Little Things You Do in Your Lawn Care Business Can Mean a Lot

Did you ever wonder how you can separate your lawn care business from all the others out there?
You’ve probably given it a lot of thought. Just think for a minute about your average customer. Now, you’ve got to try to understand it from their perspective. A lawn care customer wants to be treated like royalty. And, he’d really like to get the best deal for his hard earned money.
He needs to know that you’ll deliver the service you promise. He’s truly counting on you to do more than just care for his yard. He’s searching for an advisor for the exterior of his home. Naturally, a man’s home is his castle. He hopes to have a very attractive lawn and you’ll do that for him. He believes that if there are problems, you’ll resolve them. So, here’s a suggestion or two that might matter a lot.

First, you’ve got to have great communication with your lawn care customer. Make courtesy phone calls from time to time to see how things are going. Tell him you’ve been concerned and want to make sure things are going well out there. He’ll appreciate that a lot. He’ll also tell you if you’re calling too much. Tell him it’s only to make certain his lawn care service remains excellent. Take the time to send out monthly email or print newsletters to him.
Use this emails or newsletters to inform him about important issues that may affect his lawn. Offer him any incentives or discounts that you’ve got going on. Don’t forget face to face conversations. Sometimes, the old fashioned way of doing business is the best of all. There’s nothing quite like a confident handshake and a warm smile!
Second, don’t hurry when you’re providing lawn care service on his property! He’ll surely notice when you take your time and do an amazing job. Remind your customer that some competitors may try to hurry through a lawn. Tell him that you are committed to deliver high quality work, no matter how long it takes. Back up with lawn care work with an unconditional guarantee. Remind him that if there are any problems out there, you’ll come by and fix them for no added cost. Remember, when a problem does indeed happen, make sure to follow through with your promise! Tell your customer he can feel free to contact you when he has any concerns. Make yourself available by replying back to customers always within 24 hours.

Next, you’ve got to willing to go above and beyond in lawn care service! Try to do the extra things that your competitors may possibly overlook. When you go out to the customer’s property, politely knock at the door to greet him. Invite him to join you on a tour of the property to inspect the work to be done. Now, before begin any work, make sure to do the following. Carry his empty garbage cans from the curb back up to the garage. If you notice any toys or other objects in the yard, pick them up and set them neatly to the side of the house. Proceed with delivering the work scheduled for the day. Once you are finished with that, it’d be a great idea to clean any debris from sidewalks and the driveway. Also, if there is a deck or patio in the back yard, make sure that area is cleaned up as well. Upon completion of these things, now you may leave a personalized hand written note on your customer’s door. He will know that the whole lawn care service for the day went very smoothly. Leave a contact number so he may call if he has any follow up questions.

When you carefully follow all of the above steps, you’ll have a happy customer. Ask him what he liked the most about your lawn care service. He’ll be quick to tell you all about it. Now, don’t forget the most important part of all. You’ve got to ask him for a referral. Always ask if there is anyone he knows who could benefit from this service as well. You’d be surprised just how many new customers you’ll get this way. When all is complete, everything will go just fine. You’ll see how easy it is for little things to mean a lot in lawn care

3 Good Reasons to Leave Lawn Care to the Pros

Have you ever given thought to someone else caring for your yard? Well, here’s a good reason or two for allowing the pros to do your lawn care.

First, one of the most valuable possessions you’ve got is time. I’d rather be playing golf or watching a baseball game, wouldn’t you? Do you think you’d forget about going on an exciting fishing trip? You’d probably spend a whole Saturday afternoon doing yard work. And, you’d likely have to work many weekends in the summer. Why not spend a little extra money instead of spending time? Lawn care business professionals do very good work; just give them a chance.

Next, you’d probably like to know how good your fertilizer is. Lawn care professionals can always get better quality fertilizer. You’d probably ask yourself, why does this really matter? Sure, I can get my own lawn care products for less and I’ll probably save a buck or two.
Let me ask you this. Would you rather enjoy eating hamburger or a nice steak? I’d say you’re probably a person who works hard and deserves the best. You’d agree that your home is absolutely amazing, right? And your lawn is the exterior of your home that everyone sees, of course.
I’d like to say two important words about this: curb appeal, curb appeal, and curb appeal! You’ve already seen your neighbor’s yard down the street. I’d bet his lawn looks as beautiful as a resort in the tropics. Now you’re going to have an awesome looking lawn too!

Finally, do you know enough about lawn care? What happens if you run into troubles out there on your lawn? Are you going to call that 1-800 number on that bag a bargain fertilizer? You’d never imagine all that can go wrong with your lawn. There’s a long list of things like: water problems, insect worries, grass that won’t grow, just to name a few. Once these things happen, you’ve got to bring in the lawn professionals. They’ll take care of everything for you. This way, you can enjoy a sunny spring, summer and fall season. So, kick back, sit on your deck with ice cold lemonade and let a lawn care company make your yard amazing!

