http://odeo.com/channels/412313-GopherHaul-Lawn-Care-Business-Entrepreneur-Talk-Channel TeamGopher no <p>GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel. We talk about how to get your lawn care business started and once you are started how to use creative marketing ideas to make your business stand out from competitors. Please also watch the video version of our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show GopherHaul on youtube.com. Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit <a href="http://www.gophergraphics.com">http://www.gophergraphics.com </a>If your lawn care or landscaping business needs billing and scheduling software, please download our free 30 day trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business software at <a href="http://www.gophersoftware.com">http://www.gophersoftware.com</a></p> GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel. We talk about how to get your lawn care business started and once you are started how to use creative marketing ideas to make your business stand out from competitors. Please also watch the video version of our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show GopherHaul on youtube.com. Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If your lawn care or landscaping business needs billing and scheduling software, please download our free 30 day trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business software at http://www.gophersoftware.com GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel. We talk about how to get your lawn care business started and once you are started how to use creative marketing ideas to make your business stand out from competitors. Please also watch the video version of our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show GopherHaul on youtube.com. Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If your lawn care or landscaping business needs billing and scheduling software, please download our free 30 day trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business software at http://www.gophersoftware.com en-us 40 Sat, 12 Apr 2008 12:44:37 -0700 Sat, 12 Apr 2008 12:44:37 -0700 http://odeo.com/episodes/18087973-Lawn-Care-Marketing-discussion-with-Richard-Murphy-recorded-3-6-08 Richard Murphy of thelawnblog.com talks about lawn care marketing strategies he is using this year when trying to attract new customers to his lawn care business located in Canada. Find more discussions on lawn care marketing, business and on being an entrepreneur. Join our Lawn Care forum at getgopher.com, watch the GopherHaul show on youtube. Get involved, learn and grow! Create your dream business! Don’t forget to download our Free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Software. Richard Murphy of thelawnblog.com talks about lawn care marketing strategies he is using this year when trying to attract new customers to his lawn care business located in Canada. Find more discussions on lawn care marketing, business and on being an entrepreneur. Join our Lawn Care forum at getgopher.com, watch the GopherHaul show on youtube. Get involved, learn and grow! Create your dream business! Don’t forget to download our Free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Software. Richard Murphy of thelawnblog.com talks about lawn care marketing strategies he is using this year when trying to attract new customers to his lawn care business located in Canada. Find more discussions on lawn care marketing, business and on being an entrepreneur. Join our Lawn Care forum at getgopher.com, watch the GopherHaul show on youtube. Get involved, learn and grow! Create your dream business! Don’t forget to download our Free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Software. tag:odeo.com,2008-04-12,18087973 Sat, 12 Apr 2008 12:44:37 -0700 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, Entrepreneur, forum, advertising, marketing, guru, care, grass, gopherhaul, mower, lawn, landscaper, landscaping http://odeo.com/episodes/18087943-Interview-with-Lawn-Care-Business-Author-Ken-LaVoie This is a great and insightful podcast. I got a chance to talk with author Ken LaVoie. He wrote the book “How to start a lawn care business a whole new way.” Some of the topics I hope to be discussing will include: - Talking about his experiences of getting started and what happened when he bought too much new equipment. - The pitfalls of buying too much new too soon. - How ego effects business decisions. - Then we will talk about what marketing ideas worked and what didn’t. - When and how you should integrate your first employee into your business. - And this will be a fantastic topic Finance, Debt and Growth – “The 50/50 Rule and stay in the black with the 20% Rule!” So don’t forget to call in and ask Lawn Care Business author Ken LaVoie your questions too! One of our Gopher Lawn Care Forum members reviewed the podcast and said, “Well this is a forum and it is open for discussion, so here’s my commentary. In the first ten minutes that I listened to, if you check out the previous p... This is a great and insightful podcast. I got a chance to talk with author Ken LaVoie. He wrote the book “How to start a lawn care business a whole new way.” Some of the topics I hope to be discussing will include: - Talking about his experiences of getting started and what happened when he bought too much new equipment. - The pitfalls of buying too much new too soon. - How ego effects business decisions. - Then we will talk about what marketing ideas worked and what didn’t. - When and how you should integrate your first employee into your business. - And this will be a fantastic topic Finance, Debt and Growth – “The 50/50 Rule and stay in the black with the 20% Rule!” So don’t forget to call in and ask Lawn Care Business author Ken LaVoie your questions too! One of our Gopher Lawn Care Forum members reviewed the podcast and said, “Well this is a forum and it is open for discussion, so here’s my commentary. In the first ten minutes that I listened to, if you check out the previous post I submitted in Dec 2007 you will find I had made post on the new vs used equipment, (keeping up with the JONES) the 20% growth rate but I posted 25%, also the first guy that called in is exactly right if you purchase any NEW equipment there better be 40% revenue over and above the cost of such equipment. example $10k mower there better be $28K just to cover that mower. This is basic business 101. I will say this again if you cant do the book keeping your self then hire a CPA or at the very least a good book keeper and they will tell you if you can afford a new piece of equipment from your revenue to debit reports. Just because you have that one big contract and you think your on the highway to big money, doesn’t mean you can afford it, to many unpredictable things can happen at any given time. MOST of all your business should never rest on one customer being over 20% of your business, if you have all your business or over 50% depending on the revenue generated by one client you are headed for disaster and you better start working harder on getting more customers to balance your business better. HINT we have a projection of 200k + in revenue this year (2008) and not one customer totals more than 20% of that revenue. BTW April 1st was our 1 yr date. this is only our second season and we survived the worst drought in 30yrs, most didn’t. How did we? by not putting all our eggs in one basket, buying new trucks and equipment, I bought used mowers and when we generated enough to buy more I did but only when I had 2 times the cost of that equipment, We just bought a NEW Super Z 72? got it for almost 11k and its paid for, we own it! Last year we wrote off over 8k in bad debit to add to the unpredictable things that can happen. So think long and hard, think of all the bad things that could happen before you jump and start having big equipment payments. As you know I never have anything bad to say about anyone, and I want everyone to know and understand I’m not now either, I just never heard any straight answers, I haven’t read the book, so I have no real opinion of it, what I hear sounds like a lot of business information gathered together and put into an order. I do not agree with the low-balling doing it for 10 dollars less just to get the job kind of guy, I don’t agree with the grab what ever you can theory, nor do I agree with the picking only certain types of customers to market, I was burned by a very upper class family and once by a department President of P & G when the family broke up and the President was FIRED! So that theory goes right out the door to me. I have been and will continue to provide excellent service at a fair and reasonable rate and I will let the client decide if they can afford it. I was surprised once by the looks of a property, when the man handed me 10 k in cash before I even stated and when I completed he paid that day in cash. Now this client never appeared to have 2 nickles, but looks are deceiving in all neighbor hoods. Think about it, don’t limit yourself, and always protect your self in some way, shape or form.” Thanks again everyone for joining into this lawn care business podcast. Remember to visit our site to download Gopher Lawn Care Software. We also have hundreds of FREE lawn care flyers, Lawn Care Doorhangers and much more FREE lawn care marketing material. This is a great and insightful podcast. I got a chance to talk with author Ken LaVoie. He wrote the book “How to start a lawn care business a whole new way.” Some of the topics I hope to be discussing will include: - Talking about his experiences of getting started and what happened when he bought too much new equipment. - The pitfalls of buying too much new too soon. - How ego effects business decisions. - Then we will talk about what marketing ideas worked and what didn’t. - When and how you should integrate your first employee into your business. - And this will be a fantastic topic Finance, Debt and Growth – “The 50/50 Rule and stay in the black with the 20% Rule!” So don’t forget to call in and ask Lawn Care Business author Ken LaVoie your questions too! One of our Gopher Lawn Care Forum members reviewed the podcast and said, “Well this is a forum and it is open for discussion, so here’s my commentary. In the first ten minutes that I listened to, if you check out the previous post I submitted in Dec 2007 you will find I had made post on the new vs used equipment, (keeping up with the JONES) the 20% growth rate but I posted 25%, also the first guy that called in is exactly right if you purchase any NEW equipment there better be 40% revenue over and above the cost of such equipment. example $10k mower there better be $28K just to cover that mower. This is basic business 101. I will say this again if you cant do the book keeping your self then hire a CPA or at the very least a good book keeper and they will tell you if you can afford a new piece of equipment from your revenue to debit reports. Just because you have that one big contract and you think your on the highway to big money, doesn’t mean you can afford it, to many unpredictable things can happen at any given time. MOST of all your business should never rest on one customer being over 20% of your business, if you have all your business or over 50% depending on the revenue generated by one client you are headed for disaster and you better start working harder on getting more customers to balance your business better. HINT we have a projection of 200k + in revenue this year (2008) and not one customer totals more than 20% of that revenue. BTW April 1st was our 1 yr date. this is only our second season and we survived the worst drought in 30yrs, most didn’t. How did we? by not putting all our eggs in one basket, buying new trucks and equipment, I bought used mowers and when we generated enough to buy more I did but only when I had 2 times the cost of that equipment, We just bought a NEW Super Z 72? got it for almost 11k and its paid for, we own it! Last year we wrote off over 8k in bad debit to add to the unpredictable things that can happen. So think long and hard, think of all the bad things that could happen before you jump and start having big equipment payments. As you know I never have anything bad to say about anyone, and I want everyone to know and understand I’m not now either, I just never heard any straight answers, I haven’t read the book, so I have no real opinion of it, what I hear sounds like a lot of business information gathered together and put into an order. I do not agree with the low-balling doing it for 10 dollars less just to get the job kind of guy, I don’t agree with the grab what ever you can theory, nor do I agree with the picking only certain types of customers to market, I was burned by a very upper class family and once by a department President of P & G when the family broke up and the President was FIRED! So that theory goes right out the door to me. I have been and will continue to provide excellent service at a fair and reasonable rate and I will let the client decide if they can afford it. I was surprised once by the looks of a property, when the man handed me 10 k in cash before I even stated and when I completed he paid that day in cash. Now this client never appeared to have 2 nickles, but looks are deceiving in all neighbor hoods. Think about it, don’t limit yourself, and always protect your self in some way, shape or form.” Thanks again everyone for joining into this lawn care business podcast. Remember to visit our site to download Gopher Lawn Care Software. We also have hundreds of FREE lawn care flyers, Lawn Care Doorhangers and much more FREE lawn care marketing material. tag:odeo.com,2008-04-12,18087943 Sat, 12 Apr 2008 12:08:42 -0700 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, Entrepreneur, forum, advertising, marketing, guru, care, grass, gopherhaul, mower, lawn, landscaper, landscaping, lawn care marketing, lawn care software, how to start a lawn care business a whole new way, lawnguru.net, ken lavoie, how to start a lawn care business, lawn care business software http://odeo.com/episodes/17969413-GopherHaul-24-Lawn-Care-Software-Business-Entrepreneur-Show Hello and welcome to GopherHaul 24 – Lawn Care Marketing Business Show In this episode we will be talking about * GopherHaul breaks the 800,000 view mark! Thank you everyone for watching us! Inspirational Story: Rob from Apple Lawns, a 15 year old entrepreneur wrote to us with his inspiring story. I think he will inspire others to start their own lawn care business. Rob wrote: “I decided to start the business when I couldn’t find a job that I wanted to do over the summer. I didn’t like being an umpire, and caddy at a golf course was just not for me. I called the grocery stores and you have to be 16. So i said “well ill just cut grass and get a real job next year” But now that im making a website and doing marketing and stuff I really like it. And i wouldn’t get to do that at a regular job. I’m just starting for the first time and I got my first customer the other day.” Read his post here and join in on the discussion: http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;... Hello and welcome to GopherHaul 24 – Lawn Care Marketing Business Show In this episode we will be talking about * GopherHaul breaks the 800,000 view mark! Thank you everyone for watching us! Inspirational Story: Rob from Apple Lawns, a 15 year old entrepreneur wrote to us with his inspiring story. I think he will inspire others to start their own lawn care business. Rob wrote: “I decided to start the business when I couldn’t find a job that I wanted to do over the summer. I didn’t like being an umpire, and caddy at a golf course was just not for me. I called the grocery stores and you have to be 16. So i said “well ill just cut grass and get a real job next year” But now that im making a website and doing marketing and stuff I really like it. And i wouldn’t get to do that at a regular job. I’m just starting for the first time and I got my first customer the other day.” Read his post here and join in on the discussion: http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=26;t=7609;st=10;r=1;&#entry37376 and here http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=26;t=7604; Lawn Care Business Marketing Idea: In previous episodes of GopherHaul we discussed using telemarketing as a way to reach out and gain new customers. Well if you decide to use telemarketing make sure you don’t call people on the do not call list. A lawn care company was fined $45,000 in the state of Missouri. The investigation by the state was started by a complaint from 1 person. Read more about this post and join the discussion here: http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=8;t=7642;r=1 Business Question: A member of our Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum, Michelle asked about buying a lawn care business. How much should she be paying? In response a member wrote: “General rule of thumb for buying customers is that they are worth about 1 month revenue. If they are commercial you’ll pay a little more and if there is a signed multi-year agreement in place ( which you said there is ) then this will push the price up too. So it could be worth as much as 2 or 3 months revenue depending on the situation.” Mike then joined the discussion and talked about how many customers would stay with him after he bought their accounts. “I did lose a few here and there, but I only paid 2.5 times the mowing price, and usually got at least 3 mows before they quit me.” “Have you checked some of his accounts to make sure they are priced in accordance with what you would charge? One of the lawn companies I bought out was considerably higher in pricing than mine, so I ended up raising all my original customers up to that standard.” Read more or join this post here: http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=29;t=7525;st=0;r=1;&#entry36897 Should you offer to buy lawn care accounts on craigslist? http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=8;t=7521; Fernando joined the discussion and said he posts ads in free online sites in which he offers to buy lawn care customer accounts. Here is the ad he posted in craigslist. Check out the full ad on our forum. “-Too Tired over the Summer? …or can’t keep up during the hot season? -Too Hard to work from Sunrise to Sundown? -Too busy to take care of ALL of your accounts during the “Crunch Time”? -Customers complaining about not cutting the lawn on time? I am willing to buy Lawn Accounts“ All this information is great if you are interested in knowing how to buy lawn care accounts but what about selling them? How do you sell lawn care accounts? This poster wants to sell his accounts. How much and how should he do it. One Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum member made a post about how best to make the transition when you sell lawn care accounts to a new lawn care business. “I bought out 3 lawn companies, and all we did was send a letter to the customers, describing what happened(a new lawn company would be taking care of your yard) If you want to meet each and everyone of them, then do it. The new lawn care business owner may want you to sign a non-compete clause so you can’t compete to take the customers back.” Read more about this post and join in on the discussion here: http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=34;t=7567;st=0;r=1;&#entry37074 Product Promotion Kenneth LaVoie III wrote a book and starting a lawn care business entitled “How to start a lawn care business a whole NEW way.” One of the many fascinating things he discusses in the book is about pruning customers once a year. If there are customers that you find yourself clashing with, he suggests not to raise their price but to simply cancel service for them and replace them with newer clients you do work well with. Read more about this post here http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=1;t=7635;r=1 Also Ken was kind enough to offer 50% off his book if you purchase his book from his site http://www.lawnguru.net. When ordering, use coupon code C7815 to receive your discount. Read more about his book and this great offer here http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=NW;f=36;t=7605 Lawn Care Marketing Idea Fuel prices have been going up, up and up some more. Now is a great time to pick up new customers by using this free flyer template. If other lawn care businesses are raising their fees because of higher fuel prices and you aren’t, this is a great way to stand out and you should promote it. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=NW;f=8;t=4919 Book of the Month: This month’s business book of the month is Kenneth LaVoie’s “How to start a lawn care business a whole NEW way.” 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. Hello and welcome to GopherHaul 24 – Lawn Care Marketing Business Show In this episode we will be talking about * GopherHaul breaks the 800,000 view mark! Thank you everyone for watching us! Inspirational Story: Rob from Apple Lawns, a 15 year old entrepreneur wrote to us with his inspiring story. I think he will inspire others to start their own lawn care business. Rob wrote: “I decided to start the business when I couldn’t find a job that I wanted to do over the summer. I didn’t like being an umpire, and caddy at a golf course was just not for me. I called the grocery stores and you have to be 16. So i said “well ill just cut grass and get a real job next year” But now that im making a website and doing marketing and stuff I really like it. And i wouldn’t get to do that at a regular job. I’m just starting for the first time and I got my first customer the other day.” Read his post here and join in on the discussion: http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=26;t=7609;st=10;r=1;&#entry37376 and here http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=26;t=7604; Lawn Care Business Marketing Idea: In previous episodes of GopherHaul we discussed using telemarketing as a way to reach out and gain new customers. Well if you decide to use telemarketing make sure you don’t call people on the do not call list. A lawn care company was fined $45,000 in the state of Missouri. The investigation by the state was started by a complaint from 1 person. Read more about this post and join the discussion here: http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=8;t=7642;r=1 Business Question: A member of our Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum, Michelle asked about buying a lawn care business. How much should she be paying? In response a member wrote: “General rule of thumb for buying customers is that they are worth about 1 month revenue. If they are commercial you’ll pay a little more and if there is a signed multi-year agreement in place ( which you said there is ) then this will push the price up too. So it could be worth as much as 2 or 3 months revenue depending on the situation.” Mike then joined the discussion and talked about how many customers would stay with him after he bought their accounts. “I did lose a few here and there, but I only paid 2.5 times the mowing price, and usually got at least 3 mows before they quit me.” “Have you checked some of his accounts to make sure they are priced in accordance with what you would charge? One of the lawn companies I bought out was considerably higher in pricing than mine, so I ended up raising all my original customers up to that standard.” Read more or join this post here: http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=29;t=7525;st=0;r=1;&#entry36897 Should you offer to buy lawn care accounts on craigslist? http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=8;t=7521; Fernando joined the discussion and said he posts ads in free online sites in which he offers to buy lawn care customer accounts. Here is the ad he posted in craigslist. Check out the full ad on our forum. “-Too Tired over the Summer? …or can’t keep up during the hot season? -Too Hard to work from Sunrise to Sundown? -Too busy to take care of ALL of your accounts during the “Crunch Time”? -Customers complaining about not cutting the lawn on time? I am willing to buy Lawn Accounts“ All this information is great if you are interested in knowing how to buy lawn care accounts but what about selling them? How do you sell lawn care accounts? This poster wants to sell his accounts. How much and how should he do it. One Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum member made a post about how best to make the transition when you sell lawn care accounts to a new lawn care business. “I bought out 3 lawn companies, and all we did was send a letter to the customers, describing what happened(a new lawn company would be taking care of your yard) If you want to meet each and everyone of them, then do it. The new lawn care business owner may want you to sign a non-compete clause so you can’t compete to take the customers back.” Read more about this post and join in on the discussion here: http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=34;t=7567;st=0;r=1;&#entry37074 Product Promotion Kenneth LaVoie III wrote a book and starting a lawn care business entitled “How to start a lawn care business a whole NEW way.” One of the many fascinating things he discusses in the book is about pruning customers once a year. If there are customers that you find yourself clashing with, he suggests not to raise their price but to simply cancel service for them and replace them with newer clients you do work well with. Read more about this post here http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=1;t=7635;r=1 Also Ken was kind enough to offer 50% off his book if you purchase his book from his site http://www.lawnguru.net. When ordering, use coupon code C7815 to receive your discount. Read more about his book and this great offer here http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=NW;f=36;t=7605 Lawn Care Marketing Idea Fuel prices have been going up, up and up some more. Now is a great time to pick up new customers by using this free flyer template. If other lawn care businesses are raising their fees because of higher fuel prices and you aren’t, this is a great way to stand out and you should promote it. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=NW;f=8;t=4919 Book of the Month: This month’s business book of the month is Kenneth LaVoie’s “How to start a lawn care business a whole NEW way.” 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. tag:odeo.com,2008-04-02,17969413 Wed, 02 Apr 2008 08:41:36 -0700 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel http://odeo.com/episodes/17865033-GopherHaul-23-Lawn-Care-Marketing-Business-Show Title: GopherHaul 23 – Lawn Care Marketing Business Show Show description: Hello and welcome to GopherHaul 23 – Lawn Care Marketing Business Show In this episode we will be talking about GopherHaul breaks the 700,000 view mark! Thank you everyone for watching us! Inspirational Story: You don’t need a new truck when you are starting out. Check out Dave’s truck as an example. Join the discussion here: A while back Bill wrote us on the forum and posted a picture of him hauling his lawn mower around from job to job, in the back of his car’s trunk. No longer though, Bill has been able to upgrade his lawn care business vehicle this year from a car to a pickup. Check out the pictures and join in the discussion on this post here: Lawn Care Business Marketing Idea: One of our new Gopher lawn care forum members Emerald Green Lawn Care was kind enough to post a sample letter they use to contact property managers. Download the letter template and read more about this post here: Business Questio... Title: GopherHaul 23 – Lawn Care Marketing Business Show Show description: Hello and welcome to GopherHaul 23 – Lawn Care Marketing Business Show In this episode we will be talking about GopherHaul breaks the 700,000 view mark! Thank you everyone for watching us! Inspirational Story: You don’t need a new truck when you are starting out. Check out Dave’s truck as an example. Join the discussion here: A while back Bill wrote us on the forum and posted a picture of him hauling his lawn mower around from job to job, in the back of his car’s trunk. No longer though, Bill has been able to upgrade his lawn care business vehicle this year from a car to a pickup. Check out the pictures and join in the discussion on this post here: Lawn Care Business Marketing Idea: One of our new Gopher lawn care forum members Emerald Green Lawn Care was kind enough to post a sample letter they use to contact property managers. Download the letter template and read more about this post here: Business Question: Are you keeping track of where your new customers initially heard of your business from? If you aren’t you might be wasting a huge amount of advertising dollars. Let’s jump to a post Chuck made in our lawn care forum. In his post Chuck said “I keep track of everything, My findings were surprising. about 65-70% of my business thus far has come from 1 source & at an advertising cost of just over $10 per customer! Pretty cheap. ” Our friend Justin also jumped into the discussion and posted an excel sheet template to help you track your lawn care business advertising dollar. To download the template and get involved in the discussion join the post here: Another great topic Chuck brought up, along a similar line, is the question, are you answering your business phone during the day? It is amazing how many small lawn care businesses don’t answer their calls during the day because they are busy working. The problem with this is many potential customers won’t leave a message. Instead they will simply call the next lawn care business on their list. If you are interested in joining this discussion, join the post here: Lawn Care Search Engine Optimization: Read this post thoroughly because it could make a big difference for you and ask your web programming questions here: Lawn Care Marketing Idea Have you ever experimented with offering a referral program to your lawn care customers? Emerald Green Lawn Care created a great referral coupon template that they posted on the forum. Check out the post and see what the best way is market your referral program to your current customer base in order to reach out to more customers. Join in on the discussion here: Book of the Month: This month’s business book of the month is Robert Slater’s “No Such Thing As Over Exposure.” 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. Title: GopherHaul 23 – Lawn Care Marketing Business Show Show description: Hello and welcome to GopherHaul 23 – Lawn Care Marketing Business Show In this episode we will be talking about GopherHaul breaks the 700,000 view mark! Thank you everyone for watching us! Inspirational Story: You don’t need a new truck when you are starting out. Check out Dave’s truck as an example. Join the discussion here: A while back Bill wrote us on the forum and posted a picture of him hauling his lawn mower around from job to job, in the back of his car’s trunk. No longer though, Bill has been able to upgrade his lawn care business vehicle this year from a car to a pickup. Check out the pictures and join in the discussion on this post here: Lawn Care Business Marketing Idea: One of our new Gopher lawn care forum members Emerald Green Lawn Care was kind enough to post a sample letter they use to contact property managers. Download the letter template and read more about this post here: Business Question: Are you keeping track of where your new customers initially heard of your business from? If you aren’t you might be wasting a huge amount of advertising dollars. Let’s jump to a post Chuck made in our lawn care forum. In his post Chuck said “I keep track of everything, My findings were surprising. about 65-70% of my business thus far has come from 1 source & at an advertising cost of just over $10 per customer! Pretty cheap. ” Our friend Justin also jumped into the discussion and posted an excel sheet template to help you track your lawn care business advertising dollar. To download the template and get involved in the discussion join the post here: Another great topic Chuck brought up, along a similar line, is the question, are you answering your business phone during the day? It is amazing how many small lawn care businesses don’t answer their calls during the day because they are busy working. The problem with this is many potential customers won’t leave a message. Instead they will simply call the next lawn care business on their list. If you are interested in joining this discussion, join the post here: Lawn Care Search Engine Optimization: Read this post thoroughly because it could make a big difference for you and ask your web programming questions here: Lawn Care Marketing Idea Have you ever experimented with offering a referral program to your lawn care customers? Emerald Green Lawn Care created a great referral coupon template that they posted on the forum. Check out the post and see what the best way is market your referral program to your current customer base in order to reach out to more customers. Join in on the discussion here: Book of the Month: This month’s business book of the month is Robert Slater’s “No Such Thing As Over Exposure.” 