Why Understanding The Lifetime Value of a Lawn Care Customer Is a Big Deal

- Demonstrates New Life Time Value of a Lawn Care Client Calculator
- The value of a lawn care / landscape client determines how much you can afford to spend to acquire clients
- Helps prove how a couple small business procedure changes can dramatically increase your revenue
- Proves why referrals matter in a major way

Topics: Answering Service, Email Marketing, Marketing Manager
- The importance of answering the phones
- Answering Service Tips
- What information to capture
- What a marketing manager does
- How to use Email Marketing

What It Takes To Grow a Lawn Care Business to 8 Figures Per Year

Question: Is it possible to grow my lawn care & landscape company from 2 million per year in revenue to 10 million per year in revenue. I do not personally know anyone in the industry doing 10 million per year. Is it possible?

Lawn Care Business and Lawn Care Marketing Tips & Advice Covered in this Call:
1) How to find workers and lawn care employees
2) How to get out of the field so you can run and grow your lawn care company
3) Your single most important responsibility as the owners
4) Growing your company – what departments do I have – what roles might you have in your business as you grow
5) A very important tip about the kind of employees you want to hire to answer the phones
6) What is a part time CFO
7) What is your role as the owner
What do you think of using Facebook and Social Media in your lawn care and landscape business
9) What is the best thing to do with Facebook
10) Ideas about why social media is the future
11) Should you use YouTube videos to market your lawn care business
12) How to embed your Youtube videos in your website
13) How to get commercial lawn care customers
14) Should you have a website to market to commercial landscape maintenance customers
15) What is your opinion of the future of the green industry (lawn care)
16) Is the lawn care industry the ideal service industry? Is it the best industry to start a business in
17) Is lawn care licensing requirements good? or bad? for your business
18) Business Tips and Ideas to make your lawn care business better and worth owning

Lawn Care Topics Covered on This Call:
1) Lawn Care Marketing
2) Lawn Care Postcards
3) Best Printer for Lawn Care Marketing
4) The very best type of mailer to use for your lawn care business.
5) What to watch out for when mailing post cards to potential lawn care clients.
6) Types of printers and what to look for.
7) The best kind of mailer when trying to get new lawn care customers.
How to create inexpensive brochures that work.
9) Best way to manage lawn care door hangers.
10) Marketing to commercial clients through the mail.
11) What is the Dream 100 concept?
12) How to handle and keep up with business receipts.
13) Is ShoeboxBoxed work it?
14) A few notes about hiring and training employees for your landscape business.
15) Line of Credit & Factoring — cash flow management.
16) Lawn Care contracts and cashflow.
17) Is discounting your service for prepayments smart?
18) Leasing office space – what to look out for and what to consider.
19) How much financial information should you let employees know?

Do you have any questions regarding tonight’s call?  Also, any good advice you can pass on based on your experience in business?

Please comment below and I will respond.

November 2011 Lawn Care Millionaire Call

Topics:
Lawn Care Equipment
Custom Truck Beds
Lawn Care Pricing
Registering you lawn company as an LLC
The 5 pieces of lawn care software I use at my business. (Gmail, Service Autopilot, Evernote, Drop Box, Mozy, Google Reader)
Books to read about lawn care marketing
and lots more lawn care business advice…

From Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu’s office 09/22/2011:

“Given the legislative action taken by the Appropriations Committee last night, earlier today U.S. DOL informed our team that they will delay implementing the Oct. 1 effective date of the new H2B visa wage methodology rules by 60 days. DOL will announce the 60-day delay in the Federal Register next week.” 

A lawsuit was filled on 9/22 challanging the legality of the recent H2B Visa rule change.

For more details see… Bayou Lawn & Landscape Services et al., v. Hilda L. Solis, et al.  It challenges the legal authority of US DOL to make such changes to the Wage methodology and accelerated effective date. The case was filed in the North District of Florida, Pensacola Division and registered as Case No. 3:11-cv-00445-MCR-EMT.

I am committed to a 100% legal work force.  If you are as well and you use the H2B Visa program please continue to contact your Representatives in the House and Senate to support you in this Temporary Worker Program (H-2B).

My company has and we will remain committed to fighting to protect our legal work force.

Reposted below, the DOL’s press release announcing the temporary implementation of the wage change.

See the original post at http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/eta20111404.htm.

News Release

ETA News Release: [09/22/2011]
Contact Name: Dave Roberts or Sonia Melendez
Phone Number: (202) 693-5945 or x4672
Release Number: 11-1404-NAT

US Labor Department postpones revising wage calculations for H-2B program

Delay avoids administering the H-2B program under potentially conflicting court orders

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration today announced a 60-day postponement of the effective date for the final rule concerning the wage methodology for the temporary nonagricultural employment H-2B program. The delay will permit the various courts involved in ongoing litigation surrounding the implementation of the rule to determine the appropriate venue for the resolution of all claims and allow the department to avoid the possibility of administering the H-2B program under potentially conflicting court orders.