If you are looking for a cost effective way to add organic nutrients to your garden or lawn, then you are a candidate for a compost pile. Composting is a good way to recycle kitchen and garden waste material. Once you get your compost pile started, which is not difficult, there is very little upkeep. This process will not require half of your weekend.

The first thing is to pick a suitable spot for the compost pile. If possible, it should be out of sight, but still be easily accessible from the lawn, garden and the kitchen if possible. With the location picked out, you can proceed to build your compost bin, I prefer to use wire mesh fencing, but you could also use wood if you so desire. In either case when building your bin, do not cover the top.

Now that you have a compost bin, you cannot just dump lawn, garden or kitchen waste in the bin. Place the waste material in the bin in layers. Begin with a 4” layer of leaves. For the next layer, use approximately 1” of good garden soil. For the next layer add about 2” of grass clippings from the lawn, or you can use old plants. Do not use clippings containing weeds, or grass clippings, if your lawn has a disease of any type. Alternate the layers in this manner, several times.

After a week or so, take your spading fork and turn the compost pile. Begin to add kitchen waste (coffee grounds, eggshells, misc green waste) at this time. Be sure to turn the compost pile once a week with your spading fork. This will distribute the waste material, and the moisture, evenly throughout the pile.

After 8 weeks or so, you will begin to have usable compost. You can tell when the compost is ready, when you cannot find the individual pieces of waste material that you have added to the pile. Do not add oils, animal waste, or meat to the compost.

Just remember that the recipe for good compost is one part green material, from the lawn, garden or the kitchen, and two parts of good garden soil, and keep the mixture damp but not wet. If done correctly your compost pile will have an earthy smell, and your plants will appreciate the compost.

Healthy compost consists of one part green lawn debris and one or two parts of healthy garden soil. Healthy compost is also damp, although it is not soaking wet. It should also give out an earthy smell.

We’ve been working on these for a while as we’ve had time and finally got two of them done.
You can get our How-To install an irrigation system DVD and our How-To Install a low voltage lighting DVD both for only $47. We will be selling them for $27 each.

You can click here to find out more or click on the picture below….

In addition to these two DVD’s, we have 4 more about to be ready.
1. Estimating for Lawn Care Businesses. This covers how to estimate jobs, etc.
2. How To Set up and Run a Fertilization Business. Covers all aspects of starting and running a fertilization division for your lawn care business.
3. Retaining Walls
4. Installing pavers. This may be 2 DVD’s. We have so much footage shot it may nto fit on one DVD!

I try to write articles based on the questions I get via email and on the phone. I had receved several about doing sod jobs and a couple about weeds. Particuraly Dandelions and Crabgrass.
Here’s the latest articels I’ve posted:

Dandelions- How to control

Getting Rid of Crabgrass

Measuring and Installing Sod

Pricing a Sod Job

Different Types of Sod

I’m working on some other articles to answer questions I received in the past few weeks. I’ll post them over the next day or so…

Patrikc

I’ve been working hard to finish up our first 4 lawn care / landscaping DVD’s. We are just about done.

They are:
1. Landscaping basics (This DVD covers us doing planning with the software we use to do before and after shots, the basic install, etc)

2. Low Voltage Landscape Lighting. (This DVD covers us doing an install, goes over tips, tricks, etc)

3. Irrigation Installation (This DVD Covers us doing an install of an irrigation system at a new house. Includes planning, layout, installation, testing, etc)

4. Pavers (This DVD Covers us doing an install at a new construction job site from start to finish)

I’ll start posting samples of each over the next few days. Stay Tuned!
All the DVD’s are 1 to 1 1/2 hours long and are really cool (if I do say so myself)

Thanks!

A logo can really help your lawn care or landscaping business stand out from the competition.
Your logo can be serious looking, a cartoon style, or even a simple single color logo. It really doesn’t matter. All that matters is that you have one!

With all the competition out there, you don’t have an excusel not to be as professional looking as you can be.
Get out there and get your lawn business a professional logo today!

Here’s a fun video I made about logos.

I get asked quite a bit about buying or selling a lawn care business (or how to buy or sell accounts)
I’ve made a short video sharing some thoughts on this.

Thanks!

I’ve just posted an article on Perennials, Annuals, and Biennials
It covers the basics.

More coming soon. I’m just about done with the HUGE flower directory I’ve been working on.
Actually the writing part is done but I don’t have time to take all the photos of each flower (plus some aren’t native to where I live).
Anyway… I’ll do my best to get it all up in the next week or so.

I get questions both by email and on the phone about how to price a lawn.
Check out this short video and let me know what you think.