopherforum.com Lawn care business owners are always looking for a way to keep their name and phone number in front of potential customers. Here is an idea to make sure you stick around. Why not get some magnets. But not just any old magnet, how about one that pays for itself and could even make you a profit. Here is what you can do. Get a list of local important numbers in the area. Town numbers like the mayor, police, library, water and sewer dept. You can find most of these on your towns websites. Then list other numbers like local pizzerias, sub shops, and others. Maybe get a local electrician, plumber, carpenter, roofer etc. They could potentially help you buy some of these magnets and hand them out themselves as well, to help offset the costs. Then have a section for lawn care and list only your phone number. Stick these on doors in your area and be sure that your number will stick around for quite some time. You could also have different discounts for services through out the year. One of our forum members’ Rob had such an easy time selling them. Why? Because he knew most of the people he was presenting the idea too and they trusted him. gopherforum.com lawnchat.com This is a great lesson in how the more people you know, the more you can …