In consideration of these pending challenges, the department determined under Section 705 of the Administrative Procedure Act that the interest of justice would be served by postponing the effective date of the rule from Sept. 30, 2011, until Nov. 30, 2011. A Federal Register notice to that effect will be published next week.

The H-2B program allows the entry of foreign workers into the U.S. when qualified U.S. workers are not available and the employment of foreign workers will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers. The H-2B program is limited by law to a cap of 66,000 visas per year.

The department published a final rule on Jan. 19, 2011, that revised the wage methodology for the H-2B program and set the effective date of the wage rule as Jan. 1, 2012.  On June 16, 2011, in response to a challenge, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania invalidated that date and ordered the department to announce a new effective date within 45 days.

In response to that court’s order, the department issued a notice of proposed rulemaking on June 28, 2011, which proposed that the wage rule take effect 60 days from the date of publication of a final rule. After a period of public comment, the department published a final rule on Aug. 1, 2011, which set the new effective date for the wage rule as Sept. 30, 2011, without altering the substance of the rule.

Below is a list of IRS forms you need to complete for each new employee or contractor you hire.

I suggest you do not let your new employees work until all of these forms have been completed.

For contractors, do not pay them more than $600 before their forms have been completed.  I suggest you hold their contractor check until you have the paper work in hand.

For all employees and contractors I also recommend you get a photocopy of their social security card and drivers license if possible.

A well organized file cabinet and folder system to keep up with this information will save you a lot of time later.  At our company we both file the paper forms and scan and attach an electronic version of the forms to our employee and contractor records within Service Autopilot.

Employee Forms:

Form I-9 (I also recommend photocopying the employees social security card)

Form W-4

Contractor Forms:

Form W-9 - keep on file a minimum of 4 years

Form 1099-MISC – you must file before January 31st each year for every contractor paid over $600

Request EIN – if your contractor needs an EIN number

Other Forms:

Links to Your State - to locate additional forms or research tax questions

Spanish Version of I-9 – DO NOT submit this version to the IRS.  Use it only as a reference when helping Spanish speaking workers complete the English version.  This is only accepted in Puerto Rico.

Spanish Version of W-4

Spanish Version of W-9


Notes:

New Employees fill out the I-9 and W-4 and receive a W-2 at the end of the year.

New Contractors fill out the W-9 and receive a 1099 at the end of the year.  Contractors do not have to complete the I-9.

In addition to the IRS forms we have each employee sign a short employee agreement and each contractor sign a contractor agreement.

We also have a short information sheet we complete for each employee (this information is also keyed into Service Autopilot).  It asks for emergency contact information, drivers license expiration date, keeps up with uniforms assigned, pay rate, birth date, marital status, etc.

All of our hiring packets are pre-assembled.  This makes it easy to ensure all the forms are completed on time.  For example, if you hire 20 new employees / contrators each year prepare 25 packets every January.  Then, when you hire someone you simply grab one of the packets.

This simple process every January will ensure you are in compliance with the IRS at all times.

Question: Do you have any information you keep up with that I didn’t mention?  — please click on the post and comment at the bottom

I am a fan of the H2B Visa program.  For any company that needs a lot of workers and truly intends to use a 100% legal work force it is absolutely necessary.  However, based on both past and new legislation, regarding the program, I believe it is intentionally being destroyed.

If you participate in the program and are unaware… as of October 1st 2011 you must adjust the wages you pay H2B Visa workers.  You cannot wait until next year.

If your lawn care & landscape business utilizes the H2B Visa program I strongly encourage you to contact your H2B Visa lawyer to make certain you are on top of these changes and will be in compliance come October.

Also, you should seriously consider writing, calling and emailing your local Congressmen and the US Department of Labor.  We have done so.  I hope you will as well.

I suggest that you let them know that the current legislation will potentially render the H2B Visa program useless.  The program has reached the point of becoming too costly and too complicated.

Your Congressman must understand that the most recent changes to the program will increase your wages beyond what is reasonable.   This program, I believe, now forces employers to pay foreign workers more than U.S. workers.

How can that be right?  Hence, my belief the program is intentionally being slowly dismantled through legislation.

Let your Congressman know that you do not participate in the H2B Visa program because it is easy or saves you money – you participate because it is necessary in order for you to find the essential legal temporary workers you must have to operate your business.

In my opinion, available skilled labor continues to be one of the absolute biggest issues within the industry.  These legislative changes only worsen the problem.

Additional Resource: http://www.foreignlaborcert.doleta.gov/pdf/H2B_PWDNPRM-6-28-2011.pdf

This is a interview I did back in 2009 about my lawn care business.   It’s about 30 minutes long.  It has a number of good business ideas and tips that I believe you will find valuable.