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. tag:odeo.com,2008-03-15,17865033 Sat, 15 Mar 2008 02:01:14 -0700 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, Entrepreneur, forum, advertising, marketing, guru, care, grass, gopherhaul, mower, lawn, landscaper, landscaping http://odeo.com/episodes/17807233-GopherHaul-Lawn-Care-Marketing-Business-Podcast-2-28-08 This was a great talk on how to use a referral marketing campaign to attract new customers to your lawn care business. Chestin from lawncaremarketingmagic.com joined us and was talking about how to get your customers to sign up more of their friends to your lawn service. He talked about the do’s and don’ts of it, which I found very fascinating. It’s amazing how you can do one thing wrong and it will destroy your referral campaign. You can join in on the discussion we had in the Gopher Lawn Care Business forum here. Read the post and submit your thoughts or questions on it as well. We also had Robert from Bad Boy Mowers join in and talk about marketing his business as well. 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 ... This was a great talk on how to use a referral marketing campaign to attract new customers to your lawn care business. Chestin from lawncaremarketingmagic.com joined us and was talking about how to get your customers to sign up more of their friends to your lawn service. He talked about the do’s and don’ts of it, which I found very fascinating. It’s amazing how you can do one thing wrong and it will destroy your referral campaign. You can join in on the discussion we had in the Gopher Lawn Care Business forum here. Read the post and submit your thoughts or questions on it as well. We also had Robert from Bad Boy Mowers join in and talk about marketing his business as well. 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. This was a great talk on how to use a referral marketing campaign to attract new customers to your lawn care business. Chestin from lawncaremarketingmagic.com joined us and was talking about how to get your customers to sign up more of their friends to your lawn service. He talked about the do’s and don’ts of it, which I found very fascinating. It’s amazing how you can do one thing wrong and it will destroy your referral campaign. You can join in on the discussion we had in the Gopher Lawn Care Business forum here. Read the post and submit your thoughts or questions on it as well. We also had Robert from Bad Boy Mowers join in and talk about marketing his business as well. 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. tag:odeo.com,2008-02-29,17807233 Fri, 29 Feb 2008 18:33:13 -0800 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel http://odeo.com/episodes/17793853-GopherHaul-22-Lawn-Care-Software-Business-Entrepreneur-Show Hello and welcome to GopherHaul 22 – Lawn Care Software Business Entrepreneur Show In this episode we will be talking about GopherHaul breaks the 600,000 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. We have started to use the free program skype.com to conduct our conference call podcasts. If you would like to take part in future GopherHaul podcasts, please download their software and check our forum for the next tentative date and time to call in. Ad the screen name GopherHaul to your skype contact list. Inspirational Story: A new member of our forum, wrote us a story about how they got their lawn care business started. I hope Jared, story inspires you to get your lawn care business started as well. Join in on his post here http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/c… Election Day Lawn Care Business Marketing Idea: One... Hello and welcome to GopherHaul 22 – Lawn Care Software Business Entrepreneur Show In this episode we will be talking about GopherHaul breaks the 600,000 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. We have started to use the free program skype.com to conduct our conference call podcasts. If you would like to take part in future GopherHaul podcasts, please download their software and check our forum for the next tentative date and time to call in. Ad the screen name GopherHaul to your skype contact list. Inspirational Story: A new member of our forum, wrote us a story about how they got their lawn care business started. I hope Jared, story inspires you to get your lawn care business started as well. Join in on his post here http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/c… Election Day Lawn Care Business Marketing Idea: One of our friends and fellow forum members, Fernando, wrote to us about this great lawn care business election marketing idea. With the presidential primaries going on now in many states and the elections going on this fall, Fernando made a post wondering how he could jump on this to create a marketing opportunity for himself and his business. What we all came up with on the forum was that he should get some lawn signs made that say Vote For Fernando. And then say somewhere on the sign that he is running for the Lawn Party. Then he should insert a web domain like www.voteforfernando.com and create a website that looks like a political campaign website. I thought this was a fantastic idea. Read more about this post here http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/c… Business Question: Is it a good idea to offer a discount for a full season pre-payment or prepay? Read more about this post here: http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/c… Spring Lawn Care Business Marketing Idea. Spring is coming and what better way to meet your neighbors and promote your lawn care business for cheap, than to get your neighbors involved in a spring neighborhood garage sale. We created a free flyer template you can download from the link below. Get the flyer and edit it. Hand it out all over town and knock on all your neighbor’s doors to let them know you will be hosting a neighborhood yard sale. On a certain date they should bring out their tables and sell their wares. Then you can go out and mix and mingle with people in your town and promote your lawn care business. Put on the flyers that you are promoting this and if anyone has any questions, to contact you at your business line or visit your website for further information. Get involved with the post here: http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/c… Book of the Month: This month’s business book of the month is Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad, Poor Dad.” 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. Hello and welcome to GopherHaul 22 – Lawn Care Software Business Entrepreneur Show In this episode we will be talking about GopherHaul breaks the 600,000 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. We have started to use the free program skype.com to conduct our conference call podcasts. If you would like to take part in future GopherHaul podcasts, please download their software and check our forum for the next tentative date and time to call in. Ad the screen name GopherHaul to your skype contact list. Inspirational Story: A new member of our forum, wrote us a story about how they got their lawn care business started. I hope Jared, story inspires you to get your lawn care business started as well. Join in on his post here http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/c… Election Day Lawn Care Business Marketing Idea: One of our friends and fellow forum members, Fernando, wrote to us about this great lawn care business election marketing idea. With the presidential primaries going on now in many states and the elections going on this fall, Fernando made a post wondering how he could jump on this to create a marketing opportunity for himself and his business. What we all came up with on the forum was that he should get some lawn signs made that say Vote For Fernando. And then say somewhere on the sign that he is running for the Lawn Party. Then he should insert a web domain like www.voteforfernando.com and create a website that looks like a political campaign website. I thought this was a fantastic idea. Read more about this post here http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/c… Business Question: Is it a good idea to offer a discount for a full season pre-payment or prepay? Read more about this post here: http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/c… Spring Lawn Care Business Marketing Idea. Spring is coming and what better way to meet your neighbors and promote your lawn care business for cheap, than to get your neighbors involved in a spring neighborhood garage sale. We created a free flyer template you can download from the link below. Get the flyer and edit it. Hand it out all over town and knock on all your neighbor’s doors to let them know you will be hosting a neighborhood yard sale. On a certain date they should bring out their tables and sell their wares. Then you can go out and mix and mingle with people in your town and promote your lawn care business. Put on the flyers that you are promoting this and if anyone has any questions, to contact you at your business line or visit your website for further information. Get involved with the post here: http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/c… Book of the Month: This month’s business book of the month is Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad, Poor Dad.” 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. tag:odeo.com,2008-02-26,17793853 Tue, 26 Feb 2008 10:17:02 -0800 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel http://odeo.com/episodes/17792033-GopherHaul-Lawn-Care-Business-Podcast-2-21-08 Hello everyone and welcome to the GopherHaul Lawn Care Marketing & Business Podcast recorded 2/21/08. In this podcast we discuss: How to price a lawn? Join this topic’s discussion at this link. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=8;t=7298; How to make the jump from lawn care to landscaping and then what kind of profit potential will you see when you get into landscaping? Do you need the lawn cutting customer base to transition to landscaping or can you simply start off as a landscaper? Which way is easier? Which landscaping projects provide for the best profit margins with the least amount of work? Or friend and forum member Matt brought up a question if you should give a % of the profits to a friend/employee. How should this be handled? Join the discussion here. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=35;t=7316; Lawn painting service. This is where you would actually paint a dried up lawn, green to make it look healthy. It c... Hello everyone and welcome to the GopherHaul Lawn Care Marketing & Business Podcast recorded 2/21/08. In this podcast we discuss: How to price a lawn? Join this topic’s discussion at this link. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=8;t=7298; How to make the jump from lawn care to landscaping and then what kind of profit potential will you see when you get into landscaping? Do you need the lawn cutting customer base to transition to landscaping or can you simply start off as a landscaper? Which way is easier? Which landscaping projects provide for the best profit margins with the least amount of work? Or friend and forum member Matt brought up a question if you should give a % of the profits to a friend/employee. How should this be handled? Join the discussion here. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=35;t=7316; Lawn painting service. This is where you would actually paint a dried up lawn, green to make it look healthy. It could be done during times of drought. $465.00 for a single application. Good idea? Would you offer it? Join the discussion here. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=8;t=7298;st=10;&#entry35624 Do you use a contract? Is it different from your residential to your commercial clients? How many pages is the contract? Also if you are going to put in your contract a surcharge for cleaning your mower of dog waste, why not offer it as an upsell for $50 per month for 1 dog? Would you offer that? Join the discussion here. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=1;t=7340;st=0;r=1;&#entry35758 Luke asked this great question on the forum. What’s the best way to introduce to your customers that you are using contracts in the new season? Should you use a letter? If so what would you have the letter say? Join the discussion here. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=17;t=7343; We discuss the lessons to be learned from the book Rich Dad Poor Dad. Why do rich people buy assets while poor and middle class people buy liabilities? What stops people from succeeding. Join the discussion here. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=1;t=7309;r=1 If you have lawn care business or marketing questions, please visit our forum. Also download our Gopher Lawn Care Business Billing & Scheduling Software. We offer a 30 day free trial. We also have the largest collection of free lawn care flyer templates, door hanger templates, logos, web templates, business contracts and business plans. Visit http://www.gophersoftware.com Hello everyone and welcome to the GopherHaul Lawn Care Marketing & Business Podcast recorded 2/21/08. In this podcast we discuss: How to price a lawn? Join this topic’s discussion at this link. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=8;t=7298; How to make the jump from lawn care to landscaping and then what kind of profit potential will you see when you get into landscaping? Do you need the lawn cutting customer base to transition to landscaping or can you simply start off as a landscaper? Which way is easier? Which landscaping projects provide for the best profit margins with the least amount of work? Or friend and forum member Matt brought up a question if you should give a % of the profits to a friend/employee. How should this be handled? Join the discussion here. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=35;t=7316; Lawn painting service. This is where you would actually paint a dried up lawn, green to make it look healthy. It could be done during times of drought. $465.00 for a single application. Good idea? Would you offer it? Join the discussion here. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=8;t=7298;st=10;&#entry35624 Do you use a contract? Is it different from your residential to your commercial clients? How many pages is the contract? Also if you are going to put in your contract a surcharge for cleaning your mower of dog waste, why not offer it as an upsell for $50 per month for 1 dog? Would you offer that? Join the discussion here. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=1;t=7340;st=0;r=1;&#entry35758 Luke asked this great question on the forum. What’s the best way to introduce to your customers that you are using contracts in the new season? Should you use a letter? If so what would you have the letter say? Join the discussion here. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=17;t=7343; We discuss the lessons to be learned from the book Rich Dad Poor Dad. Why do rich people buy assets while poor and middle class people buy liabilities? What stops people from succeeding. Join the discussion here. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=1;t=7309;r=1 If you have lawn care business or marketing questions, please visit our forum. Also download our Gopher Lawn Care Business Billing & Scheduling Software. We offer a 30 day free trial. We also have the largest collection of free lawn care flyer templates, door hanger templates, logos, web templates, business contracts and business plans. Visit http://www.gophersoftware.com tag:odeo.com,2008-02-25,17792033 Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:36:52 -0800 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel http://odeo.com/episodes/17758353-GopherHaul-Lawn-Care-Business-Marketing-Podcast-2-14-08 Hello everyone and welcome to the GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Marketing Podcast. This episode was recorded on 2/14/08. We recorded this podcast with 6 members of our Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum, through Skype. If you are interested in taking part in future podcasts with us, download Skype and add GopherHaul to your contact list. Also check our forum for the date and time of an upcoming podcast. In this episode we discuss a bunch of topics posted in our forum. Should you use a 1-800-vanity number for your business. Say for instance 1-800-lawncutter Post Link: http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=26;t=7118;st=0;r=1;&#entry34256 Should you hire your 11 year old nephew to work in your lawn care business. How young of a relative would you hire? How young of an employee would you hire? Post Link http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST&f=29&t=7038&st= Would you do commercial property maintenance without a contract? Talk about how... Hello everyone and welcome to the GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Marketing Podcast. This episode was recorded on 2/14/08. We recorded this podcast with 6 members of our Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum, through Skype. If you are interested in taking part in future podcasts with us, download Skype and add GopherHaul to your contact list. Also check our forum for the date and time of an upcoming podcast. In this episode we discuss a bunch of topics posted in our forum. Should you use a 1-800-vanity number for your business. Say for instance 1-800-lawncutter Post Link: http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=26;t=7118;st=0;r=1;&#entry34256 Should you hire your 11 year old nephew to work in your lawn care business. How young of a relative would you hire? How young of an employee would you hire? Post Link http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST&f=29&t=7038&st= Would you do commercial property maintenance without a contract? Talk about how Tim said a commercial job this size without a contract is not worth doing. Post Link http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=35;t=7029;st=0;&#entry33730 Suggestions on what you should charge for late fees. How to handle late payments. Post Link. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=1;t=6955; We talk about this environmentally friendly lawn care business. Do you think they will break through? Blue Sky lawns – push mowers and electric trimmers with no trucks. Post Link http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=34;t=7265;r=1 Background checks, do you use them? What do you check for and who do you use to check? Is it a good idea? Post Link http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=17;t=7255; If you have lawn care business or marketing questions, please visit our forum. Also download our Gopher Lawn Care Business Billing & Scheduling Software. We offer a 30 day free trial. We also have the largest collection of free lawn care flyer templates, door hanger templates, logos, web templates, business contracts and business plans. Visit http://www.gophersoftware.com Hello everyone and welcome to the GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Marketing Podcast. This episode was recorded on 2/14/08. We recorded this podcast with 6 members of our Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum, through Skype. If you are interested in taking part in future podcasts with us, download Skype and add GopherHaul to your contact list. Also check our forum for the date and time of an upcoming podcast. In this episode we discuss a bunch of topics posted in our forum. Should you use a 1-800-vanity number for your business. Say for instance 1-800-lawncutter Post Link: http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=26;t=7118;st=0;r=1;&#entry34256 Should you hire your 11 year old nephew to work in your lawn care business. How young of a relative would you hire? How young of an employee would you hire? Post Link http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST&f=29&t=7038&st= Would you do commercial property maintenance without a contract? Talk about how Tim said a commercial job this size without a contract is not worth doing. Post Link http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=35;t=7029;st=0;&#entry33730 Suggestions on what you should charge for late fees. How to handle late payments. Post Link. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=1;t=6955; We talk about this environmentally friendly lawn care business. Do you think they will break through? Blue Sky lawns – push mowers and electric trimmers with no trucks. Post Link http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=34;t=7265;r=1 Background checks, do you use them? What do you check for and who do you use to check? Is it a good idea? Post Link http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=17;t=7255; If you have lawn care business or marketing questions, please visit our forum. Also download our Gopher Lawn Care Business Billing & Scheduling Software. We offer a 30 day free trial. We also have the largest collection of free lawn care flyer templates, door hanger templates, logos, web templates, business contracts and business plans. Visit http://www.gophersoftware.com tag:odeo.com,2008-02-16,17758353 Sat, 16 Feb 2008 14:52:24 -0800 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, Entrepreneur, forum, advertising, marketing, tree, guru, care, grass, gopherhaul, mower, lawn, landscaper, landscaping http://odeo.com/episodes/17715363-GopherHaul-Podcast-2-6-08-Keith-talks-about-commercial-lawn-care-insurance-and-bonds Keith from http://www.summer101.com talks about commercial insurance for lawn care business owners and bonds. Keith gives us the low down on how much insurance a commercial bid may require and how much the insurance or bonds might cost a lawn care business owner. Join the discussion on our Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum here. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=22;t=7206;r=1 Keith from http://www.summer101.com talks about commercial insurance for lawn care business owners and bonds. Keith gives us the low down on how much insurance a commercial bid may require and how much the insurance or bonds might cost a lawn care business owner. Join the discussion on our Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum here. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=22;t=7206;r=1 Keith from http://www.summer101.com talks about commercial insurance for lawn care business owners and bonds. Keith gives us the low down on how much insurance a commercial bid may require and how much the insurance or bonds might cost a lawn care business owner. Join the discussion on our Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum here. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=22;t=7206;r=1 tag:odeo.com,2008-02-08,17715363 Fri, 08 Feb 2008 13:03:08 -0800 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, Entrepreneur, forum, advertising, marketing, guru, care, grass, gopherhaul, mower, lawn, landscaper, landscaping http://odeo.com/episodes/17715153-GopherHaul-Lawn-Care-Business-Podcast-2-7-08-with-Brian-of-LawnAndGardenWV-com Last night Brian, Richard and I had a great discussion on Brian’s new lawn care business site http://www.lawnandgardenwv.com. Brian’s really building up a great collection of lawn care and gardening shows, including our very own GopherHaul show. If you get a chance check out his site and listen in on how you can create your own green industry show, even from a webcam and upload it to his site. Richard, from http://www.thelawnblog.com also sat in and joined us during the conversation talking about a bunch of helpful ideas that should help any lawn care business owner improve their work productivity as well as get a better understanding of what RSS feeds are and how they can help your lawn care business website. Last night Brian, Richard and I had a great discussion on Brian’s new lawn care business site http://www.lawnandgardenwv.com. Brian’s really building up a great collection of lawn care and gardening shows, including our very own GopherHaul show. If you get a chance check out his site and listen in on how you can create your own green industry show, even from a webcam and upload it to his site. Richard, from http://www.thelawnblog.com also sat in and joined us during the conversation talking about a bunch of helpful ideas that should help any lawn care business owner improve their work productivity as well as get a better understanding of what RSS feeds are and how they can help your lawn care business website. Last night Brian, Richard and I had a great discussion on Brian’s new lawn care business site http://www.lawnandgardenwv.com. Brian’s really building up a great collection of lawn care and gardening shows, including our very own GopherHaul show. If you get a chance check out his site and listen in on how you can create your own green industry show, even from a webcam and upload it to his site. Richard, from http://www.thelawnblog.com also sat in and joined us during the conversation talking about a bunch of helpful ideas that should help any lawn care business owner improve their work productivity as well as get a better understanding of what RSS feeds are and how they can help your lawn care business website. tag:odeo.com,2008-02-08,17715153 Fri, 08 Feb 2008 11:01:33 -0800 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, Entrepreneur, forum, advertising, marketing, guru, care, grass, gopherhaul, mower, lawn, landscaper, landscaping http://odeo.com/episodes/17674373-GopherHaul-21-Lawn-Care-Marketing-Business-Show 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 s... 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. Luke wrote to us “Hi I’m Luke with LG Yard Service. I’m only 14 but already in the lawn care business. I’m just getting started with Gopher but am looking forward to it! Let me tell you how my business is going. In the mowing season, I have approx. 5 good,weekly customers. I don’t own the most advanced equipment but it works. Just recently I purchased a new trailer and can’t wait to use it this summer! Any way’s, right now, I’m having a rough time with the lawn care business. Winter is setting in but i have no jobs! What is the best way to get snow removal jobs? Also, I’m wanting to do some Spring marketing with flyers,door hangers, etc. Please let me know how to gain some new customers and “step” up the business. Any ideas will work! Thanks!” Read more about how we all were able to help Luke out with some business advice and check out the pictures he sent to us of his fleet. Luke and Mitch are both out there now, running their lawn care businesses and reaching for their dreams. There is no doubt you can go out there too and do this! If you need marketing material, we have many many free lawn care flyer, door hanger and post care templates you can download and edit. Use all our resources to help your business push forwards. Valentine’s Day Lawn Care Business Marketing Idea: If you run a lawn care or landscaping business, you are always looking for more ways to creatively market your services. Here is a suggestion from our friend Keith of startalawncarebusiness.com. Keith wrote with this suggestion: “If you haven’t thought about it yet, Valentine’s Day is coming up. I know the traditional gifts are Roses and Chocolates for girlfriends and wives. Lots of guys also buy presents for their Moms. Instead of buying $100 worth of flowers that will die within a week, tell your customers to pay you $100 for a flower bed “VALENTINE’S DAY – SPRUCE UP SPECIAL” For $100 you can drop by the Mom’s (certain girlfriends and wives love this too) house, blow leaves out of her flower beds, trim shrubs, pull weeds, and add a bag or two of fresh mulch. As an added touch, hand her a Valentine’s Day card saying the service is compliments of her son….and don’t forget your business card. This is a great service to offer around Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day.” We put together a Valentine’s Day promotional free lawn care flyer you can download and edit and posted it in this discussion. One of our forum members Matt has already taken it and edited it. Then he posted it on his myspace site and created a bulletin of it, which was sent out to all on his customer email list. You can join this discussion and download the free flyer template here. Entrepreneurs team up with Co-Marketing: My friend Andy contacted me about his co-marketing idea he has implemented with his friend Jody. Andy wrote: “This is a new thing we are going try. Mrs. Greenthumb is owned by a friend of mine, Jody, who just started up last year. She wants to just focus on landscape and design. Where I want to streamline and stay with Lawn care & fertilization. So we are double our advertising coverage, we are able to bring better service, and use each others ideas in more of a tag team thing. We can cover more together than by ourselves. And the Trucks look cool together .(each our own design)” See the picture of them and their trucks here and join in on the discussion. Free Giveaway: Now let’s get to a giveaway. Since our last show, Rod, owner of http://www.redwoodbridges.com contacted me and allowed me to give away a free landscaping bridge. If you are interested in winning this bridge, simply jump on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum and make a quick post to say hi and that you are interested in taking part in this giveaway. 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. Entrepreneur of the Month: This episode of GopherHaul is in memory of Richard Knerr founder of Wham-o. He and his boyhood best friend started the company in 1948. He brought the hula hoop, the frisbee, hackie sack and many other great products to all of us. Please join the discussion about him here. 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. 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. Luke wrote to us “Hi I’m Luke with LG Yard Service. I’m only 14 but already in the lawn care business. I’m just getting started with Gopher but am looking forward to it! Let me tell you how my business is going. In the mowing season, I have approx. 5 good,weekly customers. I don’t own the most advanced equipment but it works. Just recently I purchased a new trailer and can’t wait to use it this summer! Any way’s, right now, I’m having a rough time with the lawn care business. Winter is setting in but i have no jobs! What is the best way to get snow removal jobs? Also, I’m wanting to do some Spring marketing with flyers,door hangers, etc. Please let me know how to gain some new customers and “step” up the business. Any ideas will work! Thanks!” Read more about how we all were able to help Luke out with some business advice and check out the pictures he sent to us of his fleet. Luke and Mitch are both out there now, running their lawn care businesses and reaching for their dreams. There is no doubt you can go out there too and do this! If you need marketing material, we have many many free lawn care flyer, door hanger and post care templates you can download and edit. Use all our resources to help your business push forwards. Valentine’s Day Lawn Care Business Marketing Idea: If you run a lawn care or landscaping business, you are always looking for more ways to creatively market your services. Here is a suggestion from our friend Keith of startalawncarebusiness.com. Keith wrote with this suggestion: “If you haven’t thought about it yet, Valentine’s Day is coming up. I know the traditional gifts are Roses and Chocolates for girlfriends and wives. Lots of guys also buy presents for their Moms. Instead of buying $100 worth of flowers that will die within a week, tell your customers to pay you $100 for a flower bed “VALENTINE’S DAY – SPRUCE UP SPECIAL” For $100 you can drop by the Mom’s (certain girlfriends and wives love this too) house, blow leaves out of her flower beds, trim shrubs, pull weeds, and add a bag or two of fresh mulch. As an added touch, hand her a Valentine’s Day card saying the service is compliments of her son….and don’t forget your business card. This is a great service to offer around Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day.” We put together a Valentine’s Day promotional free lawn care flyer you can download and edit and posted it in this discussion. One of our forum members Matt has already taken it and edited it. Then he posted it on his myspace site and created a bulletin of it, which was sent out to all on his customer email list. You can join this discussion and download the free flyer template here. Entrepreneurs team up with Co-Marketing: My friend Andy contacted me about his co-marketing idea he has implemented with his friend Jody. Andy wrote: “This is a new thing we are going try. Mrs. Greenthumb is owned by a friend of mine, Jody, who just started up last year. She wants to just focus on landscape and design. Where I want to streamline and stay with Lawn care & fertilization. So we are double our advertising coverage, we are able to bring better service, and use each others ideas in more of a tag team thing. We can cover more together than by ourselves. And the Trucks look cool together .(each our own design)” See the picture of them and their trucks here and join in on the discussion. Free Giveaway: Now let’s get to a giveaway. Since our last show, Rod, owner of http://www.redwoodbridges.com contacted me and allowed me to give away a free landscaping bridge. If you are interested in winning this bridge, simply jump on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum and make a quick post to say hi and that you are interested in taking part in this giveaway. 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. Entrepreneur of the Month: This episode of GopherHaul is in memory of Richard Knerr founder of Wham-o. He and his boyhood best friend started the company in 1948. He brought the hula hoop, the frisbee, hackie sack and many other great products to all of us. Please join the discussion about him here. 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. tag:odeo.com,2008-01-28,17674373 Mon, 28 Jan 2008 02:28:46 -0800 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, Entrepreneur, forum, advertising, marketing, guru, care, grass, gopherhaul, mower, lawn, landscaper, landscaping http://odeo.com/episodes/17615603-GopherHaul-20-Lawn-Care-Entrepreneur-Business-Forum-Show Title: GopherHaul 20 – Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Forum Show Show description: Hello and welcome to GopherHaul 20 – Lawn Care Forum Business Entrepreneur Show. In this episode we will be talking about A letter from a viewer. Julian writes us to thank us about GopherHaul and the site. Join the discussion on this post: http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=26;t=6848; Here is the letter: “Hello, well after gardening & landscaping for myself & a few paying customers over the last 30 years. I decided if I ever wanted to be my own boss, I better try now before I get much older. As crazy as it may sound, until I found this Gopher website, I never really gave it much thought to go full time. After reading many posts & looking over the many free template’s available. I thought “hey I can do this”. So far I have just 2 customers who have signed a contract with me for the following season, more shall come. Again, thanks Gopher for all the information your site... Title: GopherHaul 20 – Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Forum Show Show description: Hello and welcome to GopherHaul 20 – Lawn Care Forum Business Entrepreneur Show. In this episode we will be talking about A letter from a viewer. Julian writes us to thank us about GopherHaul and the site. Join the discussion on this post: http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=26;t=6848; Here is the letter: “Hello, well after gardening & landscaping for myself & a few paying customers over the last 30 years. I decided if I ever wanted to be my own boss, I better try now before I get much older. As crazy as it may sound, until I found this Gopher website, I never really gave it much thought to go full time. After reading many posts & looking over the many free template’s available. I thought “hey I can do this”. So far I have just 2 customers who have signed a contract with me for the following season, more shall come. Again, thanks Gopher for all the information your site provides! Julian” If our show or forum has helped you, please let us know and send an email or make a post about your experience! Casey Shield’s website offers the service of removing Christmas trees after the holidays for $25.00. It’s a great idea to reach out to more potential lawn care customers. We make a free flyer for this that you can download and edit, Check our free flyer section. Join the discussion on this post: http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST&f=6&t=6655&st=0&&#entry31308 Rob asked about what profit margin he should shoot for and if his business’ profit margin was his paycheck. Join the discussion on this post here: http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST&f=17&t=6525&st=10&&#entry31051 Rob asked “Just starting out we ask what should we be charging? And the only way to know how much to charge is to figure out what your costs are first. Then determine your profit margin from there. That should be right. Well no one ever says what kind of profit they are making per hour after expenses. Shouldn’t there be a general range we should all be in?” Tim responded “15-20 % profit depending on the job” Now keep in mind, Profit is what is left after you pay your self and all other expense. If you are only making enough money to cover your business expenses and what is left is your paycheck then the profit is 0%. Profit is what the company made. You must be able to separate the two, you never touch profit for personal uses, profit is what makes the company grow, if you are comfortable with this then it’s all good and works for you cool, but if you want to grow you must leave some money for the company. Remember you have to pay taxes on what you earned personally from the business (owner draws) and what the business earned (profit). Rob asked “Well I don’t really know how much I should be paying myself.” Don’t take more than is required to cover household expenses the first year or 2 then you can re-evaluate your business earnings and adjust how much money you pay yourself. “big part of this discussion is about keeping your expenses low” That is the hardest part of the whole thing, keeping your expenses low, your just starting and there is a lot of upfront cost that you will never recover, so the first year or two you may not show much of a profit but you made it through the tough times so this is a big deal to everyone just starting. If the average man/woman goes out and starts a company he/she is doing it on a shoe string budget. With the SuperBowl coming up, we are seeing more and more lawn care business owners jump on the buzz of the end of the football season with their own football themed marketing. Matt put together a door hanger design to promote his lawn care service and he used the image on his myspace site. This ad is working and it’s free. He is getting responses and jobs from this bulletin and he posted some of them on the forum! So don’t just wait until spring, keep advertising and marketing your business all year long. What are you doing to promote your lawn care business and tie it in with the SuperBowl? To join the discussion on this post click here: http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=8;t=6834;r=1 It’s a new year and many new entrepreneurs are starting their business. But how do you get funding? Our friend Andy was able to utilize a site called prosper.com to raise $1,250.00 for his new lawn care business. If he can do it, you can too! See how he did it and join the discussion here: http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=1;t=6726;st=0;r=1;&#entry32042 Our GopherHaul business book of the month is “Operators Are Standing By!” by Michael Planit. Have you ever watched late night TV and seen a commercial for the Boogie Bass? It was the bass that would move it’s mouth while it sand a song? Well Michael created that product and many many more. Learn how he invented these products and learn how he used TV to sell them. The skills you pick up in this book can be applied to your lawn care business because ultimately if you want to sell anything, from boogie basses to lawn care, you need to be a showman. Learn how Michael did it and apply it to your business. 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 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. Also please log onto our lawn care business forum at http://www.gophersoftware.com and tell us about your business and if you have any business questions, please ask them. TAGS: lawn care marketing entrepreneur GopherHaul home business landscaping guru advertising mower grass landscaper forum Title: GopherHaul 20 – Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Forum Show Show description: Hello and welcome to GopherHaul 20 – Lawn Care Forum Business Entrepreneur Show. In this episode we will be talking about A letter from a viewer. Julian writes us to thank us about GopherHaul and the site. Join the discussion on this post: http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=26;t=6848; Here is the letter: “Hello, well after gardening & landscaping for myself & a few paying customers over the last 30 years. I decided if I ever wanted to be my own boss, I better try now before I get much older. As crazy as it may sound, until I found this Gopher website, I never really gave it much thought to go full time. After reading many posts & looking over the many free template’s available. I thought “hey I can do this”. So far I have just 2 customers who have signed a contract with me for the following season, more shall come. Again, thanks Gopher for all the information your site provides! Julian” If our show or forum has helped you, please let us know and send an email or make a post about your experience! Casey Shield’s website offers the service of removing Christmas trees after the holidays for $25.00. It’s a great idea to reach out to more potential lawn care customers. We make a free flyer for this that you can download and edit, Check our free flyer section. Join the discussion on this post: http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST&f=6&t=6655&st=0&&#entry31308 Rob asked about what profit margin he should shoot for and if his business’ profit margin was his paycheck. Join the discussion on this post here: http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST&f=17&t=6525&st=10&&#entry31051 Rob asked “Just starting out we ask what should we be charging? And the only way to know how much to charge is to figure out what your costs are first. Then determine your profit margin from there. That should be right. Well no one ever says what kind of profit they are making per hour after expenses. Shouldn’t there be a general range we should all be in?” Tim responded “15-20 % profit depending on the job” Now keep in mind, Profit is what is left after you pay your self and all other expense. If you are only making enough money to cover your business expenses and what is left is your paycheck then the profit is 0%. Profit is what the company made. You must be able to separate the two, you never touch profit for personal uses, profit is what makes the company grow, if you are comfortable with this then it’s all good and works for you cool, but if you want to grow you must leave some money for the company. Remember you have to pay taxes on what you earned personally from the business (owner draws) and what the business earned (profit). Rob asked “Well I don’t really know how much I should be paying myself.” Don’t take more than is required to cover household expenses the first year or 2 then you can re-evaluate your business earnings and adjust how much money you pay yourself. “big part of this discussion is about keeping your expenses low” That is the hardest part of the whole thing, keeping your expenses low, your just starting and there is a lot of upfront cost that you will never recover, so the first year or two you may not show much of a profit but you made it through the tough times so this is a big deal to everyone just starting. If the average man/woman goes out and starts a company he/she is doing it on a shoe string budget. With the SuperBowl coming up, we are seeing more and more lawn care business owners jump on the buzz of the end of the football season with their own football themed marketing. Matt put together a door hanger design to promote his lawn care service and he used the image on his myspace site. This ad is working and it’s free. He is getting responses and jobs from this bulletin and he posted some of them on the forum! So don’t just wait until spring, keep advertising and marketing your business all year long. What are you doing to promote your lawn care business and tie it in with the SuperBowl? To join the discussion on this post click here: http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=8;t=6834;r=1 It’s a new year and many new entrepreneurs are starting their business. But how do you get funding? Our friend Andy was able to utilize a site called prosper.com to raise $1,250.00 for his new lawn care business. If he can do it, you can too! See how he did it and join the discussion here: http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=1;t=6726;st=0;r=1;&#entry32042 Our GopherHaul business book of the month is “Operators Are Standing By!” by Michael Planit. Have you ever watched late night TV and seen a commercial for the Boogie Bass? It was the bass that would move it’s mouth while it sand a song? Well Michael created that product and many many more. Learn how he invented these products and learn how he used TV to sell them. The skills you pick up in this book can be applied to your lawn care business because ultimately if you want to sell anything, from boogie basses to lawn care, you need to be a showman. Learn how Michael did it and apply it to your business. 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 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. Also please log onto our lawn care business forum at http://www.gophersoftware.com and tell us about your business and if you have any business questions, please ask them. TAGS: lawn care marketing entrepreneur GopherHaul home business landscaping guru advertising mower grass landscaper forum tag:odeo.com,2008-01-13,17615603 Sun, 13 Jan 2008 15:21:21 -0800 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, Entrepreneur, forum, advertising, marketing, guru, care, grass, gopherhaul, mower, lawn, landscaper, landscaping http://odeo.com/episodes/17533313-GopherHaul-19-Lawn-Care-Forum-Entrepreneur-Business-Show Hello and welcome to GopherHaul 19 – Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show. In this episode we will be talking about Please continue to submit your pictures for our outdoor holiday lighting contest. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=8;t=6159; Our lawn care business forum member of the month is Tim. Tim has shared with us three new contracts including a lawn cutting contract, a full service lawn care maintenance and a snow plow contract. You can download them here http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST&f=1&t=877&st=30&&#entry30713 I added a new link on the left side of the forum for our lawn care business forum member to submit books they have read. I also added a new business book of the month to our list. The book is Guerrilla Marketing Success Secrets by Jay Levinson. Our friend Tony submitted this great marketing idea to the forum. He prints out stickers that include your business logo and then puts them on buckets of ice ... Hello and welcome to GopherHaul 19 – Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show. In this episode we will be talking about Please continue to submit your pictures for our outdoor holiday lighting contest. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=8;t=6159; Our lawn care business forum member of the month is Tim. Tim has shared with us three new contracts including a lawn cutting contract, a full service lawn care maintenance and a snow plow contract. You can download them here http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST&f=1&t=877&st=30&&#entry30713 I added a new link on the left side of the forum for our lawn care business forum member to submit books they have read. I also added a new business book of the month to our list. The book is Guerrilla Marketing Success Secrets by Jay Levinson. Our friend Tony submitted this great marketing idea to the forum. He prints out stickers that include your business logo and then puts them on buckets of ice melt. He suggests handing these buckets out to your current customer base to help promote your snow removal services or you could use them as a marketing tool to hand out to homeowners in your area who you would like to service with snow removal and lawn care services next spring. If you live in a warmer climate you could also offer potted plants instead of ice melt. Review the post here http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=33;t=6541;st=0;r=1;&#entry30532 Our lawn care forum member Tim suggested buying poinsettia plants in bulk and handing them out to your current customers along with a holiday card. You could also give these out to potential clients you would like to provide snow plow or lawn care services to. Tim said he also sells the plants at a farmer’s market booth. He purchases the flowers for $2 and resells them for $5. Great idea! Read more about this post here http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=8;t=6488;st=0;r=1;&#entry30090 Brian from Lawn & Garden Web Vision sent us this promotional video to show off his new website http://www.lawnandgardenwv.com Check out his site. It’s full of many on demand education and training videos for the lawn and garden industry. Forum member Tim posted that now is the time to send out letters to businesses asking them to put your company on their 2008 bid list. You can download the letter here http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST&f=1&t=1541&st=0&&#entry29810 Bob from Plan-it Graphics has posted a design challenge http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST&f=23&t=6434&st=0&&#entry29599 There will be two winners chosen. Bob said “You do not have to do anything graphic wise. You can simply submit your ideas in text. If your idea is to have a guy riding his motorcycle with the caption, “This is much better better than lawn work!” then that’s all you have to do. We are not looking for the best designer, we are looking for the best/unique way to market. Hopefully we can come up with ideas that are “outside the box” of the traditional lawn/landscape marketing material. It’s my job to convert your idea into print form.” In the previous episode of GopherHaul 18, we talked about how you should stay off ladders as much as possible. One of our forum members posted a shop vac device that is a long extension pipe with a u bend at the end which allows you to suck leaves out of the gutter while safe and standing on the ground. Read this post for a product review http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=17;t=6603;st=0 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 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. Also please log onto our lawn care business forum and tell us about your business and if you have any business questions, please ask them. Hello and welcome to GopherHaul 19 – Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show. In this episode we will be talking about Please continue to submit your pictures for our outdoor holiday lighting contest. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=8;t=6159; Our lawn care business forum member of the month is Tim. Tim has shared with us three new contracts including a lawn cutting contract, a full service lawn care maintenance and a snow plow contract. You can download them here http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST&f=1&t=877&st=30&&#entry30713 I added a new link on the left side of the forum for our lawn care business forum member to submit books they have read. I also added a new business book of the month to our list. The book is Guerrilla Marketing Success Secrets by Jay Levinson. Our friend Tony submitted this great marketing idea to the forum. He prints out stickers that include your business logo and then puts them on buckets of ice melt. He suggests handing these buckets out to your current customer base to help promote your snow removal services or you could use them as a marketing tool to hand out to homeowners in your area who you would like to service with snow removal and lawn care services next spring. If you live in a warmer climate you could also offer potted plants instead of ice melt. Review the post here http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=33;t=6541;st=0;r=1;&#entry30532 Our lawn care forum member Tim suggested buying poinsettia plants in bulk and handing them out to your current customers along with a holiday card. You could also give these out to potential clients you would like to provide snow plow or lawn care services to. Tim said he also sells the plants at a farmer’s market booth. He purchases the flowers for $2 and resells them for $5. Great idea! Read more about this post here http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=8;t=6488;st=0;r=1;&#entry30090 Brian from Lawn & Garden Web Vision sent us this promotional video to show off his new website http://www.lawnandgardenwv.com Check out his site. It’s full of many on demand education and training videos for the lawn and garden industry. Forum member Tim posted that now is the time to send out letters to businesses asking them to put your company on their 2008 bid list. You can download the letter here http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST&f=1&t=1541&st=0&&#entry29810 Bob from Plan-it Graphics has posted a design challenge http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST&f=23&t=6434&st=0&&#entry29599 There will be two winners chosen. Bob said “You do not have to do anything graphic wise. You can simply submit your ideas in text. If your idea is to have a guy riding his motorcycle with the caption, “This is much better better than lawn work!” then that’s all you have to do. We are not looking for the best designer, we are looking for the best/unique way to market. Hopefully we can come up with ideas that are “outside the box” of the traditional lawn/landscape marketing material. It’s my job to convert your idea into print form.” In the previous episode of GopherHaul 18, we talked about how you should stay off ladders as much as possible. One of our forum members posted a shop vac device that is a long extension pipe with a u bend at the end which allows you to suck leaves out of the gutter while safe and standing on the ground. Read this post for a product review http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=17;t=6603;st=0 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 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. Also please log onto our lawn care business forum and tell us about your business and if you have any business questions, please ask them. tag:odeo.com,2007-12-20,17533313 Thu, 20 Dec 2007 08:37:56 -0800 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, Entrepreneur, forum, advertising, marketing, guru, care, grass, gopherhaul, mower, lawn, landscaper, landscaping http://odeo.com/episodes/17423343-GopherHaul-18-Lawn-Care-Entrepreneur-Business-Show In this episode of GopherHaul we discuss winter lawn care business marketing ideas. Hello everyone and welcome to Gopherhaul! If you haven’t started your business yet, what are you waiting for. 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. In this episode we will be talking about: - We added a new section on the forum called Women’s business issues. - One of our forum members and entrepreneurs, Sarah did two things this season to really make her business stand out. First off she got out there in the public eye and put herself in her marketing material and second off she has started a toy drive to help collect toys for underprivileged children and promote her business at the... In this episode of GopherHaul we discuss winter lawn care business marketing ideas. Hello everyone and welcome to Gopherhaul! If you haven’t started your business yet, what are you waiting for. 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. In this episode we will be talking about: - We added a new section on the forum called Women’s business issues. - One of our forum members and entrepreneurs, Sarah did two things this season to really make her business stand out. First off she got out there in the public eye and put herself in her marketing material and second off she has started a toy drive to help collect toys for underprivileged children and promote her business at the same time. Read more at this post http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=8;t=6110;st=20;r=1;&#entry27619 - Rodman and Justin are the winners of the lawn care business holiday cards compliments of www.CardsCheaper.com - Barry sent us some pictures of his newly painted lawn care trailer. You can see Barry’s new trailer pics at this link. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=4;t=6223;st=0;r=1;&#entry28171 - I am now signed up with Chestin’s Lawn Care Champion’s Circle. Now I don’t want to give any of his secrets away because he makes his money on teaching but there was an interesting part in one of Chestin’s marketing discussions I wanted to point out. Chestin was talking with one of our forum members Barry and he was telling Chestin how everytime he seems to sign up a new customer, another customer seems to leave so his net gain is zero. Do you ever find this happening as well? Well just to find the answer in this would be well worth you signing up for Chestin’s program. Even if you sign up for a month to simply check it out. You will find an answer on how to deal with this and you might want to stay on for all the new information he posts. cott from leisuretimellc found to deal with this - Another forum member Scott from leisuretimellc advises business owners to talk to their clients. He had talked to an elderly customer and found out her mowing day is the day before her trash day so he puts out the garbage cans for her and she gives him and extra $25 tip each month to do that. This is how he keeps his customers. - Our lawn care business forum member Keith, also made a great seasonal service tip. This tip is especially important for those in the Northern sections of the country. During rainy winter days it is important to keep gutters free of leaves. If gutters are clogged, rain will pool in the gutters. Then, at night when the temperature drops, the water will freeze and back up into the over hangs. This action will damage the overhang allowing more water to enter the woodwork. The wood will rot. Once problems begin, repairs can be very expensive. It is important and beneficial for lawn care companies to warn their customers of this potentially damaging problem. A quick $100 gutter job can save the homeowner thousands of dollars down the road. We also have created a free flyer for you to promote this service which you can download and edit. - If you don’t like heights, maybe consider getting this gutter cleaning robot! http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=1;t=6280 - We also started our outdoor holiday decoration contest so start taking pictures. We have a bunch of prize to give away, check the forum for more info. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST&f=8&t=6159&st=0&&#entry27752 - If you are in need of free 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. Also please log onto our lawn care business forum and tell us about your business and if you have any business questions, please ask them. In this episode of GopherHaul we discuss winter lawn care business marketing ideas. Hello everyone and welcome to Gopherhaul! If you haven’t started your business yet, what are you waiting for. 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. In this episode we will be talking about: - We added a new section on the forum called Women’s business issues. - One of our forum members and entrepreneurs, Sarah did two things this season to really make her business stand out. First off she got out there in the public eye and put herself in her marketing material and second off she has started a toy drive to help collect toys for underprivileged children and promote her business at the same time. Read more at this post http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=8;t=6110;st=20;r=1;&#entry27619 - Rodman and Justin are the winners of the lawn care business holiday cards compliments of www.CardsCheaper.com - Barry sent us some pictures of his newly painted lawn care trailer. You can see Barry’s new trailer pics at this link. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=4;t=6223;st=0;r=1;&#entry28171 - I am now signed up with Chestin’s Lawn Care Champion’s Circle. Now I don’t want to give any of his secrets away because he makes his money on teaching but there was an interesting part in one of Chestin’s marketing discussions I wanted to point out. Chestin was talking with one of our forum members Barry and he was telling Chestin how everytime he seems to sign up a new customer, another customer seems to leave so his net gain is zero. Do you ever find this happening as well? Well just to find the answer in this would be well worth you signing up for Chestin’s program. Even if you sign up for a month to simply check it out. You will find an answer on how to deal with this and you might want to stay on for all the new information he posts. cott from leisuretimellc found to deal with this - Another forum member Scott from leisuretimellc advises business owners to talk to their clients. He had talked to an elderly customer and found out her mowing day is the day before her trash day so he puts out the garbage cans for her and she gives him and extra $25 tip each month to do that. This is how he keeps his customers. - Our lawn care business forum member Keith, also made a great seasonal service tip. This tip is especially important for those in the Northern sections of the country. During rainy winter days it is important to keep gutters free of leaves. If gutters are clogged, rain will pool in the gutters. Then, at night when the temperature drops, the water will freeze and back up into the over hangs. This action will damage the overhang allowing more water to enter the woodwork. The wood will rot. Once problems begin, repairs can be very expensive. It is important and beneficial for lawn care companies to warn their customers of this potentially damaging problem. A quick $100 gutter job can save the homeowner thousands of dollars down the road. We also have created a free flyer for you to promote this service which you can download and edit. - If you don’t like heights, maybe consider getting this gutter cleaning robot! http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=1;t=6280 - We also started our outdoor holiday decoration contest so start taking pictures. We have a bunch of prize to give away, check the forum for more info. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST&f=8&t=6159&st=0&&#entry27752 - If you are in need of free 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. Also please log onto our lawn care business forum and tell us about your business and if you have any business questions, please ask them. tag:odeo.com,2007-12-07,17423343 Fri, 07 Dec 2007 19:25:02 -0800 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, Entrepreneur, advertising, marketing, guru, care, service, grass, gopherhaul, lawn, landscaper, landscaping, mowing http://odeo.com/episodes/17343913-GopherHaul-17-Winter-Lawn-Care-Business-Marketing-Ideas In this episode of GopherHaul we discuss winter lawn care business marketing ideas. Hello everyone and welcome to Gopherhaul! If you haven’t started your business yet, what are you waiting for. 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. In this episode we will be talking about: - GopherHaul reaches a quarter million views. - GopherHaul 17 released and can be seen on the forum. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi - If you want a free customized animated banner just jump onto our forum and introduce yourself! http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi - I added a section on the lawn care business forum called Help me bid this job. Since... In this episode of GopherHaul we discuss winter lawn care business marketing ideas. Hello everyone and welcome to Gopherhaul! If you haven’t started your business yet, what are you waiting for. 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. In this episode we will be talking about: - GopherHaul reaches a quarter million views. - GopherHaul 17 released and can be seen on the forum. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi - If you want a free customized animated banner just jump onto our forum and introduce yourself! http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi - I added a section on the lawn care business forum called Help me bid this job. Since the last episode we have helped a lawn care business owner land a $6,000 job. Read more about that job http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=35;t=6004 - Are you looking for a great way to promote your lawn care business this winter? Here is a flyer to promote your lawn care business toy drive for the holidays. Offering to run a toy drive really positions your business as one who cares about your community. It’s a great way to show your community that you care as well as gain you some valuable media attention. Make sure you let the local media know you are running a toy drive to collect toys for children in need. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=1;t=942 - I have two sets of 50 free holiday cards compliments of www.CardsCheaper.com to giveaway. Click here to take part http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST&f=26&t=6241&st=0&&#entry28278 - Check out my newest favorite lawn care truck. It’s covered in artificial turf. See it here. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=8;t=6149;r=1 - Our friend Keith posted a great way to gain more winter lawn care business customers and get them lined up for next spring too. Read more about this marketing idea and download the free flyer we made for this advertising concept here. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=29;t=6144; - We are going to be talking a lot more about our outdoor holiday decoration contest so start taking pictures. We have a bunch of prize to give away, check the forum for more info. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST&f=8&t=6159&st=0&&#entry27752 If you are in need of free 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. Also please log onto our lawn care business forum and tell us about your business and if you have any business questions, please ask them. Always remember to dream it, build it, Gopher It! In this episode of GopherHaul we discuss winter lawn care business marketing ideas. Hello everyone and welcome to Gopherhaul! If you haven’t started your business yet, what are you waiting for. 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. In this episode we will be talking about: - GopherHaul reaches a quarter million views. - GopherHaul 17 released and can be seen on the forum. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi - If you want a free customized animated banner just jump onto our forum and introduce yourself! http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi - I added a section on the lawn care business forum called Help me bid this job. Since the last episode we have helped a lawn care business owner land a $6,000 job. Read more about that job http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=35;t=6004 - Are you looking for a great way to promote your lawn care business this winter? Here is a flyer to promote your lawn care business toy drive for the holidays. Offering to run a toy drive really positions your business as one who cares about your community. It’s a great way to show your community that you care as well as gain you some valuable media attention. Make sure you let the local media know you are running a toy drive to collect toys for children in need. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=1;t=942 - I have two sets of 50 free holiday cards compliments of www.CardsCheaper.com to giveaway. Click here to take part http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST&f=26&t=6241&st=0&&#entry28278 - Check out my newest favorite lawn care truck. It’s covered in artificial turf. See it here. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=8;t=6149;r=1 - Our friend Keith posted a great way to gain more winter lawn care business customers and get them lined up for next spring too. Read more about this marketing idea and download the free flyer we made for this advertising concept here. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=29;t=6144; - We are going to be talking a lot more about our outdoor holiday decoration contest so start taking pictures. We have a bunch of prize to give away, check the forum for more info. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST&f=8&t=6159&st=0&&#entry27752 If you are in need of free 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. Also please log onto our lawn care business forum and tell us about your business and if you have any business questions, please ask them. Always remember to dream it, build it, Gopher It! tag:odeo.com,2007-11-19,17343913 Mon, 19 Nov 2007 16:44:06 -0800 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, Software, Entrepreneur, advertising, marketing, guru, care, service, customer, grass, gopherhaul, lawn, landscaping, mowing http://odeo.com/episodes/17237143-GopherHaul-16-Lawn-Care-Entrepreneur-Business-Show Hello everyone and welcome to Gopherhaul! If you haven’t started your business yet, what are you waiting for. 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. In this episode we will be talking about some new free downloads we have added to our lawn care business forum. One is a flyer and the other is a lawn care business bid proposal template. Next we will be talking about a new section we have added to the lawn care business forum called “Help me bid it.” This is going to allow you to post specifics of a lawn care job you want to bid on and get feedback from other lawn care business owners as to what you should charge. Then we talk about the concept of can you bid for too bi... Hello everyone and welcome to Gopherhaul! If you haven’t started your business yet, what are you waiting for. 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. In this episode we will be talking about some new free downloads we have added to our lawn care business forum. One is a flyer and the other is a lawn care business bid proposal template. Next we will be talking about a new section we have added to the lawn care business forum called “Help me bid it.” This is going to allow you to post specifics of a lawn care job you want to bid on and get feedback from other lawn care business owners as to what you should charge. Then we talk about the concept of can you bid for too big of a job. Can such a job actually do more harm than good? Find out by watching the video. Next we talk about how you can use a down turn in the real estate market to actually gain new customers. We added a new flyer on this marketing concept as well and you are welcome to download it from our lawn care business forum. Lastly we discuss search engine optimization tips that will help you rank higher in searches. Why should you pay for internet advertising when we can tell you how to get in the top results of searches for lawn care businesses in your area! If you are in need of free 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. Also please log onto our lawn care business forum and tell us about your business and if you have any business questions, please ask them. Always remember to dream it, build it, Gopher It! Hello everyone and welcome to Gopherhaul! If you haven’t started your business yet, what are you waiting for. 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. In this episode we will be talking about some new free downloads we have added to our lawn care business forum. One is a flyer and the other is a lawn care business bid proposal template. Next we will be talking about a new section we have added to the lawn care business forum called “Help me bid it.” This is going to allow you to post specifics of a lawn care job you want to bid on and get feedback from other lawn care business owners as to what you should charge. Then we talk about the concept of can you bid for too big of a job. Can such a job actually do more harm than good? Find out by watching the video. Next we talk about how you can use a down turn in the real estate market to actually gain new customers. We added a new flyer on this marketing concept as well and you are welcome to download it from our lawn care business forum. Lastly we discuss search engine optimization tips that will help you rank higher in searches. Why should you pay for internet advertising when we can tell you how to get in the top results of searches for lawn care businesses in your area! If you are in need of free 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. Also please log onto our lawn care business forum and tell us about your business and if you have any business questions, please ask them. Always remember to dream it, build it, Gopher It! tag:odeo.com,2007-11-01,17237143 Thu, 01 Nov 2007 00:28:42 -0700 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, Software, Entrepreneur, advertising, marketing, guru, care, grass, promotion, gopherhaul, lawn, landscaping, mowing, turf http://odeo.com/episodes/17128163-GopherHaul-15-Lawn-Care-Entrepreneur-Business-SHow Hello everyone and welcome to Gopherhaul! If you haven’t started your business yet, what are you waiting for. 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: Our friend Teresa. She is the owner and operator of a lawn care business, a single mom and is going through a divorce. We get a chance to talk with her and come up with unique m... Hello everyone and welcome to Gopherhaul! If you haven’t started your business yet, what are you waiting for. 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: Our friend Teresa. She is the owner and operator of a lawn care business, a single mom and is going through a divorce. We get a chance to talk with her and come up with unique marketing ideas to help her push her business forwards and help her find continued success. We talk about some more marketing techniques for Halloween. One idea includes setting up a Halloween scene in your front yard involving a mower and using it as an example to talk about mower safety. We also see how you can get custom printed m&m’s to promote your lawn care business. I put up a couple new free lawn care flyer templates you can download and edit to fit your needs. This one is designed for you to use in the fall when business is slow and you want to offer mower winterization services. We also announce the winners of our free lawn care business sign giveaway compliments of Tony from amw-graphics.com If you are in need of free 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. Also please log onto our lawn care business forum and tell us about your business and if you have any business questions, please ask them. Always remember to dream it, build it, Gopher It! Hello everyone and welcome to Gopherhaul! If you haven’t started your business yet, what are you waiting for. 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: Our friend Teresa. She is the owner and operator of a lawn care business, a single mom and is going through a divorce. We get a chance to talk with her and come up with unique marketing ideas to help her push her business forwards and help her find continued success. We talk about some more marketing techniques for Halloween. One idea includes setting up a Halloween scene in your front yard involving a mower and using it as an example to talk about mower safety. We also see how you can get custom printed m&m’s to promote your lawn care business. I put up a couple new free lawn care flyer templates you can download and edit to fit your needs. This one is designed for you to use in the fall when business is slow and you want to offer mower winterization services. We also announce the winners of our free lawn care business sign giveaway compliments of Tony from amw-graphics.com If you are in need of free 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. Also please log onto our lawn care business forum and tell us about your business and if you have any business questions, please ask them. Always remember to dream it, build it, Gopher It! tag:odeo.com,2007-10-16,17128163 Tue, 16 Oct 2007 20:07:05 -0700 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, Software, Entrepreneur, Small, advertising, marketing, Advice, guru, care, grass, gopherhaul, mower, lawn, landscaping http://odeo.com/episodes/17043403-GopherHaul-14-Lawn-Care-Business-Entrepreneur-Show Watch the video version of this podcast. GopherHaul 14 Lawn Care Business Show Part 1 GopherHaul 14 Lawn Care Business Show Part 2. 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! Thanks for watching. Our 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 http://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 p... Watch the video version of this podcast. GopherHaul 14 Lawn Care Business Show Part 1 GopherHaul 14 Lawn Care Business Show Part 2. 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! Thanks for watching. Our 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 http://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 Let’s start the show off by saying hello to our newest forum member. Welcome to Scott Bursky Scott Bursky He is the owner of turftalk.org. It’s a turf website and discussion board from Australia. He had worked 4 years in turfgrass management in Sydney Australia. Then later he worked on a golf course for 6 years as a foreman/greenkeeper, Scott said he believes that the internet needed more websites that were turf and lawn care related . So i decided to start the turf talk website. If you have a turf question why not ask him! Get on our forum at getgopher.com and introduce yourself and we will put together a custom animated banner with your company name and phone number. Also don’t forget to add us to your friends list on myspace. You can find us at myspace.com/teamgopher GopherHaul Banner Next up let’s talk about how to bid on a leaf clean up job. There are plenty of pitfalls when you get involved with fall yard clean ups. I want to share with you a story posted on our forum by our friend Keith, owner of www.startalawncarebusiness.com In his first year of owning a lawn care company. A new customer called to get an estimate for raking the yard and cleaning out gutters. He had several large trees in his yard. Although his yard was covered with leaves more than half of the leaves were still on his trees. Since he had a mulching area to keep me from having to haul off his leaves, he gave an estimate of $150. The customer did not want to spend that much and said that if Keith would do it for $110, he would let me cut his yard next summer. The leaf job went well and Keith collected his money and went home. The next day the customer called to say that Keith had not raked all the leaves and that he needed to come back. Keith explained that the leaves in his yard had fallen after he had finished and that he was not responsible for those leaves. Not wanting to lose the business next year, Keith ultimately went back and did a quick touch up job which took an hour. Keith was then satisfied as it was a big yard and he would get to do his mowing work all the following year. When Spring rolled around, Keith took his equipment to the customer’s house and was told that someone else had already been contracted to mow the lawn for the season. Keith reminded the customer of the agreement they had and the client said that the other lawn care business was doing the job for $5 less than Keith’s estimate. WOW Can you imagine that! Here are a few lessons Keith learned from this customer. 1. He did not have a signed agreement – You should be very careful about taking a customer’s word that they will let you do their lawn “next season” in return for a cheaper price today. If the agreement is verbal it is very easy for a customer to back out of the agreement. 2. Price each job as an individual effort – If a leaf job is worth $250 to you then bid it accordingly. Do not let the potential of other work influence your price significantly downward. That other work may never materialize. 3. Explain to the customer that leaves on the trees are not included in the price – Leaves continue to fall through the entire season. If you contract to do a leaf job, let the customer know that any leaf droppage that occurs after the job is done is not covered under the quoted price. When Keith consults with new lawn care business owners, he often tell them that leaf pickup is very easy to under price. A job which looks like it should take less than 1 hour can often wind up taking 4 times that long. This Autumn, when your phone starts ringing with new customers looking to get a great price on leaf management, take extra caution when giving estimates. One of our friends and forum member Littles Lawn Care and Landscaping told us this cationary tale as well. Littles said ”When I started my business, I had a property management co. give them a bid on a leaf clean-up job. The yard had 3 large elms on it. I gave the bid of $150 and submitted it in writing. Well it was more than 2 weeks later when they had gotten back to me with the approval , and I told them I will get right on it tomorrow. In that 2 weeks, at least 3 times as many leaves had fallen, which turned a 2 hour job into almost 5 hours. It was a nightmare, not to mention it had rained the few days before. It was awful. This year I am going to tell people the bid is good for 48 hours, and bid accordingly. You might want to consider a 48 hour expiration on your bids as well.” Thanks Littles for the cautionary tale. If you would like to try a free sample of Fluid Film, get on our forum and click on the fluid film button . It will take you to a post and give you the email of Dan Williams from fluid film who will send you out a sample of his product. If you are looking for ways to make more money this fall, consider letting your creativity flow and offer your customers outdoor halloween and fall decorations. Mix pumpkins, gourds, hay and corn stalks to create a very festive looking residential yard or commercial property. lawn care business fall decoration These photos were sent to us from our forum members Glan, United Environment and Five Star Lawn Care. They should get your creative juices flowing. If you create some outdoor fall decorations, please either post them on our forum or send them to us at support@gophersoftware.com we’d love to see what you create! If you need help in marketing your fall outdoor designs we have a bunch of ideas for you. Lawn Care Business Door Hanger First off, we created this new halloween door hanger you can download and use. This one is in addition to our other halloween door hanger design as well. You can find hundred of free lawn care logo templates, flyer and door hanger templates as well as lawn care business web templates, and lawn care business contracts, just visit our website at www.gophersoftware.com and click on link you are interested in at the top of our website! Also I wanted to show you some fall marketing ideas some of our friends and forum members have been utilizing. lawn care fall clean up post card myspace Fall themed graphics We have been talking a lot lately about using myspace to market your lawn care business. One of our friends Adam, really has been doing a great job. He was able to utilize one of our free halloween door hanger templates as well as our free halloween lawn care business postcard design and include them in a bulletin he sent out to all his friends on myspace. Myspace bulletins allow you to post a message all of your friends can read. It’s a great way to keep your friends up to date on what you are doing or what new services you are offering. He promoted that his business can create fall and halloween outdoor decorations for your home or business. Great job Adam! Very creative thinking on your part! If you are using myspace to promote your lawn care business, consider this lawn care business marketing idea from Adam. Here is another marketing idea for Halloween. This Halloween, if you have trick-or-treaters that come to your house or business. Why not do this. Take pictures of the kids that are dressed up in costumes. Then when you give the kids their candy treats, include a little business card size ad that is attached to the treat. On the card tell them you will be picking the best costume and you will be giving an award. It will be posted on your website the following day and in order to find who won, the kids will have to have their parents visit your website. This will give you a chance to have new potential clients review your website. Maybe then on the website and on the back of the card offer a special on fall leaf cleanup or promote your upcoming holiday lighting services. Give a limited time offer to make them jump on the offer. Have some kind of gift for the kid or kids. Maybe 1st, 2nd and 3rd place and possibly get some gift cards from a local toy store or something the kids would enjoy. Then they can be claimed within the next X days. They can send you an email or stop by. Or you can stop by their house and while you are there, give them an estimate to service their property! You can then send out press releases to the paper that night of the best costume and that you are offering a gift card to the winner. The newspaper might pick up the story. Now let’s get to the winner of our door hanger and postcard contest! Eric of Maedgen’s Lawn Care is getting the free door hangers compliments of plan-it graphics.com lawn care business lawn care marketing How did he win? He used this graphic in a forum signature where he was posting! Nice work Eric! Thanks for promoting GopherHaul. GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Show And for our free 1000 postcard giveaway Josh Armstrong of West Knox Lawns !! Josh Armstrong West Know Lawns Josh used the following signature images to help promote all our free lawn care marketing graphics! Thanks Josh! GopherHaul Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show I can’t wait to see how your door hanger and postcards turn out. Out of all the thousands of viewers we had for the last show, a lot of lawn care business owners wrote in to win but only Josh and Eric did something to help promote the GopherHaul show. So maybe this will inspire you to be creative and help us promote our show in our next freebie giveaway. Which leads me too Tony from amw-graphics.com has gotten some new equipment lawn care business magnetic signs This thing is amazing! It can print directly onto the vinyl up to about 180 inches wide by about 1000 feet long. Prints are good for up to 3 years OUTDOOR and more or less unlimited indoors. When laminated ADD 2-8 years (5-10 years) depending on the lam. used. All prints Tony sells for trucks, trailers, cars, magnets ARE laminated. Lamination also protects for: Scratches, Chemicals (gas, etc.), Extends out door life, etc. ” Now, this is what we have to giveaway this month. For 2 winners. Each winner will get a set of two 12×24 inch full color magnets signs OR you can choose not to have it set on a magnet. How can you win? If you want to keep it simple, just send us an email to support@gophersoftware.com or make a post in the forum and say you want the signs. If you want to get a little more creative, send us a picture of your current truck. If you really want to have a great chance to win, do something to help us promote GopherHaul. How? 1. Make a post about the latest GopherHaul on a forum. 2. Post the video on your myspace page. 3. Put the video on your website. 4. Put a GopherHaul signature image in your forum signature line. If you need some GopherHaul graphic images, I posted a bunch of them on our forum. Just go to the Gopher Forum at www.gophersoftware.com Click on the forum link. GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Show Then click on the GopherHaul forum section At the top you will see a post on how to promote Gopherhaul and you can use those images or make your own or simply use text! Then send us a link to show us what you did! I can’t wait to see what you come up with! Always remember to dream it, build it, Gopher It! Posted in Lawn Care Software, Lawn Care Business, General Business, Lawn Care Videos, Marketing, Lawn Care Marketing, Lawn Care Truck & Trailer Signs, Free Lawn Care Flyer Template, GopherHaul, Gopher Lawn Care Business Software Watch the video version of this podcast. GopherHaul 14 Lawn Care Business Show Part 1 GopherHaul 14 Lawn Care Business Show Part 2. 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! Thanks for watching. Our 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 http://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 Let’s start the show off by saying hello to our newest forum member. Welcome to Scott Bursky Scott Bursky He is the owner of turftalk.org. It’s a turf website and discussion board from Australia. He had worked 4 years in turfgrass management in Sydney Australia. Then later he worked on a golf course for 6 years as a foreman/greenkeeper, Scott said he believes that the internet needed more websites that were turf and lawn care related . So i decided to start the turf talk website. If you have a turf question why not ask him! Get on our forum at getgopher.com and introduce yourself and we will put together a custom animated banner with your company name and phone number. Also don’t forget to add us to your friends list on myspace. You can find us at myspace.com/teamgopher GopherHaul Banner Next up let’s talk about how to bid on a leaf clean up job. There are plenty of pitfalls when you get involved with fall yard clean ups. I want to share with you a story posted on our forum by our friend Keith, owner of www.startalawncarebusiness.com In his first year of owning a lawn care company. A new customer called to get an estimate for raking the yard and cleaning out gutters. He had several large trees in his yard. Although his yard was covered with leaves more than half of the leaves were still on his trees. Since he had a mulching area to keep me from having to haul off his leaves, he gave an estimate of $150. The customer did not want to spend that much and said that if Keith would do it for $110, he would let me cut his yard next summer. The leaf job went well and Keith collected his money and went home. The next day the customer called to say that Keith had not raked all the leaves and that he needed to come back. Keith explained that the leaves in his yard had fallen after he had finished and that he was not responsible for those leaves. Not wanting to lose the business next year, Keith ultimately went back and did a quick touch up job which took an hour. Keith was then satisfied as it was a big yard and he would get to do his mowing work all the following year. When Spring rolled around, Keith took his equipment to the customer’s house and was told that someone else had already been contracted to mow the lawn for the season. Keith reminded the customer of the agreement they had and the client said that the other lawn care business was doing the job for $5 less than Keith’s estimate. WOW Can you imagine that! Here are a few lessons Keith learned from this customer. 1. He did not have a signed agreement – You should be very careful about taking a customer’s word that they will let you do their lawn “next season” in return for a cheaper price today. If the agreement is verbal it is very easy for a customer to back out of the agreement. 2. Price each job as an individual effort – If a leaf job is worth $250 to you then bid it accordingly. Do not let the potential of other work influence your price significantly downward. That other work may never materialize. 3. Explain to the customer that leaves on the trees are not included in the price – Leaves continue to fall through the entire season. If you contract to do a leaf job, let the customer know that any leaf droppage that occurs after the job is done is not covered under the quoted price. When Keith consults with new lawn care business owners, he often tell them that leaf pickup is very easy to under price. A job which looks like it should take less than 1 hour can often wind up taking 4 times that long. This Autumn, when your phone starts ringing with new customers looking to get a great price on leaf management, take extra caution when giving estimates. One of our friends and forum member Littles Lawn Care and Landscaping told us this cationary tale as well. Littles said ”When I started my business, I had a property management co. give them a bid on a leaf clean-up job. The yard had 3 large elms on it. I gave the bid of $150 and submitted it in writing. Well it was more than 2 weeks later when they had gotten back to me with the approval , and I told them I will get right on it tomorrow. In that 2 weeks, at least 3 times as many leaves had fallen, which turned a 2 hour job into almost 5 hours. It was a nightmare, not to mention it had rained the few days before. It was awful. This year I am going to tell people the bid is good for 48 hours, and bid accordingly. You might want to consider a 48 hour expiration on your bids as well.” Thanks Littles for the cautionary tale. If you would like to try a free sample of Fluid Film, get on our forum and click on the fluid film button . It will take you to a post and give you the email of Dan Williams from fluid film who will send you out a sample of his product. If you are looking for ways to make more money this fall, consider letting your creativity flow and offer your customers outdoor halloween and fall decorations. Mix pumpkins, gourds, hay and corn stalks to create a very festive looking residential yard or commercial property. lawn care business fall decoration These photos were sent to us from our forum members Glan, United Environment and Five Star Lawn Care. They should get your creative juices flowing. If you create some outdoor fall decorations, please either post them on our forum or send them to us at support@gophersoftware.com we’d love to see what you create! If you need help in marketing your fall outdoor designs we have a bunch of ideas for you. Lawn Care Business Door Hanger First off, we created this new halloween door hanger you can download and use. This one is in addition to our other halloween door hanger design as well. You can find hundred of free lawn care logo templates, flyer and door hanger templates as well as lawn care business web templates, and lawn care business contracts, just visit our website at www.gophersoftware.com and click on link you are interested in at the top of our website! Also I wanted to show you some fall marketing ideas some of our friends and forum members have been utilizing. lawn care fall clean up post card myspace Fall themed graphics We have been talking a lot lately about using myspace to market your lawn care business. One of our friends Adam, really has been doing a great job. He was able to utilize one of our free halloween door hanger templates as well as our free halloween lawn care business postcard design and include them in a bulletin he sent out to all his friends on myspace. Myspace bulletins allow you to post a message all of your friends can read. It’s a great way to keep your friends up to date on what you are doing or what new services you are offering. He promoted that his business can create fall and halloween outdoor decorations for your home or business. Great job Adam! Very creative thinking on your part! If you are using myspace to promote your lawn care business, consider this lawn care business marketing idea from Adam. Here is another marketing idea for Halloween. This Halloween, if you have trick-or-treaters that come to your house or business. Why not do this. Take pictures of the kids that are dressed up in costumes. Then when you give the kids their candy treats, include a little business card size ad that is attached to the treat. On the card tell them you will be picking the best costume and you will be giving an award. It will be posted on your website the following day and in order to find who won, the kids will have to have their parents visit your website. This will give you a chance to have new potential clients review your website. Maybe then on the website and on the back of the card offer a special on fall leaf cleanup or promote your upcoming holiday lighting services. Give a limited time offer to make them jump on the offer. Have some kind of gift for the kid or kids. Maybe 1st, 2nd and 3rd place and possibly get some gift cards from a local toy store or something the kids would enjoy. Then they can be claimed within the next X days. They can send you an email or stop by. Or you can stop by their house and while you are there, give them an estimate to service their property! You can then send out press releases to the paper that night of the best costume and that you are offering a gift card to the winner. The newspaper might pick up the story. Now let’s get to the winner of our door hanger and postcard contest! Eric of Maedgen’s Lawn Care is getting the free door hangers compliments of plan-it graphics.com lawn care business lawn care marketing How did he win? He used this graphic in a forum signature where he was posting! Nice work Eric! Thanks for promoting GopherHaul. GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Show And for our free 1000 postcard giveaway Josh Armstrong of West Knox Lawns !! Josh Armstrong West Know Lawns Josh used the following signature images to help promote all our free lawn care marketing graphics! Thanks Josh! GopherHaul Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show I can’t wait to see how your door hanger and postcards turn out. Out of all the thousands of viewers we had for the last show, a lot of lawn care business owners wrote in to win but only Josh and Eric did something to help promote the GopherHaul show. So maybe this will inspire you to be creative and help us promote our show in our next freebie giveaway. Which leads me too Tony from amw-graphics.com has gotten some new equipment lawn care business magnetic signs This thing is amazing! It can print directly onto the vinyl up to about 180 inches wide by about 1000 feet long. Prints are good for up to 3 years OUTDOOR and more or less unlimited indoors. When laminated ADD 2-8 years (5-10 years) depending on the lam. used. All prints Tony sells for trucks, trailers, cars, magnets ARE laminated. Lamination also protects for: Scratches, Chemicals (gas, etc.), Extends out door life, etc. ” Now, this is what we have to giveaway this month. For 2 winners. Each winner will get a set of two 12×24 inch full color magnets signs OR you can choose not to have it set on a magnet. How can you win? If you want to keep it simple, just send us an email to support@gophersoftware.com or make a post in the forum and say you want the signs. If you want to get a little more creative, send us a picture of your current truck. If you really want to have a great chance to win, do something to help us promote GopherHaul. How? 1. Make a post about the latest GopherHaul on a forum. 2. Post the video on your myspace page. 3. Put the video on your website. 4. Put a GopherHaul signature image in your forum signature line. If you need some GopherHaul graphic images, I posted a bunch of them on our forum. Just go to the Gopher Forum at www.gophersoftware.com Click on the forum link. GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Show Then click on the GopherHaul forum section At the top you will see a post on how to promote Gopherhaul and you can use those images or make your own or simply use text! Then send us a link to show us what you did! I can’t wait to see what you come up with! Always remember to dream it, build it, Gopher It! Posted in Lawn Care Software, Lawn Care Business, General Business, Lawn Care Videos, Marketing, Lawn Care Marketing, Lawn Care Truck & Trailer Signs, Free Lawn Care Flyer Template, GopherHaul, Gopher Lawn Care Business Software tag:odeo.com,2007-10-04,17043403 Thu, 04 Oct 2007 05:10:59 -0700 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Entrepreneur, marketing, small business, grass, home office, gopherhaul, lawn, landscaper, landscaping, mowing, turf, lawn care videos, gopher lawn care business software, free lawn care flyer template, tree service, lawn care marketing, general business, lawn care truck & trailer signs, lawn care software, lawn care business http://odeo.com/episodes/16515953-GopherHaul-13-Lawn-Care-Business-Entrepreneur-Show Hello everyone and welcome to GopherHaul. GopherHaul is a show for entrepreneurs and new lawn care business 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. If you are going to be in business, don’t ever give up. If you are in need of free 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. Hello everyone and welcome to GopherHaul. GopherHaul is a show for entrepreneurs and new lawn care business 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. If you are going to be in business, don’t ever give up. If you are in need of free 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. Hello everyone and welcome to GopherHaul. GopherHaul is a show for entrepreneurs and new lawn care business 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. If you are going to be in business, don’t ever give up. If you are in need of free 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. tag:odeo.com,2007-09-05,16515953 Wed, 05 Sep 2007 17:44:19 -0700 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, Software, Sales, Entrepreneur, advertising, marketing, Advice, tree, hot, care, bikini, thong, gopherhaul, mower, lawn, landscaping, flyer http://odeo.com/episodes/15896263-GopherHaul-12-Lawn-Care-Entrepreneur-Business-Show 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. A few nights ago I got a phone call from a friend who’s father had just died. He had worked for 35 years and dreamed of his retirement. When he retired he suffered a heart attack. Declining health followed for two years before his body finally gave out. He had dreams of going on a cruise to Alaska with his wife. He had dreams of fishing on his favorite lake. All these dreams are now gone. My message to you today is to make your dreams happen today. There may not be a tomorrow. Do it today. Enjoy your life today. Don’t wait until you retire to have fun. Time is fleeting! Have fun and get your business started today! Now let’s get started with the show. What’s the big story of the month? Our frien... 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. A few nights ago I got a phone call from a friend who’s father had just died. He had worked for 35 years and dreamed of his retirement. When he retired he suffered a heart attack. Declining health followed for two years before his body finally gave out. He had dreams of going on a cruise to Alaska with his wife. He had dreams of fishing on his favorite lake. All these dreams are now gone. My message to you today is to make your dreams happen today. There may not be a tomorrow. Do it today. Enjoy your life today. Don’t wait until you retire to have fun. Time is fleeting! Have fun and get your business started today! Now let’s get started with the show. What’s the big story of the month? Our friend Lee Cathey of Tiger Time Lawn Care has really done it. He has managed to attract international media coverage for his lawn care business. I can’t ever remember any lawn care business being able to get so much advertising for free. How did he do it? Bikinis. He was mentioned in China, India, Australia. On the front page of CNN’s site, on Fox & Friends, The New York Times and even in the monologue of the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. If you have been active in our business forum, you probably already know how just 3 months ago, Lee left his job and decided to start a lawn care business. He posted on the Gopher lawn care business forum that he was looking for ways to attract customers. After going through a few ideas, he decided to go with the bikini lawn care service. Here is Lee giving a plug to us on Fox & Friends Lee is now franchising his Tiger Time Lawn Care business. If you are thinking about getting into the lawn care industry but have no idea how to get started, why not contact Lee and get started in a Tiger Time Franchise. Lee was kind enough to allow us to give away 3 free franchises. Normally there would be an initial franchise fee of thousands of dollars to get started. If you contact Lee and mention you saw the free franchise deal you saw here on the GopherHaul show, you might be one of the lucky 3 who get a free franchise. Lee also wanted me to make note he would love to see people within a 200 miles radius of Memphis Tennessee contact him, but ultimately he will be choosing those applicants who are the most enthusiastic to make their franchise grow. What can we learn from the experience of GopherHauling Lee’s lawn care business? If you are going to go into business, you need to stand out. Ask yourself, how do you differ from your competitors? What makes your business unique? What unique services can you offer that will generate media buzz about your company? If your business could use a GopherHaul and you need new ideas how to make your business grow send us an email at support@gophersoftware.com Who knows maybe some of the ideas will help your business grow as much if not more than the international media attention Tiger Time Lawn Care was able to achieve from the brain storming that went on for his GopherHaul. We have a new sponsor for our lawn care business forum and GopherHaul show. It’s Fluid Film. We have 50 free samples of fluid film to send out. All you need to do to get your free sample is to visit our forum and click on the fluid film link. This is an amazing product. It keeps your green industry equipment lubricated and rust free. If you’d like a free sample of this product while supplies last, send an email to Dan Williams at dwilliams@eurekafluidfilm.com and tell him you saw Fluid Film on the GopherHaul show and you would like a free sample sent to you. Another neat thing we have recently added to our site was new bumper stickers and t-shirts. Visit our lawn care business forum where you can see the latest “Honk if you watch GopherHaul.” If you purchase a bumper sticker, please send us a photo of where you put it. The GopherHaul business book of the month is L.L. Bean: The Making of an American Icon. In this book we see how L.L.’s first attempt at getting into business was when he created a new hunting boot. He borrowed money from his family to send out ads to residents with hunting and fishing licenses. He was amazed to find that he sold 100 pairs of boots! Within a short period of time 90 boots were sent back because they were defective. This could have sunk his business and he might have never tried another business again. What did he do? He refunded those 90 sales and reengineered his boot and tried again. What’s the business lesson we can learn from LL Bean? NEVER GIVE UP! If you fail at one attempt, review what happened and learn from your mistakes. Then give it another go and try to make it better the second time and the third time and the forth! Everyone makes mistakes but not everyone learns from their mistakes and tries again. If you are going to be in business, don’t ever give up. If you are in need of free 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. 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. A few nights ago I got a phone call from a friend who’s father had just died. He had worked for 35 years and dreamed of his retirement. When he retired he suffered a heart attack. Declining health followed for two years before his body finally gave out. He had dreams of going on a cruise to Alaska with his wife. He had dreams of fishing on his favorite lake. All these dreams are now gone. My message to you today is to make your dreams happen today. There may not be a tomorrow. Do it today. Enjoy your life today. Don’t wait until you retire to have fun. Time is fleeting! Have fun and get your business started today! Now let’s get started with the show. What’s the big story of the month? Our friend Lee Cathey of Tiger Time Lawn Care has really done it. He has managed to attract international media coverage for his lawn care business. I can’t ever remember any lawn care business being able to get so much advertising for free. How did he do it? Bikinis. He was mentioned in China, India, Australia. On the front page of CNN’s site, on Fox & Friends, The New York Times and even in the monologue of the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. If you have been active in our business forum, you probably already know how just 3 months ago, Lee left his job and decided to start a lawn care business. He posted on the Gopher lawn care business forum that he was looking for ways to attract customers. After going through a few ideas, he decided to go with the bikini lawn care service. Here is Lee giving a plug to us on Fox & Friends Lee is now franchising his Tiger Time Lawn Care business. If you are thinking about getting into the lawn care industry but have no idea how to get started, why not contact Lee and get started in a Tiger Time Franchise. Lee was kind enough to allow us to give away 3 free franchises. Normally there would be an initial franchise fee of thousands of dollars to get started. If you contact Lee and mention you saw the free franchise deal you saw here on the GopherHaul show, you might be one of the lucky 3 who get a free franchise. Lee also wanted me to make note he would love to see people within a 200 miles radius of Memphis Tennessee contact him, but ultimately he will be choosing those applicants who are the most enthusiastic to make their franchise grow. What can we learn from the experience of GopherHauling Lee’s lawn care business? If you are going to go into business, you need to stand out. Ask yourself, how do you differ from your competitors? What makes your business unique? What unique services can you offer that will generate media buzz about your company? If your business could use a GopherHaul and you need new ideas how to make your business grow send us an email at support@gophersoftware.com Who knows maybe some of the ideas will help your business grow as much if not more than the international media attention Tiger Time Lawn Care was able to achieve from the brain storming that went on for his GopherHaul. We have a new sponsor for our lawn care business forum and GopherHaul show. It’s Fluid Film. We have 50 free samples of fluid film to send out. All you need to do to get your free sample is to visit our forum and click on the fluid film link. This is an amazing product. It keeps your green industry equipment lubricated and rust free. If you’d like a free sample of this product while supplies last, send an email to Dan Williams at dwilliams@eurekafluidfilm.com and tell him you saw Fluid Film on the GopherHaul show and you would like a free sample sent to you. Another neat thing we have recently added to our site was new bumper stickers and t-shirts. Visit our lawn care business forum where you can see the latest “Honk if you watch GopherHaul.” If you purchase a bumper sticker, please send us a photo of where you put it. The GopherHaul business book of the month is L.L. Bean: The Making of an American Icon. In this book we see how L.L.’s first attempt at getting into business was when he created a new hunting boot. He borrowed money from his family to send out ads to residents with hunting and fishing licenses. He was amazed to find that he sold 100 pairs of boots! Within a short period of time 90 boots were sent back because they were defective. This could have sunk his business and he might have never tried another business again. What did he do? He refunded those 90 sales and reengineered his boot and tried again. What’s the business lesson we can learn from LL Bean? NEVER GIVE UP! If you fail at one attempt, review what happened and learn from your mistakes. Then give it another go and try to make it better the second time and the third time and the forth! Everyone makes mistakes but not everyone learns from their mistakes and tries again. If you are going to be in business, don’t ever give up. If you are in need of free 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. tag:odeo.com,2007-08-05,15896263 Sun, 05 Aug 2007 07:48:12 -0700 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, Software, Entrepreneur, advertising, marketing, time, FILM, care, bikini, leno, jay, grass, tiger, customers, fluid, gopher, gopherhaul, mower, lawn, mowing, lawn care http://odeo.com/episodes/14835783-GopherHaul-11-Lawn-Care-Entrepreneur-Business-Podcast Hello everyone and welcome to GopherHaul Watch the GopherHaul video at http://www.gophergraphics.com In each episode we discuss lawn care industry issues. We also Talk about different tips and tricks to improve your lawn care business This show’s goal is to get you excited about running your business and excited about life. If you haven’t started your own business yet, what are you waiting for? To paraphrase Warren Miller, If you don’t start your business this year, You’ll be at least one year older when you do. So get started today! In this episode we are going to be talking about: Lee, the winner of our help a veteran marketing campaign He also happens to run a bikini lawn care service We are going to see new ways to distribute flyers from your vehicle What’s the biggest trend emerging in the lawn care industry? Its going electric, we will learn more about that A new lawn care business owner wrote us to figure out why he hasn’t been able to get enough new customers We’ll find out ... Hello everyone and welcome to GopherHaul Watch the GopherHaul video at http://www.gophergraphics.com In each episode we discuss lawn care industry issues. We also Talk about different tips and tricks to improve your lawn care business This show’s goal is to get you excited about running your business and excited about life. If you haven’t started your own business yet, what are you waiting for? To paraphrase Warren Miller, If you don’t start your business this year, You’ll be at least one year older when you do. So get started today! In this episode we are going to be talking about: Lee, the winner of our help a veteran marketing campaign He also happens to run a bikini lawn care service We are going to see new ways to distribute flyers from your vehicle What’s the biggest trend emerging in the lawn care industry? Its going electric, we will learn more about that A new lawn care business owner wrote us to figure out why he hasn’t been able to get enough new customers We’ll find out why and these reasons will help your business too. We are also going to meet an entrepreneur who manufactures electric powered mowers plus much much more Now Let’s get to work! Do you like to read? Well as a business owner you should always be reading. It will help you and your business grow If you are a business owner you know that running a business can be a monster. This monster can take over your life and destroy everything. It can make you bankrupt. You can lose your family. You can even lose your mind at times. Which leads me to this episode book of the month Written by Joe Berlinger, the book is called Metallica, This Monster Lives. This book gives you behind the scenes insight into the filming of Metallica’s movie, Some Kind Of Monster. The movie follows the band going through counseling and rehab for substance abuse after their bass player left in 2000. If you or someone you know is suffering from alcohol or drug abuse, please get help or get them help. It’s tough enough trying to start and run your own business when you are healthy, If you are going to have any chance at all of finding success, you need to live a clean lifestyle. In this book, It is really is amazing to see that such a huge band with so many resources at their finger tips, still deals with the same issues you and I deal with in our lives. I hope reading this book will leave you with this thought. Whatever is bothering you in your life, whatever difficulties you find yourself in whether they be substance abuse, financial issues, family issues or whatever it is important for you to talk about them. Don’t hold it in. It’s important for you to talk. We all care about your well being. If you haven’t seen the movie, go out and rent it and read this book. I think you will find their journey to be inspirational. In our last episode of GopherHaul, we ask the lawn care business owners viewing this show to go out into your community and help a veteran with their lawn care. Send in your photos and we would pick a winner to receive some magenetic truck signs from amw-graphics and a lawn care business training package from summer 101. Thanks for your submissions. The purpose of the promotion was to teach you how to create goodwill between your business and your community. The more goodwill you create, the higher your business will be looked upon and thought of when your community needs lawn service. Our business challenge winner is Lee Cathey and his staff at Tiger Time Lawn Care. They were really up to the challenge and assisted veteran Ed Debarry. Ed, who is a widower and no longer able to care for his property, is a veteran of WWII. Lee said he was able to meet Ed Debarry through a friend and was able to cut Ed’s lawn and redo his flower beds to create more curb appeal. Lee sent in some great pictures. Another interesting business item about Tiger Time Lawn Care is a they recently began experimenting with a bikini Lawn Care service. If you remember, we had discussed another lawn care operator utilizing this marketing concept in a previous GopherHaul episode. Seeing Lee’s staff wear a bikini as they mow lawns has really gotten people to talk about his business and it is growing by leaps and bounds. Will these marketing gimmicks last? Who knows, business is all about experimentation. Sometimes such outrageous marketing concepts can really bring a lot of attention to your business and that can help push it to a new level. Just today Lee posted on our forum that A local radio station, Rock 103 called and asked about the bikini cut service. Lee said he was floored. They put him on live radio and talked about it A lot of good promotion came from it he said Have you thought of some wild and outrageous marketing concepts? Have you experimented with them? If you have, send us some pictures of what you did. If you haven’t, what are you waiting for? Try them out today! Congratulations again to Lee and his staff. I look forwards to seeing your pictures with your new truck signs. Next up is Flyer distribution. How often are you trying to come up with a way to drive through your neighborhood and distribute your flyers as fast as possible? Have you come up with some crazy ideas on how to do it? Well, we have seen the best way to do it is usually the most time consuming. That is going door to door and meeting people as you hand out your flyers. If you are not going to do that and you don’t want to mail your flyers, Please what ever you do, don’t do this. Here is a flyer that was thrown from a passing truck. It is enclosed in a sandwhich bag and weighted down with some small stones. When we were talking about this on the forum, the point that came up is how mad it makes people. Home owners consider this littering and not very earth friendly. If you get your potential customers mad at you, they are not going to call you for service. If you insist on throwing flyers out of your truck as you drive down the street how about stapling a small bag of grass seed to it? It’s a unique marketing concept and the grass seed is a free gift from you to help the homeowner grow grass on bare spots. If you need a free flyer template visit our site at www.gophersoftware.com and click on the flyer link at the top of the page. The next big thing in lawn care is quiet. Have you heard of whispercut? Check out there site at whispercut.com The company was started by Richard Evans who once worked at a hedge fund in Delray Beach, Fl. On his weekends, he looked forward to sleeping in on the weekends. But every Saturday morning, the sound of neighborhood cutting crews woke him up like a blaring alarm clock. The screeches of leaf blowers drove him out of bed an hour after sunrise. One Saturday, he decided to do something about all the noise. He started Whispercut. A lawn care service that “quietly runs on the sun.” Electric powered equipment. A new wave of electric powered lawn care equipment is on it’s way. Check out this video our friend jon from Global Neighbor Inc sent us. Jon and his company have been featured in many national publications. Remember, if you have an idea for a product, why not experiment and bring the idea to life? Jon did. Now let’s check out his product. When you are trying to come up with a marketing angle that will help you stand out from competitors why not consider electric powered equipment. It’s quiet and it’s earth friendly. Can you imagine how much you could work that angle to gain customers? You could become a local hero in your town by being the first to do this. Next up – here is a section we call “Ask Team Gopher” A question came in from our forum member Darrin . He wrote, you said “If your business could use a GopherHaul, please email us.” so, I’m contacting you. I have seen your flyers and such on your web site/forum. I have been in the business part time since 2005. I made my own flyers based on what I saw on those web sites. The first year I had 8 customers, This year I spent $3,300 on new equipment and repairs and advertising. Put out about 1500 flyers so far this year (I’ll include them) and only got about 3 calls. I really need help BUT, I don’t think I can afford it. Anything you guys can do would be greatly appreciated. The “free lawn service 4” flyer was put out once, about 200 of them in one area, I got 2 calls, no jobs. The coupon flyer was put out in another area at about 100, no calls. Purrfection flyer 4 has been put out at about 1000 houses, 1 call. As you can see by the numbers, something is wrong, VERY wrong. I did not expect any jobs out of the flyers but, more than 2 calls would have been nice. Thanks in advance Darrin Here is my take. First off I really like what you are doing. I think your flyers are creative and being creative is a good thing. Since you said you aren’t getting a good response, I think I would get rid of having the customer need to sign a contract. That might be scaring people away. When you are just getting your lawn care business started, you really want to put as few barriers between you and your potential customer, as possible. Don’t make them jump through hoops. Keep things simple until you start getting a feel for what your customers want Then experiment with different marketing elements to see what works and what doesn’t. Above and beyond all that, think about, What else are you doing to network? Flyers are a just a part in your marketing campaign. What else are you doing to build buzz? Are you handing out business cards to everyone you know? Are you talking with your neighbors? Are you using community bulletin boards in local stores? Are you doing anything to get media attention in your area? Performing good deeds to others is a great way to accomplish this. Do you have truck or trailer signs? Another important step in flyer distribution is are you simply putting the flyer in the home owners door or are you knocking first and talking to the homeowner? Our Forum member “Littles” pointed this out and said He knocked on about 200 doors and left business cards with the people that answered, He left the business card at the door if no one answered. Of the 200 doors he knocked on, he got about 10 customers. It took about 2 weeks for all the calls to come in. Darrin then replied he wasn’t knocking on doors What have we learned from this, knocking on doors and talking to home owners is a very important step don’t forget to do this. Around the time Darrin wrote us, a friend emailed a very simple lawn care flyer to us. In the email he said he signed up with this particular lawn care operator. The flyer is painfully simple. At the top it says MOWING, followed by edging and blowing, free estimates and the name and phone number of the lawn care operator. As the lawn care operator was servicing this lawn, a neighbor walked over and asked him to mow his lawn too. Two clients were landed in that one day! Now that is keeping it simple. When you are just getting started, keep your marketing simple. If you need more suggestions download our free e-book, be a lawn care business rebel from gophergraphics.com. Also if you need business advice, please either post your question on our forum or email us at support@gophersoftware.com Do you need more viewers to your site? Post our show on your forum, blog, or website and we will promote it in a future gopherhaul episode GopherHaul audio version is now available for FREE through Apple’s iTunes. We are also on myspace at www.myspace.com/teamgopher. If you are on there as well, send us a friend request! I’d like to send a thanks out to Lee for promoting our GopherHaul show on his site at tigertimelawncare.com Can you help us promote our show? Post our show on your site or forum and we will promote your site in a future show. Send to support@gophersoftware.com Download our new free lawn care business book – Be a Lawn Care Business Rebel Lastly don’t re-create the wheel, use the lawn care business software, professional lawn care business owners have been using for the past decade. Gopher Billing & Scheduling Software will help you schedule your jobs and get your bills out on time. You will be amazed how much easier the right tool can help your business grow. We offer great add on modules as well. Such as the Gopher Palm Software and Barcode reader. Did you know Gopher also links with Quickbooks? With our software currently on sale starting at just $99.95 and a free 30 day trial download, we make it easy for you to take the hassle out of billing and scheduling. Visit www.getgopher.com for your free download. There are also free lawn care contracts, flyer, door hanger and web templates all ready to download as well. Thanks everyone for watching the show. Keep learning and keep making your dreams come true. Remember always to dream it, build it, Gopher It! Check out http://www.gophersoftware.com for more information and download the free trial of our lawn care business software. Also check out our FREE lawn care / landscaping / landscaper business contracts, door hanger, flyer and web templates available for free download at http://www.gophergraphics.com Hello everyone and welcome to GopherHaul Watch the GopherHaul video at http://www.gophergraphics.com In each episode we discuss lawn care industry issues. We also Talk about different tips and tricks to improve your lawn care business This show’s goal is to get you excited about running your business and excited about life. If you haven’t started your own business yet, what are you waiting for? To paraphrase Warren Miller, If you don’t start your business this year, You’ll be at least one year older when you do. So get started today! In this episode we are going to be talking about: Lee, the winner of our help a veteran marketing campaign He also happens to run a bikini lawn care service We are going to see new ways to distribute flyers from your vehicle What’s the biggest trend emerging in the lawn care industry? Its going electric, we will learn more about that A new lawn care business owner wrote us to figure out why he hasn’t been able to get enough new customers We’ll find out why and these reasons will help your business too. We are also going to meet an entrepreneur who manufactures electric powered mowers plus much much more Now Let’s get to work! Do you like to read? Well as a business owner you should always be reading. It will help you and your business grow If you are a business owner you know that running a business can be a monster. This monster can take over your life and destroy everything. It can make you bankrupt. You can lose your family. You can even lose your mind at times. Which leads me to this episode book of the month Written by Joe Berlinger, the book is called Metallica, This Monster Lives. This book gives you behind the scenes insight into the filming of Metallica’s movie, Some Kind Of Monster. The movie follows the band going through counseling and rehab for substance abuse after their bass player left in 2000. If you or someone you know is suffering from alcohol or drug abuse, please get help or get them help. It’s tough enough trying to start and run your own business when you are healthy, If you are going to have any chance at all of finding success, you need to live a clean lifestyle. In this book, It is really is amazing to see that such a huge band with so many resources at their finger tips, still deals with the same issues you and I deal with in our lives. I hope reading this book will leave you with this thought. Whatever is bothering you in your life, whatever difficulties you find yourself in whether they be substance abuse, financial issues, family issues or whatever it is important for you to talk about them. Don’t hold it in. It’s important for you to talk. We all care about your well being. If you haven’t seen the movie, go out and rent it and read this book. I think you will find their journey to be inspirational. In our last episode of GopherHaul, we ask the lawn care business owners viewing this show to go out into your community and help a veteran with their lawn care. Send in your photos and we would pick a winner to receive some magenetic truck signs from amw-graphics and a lawn care business training package from summer 101. Thanks for your submissions. The purpose of the promotion was to teach you how to create goodwill between your business and your community. The more goodwill you create, the higher your business will be looked upon and thought of when your community needs lawn service. Our business challenge winner is Lee Cathey and his staff at Tiger Time Lawn Care. They were really up to the challenge and assisted veteran Ed Debarry. Ed, who is a widower and no longer able to care for his property, is a veteran of WWII. Lee said he was able to meet Ed Debarry through a friend and was able to cut Ed’s lawn and redo his flower beds to create more curb appeal. Lee sent in some great pictures. Another interesting business item about Tiger Time Lawn Care is a they recently began experimenting with a bikini Lawn Care service. If you remember, we had discussed another lawn care operator utilizing this marketing concept in a previous GopherHaul episode. Seeing Lee’s staff wear a bikini as they mow lawns has really gotten people to talk about his business and it is growing by leaps and bounds. Will these marketing gimmicks last? Who knows, business is all about experimentation. Sometimes such outrageous marketing concepts can really bring a lot of attention to your business and that can help push it to a new level. Just today Lee posted on our forum that A local radio station, Rock 103 called and asked about the bikini cut service. Lee said he was floored. They put him on live radio and talked about it A lot of good promotion came from it he said Have you thought of some wild and outrageous marketing concepts? Have you experimented with them? If you have, send us some pictures of what you did. If you haven’t, what are you waiting for? Try them out today! Congratulations again to Lee and his staff. I look forwards to seeing your pictures with your new truck signs. Next up is Flyer distribution. How often are you trying to come up with a way to drive through your neighborhood and distribute your flyers as fast as possible? Have you come up with some crazy ideas on how to do it? Well, we have seen the best way to do it is usually the most time consuming. That is going door to door and meeting people as you hand out your flyers. If you are not going to do that and you don’t want to mail your flyers, Please what ever you do, don’t do this. Here is a flyer that was thrown from a passing truck. It is enclosed in a sandwhich bag and weighted down with some small stones. When we were talking about this on the forum, the point that came up is how mad it makes people. Home owners consider this littering and not very earth friendly. If you get your potential customers mad at you, they are not going to call you for service. If you insist on throwing flyers out of your truck as you drive down the street how about stapling a small bag of grass seed to it? It’s a unique marketing concept and the grass seed is a free gift from you to help the homeowner grow grass on bare spots. If you need a free flyer template visit our site at www.gophersoftware.com and click on the flyer link at the top of the page. The next big thing in lawn care is quiet. Have you heard of whispercut? Check out there site at whispercut.com The company was started by Richard Evans who once worked at a hedge fund in Delray Beach, Fl. On his weekends, he looked forward to sleeping in on the weekends. But every Saturday morning, the sound of neighborhood cutting crews woke him up like a blaring alarm clock. The screeches of leaf blowers drove him out of bed an hour after sunrise. One Saturday, he decided to do something about all the noise. He started Whispercut. A lawn care service that “quietly runs on the sun.” Electric powered equipment. A new wave of electric powered lawn care equipment is on it’s way. Check out this video our friend jon from Global Neighbor Inc sent us. Jon and his company have been featured in many national publications. Remember, if you have an idea for a product, why not experiment and bring the idea to life? Jon did. Now let’s check out his product. When you are trying to come up with a marketing angle that will help you stand out from competitors why not consider electric powered equipment. It’s quiet and it’s earth friendly. Can you imagine how much you could work that angle to gain customers? You could become a local hero in your town by being the first to do this. Next up – here is a section we call “Ask Team Gopher” A question came in from our forum member Darrin . He wrote, you said “If your business could use a GopherHaul, please email us.” so, I’m contacting you. I have seen your flyers and such on your web site/forum. I have been in the business part time since 2005. I made my own flyers based on what I saw on those web sites. The first year I had 8 customers, This year I spent $3,300 on new equipment and repairs and advertising. Put out about 1500 flyers so far this year (I’ll include them) and only got about 3 calls. I really need help BUT, I don’t think I can afford it. Anything you guys can do would be greatly appreciated. The “free lawn service 4” flyer was put out once, about 200 of them in one area, I got 2 calls, no jobs. The coupon flyer was put out in another area at about 100, no calls. Purrfection flyer 4 has been put out at about 1000 houses, 1 call. As you can see by the numbers, something is wrong, VERY wrong. I did not expect any jobs out of the flyers but, more than 2 calls would have been nice. Thanks in advance Darrin Here is my take. First off I really like what you are doing. I think your flyers are creative and being creative is a good thing. Since you said you aren’t getting a good response, I think I would get rid of having the customer need to sign a contract. That might be scaring people away. When you are just getting your lawn care business started, you really want to put as few barriers between you and your potential customer, as possible. Don’t make them jump through hoops. Keep things simple until you start getting a feel for what your customers want Then experiment with different marketing elements to see what works and what doesn’t. Above and beyond all that, think about, What else are you doing to network? Flyers are a just a part in your marketing campaign. What else are you doing to build buzz? Are you handing out business cards to everyone you know? Are you talking with your neighbors? Are you using community bulletin boards in local stores? Are you doing anything to get media attention in your area? Performing good deeds to others is a great way to accomplish this. Do you have truck or trailer signs? Another important step in flyer distribution is are you simply putting the flyer in the home owners door or are you knocking first and talking to the homeowner? Our Forum member “Littles” pointed this out and said He knocked on about 200 doors and left business cards with the people that answered, He left the business card at the door if no one answered. Of the 200 doors he knocked on, he got about 10 customers. It took about 2 weeks for all the calls to come in. Darrin then replied he wasn’t knocking on doors What have we learned from this, knocking on doors and talking to home owners is a very important step don’t forget to do this. Around the time Darrin wrote us, a friend emailed a very simple lawn care flyer to us. In the email he said he signed up with this particular lawn care operator. The flyer is painfully simple. At the top it says MOWING, followed by edging and blowing, free estimates and the name and phone number of the lawn care operator. As the lawn care operator was servicing this lawn, a neighbor walked over and asked him to mow his lawn too. Two clients were landed in that one day! Now that is keeping it simple. When you are just getting started, keep your marketing simple. If you need more suggestions download our free e-book, be a lawn care business rebel from gophergraphics.com. Also if you need business advice, please either post your question on our forum or email us at support@gophersoftware.com Do you need more viewers to your site? Post our show on your forum, blog, or website and we will promote it in a future gopherhaul episode GopherHaul audio version is now available for FREE through Apple’s iTunes. We are also on myspace at www.myspace.com/teamgopher. If you are on there as well, send us a friend request! I’d like to send a thanks out to Lee for promoting our GopherHaul show on his site at tigertimelawncare.com Can you help us promote our show? Post our show on your site or forum and we will promote your site in a future show. Send to support@gophersoftware.com Download our new free lawn care business book – Be a Lawn Care Business Rebel Lastly don’t re-create the wheel, use the lawn care business software, professional lawn care business owners have been using for the past decade. Gopher Billing & Scheduling Software will help you schedule your jobs and get your bills out on time. You will be amazed how much easier the right tool can help your business grow. We offer great add on modules as well. Such as the Gopher Palm Software and Barcode reader. Did you know Gopher also links with Quickbooks? With our software currently on sale starting at just $99.95 and a free 30 day trial download, we make it easy for you to take the hassle out of billing and scheduling. Visit www.getgopher.com for your free download. There are also free lawn care contracts, flyer, door hanger and web templates all ready to download as well. Thanks everyone for watching the show. Keep learning and keep making your dreams come true. Remember always to dream it, build it, Gopher It! Check out http://www.gophersoftware.com for more information and download the free trial of our lawn care business software. Also check out our FREE lawn care / landscaping / landscaper business contracts, door hanger, flyer and web templates available for free download at http://www.gophergraphics.com tag:odeo.com,2007-07-05,14835783 Thu, 05 Jul 2007 19:38:57 -0700 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, Software, Entrepreneur, Advice, tree, care, bikini, distribution, gopherhaul, mower, lawn, landscaping, flyer, trimmer, mow http://odeo.com/episodes/13073623-GopherHaul-10-Lawn-Care-Entrepreneur-Business-Talk-Show Watch GopherHaul on youtube http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=TeamGopher GopherHaul is a show for lawn care operators, small business owners and entrepreneurs. In this episode we are going to be talking about: -How to stop customer churn and improve your customer retention. -How to assist a member of the military and get some free goodies from us. -How can you use high fuel prices as an advantage to gain new customers? -Check out the GopherHaul toy of the month to help you enjoy yourself more this is the Dixie Chopper monster truck. -We are going to see a new invention that has come in from a lawn care operator and GopherHaul viewer. And talk about our new free lawn care business book – Be a Lawn Care Business Rebel. Check out http://www.gophersoftware.com for more information and download the free trial of our lawn care business software. Also check out our FREE lawn care / landscaping / landscaper business contracts, door hanger, flyer and web templates available for free... Watch GopherHaul on youtube http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=TeamGopher GopherHaul is a show for lawn care operators, small business owners and entrepreneurs. In this episode we are going to be talking about: -How to stop customer churn and improve your customer retention. -How to assist a member of the military and get some free goodies from us. -How can you use high fuel prices as an advantage to gain new customers? -Check out the GopherHaul toy of the month to help you enjoy yourself more this is the Dixie Chopper monster truck. -We are going to see a new invention that has come in from a lawn care operator and GopherHaul viewer. And talk about our new free lawn care business book – Be a Lawn Care Business Rebel. Check out http://www.gophersoftware.com for more information and download the free trial of our lawn care business software. Also check out our FREE lawn care / landscaping / landscaper business contracts, door hanger, flyer and web templates available for free download at http://www.gophergraphics.com In each episode we discuss lawn care industry issues. We also Talk about different tips and tricks to improve your lawn care business This show’s goal is to get you excited about running your business and excited about life. If you haven’t started your own business yet, what are you waiting for? To paraphrase Warren Miller, If you don’t start your business this year, You’ll be at least one year older when you do. So get started today! In honor of armed forces day which was May 20th we wanted to reach our to our viewers and let them know there are ways they can help our soldiers and veterans. One of our friends Rodman owner of PNP Lawn Care has put together a site a great site. http://www.mowingfortroops.org Visit the site and you will learn more about project evergreen. Lawn and landscape maintenance becomes a definite hardship when a family’s major breadwinner is on active duty away from home. GreenCare for Troops is designed to show the green industry’s concern for this situation, helping affected families maintain their homes’ green spaces. We would love you to get involved and help an active or retired member of the armed forces. Contact Rodman or simply reach out in your community to see if there is a resident you can assist. Take some pictures and show us what you did. Out of the photos we will pick an lco who went above and beyond to help out a member of the military and we will send them (2 magnets 12?24…2-4 colors for their truck or trailer compliments of Tony From AMW-Graphics.com). And A Professionally Produced lawn care business program consisting of Business Tools, Manuals, Start-Up Guidance, Forms, Bidding and Estimating Tutorials, Estimating Calculators, Training Videos and much more designed to help you operate a successful Lawn Care Business. compliments of our friend Keith from summer101.com Send your photos to us at support @gophersoftware.com Next up – here is a section we call “Ask Team Gopher” A question came in from our forum member Gman. He asked”I am always getting new customers, but then I lose 1. There seems to be a big turnover all the time. Is this how it is in the lawn biz? Just wondering if this is normal or am i doing something wrong. I think that I’m offering my service too cheap for the amount of work that I’m doing for all my clients. When I’m there I am always doing a extra small job for every client to improve the yard. And nine out of ten time I’m no charging anything. I was talking to another lco, and he was telling me that I’m charging way to low. He would charge alot more then what I’m changing for the adverage lawn.” For answers to how to resolve this we turn to our friend Troy owner of Tiedeman llc. a Central Michigan provider of environmentally responsible lawn care. Troy say: “Perhaps you just have the wrong type of customers and it has nothing to do with you. Because of how low your price is you are attracting the price shoppers. Raise up your price and don’t be disappointed that when customers tell you that you’re too much. Don’t expect to land every single account. If you do land every account, then “yes” your prices are definetly too low.” Let me throw you an examples of different phone conservations that you might have with customers and in the conversations I am going to have what you SHOULD say and do. C=Customer and G=You Situation 1: G: This is Gman lawn care how may I help you. C: I am looking for someone to cut my lawn G: Are you looking for a one cut or seasonal service? C: I am just looking for a one time cut while my mower is serviced. G: Well, I am sorry, we do not offer one time cuts. Sorry I couldn’t help you. Conclusion: Do not take on one time mowers. You will gain nothing from it in the long run. All they want is a cheap fix, not a long term solution Situation 2: G: Hello, this is gman lawn service how may I help you C: How much would it be to mow my lawn? G: Well, I would have to come out and look at the property first to determine your price. C: Can’t you give me a ballpark over the phone G: No, Sorry I can not. Conclusion: Do not take on a customer that wants an estimate over the phone. Now if they ask you that they would like you to come over and give them an estimate, then that is a different story. Situation 3: G: Hello, this is gman lawn service, how may I help you? C: I would like an estimate for lawn maintenance. G: Now this is for the entire season, correct? C; Yes G: Great. I will just take down your address for I can meet with you for the estimate and to talk about the contract C; Contract? I am not signing a contract. G: I am sorry, but all lawn maintenance accounts are required to sign a contract. C: Forget it then Conclusion: Why would they want to refuse to sign a contract? More than likely they probably would not be a good customer that would try to stiff you out of money. Situation 4: G; Hello, this is gman lawn service, how many I help you? C; I need an estimate for lawn maintenance. G; Not a problem, I would be more than happy to give you an estimate for seasonal weekly mowing. C; No, I just need it mowed every 2 weeks. G; I am sorry, but we only offer weekly mowing services. Conclusion: This weeds out any bi-weekly customers lawns that may get super tall and super thick in which you would waste time and money on in the long run Thanks Troy for the great insight you have to share with us. To remind us all that life can’t be all about work and no play, Let’s check out our GopherHaul toy of the month As your business gets bigger and your profits grow where are you going to spend some of that hard earned money? Well here is our suggestion Check out the Dixie Chopper monster truck. The folks at dixie chopper sure know how to have a good time. This not only looks like an absolute blast to drive, it also serves as a marketing tool. It gets the dixie chopper name out to their target audience. I bet you many people who buy dixie chopper mowers love monster trucks. I know I do. Now let’s listen in a little to learn about this truck. What a blast. Great job Dixie Chopper. Ok so the season has started now and fuel prices are high. How can you use that as an advantage to gain new customers? Forum member Grounded wrote us with this tip: On your routes that have dead spots, print up a flyer for the neighborhood that could read something like: “Has your current lawn care company tried to impose a fuel surcharge, or have they told you they quit because they cant afford the gas – keep our number handy, Were local!” Here is a flyer we made and you can download it for free from our site www.gophergraphics.com then click on the link to the flyer designs. With some real effort – this could be a way to get your name out after the season rush has ended. We get calls from “dropped Customers” and they explain that the LCO wants more money because of travel. “ I have tried this and yes, feedback is great! I can understand hiding a fuel charge in the “per cost/cut” but you cant put a surcharge in a customers face and expect them to pay it! Thanks for the great tip grounded, I certainly hope other lcos are able to use this idea and benefit from it. We are always promoting you should experiment and explore. This episode of GopherHaul we are going to look at Dave Long’s invention the Blademate wrench. Dave wrote us and said “The BladeMate is a special wrench I invented and patented for changing the blades on mowers.” Check out this product he invented and then signed an exclusive deal with Oregon Outdoor Equipment Products to sell his invention. If you have a product you created and would like us to promote it to 10 of thousands of our viewers, send us an email at support@gophersoftware.com Do you need more viewers to your site? Post our show on your forum, blog, or website and we will promote it in a future gopherhaul episode. I’d like to thanks Matt’s Lawn Care Blog for including GopherHaul. Also did you know the GopherHaul audio version is now available for FREE through Apple’s iTunes. To listen to the podcasts simply load up your itunes and do a search for gopherhaul. We are now on myspace at www.myspace.com/teamgopher. If you are on there as well, send us a friend request! Our new free 100 page lawn care business e-book – Be a Lawn Care Business Rebel is available for download. Get this book and read it. It’s chock full of marketing tips and suggestions as well as information on how to run your lawn care business. Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com. Lastly don’t re-create the wheel, use the lawn care business software, professional lawn care business owners have been using for the past decade. Gopher Billing & Scheduling Software will help you schedule your jobs and get your bills out on time. You will be amazed how much easier the right tool can help your business grow. We offer great add on modules as well. Such as the Gopher Palm Software and Barcode reader. Did you know Gopher also links with Quickbooks? With our software currently on sale starting at just $99.95 and a free 30 day trial download, we make it easy for you to take the hassle out of billing and scheduling. Visit www.getgopher.com for your free download. There are also free lawn care contracts, flyer, door hanger and web templates all ready to download as well. Thanks everyone for watching the show. Keep learning and keep making your dreams come true. Remember always to dream it, build it, Gopher It! Watch GopherHaul on youtube http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=TeamGopher GopherHaul is a show for lawn care operators, small business owners and entrepreneurs. In this episode we are going to be talking about: -How to stop customer churn and improve your customer retention. -How to assist a member of the military and get some free goodies from us. -How can you use high fuel prices as an advantage to gain new customers? -Check out the GopherHaul toy of the month to help you enjoy yourself more this is the Dixie Chopper monster truck. -We are going to see a new invention that has come in from a lawn care operator and GopherHaul viewer. And talk about our new free lawn care business book – Be a Lawn Care Business Rebel. Check out http://www.gophersoftware.com for more information and download the free trial of our lawn care business software. Also check out our FREE lawn care / landscaping / landscaper business contracts, door hanger, flyer and web templates available for free download at http://www.gophergraphics.com In each episode we discuss lawn care industry issues. We also Talk about different tips and tricks to improve your lawn care business This show’s goal is to get you excited about running your business and excited about life. If you haven’t started your own business yet, what are you waiting for? To paraphrase Warren Miller, If you don’t start your business this year, You’ll be at least one year older when you do. So get started today! In honor of armed forces day which was May 20th we wanted to reach our to our viewers and let them know there are ways they can help our soldiers and veterans. One of our friends Rodman owner of PNP Lawn Care has put together a site a great site. http://www.mowingfortroops.org Visit the site and you will learn more about project evergreen. Lawn and landscape maintenance becomes a definite hardship when a family’s major breadwinner is on active duty away from home. GreenCare for Troops is designed to show the green industry’s concern for this situation, helping affected families maintain their homes’ green spaces. We would love you to get involved and help an active or retired member of the armed forces. Contact Rodman or simply reach out in your community to see if there is a resident you can assist. Take some pictures and show us what you did. Out of the photos we will pick an lco who went above and beyond to help out a member of the military and we will send them (2 magnets 12?24…2-4 colors for their truck or trailer compliments of Tony From AMW-Graphics.com). And A Professionally Produced lawn care business program consisting of Business Tools, Manuals, Start-Up Guidance, Forms, Bidding and Estimating Tutorials, Estimating Calculators, Training Videos and much more designed to help you operate a successful Lawn Care Business. compliments of our friend Keith from summer101.com Send your photos to us at support @gophersoftware.com Next up – here is a section we call “Ask Team Gopher” A question came in from our forum member Gman. He asked”I am always getting new customers, but then I lose 1. There seems to be a big turnover all the time. Is this how it is in the lawn biz? Just wondering if this is normal or am i doing something wrong. I think that I’m offering my service too cheap for the amount of work that I’m doing for all my clients. When I’m there I am always doing a extra small job for every client to improve the yard. And nine out of ten time I’m no charging anything. I was talking to another lco, and he was telling me that I’m charging way to low. He would charge alot more then what I’m changing for the adverage lawn.” For answers to how to resolve this we turn to our friend Troy owner of Tiedeman llc. a Central Michigan provider of environmentally responsible lawn care. Troy say: “Perhaps you just have the wrong type of customers and it has nothing to do with you. Because of how low your price is you are attracting the price shoppers. Raise up your price and don’t be disappointed that when customers tell you that you’re too much. Don’t expect to land every single account. If you do land every account, then “yes” your prices are definetly too low.” Let me throw you an examples of different phone conservations that you might have with customers and in the conversations I am going to have what you SHOULD say and do. C=Customer and G=You Situation 1: G: This is Gman lawn care how may I help you. C: I am looking for someone to cut my lawn G: Are you looking for a one cut or seasonal service? C: I am just looking for a one time cut while my mower is serviced. G: Well, I am sorry, we do not offer one time cuts. Sorry I couldn’t help you. Conclusion: Do not take on one time mowers. You will gain nothing from it in the long run. All they want is a cheap fix, not a long term solution Situation 2: G: Hello, this is gman lawn service how may I help you C: How much would it be to mow my lawn? G: Well, I would have to come out and look at the property first to determine your price. C: Can’t you give me a ballpark over the phone G: No, Sorry I can not. Conclusion: Do not take on a customer that wants an estimate over the phone. Now if they ask you that they would like you to come over and give them an estimate, then that is a different story. Situation 3: G: Hello, this is gman lawn service, how may I help you? C: I would like an estimate for lawn maintenance. G: Now this is for the entire season, correct? C; Yes G: Great. I will just take down your address for I can meet with you for the estimate and to talk about the contract C; Contract? I am not signing a contract. G: I am sorry, but all lawn maintenance accounts are required to sign a contract. C: Forget it then Conclusion: Why would they want to refuse to sign a contract? More than likely they probably would not be a good customer that would try to stiff you out of money. Situation 4: G; Hello, this is gman lawn service, how many I help you? C; I need an estimate for lawn maintenance. G; Not a problem, I would be more than happy to give you an estimate for seasonal weekly mowing. C; No, I just need it mowed every 2 weeks. G; I am sorry, but we only offer weekly mowing services. Conclusion: This weeds out any bi-weekly customers lawns that may get super tall and super thick in which you would waste time and money on in the long run Thanks Troy for the great insight you have to share with us. To remind us all that life can’t be all about work and no play, Let’s check out our GopherHaul toy of the month As your business gets bigger and your profits grow where are you going to spend some of that hard earned money? Well here is our suggestion Check out the Dixie Chopper monster truck. The folks at dixie chopper sure know how to have a good time. This not only looks like an absolute blast to drive, it also serves as a marketing tool. It gets the dixie chopper name out to their target audience. I bet you many people who buy dixie chopper mowers love monster trucks. I know I do. Now let’s listen in a little to learn about this truck. What a blast. Great job Dixie Chopper. Ok so the season has started now and fuel prices are high. How can you use that as an advantage to gain new customers? Forum member Grounded wrote us with this tip: On your routes that have dead spots, print up a flyer for the neighborhood that could read something like: “Has your current lawn care company tried to impose a fuel surcharge, or have they told you they quit because they cant afford the gas – keep our number handy, Were local!” Here is a flyer we made and you can download it for free from our site www.gophergraphics.com then click on the link to the flyer designs. With some real effort – this could be a way to get your name out after the season rush has ended. We get calls from “dropped Customers” and they explain that the LCO wants more money because of travel. “ I have tried this and yes, feedback is great! I can understand hiding a fuel charge in the “per cost/cut” but you cant put a surcharge in a customers face and expect them to pay it! Thanks for the great tip grounded, I certainly hope other lcos are able to use this idea and benefit from it. We are always promoting you should experiment and explore. This episode of GopherHaul we are going to look at Dave Long’s invention the Blademate wrench. Dave wrote us and said “The BladeMate is a special wrench I invented and patented for changing the blades on mowers.” Check out this product he invented and then signed an exclusive deal with Oregon Outdoor Equipment Products to sell his invention. If you have a product you created and would like us to promote it to 10 of thousands of our viewers, send us an email at support@gophersoftware.com Do you need more viewers to your site? Post our show on your forum, blog, or website and we will promote it in a future gopherhaul episode. I’d like to thanks Matt’s Lawn Care Blog for including GopherHaul. Also did you know the GopherHaul audio version is now available for FREE through Apple’s iTunes. To listen to the podcasts simply load up your itunes and do a search for gopherhaul. We are now on myspace at www.myspace.com/teamgopher. If you are on there as well, send us a friend request! Our new free 100 page lawn care business e-book – Be a Lawn Care Business Rebel is available for download. Get this book and read it. It’s chock full of marketing tips and suggestions as well as information on how to run your lawn care business. Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com. Lastly don’t re-create the wheel, use the lawn care business software, professional lawn care business owners have been using for the past decade. Gopher Billing & Scheduling Software will help you schedule your jobs and get your bills out on time. You will be amazed how much easier the right tool can help your business grow. We offer great add on modules as well. Such as the Gopher Palm Software and Barcode reader. Did you know Gopher also links with Quickbooks? With our software currently on sale starting at just $99.95 and a free 30 day trial download, we make it easy for you to take the hassle out of billing and scheduling. Visit www.getgopher.com for your free download. There are also free lawn care contracts, flyer, door hanger and web templates all ready to download as well. Thanks everyone for watching the show. Keep learning and keep making your dreams come true. Remember always to dream it, build it, Gopher It! tag:odeo.com,2007-06-05,13073623 Tue, 05 Jun 2007 07:48:12 -0700 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, phone, Software, Entrepreneur, advertising, marketing, care, Military, customer, armed, forces, veteran, member, call, gopher, gopherhaul, mower, lawn, landscaper, landscaping, chopper, dixie http://odeo.com/episodes/12657193-Be-A-Lawn-Care-Business-Rebel-Chapter-5-Create-The-Business-You-Want You are the captain of your ship. Steer your business and your life in the direction YOU want to take it. Make small course corrections over time and you will find yourself on the path you want to be on. Listen to stories of other business owners who were able to achieve this. You can do it too! Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com You are the captain of your ship. Steer your business and your life in the direction YOU want to take it. Make small course corrections over time and you will find yourself on the path you want to be on. Listen to stories of other business owners who were able to achieve this. You can do it too! Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com You are the captain of your ship. Steer your business and your life in the direction YOU want to take it. Make small course corrections over time and you will find yourself on the path you want to be on. Listen to stories of other business owners who were able to achieve this. You can do it too! Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com tag:odeo.com,2007-05-22,12657193 Tue, 22 May 2007 01:19:01 -0700 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, Software, Entrepreneur, advertising, marketing, care, owner, billing, gopher, gopherhaul, lawn, landscaper, landscaping, scheduling http://odeo.com/episodes/12651213-Be-A-Lawn-Care-Business-Rebel-Chapter-4-Being-A-Rebellious-Attention-Getter Most small business owner spend too little time trying to get attention for themselves and their businesses. If you are going to be a rebel business owner and get paid, you need to let your customers know you are in business. Learn from the examples set by Steve Jobs, Richard Branson and Johnny Knoxville as well as other business rebels who shook up their industry and benefited from the attention they created. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com Most small business owner spend too little time trying to get attention for themselves and their businesses. If you are going to be a rebel business owner and get paid, you need to let your customers know you are in business. Learn from the examples set by Steve Jobs, Richard Branson and Johnny Knoxville as well as other business rebels who shook up their industry and benefited from the attention they created. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com Most small business owner spend too little time trying to get attention for themselves and their businesses. If you are going to be a rebel business owner and get paid, you need to let your customers know you are in business. Learn from the examples set by Steve Jobs, Richard Branson and Johnny Knoxville as well as other business rebels who shook up their industry and benefited from the attention they created. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com tag:odeo.com,2007-05-21,12651213 Mon, 21 May 2007 02:28:49 -0700 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, attention, Software, Entrepreneur, Small, advertising, marketing, care, jobs, steve, richard, owner, billing, johnny, knoxville, gopher, gopherhaul, lawn, landscaper, landscaping, scheduling, branson http://odeo.com/episodes/12645933-Be-A-Lawn-Care-Business-Rebel-Chapter-3-Take-Baby-Steps Learn why when starting your lawn care business it is best to take baby steps. Don’t swing for the fence. Listen to stories of where other lawn care operators went wrong during their start up phase so you don’t find yourself in the same bad situations. Learn how to get started on the right path. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com Learn why when starting your lawn care business it is best to take baby steps. Don’t swing for the fence. Listen to stories of where other lawn care operators went wrong during their start up phase so you don’t find yourself in the same bad situations. Learn how to get started on the right path. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com Learn why when starting your lawn care business it is best to take baby steps. Don’t swing for the fence. Listen to stories of where other lawn care operators went wrong during their start up phase so you don’t find yourself in the same bad situations. Learn how to get started on the right path. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com tag:odeo.com,2007-05-20,12645933 Sun, 20 May 2007 05:40:37 -0700 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, Software, Entrepreneur, advertising, marketing, tree, care, door, employees, billing, contract, gopher, gopherhaul, lawn, landscaper, landscaping, scheduling, templates, flyers, hangers http://odeo.com/episodes/12635743-Be-A-Lawn-Care-Business-Rebel-Chapter-2-Direct-Your-Energy-Towards-Personal-Growth Be A Lawn Care Business Rebel – Chapter 2 Direct Your Energy Towards Personal Growth. If you are unhappy with your current situation, take small steps to improve it. Don’t blame others. Don’t waste your energy. Use that energy and redirect it towards personal growth. You can do it! Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com Be A Lawn Care Business Rebel – Chapter 2 Direct Your Energy Towards Personal Growth. If you are unhappy with your current situation, take small steps to improve it. Don’t blame others. Don’t waste your energy. Use that energy and redirect it towards personal growth. You can do it! Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com Be A Lawn Care Business Rebel – Chapter 2 Direct Your Energy Towards Personal Growth. If you are unhappy with your current situation, take small steps to improve it. Don’t blame others. Don’t waste your energy. Use that energy and redirect it towards personal growth. You can do it! Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com tag:odeo.com,2007-05-18,12635743 Fri, 18 May 2007 02:34:02 -0700 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, Software, Entrepreneur, Small, advertising, marketing, tree, care, door, employees, billing, customers, gopher, gopherhaul, lawn, landscaper, landscaping, scheduling, templates, flyers, hangers, contracts http://odeo.com/episodes/12086383-Be-A-Lawn-Care-Business-Rebel-Chapter-1-Believe-In-Yourself Be A Lawn Care Business Rebel – Chapter 1 Believe In Yourself. Inspirational words for the new lawn care entrepreneur. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com Be A Lawn Care Business Rebel – Chapter 1 Believe In Yourself. Inspirational words for the new lawn care entrepreneur. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com Be A Lawn Care Business Rebel – Chapter 1 Believe In Yourself. Inspirational words for the new lawn care entrepreneur. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com tag:odeo.com,2007-05-13,12086383 Sun, 13 May 2007 06:56:23 -0700 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, Software, Entrepreneur, Small, advertising, marketing, tree, care, door, employees, billing, customers, gopher, gopherhaul, lawn, landscaper, landscaping, scheduling, templates, flyers, hangers, contracts http://odeo.com/episodes/11329243-Interview-with-lawn-care-business-owner-Anthony-of-United-Environment-PART-2 Here is an interview with business owner Anthony of United Environment. He has learned a lot in his time running a lawn care business and shares his insights with you. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com Here is an interview with business owner Anthony of United Environment. He has learned a lot in his time running a lawn care business and shares his insights with you. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com Here is an interview with business owner Anthony of United Environment. He has learned a lot in his time running a lawn care business and shares his insights with you. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com tag:odeo.com,2007-05-10,11329243 Thu, 10 May 2007 20:24:09 -0700 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, Software, Entrepreneur, Small, advertising, marketing, tree, care, door, employees, billing, customers, gopher, gopherhaul, lawn, landscaper, landscaping, scheduling, templates, flyers, hangers, contracts http://odeo.com/episodes/11329203-Interview-with-lawn-care-business-owner-Anthony-of-United-Environment-PART-1 Here is an interview with business owner Anthony of United Environment. He has learned a lot in his time running a lawn care business and shares his insights with you. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com Here is an interview with business owner Anthony of United Environment. He has learned a lot in his time running a lawn care business and shares his insights with you. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com Here is an interview with business owner Anthony of United Environment. He has learned a lot in his time running a lawn care business and shares his insights with you. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com tag:odeo.com,2007-05-10,11329203 Thu, 10 May 2007 20:18:01 -0700 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, Software, Entrepreneur, Small, advertising, marketing, tree, care, door, employees, billing, customers, gopher, gopherhaul, lawn, landscaper, landscaping, scheduling, templates, flyers, hangers, contracts http://odeo.com/episodes/11329193-Interview-with-lawn-care-business-owner-Troy-Tiedeman-of-Tiedeman-Lawn-Landscaping-PART-2 The second half of the interview with Troy. Here is a great interview with Troy Tiedeman of Tiedeman Lawn & Landscaping. Troy has been through a lot in this business. Starting when he was a teen he built his business to a point where he had multiple employees. But then found he couldn’t say no and bought too much equipment. He took on too many bad jobs. He then had to sell off most of it and get rid of his employees. This year he is rebuilding and reshaping his business. I learned a lot from Troy and I hope you can learn from him too. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com The second half of the interview with Troy. Here is a great interview with Troy Tiedeman of Tiedeman Lawn & Landscaping. Troy has been through a lot in this business. Starting when he was a teen he built his business to a point where he had multiple employees. But then found he couldn’t say no and bought too much equipment. He took on too many bad jobs. He then had to sell off most of it and get rid of his employees. This year he is rebuilding and reshaping his business. I learned a lot from Troy and I hope you can learn from him too. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com The second half of the interview with Troy. Here is a great interview with Troy Tiedeman of Tiedeman Lawn & Landscaping. Troy has been through a lot in this business. Starting when he was a teen he built his business to a point where he had multiple employees. But then found he couldn’t say no and bought too much equipment. He took on too many bad jobs. He then had to sell off most of it and get rid of his employees. This year he is rebuilding and reshaping his business. I learned a lot from Troy and I hope you can learn from him too. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com tag:odeo.com,2007-05-10,11329193 Thu, 10 May 2007 19:52:56 -0700 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, Software, Entrepreneur, Small, advertising, marketing, tree, care, door, employees, billing, customers, gopher, gopherhaul, lawn, landscaper, landscaping, scheduling, templates, flyers, hangers, contracts http://odeo.com/episodes/11329183-Interview-with-lawn-care-business-owner-Troy-Tiedeman-of-Tiedeman-Lawn-Landscaping-PART-1 Here is a great interview with Troy Tiedeman of Tiedeman Lawn & Landscaping. Troy has been through a lot in this business. Starting when he was a teen he built his business to a point where he had multiple employees. But then found he couldn’t say no and bought too much equipment. He took on too many bad jobs. He then had to sell off most of it and get rid of his employees. This year he is rebuilding and reshaping his business. I learned a lot from Troy and I hope you can learn from him too. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com Here is a great interview with Troy Tiedeman of Tiedeman Lawn & Landscaping. Troy has been through a lot in this business. Starting when he was a teen he built his business to a point where he had multiple employees. But then found he couldn’t say no and bought too much equipment. He took on too many bad jobs. He then had to sell off most of it and get rid of his employees. This year he is rebuilding and reshaping his business. I learned a lot from Troy and I hope you can learn from him too. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com Here is a great interview with Troy Tiedeman of Tiedeman Lawn & Landscaping. Troy has been through a lot in this business. Starting when he was a teen he built his business to a point where he had multiple employees. But then found he couldn’t say no and bought too much equipment. He took on too many bad jobs. He then had to sell off most of it and get rid of his employees. This year he is rebuilding and reshaping his business. I learned a lot from Troy and I hope you can learn from him too. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com tag:odeo.com,2007-05-10,11329183 Thu, 10 May 2007 19:50:01 -0700 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, Software, Entrepreneur, Small, advertising, marketing, tree, care, door, employees, billing, customers, gopher, gopherhaul, lawn, landscaper, landscaping, scheduling, templates, flyers, hangers, contracts http://odeo.com/episodes/11329153-Interview-with-lawn-care-business-owner-and-author-Joel-LaRusic If you run a lawn care business, this is an interview you really must listen to. Joel LaRusic author of the book “Start & Run A Landscaping Business” gives us great insight into how he became such a successful lawn care business owner and ultimately wrote a book about the experience to help other business owners. You can purchase his book through www.amazon.com or www.mowboy.com Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com If you run a lawn care business, this is an interview you really must listen to. Joel LaRusic author of the book “Start & Run A Landscaping Business” gives us great insight into how he became such a successful lawn care business owner and ultimately wrote a book about the experience to help other business owners. You can purchase his book through www.amazon.com or www.mowboy.com Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com If you run a lawn care business, this is an interview you really must listen to. Joel LaRusic author of the book “Start & Run A Landscaping Business” gives us great insight into how he became such a successful lawn care business owner and ultimately wrote a book about the experience to help other business owners. You can purchase his book through www.amazon.com or www.mowboy.com Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com tag:odeo.com,2007-05-10,11329153 Thu, 10 May 2007 19:40:06 -0700 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, Interview, Software, Entrepreneur, Small, advertising, marketing, author, tree, care, door, employees, billing, customers, gopher, gopherhaul, lawn, landscaper, landscaping, scheduling, templates, flyers, hangers, contracts, joel larusic http://odeo.com/episodes/11329033-Lawn-Care-Entrepreneur-Business-Owner-How-To-Make-Money-With-Holiday-Lighting-Decorations Learn about how to make money with holiday lighting in the winter months and supplement your lawn care business income. “Listen while you mow, to help your business grow.” Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com Learn about how to make money with holiday lighting in the winter months and supplement your lawn care business income. “Listen while you mow, to help your business grow.” Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com Learn about how to make money with holiday lighting in the winter months and supplement your lawn care business income. “Listen while you mow, to help your business grow.” Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com tag:odeo.com,2007-05-10,11329033 Thu, 10 May 2007 19:31:17 -0700 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, Software, Entrepreneur, Small, advertising, marketing, tree, care, door, employees, billing, customers, gopher, gopherhaul, lawn, landscaper, landscaping, scheduling, templates, flyers, hangers, contracts http://odeo.com/episodes/11329003-Lawn-Care-Entrepreneur-Business-Owner-Pitfalls-of-Commercial-Lawn-Care-Accounts Many lawn care business owners look to the day they can jump from servicing residential clients to commercial lawn care accounts. Some are able to make this jump. However, there are huge pitfalls involved with performing commercial lawn care services which you don’t run into with residential accounts. Listen to this discussion before you find yourself hitting one of these road bloacks and then going bankrupt. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com Many lawn care business owners look to the day they can jump from servicing residential clients to commercial lawn care accounts. Some are able to make this jump. However, there are huge pitfalls involved with performing commercial lawn care services which you don’t run into with residential accounts. Listen to this discussion before you find yourself hitting one of these road bloacks and then going bankrupt. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com Many lawn care business owners look to the day they can jump from servicing residential clients to commercial lawn care accounts. Some are able to make this jump. However, there are huge pitfalls involved with performing commercial lawn care services which you don’t run into with residential accounts. Listen to this discussion before you find yourself hitting one of these road bloacks and then going bankrupt. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com tag:odeo.com,2007-05-10,11329003 Thu, 10 May 2007 19:21:40 -0700 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, Software, Entrepreneur, Small, advertising, marketing, tree, care, door, employees, billing, customers, gopher, gopherhaul, lawn, landscaper, landscaping, scheduling, templates, flyers, hangers, contracts http://odeo.com/episodes/11328983-Lawn-Care-Entrepreneur-Business-Owner-How-to-Get-Commercial-Accounts-Without-Commercial-References When you own a lawn care business it can be tough making that jump from residential lawn service to getting commercial lawn care accounts. Many lawn care business owners are never able to successfully make that jump. Listen to this discussion as lawn care professionals talk about how to go from servicing residential accounts to commercial accounts. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com When you own a lawn care business it can be tough making that jump from residential lawn service to getting commercial lawn care accounts. Many lawn care business owners are never able to successfully make that jump. Listen to this discussion as lawn care professionals talk about how to go from servicing residential accounts to commercial accounts. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com When you own a lawn care business it can be tough making that jump from residential lawn service to getting commercial lawn care accounts. Many lawn care business owners are never able to successfully make that jump. Listen to this discussion as lawn care professionals talk about how to go from servicing residential accounts to commercial accounts. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com tag:odeo.com,2007-05-10,11328983 Thu, 10 May 2007 19:13:51 -0700 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, Software, Entrepreneur, Small, advertising, marketing, tree, care, door, employees, billing, customers, gopher, gopherhaul, lawn, landscaper, landscaping, scheduling, templates, flyers, hangers, contracts http://odeo.com/episodes/11328973-Lawn-Care-Entrepreneur-Business-Owner-Lawn-Care-Business-Tips Here are some of the topics discussed in this lawn care business owners podcast. Suggestions on how to learn more about this industry before I quit my day job? Must you grow or can you stay the same size year after year? One hit wonder or try try try? How to deal with rising fuel expenses. What are the biggest hurdles you face in trying to grow? Can’t get your footing? Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com Here are some of the topics discussed in this lawn care business owners podcast. Suggestions on how to learn more about this industry before I quit my day job? Must you grow or can you stay the same size year after year? One hit wonder or try try try? How to deal with rising fuel expenses. What are the biggest hurdles you face in trying to grow? Can’t get your footing? Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com Here are some of the topics discussed in this lawn care business owners podcast. Suggestions on how to learn more about this industry before I quit my day job? Must you grow or can you stay the same size year after year? One hit wonder or try try try? How to deal with rising fuel expenses. What are the biggest hurdles you face in trying to grow? Can’t get your footing? Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com tag:odeo.com,2007-05-10,11328973 Thu, 10 May 2007 18:48:29 -0700 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, Software, Entrepreneur, Small, advertising, marketing, tree, care, door, employees, billing, customers, gopher, gopherhaul, lawn, landscaper, landscaping, scheduling, templates, flyers, hangers, contracts http://odeo.com/episodes/11328963-Lawn-Care-Entrepreneur-Business-Owner-Marketing-Tips-Tricks-And-Secrets-Part-2 How to find clients during your slow season? 1. Go through your list of customers and give a call to older customers. Ask them how they feel their yard is looking? Do they need fall cleanup services or anything else? 2. Create a special. Possibly trim your profit margin slightly and create a seasonal sale. Take advantage of bargain hunters. Remember, even though sales can be a great way to build business, be mindful that they don’t become expected. 3. Repackage your products. Could you put together a spring or fall cleanup service along with an annual fertilization plan and sell it as a package deal for the holidays? Maybe even as a gift card? 4. Schedule future business now. During the off season you could offer your customers a discount if they pre-paid for service they would receive later that year. Suggestions on buying customers? Instead of trying all these different tactics to gain new customers, what if you simply bought them from another company? Eric of Lepping Lawn & Lands... How to find clients during your slow season? 1. Go through your list of customers and give a call to older customers. Ask them how they feel their yard is looking? Do they need fall cleanup services or anything else? 2. Create a special. Possibly trim your profit margin slightly and create a seasonal sale. Take advantage of bargain hunters. Remember, even though sales can be a great way to build business, be mindful that they don’t become expected. 3. Repackage your products. Could you put together a spring or fall cleanup service along with an annual fertilization plan and sell it as a package deal for the holidays? Maybe even as a gift card? 4. Schedule future business now. During the off season you could offer your customers a discount if they pre-paid for service they would receive later that year. Suggestions on buying customers? Instead of trying all these different tactics to gain new customers, what if you simply bought them from another company? Eric of Lepping Lawn & Landscape asked “Is there a basic valuation when buying an existing mowing business from another company? The company is reasonably large and would like to get out of the residential lawn business.” Joel Larusic of http://www.mowboy.com said “This is a very good question… one that comes up a lot. It is touched on in pages 63-64 of my book but I can give you the short answer here. As a very general rule I would say that a residential customer is worth about the value of one month’s revenue. However, it may be more or less depending on a several factors: 1) Where you live? In my area, residential customers are not all that hard to come by so it is not likely to go much higher than 1 month’s revenue. If you live in a ‘tighter’ area, be prepared to spend a little more. 2) Is there a signed contract? How long is the contract for (1 year, 2 years). This will affect the price too. 3) How much do the customers spend in extras each year. If they spend a lot in extra work consistently then expect to pay a little more for them. 4) Are the customers new? In other words, what is the existing customer loyalty like. If they are new to the seller, they are likely to drop you after you buy them. If they have been around for a while they will likely trust the decision of the seller to have you take over. In any case do your due diligence in researching the customers. Find out the answers to the above questions and ask for job costing information on each of the customers so you can see what the actual profit of the job is. Also ask for a complete accounting record for each customer (do they pay on time?). Work with the seller to come up with a suitable transfer period. At the least, have them write a letter of explanation/introduction. Ideally though, they would personally introduce you and perhaps even work side-by-side with your for a few weeks to ease the transition for the customer.” Bruce from Scott Maintenance Company asked “I am currently operating a business in which I am buying from another company who is getting out of the business. The selling price is the value of 1 year on a 2 year service contract in which I perform the service and the seller gets the money for that year. In return I get the balance of his customer list. The business gross per year is approx. $50,000 CDN. I am guessing that I am paying him about $9,000 for the 1 contract which is approx 1- large and 4 small properties. This deal is verbal only. I want to write up some form of “transfer” or “non-compete” agreement. If you have any comments I would appreciate them.” Joel LaRusic of www.mowboy.com responded by saying “buying customers is a great way to build your business but there are some important things to consider. I would use caution proceeding with your deal. Currently your seller is holding all the cards. I am assuming that, for the first year, you are doing the work and he is getting the money? (as opposed to you getting the cheques and then paying him). So he is in control of the money. As well, he has indicated only verbally that he will hand over all of his $50,000 in contracts at the end of the year. Short answer then is that you are smart to demand both a signed agreement regarding the conditions of the sale and a non-competition agreement. Consider these other points too. - General rule of thumb for buying customers is that they are worth about 1 month revenue. If they are commercial you’ll pay a little more and if there is a signed multi-year agreement in place (which you said there is) then this will push the price up too. So it could be worth as much as 2 or 3 months revenue depending on the situation. - What about the other $40,000 worth of contracts? Are they commercial or residential? Are they long term customers or brand new (the longer that the selling company has served the customer the more likely that the customer will trust that he or she is being treated fairly – and will accept you as the new contractor). The $9,000 you mentioned seems a little steep but it really boils down to the value of the other customers on his list. - Ask to see his books – you have the right to examine them. Ask him to provide job costing information so that you can see if the customers are profitable. Ask for a complete account history of all his customers. Ask to see them now, not at the end of the year. If he does not want to produce them, be prepared to call off the deal. - I am leery about going a full year doing the work for him. Working together for a couple of months makes good sense and helps make the transaction smooth for the customer… but a year? If possible offer to reduce this time even if you have to pay some cash. A year is a long time and if things get awkward half way through, you will likely end up with the short end of the stick. - Having said that put everything in writing whatever you decide to do. Record customer names, addresses, revenue and costs. Make sure the selling company agrees to help you with a smooth transaction (ie by writing letters explaining the situation and assuring customers that quality will not drop) and document this in the signed agreement too. As well, as you mentioned, put that the selling company cannot compete against you (at least for the customers on the list) for 2 years or so. There is a lot to consider and a lot to lose here so caution and prudence is key. If you have any doubt, talk to a lawyer and/or an accountant to help you with the deal.” Should I advertise a flat rate year round price or one based on the monthly services performed? Forum member kc2006 asked “I did the math and my minimum charge is $25 for mowing. There’s roughly 28 weeks in a season here ($700). If I were to bill monthly it comes to $100 a month plus tax. If I were to bill year round (12 payments) it would be $58.33. This could be a huge advantage for getting customers attention from my flyers. At the top I could put “Weekly Lawn Service Starting at $58.33 a Month!” That would drive my competition nuts and make them say this guys a moron, and the customers would probably flock to see what the hitch was. I’ve been saying I want to get most of my clients over to 12 month billing, it would be nice to have income all year round. But just wondering what all you guys do? Do you bill per month or do you bill all year round? Why are you doing it the way you are?” Joel LaRusic of http://www.mowboy.com said “I only ever bill year-round if I offer services year-round. I think people find it psychologically difficult to cut checks when there is nothing happening, even if they know deep down that it all works out. On the other hand… some might appreciate a balanced bill. Have you thought about offering some sort of reduced service in the winter months? For example, I would often offer litter control, blowing off, snow clearing, trimming, bed maintenance, etc (of course it all depends on the area of the country you live it!) The visits would be short… even 5 or 10 minutes but the customer does see some value as you are still there every week. Not all my customers would go for it but many would and they loved it. As well, it is some income for you in the winter months. Thinking as a consumer… I would have to say that I would be a little offended by an ad worded as you suggested – “Weekly Lawn Service at $58.33/Month!” It implies weekly visits year round. I think you would need to state in the ad that the cost is year round but the service is not or it would come off as underhanded. That’s just my opinion though.” Forum member Soupy replied “It’s called budget billing. I have heard it to often from little old ladies that they just can’t afford $157.50 each month during the 8 month cycle. Well how about $105 for 12 months then. That’s $52.50 that can pay for the phone bill, water bill, or what ever they need to budget for. Your not scamming anyone, in fact you are offering them something (credit) at no additional cost. How could anyone be offended by that? Sure, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but if they don’t want to pay yearly then they can always pay during the service months. I even let them pay weekly if they choose. I never advertised price before, but it has gotten to where we have to compete with the ones that do. I don’t see anything wrong with advertising your lowest price (many businesses in other industries do). If the 12 month billing is how that low price is achieved then so be it. Hey, if they want they can pay one time and be done with it. It’s up to the customer how they choose to pay even though most service companies make you pre-pay, or pay at time of service. I agree that it should be stated at the bottom of the flyer the terms for the $58.33 price. Put an * next to the price at then state the terms at the bottom of the flyer. Mine says this. * Some restriction may apply. Price is starting price for weekly maintenance in your area for up to 34 visits based on 12 monthly payments. Price may vary depending on size of lawn, landscape obstacles, and amount of trimming. We offer other billing options to choose from. Granted that I have not sent these out yet, but I did real well with our aeration flyer that had the price listed. I did the same thing, but at the bottom explained that it was for up to 5k sq. ft. and that each addition 1k would be $xx.xx amount. The truth is our weekly price would not work, so that is why I am using the lowest possible price (12 month price) which is the price for most lawns in the targeted area. I wouldn’t advertise that price in an area that doesn’t fit the price.” Joel LaRusic responded “I think your disclaimer is good… and that was my point. I would not be offended by a company offering some budget billing and I do not think it’s a scam. My point was that without stating on the ad: 1) the number of visits that the cost is based on and 2) mentioning that the cost is over 12 months you are not being up front with the customer. No problems with a balanced bill in itself!” Partnering up with a pizzeria to gain more customers. An idea I was thinking of this year to help you better market your business and get your name out is to partner up with a local pizzeria or eatery. If you could find a local pizzeria that would be willing to pay for printing of door hangers and you could distribute or the reverse. I think it might be a good idea to have something like this with coupons on the one side for the pizzeria and then seasonal services you offer on the other. These door hangers could be distributed multiple times through out the year. This would help keep your name out in the area. They would be including useful information, coupons as well as your seasonal services. It could be done with flyers too but I think might look better with door hangers. What are your thoughts on this? Forum member ‘maelawncare’ said “well I tried this last year. I went through a local Pizza Hut that I knew the manager of. It did not work out too well. I believe we did about 1k flyers/coupons and didn’t get one call or customer. Oh and I used the flyers that was made by you guys.” Chestin Salisbury of www.LawnCareMarketingMagic.com said “Another way to do this would be to let the pizza company deliver your flyers for you. Instead of creating door hangers, create a flyer that would get attached to the top of the pizza box so it gets delivered every time a pizza gets delivered. That way, you’re not out spending time delivering flyers, the pizza company is doing it when they do what they do anyway. A couple of things to keep in mind to make this a successful campaign though: Start off with a powerful, attention grabbing headline. It should say something like, ‘XYZ Lawn Care Wants to Buy Your Next Pizza For You!’, then go on to explain your offer that would include a free pizza at some point. You would of course need conditions attached to the free pizza but you wouldn’t necessarily want to explain those conditions in detail on the flyer. The whole purpose is just to get them to pick up the phone and call you. When they do call, you can explain the offer in greater detail and any conditions associated with it. You would also want to incentivize the pizza company. Tell them you’ll pay them $XX or XX% of every service call you get from the flyers. Make it worthwhile for them to want to partner with you. Perhaps you could offer to distribute one of their special coupons or offers to your customers. Something to keep in mind with this type of promotion though. A lot of pizza gets delivered to apartments, which make horrible prospects for lawn care companies. As a result, you’d want to see if there’s anyway to limit the distribution of the flyers to homes instead of apartments or condos. This could be a little tricky and with as cheaply as you can print a flyer it might not be worth worrying about, but definitely something to keep in mind.” Joel LaRusic of www.mowboy.com said “I think sharing the costs of advertising with other businesses is a great idea. I have used it successfully in the past although never with a pizza company. Not to say that the pizza idea isn’t a good one. Team Gopher brought out a good point in that the door hanger is likely to be around for at least as long as they use the pizza coupon. As for putting your flyer on the pizza box I think that LawncareMarketingMagic hit the nail on the head with the comment about reaching the correct market. Apartments are useless to us. Even houses… how do we know they don’t rent? I think the key when partnering with ‘Buddy Businesses’ in this manner is trying to find companies with similar markets as you. How about pool cleaners, home cleaning service, exterior house services (gutters, window washing, pressure washing, painting). These types of companies are also looking for middle to high income home owners… just like you. Doing some reciprocal marketing projects with each other (i.e. envelope stuffers in each other’s bills) and sharing each others customer lists could be very profitable for both parties!” Forum member “Two_Dogs” said this “I’ve thought about this also, I’m well acquainted with the owner of the local pizza place and its main market is delivery. I don’t think he’d be willing to pony up for the printing though. I thought I could pay for the printing, likely even print the fliers myself in order to help defray the cost. I figured if I was going to spend any money on this sort of piggyback promotion I would rather spend it in the form of a discount for a menu item. I figured the cost of this could be absorbed, for the most part in the service provided (thought of tieing it to chemical applications). This is in a town only about 4 miles from my home/shop, I realized at the end of season I kind of dropped the ball on this one as I largely ignored this market because I thought it to small (pop 2000). I want to target this area in a limited fashion if that is possible, this year.” Attend Trade Shows. Anthony from UnitedEnvironment.com said “I attend the Home & Garden shows in my area each year. I honestly get booked for practically the entire season through them. Think about it, about 20,000 potential customers coming to you, not you reaching out to them.” Create a coupon book Elwood suggested “I have offered discount coupons for OTHER services than what I am targeting if a one year agreement is signed and it works very well. Offer a FREE $100 coupon book if they sign an agreement for mowing. Your coupon book can have $25 off shrub trimming, $25 off fertilizing, $25 off spraying, $25 off flower planting or any other services that you provide. They will take advantage of the coupon, see your quality results and chances are very good they will have you perform the same service, at full price later in the season or next year. A great way to get your foot in the door and also hit them hard on up sells! First, it works like a charm! Second, there is a large number of people who DON’T even use coupons once they have them, but they feel they are getting $100 for FREE when they sign up. Of course, my coupons expire on 12/31 of that current year and they are not transferable. I have sold a TON of up sells this way. In most cases, by only giving $25 off any service, I am not giving away most of the expense, just the profit and maybe a small part of the expense. Then, like I said, after seeing the results, it is usually a home run.” Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com How to find clients during your slow season? 1. Go through your list of customers and give a call to older customers. Ask them how they feel their yard is looking? Do they need fall cleanup services or anything else? 2. Create a special. Possibly trim your profit margin slightly and create a seasonal sale. Take advantage of bargain hunters. Remember, even though sales can be a great way to build business, be mindful that they don’t become expected. 3. Repackage your products. Could you put together a spring or fall cleanup service along with an annual fertilization plan and sell it as a package deal for the holidays? Maybe even as a gift card? 4. Schedule future business now. During the off season you could offer your customers a discount if they pre-paid for service they would receive later that year. Suggestions on buying customers? Instead of trying all these different tactics to gain new customers, what if you simply bought them from another company? Eric of Lepping Lawn & Landscape asked “Is there a basic valuation when buying an existing mowing business from another company? The company is reasonably large and would like to get out of the residential lawn business.” Joel Larusic of http://www.mowboy.com said “This is a very good question… one that comes up a lot. It is touched on in pages 63-64 of my book but I can give you the short answer here. As a very general rule I would say that a residential customer is worth about the value of one month’s revenue. However, it may be more or less depending on a several factors: 1) Where you live? In my area, residential customers are not all that hard to come by so it is not likely to go much higher than 1 month’s revenue. If you live in a ‘tighter’ area, be prepared to spend a little more. 2) Is there a signed contract? How long is the contract for (1 year, 2 years). This will affect the price too. 3) How much do the customers spend in extras each year. If they spend a lot in extra work consistently then expect to pay a little more for them. 4) Are the customers new? In other words, what is the existing customer loyalty like. If they are new to the seller, they are likely to drop you after you buy them. If they have been around for a while they will likely trust the decision of the seller to have you take over. In any case do your due diligence in researching the customers. Find out the answers to the above questions and ask for job costing information on each of the customers so you can see what the actual profit of the job is. Also ask for a complete accounting record for each customer (do they pay on time?). Work with the seller to come up with a suitable transfer period. At the least, have them write a letter of explanation/introduction. Ideally though, they would personally introduce you and perhaps even work side-by-side with your for a few weeks to ease the transition for the customer.” Bruce from Scott Maintenance Company asked “I am currently operating a business in which I am buying from another company who is getting out of the business. The selling price is the value of 1 year on a 2 year service contract in which I perform the service and the seller gets the money for that year. In return I get the balance of his customer list. The business gross per year is approx. $50,000 CDN. I am guessing that I am paying him about $9,000 for the 1 contract which is approx 1- large and 4 small properties. This deal is verbal only. I want to write up some form of “transfer” or “non-compete” agreement. If you have any comments I would appreciate them.” Joel LaRusic of www.mowboy.com responded by saying “buying customers is a great way to build your business but there are some important things to consider. I would use caution proceeding with your deal. Currently your seller is holding all the cards. I am assuming that, for the first year, you are doing the work and he is getting the money? (as opposed to you getting the cheques and then paying him). So he is in control of the money. As well, he has indicated only verbally that he will hand over all of his $50,000 in contracts at the end of the year. Short answer then is that you are smart to demand both a signed agreement regarding the conditions of the sale and a non-competition agreement. Consider these other points too. - General rule of thumb for buying customers is that they are worth about 1 month revenue. If they are commercial you’ll pay a little more and if there is a signed multi-year agreement in place (which you said there is) then this will push the price up too. So it could be worth as much as 2 or 3 months revenue depending on the situation. - What about the other $40,000 worth of contracts? Are they commercial or residential? Are they long term customers or brand new (the longer that the selling company has served the customer the more likely that the customer will trust that he or she is being treated fairly – and will accept you as the new contractor). The $9,000 you mentioned seems a little steep but it really boils down to the value of the other customers on his list. - Ask to see his books – you have the right to examine them. Ask him to provide job costing information so that you can see if the customers are profitable. Ask for a complete account history of all his customers. Ask to see them now, not at the end of the year. If he does not want to produce them, be prepared to call off the deal. - I am leery about going a full year doing the work for him. Working together for a couple of months makes good sense and helps make the transaction smooth for the customer… but a year? If possible offer to reduce this time even if you have to pay some cash. A year is a long time and if things get awkward half way through, you will likely end up with the short end of the stick. - Having said that put everything in writing whatever you decide to do. Record customer names, addresses, revenue and costs. Make sure the selling company agrees to help you with a smooth transaction (ie by writing letters explaining the situation and assuring customers that quality will not drop) and document this in the signed agreement too. As well, as you mentioned, put that the selling company cannot compete against you (at least for the customers on the list) for 2 years or so. There is a lot to consider and a lot to lose here so caution and prudence is key. If you have any doubt, talk to a lawyer and/or an accountant to help you with the deal.” Should I advertise a flat rate year round price or one based on the monthly services performed? Forum member kc2006 asked “I did the math and my minimum charge is $25 for mowing. There’s roughly 28 weeks in a season here ($700). If I were to bill monthly it comes to $100 a month plus tax. If I were to bill year round (12 payments) it would be $58.33. This could be a huge advantage for getting customers attention from my flyers. At the top I could put “Weekly Lawn Service Starting at $58.33 a Month!” That would drive my competition nuts and make them say this guys a moron, and the customers would probably flock to see what the hitch was. I’ve been saying I want to get most of my clients over to 12 month billing, it would be nice to have income all year round. But just wondering what all you guys do? Do you bill per month or do you bill all year round? Why are you doing it the way you are?” Joel LaRusic of http://www.mowboy.com said “I only ever bill year-round if I offer services year-round. I think people find it psychologically difficult to cut checks when there is nothing happening, even if they know deep down that it all works out. On the other hand… some might appreciate a balanced bill. Have you thought about offering some sort of reduced service in the winter months? For example, I would often offer litter control, blowing off, snow clearing, trimming, bed maintenance, etc (of course it all depends on the area of the country you live it!) The visits would be short… even 5 or 10 minutes but the customer does see some value as you are still there every week. Not all my customers would go for it but many would and they loved it. As well, it is some income for you in the winter months. Thinking as a consumer… I would have to say that I would be a little offended by an ad worded as you suggested – “Weekly Lawn Service at $58.33/Month!” It implies weekly visits year round. I think you would need to state in the ad that the cost is year round but the service is not or it would come off as underhanded. That’s just my opinion though.” Forum member Soupy replied “It’s called budget billing. I have heard it to often from little old ladies that they just can’t afford $157.50 each month during the 8 month cycle. Well how about $105 for 12 months then. That’s $52.50 that can pay for the phone bill, water bill, or what ever they need to budget for. Your not scamming anyone, in fact you are offering them something (credit) at no additional cost. How could anyone be offended by that? Sure, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but if they don’t want to pay yearly then they can always pay during the service months. I even let them pay weekly if they choose. I never advertised price before, but it has gotten to where we have to compete with the ones that do. I don’t see anything wrong with advertising your lowest price (many businesses in other industries do). If the 12 month billing is how that low price is achieved then so be it. Hey, if they want they can pay one time and be done with it. It’s up to the customer how they choose to pay even though most service companies make you pre-pay, or pay at time of service. I agree that it should be stated at the bottom of the flyer the terms for the $58.33 price. Put an * next to the price at then state the terms at the bottom of the flyer. Mine says this. * Some restriction may apply. Price is starting price for weekly maintenance in your area for up to 34 visits based on 12 monthly payments. Price may vary depending on size of lawn, landscape obstacles, and amount of trimming. We offer other billing options to choose from. Granted that I have not sent these out yet, but I did real well with our aeration flyer that had the price listed. I did the same thing, but at the bottom explained that it was for up to 5k sq. ft. and that each addition 1k would be $xx.xx amount. The truth is our weekly price would not work, so that is why I am using the lowest possible price (12 month price) which is the price for most lawns in the targeted area. I wouldn’t advertise that price in an area that doesn’t fit the price.” Joel LaRusic responded “I think your disclaimer is good… and that was my point. I would not be offended by a company offering some budget billing and I do not think it’s a scam. My point was that without stating on the ad: 1) the number of visits that the cost is based on and 2) mentioning that the cost is over 12 months you are not being up front with the customer. No problems with a balanced bill in itself!” Partnering up with a pizzeria to gain more customers. An idea I was thinking of this year to help you better market your business and get your name out is to partner up with a local pizzeria or eatery. If you could find a local pizzeria that would be willing to pay for printing of door hangers and you could distribute or the reverse. I think it might be a good idea to have something like this with coupons on the one side for the pizzeria and then seasonal services you offer on the other. These door hangers could be distributed multiple times through out the year. This would help keep your name out in the area. They would be including useful information, coupons as well as your seasonal services. It could be done with flyers too but I think might look better with door hangers. What are your thoughts on this? Forum member ‘maelawncare’ said “well I tried this last year. I went through a local Pizza Hut that I knew the manager of. It did not work out too well. I believe we did about 1k flyers/coupons and didn’t get one call or customer. Oh and I used the flyers that was made by you guys.” Chestin Salisbury of www.LawnCareMarketingMagic.com said “Another way to do this would be to let the pizza company deliver your flyers for you. Instead of creating door hangers, create a flyer that would get attached to the top of the pizza box so it gets delivered every time a pizza gets delivered. That way, you’re not out spending time delivering flyers, the pizza company is doing it when they do what they do anyway. A couple of things to keep in mind to make this a successful campaign though: Start off with a powerful, attention grabbing headline. It should say something like, ‘XYZ Lawn Care Wants to Buy Your Next Pizza For You!’, then go on to explain your offer that would include a free pizza at some point. You would of course need conditions attached to the free pizza but you wouldn’t necessarily want to explain those conditions in detail on the flyer. The whole purpose is just to get them to pick up the phone and call you. When they do call, you can explain the offer in greater detail and any conditions associated with it. You would also want to incentivize the pizza company. Tell them you’ll pay them $XX or XX% of every service call you get from the flyers. Make it worthwhile for them to want to partner with you. Perhaps you could offer to distribute one of their special coupons or offers to your customers. Something to keep in mind with this type of promotion though. A lot of pizza gets delivered to apartments, which make horrible prospects for lawn care companies. As a result, you’d want to see if there’s anyway to limit the distribution of the flyers to homes instead of apartments or condos. This could be a little tricky and with as cheaply as you can print a flyer it might not be worth worrying about, but definitely something to keep in mind.” Joel LaRusic of www.mowboy.com said “I think sharing the costs of advertising with other businesses is a great idea. I have used it successfully in the past although never with a pizza company. Not to say that the pizza idea isn’t a good one. Team Gopher brought out a good point in that the door hanger is likely to be around for at least as long as they use the pizza coupon. As for putting your flyer on the pizza box I think that LawncareMarketingMagic hit the nail on the head with the comment about reaching the correct market. Apartments are useless to us. Even houses… how do we know they don’t rent? I think the key when partnering with ‘Buddy Businesses’ in this manner is trying to find companies with similar markets as you. How about pool cleaners, home cleaning service, exterior house services (gutters, window washing, pressure washing, painting). These types of companies are also looking for middle to high income home owners… just like you. Doing some reciprocal marketing projects with each other (i.e. envelope stuffers in each other’s bills) and sharing each others customer lists could be very profitable for both parties!” Forum member “Two_Dogs” said this “I’ve thought about this also, I’m well acquainted with the owner of the local pizza place and its main market is delivery. I don’t think he’d be willing to pony up for the printing though. I thought I could pay for the printing, likely even print the fliers myself in order to help defray the cost. I figured if I was going to spend any money on this sort of piggyback promotion I would rather spend it in the form of a discount for a menu item. I figured the cost of this could be absorbed, for the most part in the service provided (thought of tieing it to chemical applications). This is in a town only about 4 miles from my home/shop, I realized at the end of season I kind of dropped the ball on this one as I largely ignored this market because I thought it to small (pop 2000). I want to target this area in a limited fashion if that is possible, this year.” Attend Trade Shows. Anthony from UnitedEnvironment.com said “I attend the Home & Garden shows in my area each year. I honestly get booked for practically the entire season through them. Think about it, about 20,000 potential customers coming to you, not you reaching out to them.” Create a coupon book Elwood suggested “I have offered discount coupons for OTHER services than what I am targeting if a one year agreement is signed and it works very well. Offer a FREE $100 coupon book if they sign an agreement for mowing. Your coupon book can have $25 off shrub trimming, $25 off fertilizing, $25 off spraying, $25 off flower planting or any other services that you provide. They will take advantage of the coupon, see your quality results and chances are very good they will have you perform the same service, at full price later in the season or next year. A great way to get your foot in the door and also hit them hard on up sells! First, it works like a charm! Second, there is a large number of people who DON’T even use coupons once they have them, but they feel they are getting $100 for FREE when they sign up. Of course, my coupons expire on 12/31 of that current year and they are not transferable. I have sold a TON of up sells this way. In most cases, by only giving $25 off any service, I am not giving away most of the expense, just the profit and maybe a small part of the expense. Then, like I said, after seeing the results, it is usually a home run.” Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com tag:odeo.com,2007-05-10,11328963 Thu, 10 May 2007 18:45:59 -0700 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, Software, Entrepreneur, Small, advertising, marketing, tree, care, door, employees, billing, customers, gopher, gopherhaul, lawn, landscaper, landscaping, scheduling, templates, flyers, hangers, contracts http://odeo.com/episodes/11328953-Lawn-Care-Entrepreneur-Business-Owner-Marketing-Tips-Tricks-And-Secrets-Part-1 When you are running your lawn care or landscaping business, you need need to find customers. Here is a discussion of some great marketing tips, tricks, and secrets from experienced lawn care business entrepreneurs. Listen to these ideas and grow your business. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com When you are running your lawn care or landscaping business, you need need to find customers. Here is a discussion of some great marketing tips, tricks, and secrets from experienced lawn care business entrepreneurs. Listen to these ideas and grow your business. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com When you are running your lawn care or landscaping business, you need need to find customers. Here is a discussion of some great marketing tips, tricks, and secrets from experienced lawn care business entrepreneurs. Listen to these ideas and grow your business. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com tag:odeo.com,2007-05-10,11328953 Thu, 10 May 2007 18:40:21 -0700 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, Software, Entrepreneur, Small, advertising, marketing, tree, care, door, employees, billing, customers, gopher, gopherhaul, lawn, landscaper, landscaping, scheduling, templates, flyers, hangers, contracts http://odeo.com/episodes/11328513-Lawn-Care-Entrepreneur-Business-Owner-How-To-Deal-With-Employees When you own a small lawn care business it can be difficult to know when to hire on an employee. Or how about when to hire on a second crew? Where should you look for good employees? How should you deal with them? Learn from experienced business owners by listening to this discussion. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com When you own a small lawn care business it can be difficult to know when to hire on an employee. Or how about when to hire on a second crew? Where should you look for good employees? How should you deal with them? Learn from experienced business owners by listening to this discussion. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com When you own a small lawn care business it can be difficult to know when to hire on an employee. Or how about when to hire on a second crew? Where should you look for good employees? How should you deal with them? Learn from experienced business owners by listening to this discussion. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul Do you need free lawn care business flyers, door hanger, web templates or lawn care contracts? Visit http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com tag:odeo.com,2007-05-10,11328513 Thu, 10 May 2007 18:33:03 -0700 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, Software, Entrepreneur, Small, advertising, marketing, tree, care, door, employees, billing, customers, gopher, gopherhaul, lawn, landscaper, landscaping, scheduling, templates, flyers, hangers, contracts http://odeo.com/episodes/11328503-Lawn-Care-Entrepreneur-Business-Owner-How-To-Deal-With-Customers Dealing with customers can be tough. Learning the skills it takes to make your customers happy and make you, the business owner, happy is very important to you building a strong and healthy business. Here is the mp3 link if it does not load above. http://www.gophergraphics.com/images/stop-lowballing-customers.mp3 Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com Dealing with customers can be tough. Learning the skills it takes to make your customers happy and make you, the business owner, happy is very important to you building a strong and healthy business. Here is the mp3 link if it does not load above. http://www.gophergraphics.com/images/stop-lowballing-customers.mp3 Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com Dealing with customers can be tough. Learning the skills it takes to make your customers happy and make you, the business owner, happy is very important to you building a strong and healthy business. Here is the mp3 link if it does not load above. http://www.gophergraphics.com/images/stop-lowballing-customers.mp3 Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com tag:odeo.com,2007-05-10,11328503 Thu, 10 May 2007 18:27:01 -0700 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, Software, Entrepreneur, Small, advertising, marketing, tree, care, billing, gopher, gopherhaul, lawn, landscaper, landscaping, scheduling http://odeo.com/episodes/11328443-Lawn-Care-Entrepreneur-Business-How-to-Price-Estimate-Jobs One of the difficult parts of starting and running your lawn care business is knowing how to estimate and price jobs. Whether they be residential or commercial properties, this discussion gives you, the business owner, a lot of insight. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com One of the difficult parts of starting and running your lawn care business is knowing how to estimate and price jobs. Whether they be residential or commercial properties, this discussion gives you, the business owner, a lot of insight. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com One of the difficult parts of starting and running your lawn care business is knowing how to estimate and price jobs. Whether they be residential or commercial properties, this discussion gives you, the business owner, a lot of insight. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com tag:odeo.com,2007-05-10,11328443 Thu, 10 May 2007 18:22:37 -0700 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, Software, Entrepreneur, Small, advertising, marketing, tree, care, billing, gopher, gopherhaul, lawn, landscaper, landscaping, scheduling http://odeo.com/episodes/11328423-Lawn-Care-Entrepreneur-Business-Equipment-What-do-you-need-Buy-or-Lease When you are starting a lawn care business you need equipment. Which do you need? Should you purchase or lease? Listen to the advise from long time business owners. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com When you are starting a lawn care business you need equipment. Which do you need? Should you purchase or lease? Listen to the advise from long time business owners. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com When you are starting a lawn care business you need equipment. Which do you need? Should you purchase or lease? Listen to the advise from long time business owners. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com tag:odeo.com,2007-05-10,11328423 Thu, 10 May 2007 18:11:56 -0700 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, Software, Entrepreneur, Small, marketing, tree, care, billing, gopher, gopherhaul, lawn, landscaper, landscaping, scheduling http://odeo.com/episodes/11314093-Finding-your-Lawn-Care-Industry-niche-and-finding-profits If you are a looking to stand out from your competitors in the lawn care business, as an entrepreneur you need to find a niche in the market. In this podcast we discuss how to find a niche and find profits as well. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com If you are a looking to stand out from your competitors in the lawn care business, as an entrepreneur you need to find a niche in the market. In this podcast we discuss how to find a niche and find profits as well. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com If you are a looking to stand out from your competitors in the lawn care business, as an entrepreneur you need to find a niche in the market. In this podcast we discuss how to find a niche and find profits as well. Please also watch our Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show – GopherHaul http://www.gophergraphics.com If you need software to keep track of the billing and scheduling issues of your lawn care business please download our 30 day free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. http://www.gophersoftware.com tag:odeo.com,2007-05-08,11314093 Tue, 08 May 2007 20:49:31 -0700 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, Software, Entrepreneur, Small, advertising, marketing, care, gopher, gopherhaul, lawn, landscaper, landscaping http://odeo.com/episodes/11303053-How-to-Start-Up-Your-Lawn-Care-Business In this episode we talk about how to get your lawn care or landscaping business started. How to register it. What kind of business structure it should be (llc, dba, inc). This book is available for free in pdf format download in the link below. To learn more marketing tips and tricks for your lawn care business, watch GopherHaul. http://www.gophergraphics.com GopherHaul Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show discusses tips and tricks on how to make your business stand out. If you need billing and scheduling software for your lawn care business, visit Gopher Lawn Care Business Software at http://www.gophersoftware.com In this episode we talk about how to get your lawn care or landscaping business started. How to register it. What kind of business structure it should be (llc, dba, inc). This book is available for free in pdf format download in the link below. To learn more marketing tips and tricks for your lawn care business, watch GopherHaul. http://www.gophergraphics.com GopherHaul Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show discusses tips and tricks on how to make your business stand out. If you need billing and scheduling software for your lawn care business, visit Gopher Lawn Care Business Software at http://www.gophersoftware.com In this episode we talk about how to get your lawn care or landscaping business started. How to register it. What kind of business structure it should be (llc, dba, inc). This book is available for free in pdf format download in the link below. To learn more marketing tips and tricks for your lawn care business, watch GopherHaul. http://www.gophergraphics.com GopherHaul Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show discusses tips and tricks on how to make your business stand out. If you need billing and scheduling software for your lawn care business, visit Gopher Lawn Care Business Software at http://www.gophersoftware.com tag:odeo.com,2007-05-06,11303053 Sun, 06 May 2007 18:08:39 -0700 no GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Entrepreneur Talk Channel Business, Software, Entrepreneur, advertising, marketing, care, started, getting, gopher, gopherhaul, lawn, landscaper, landscaping