How can I create immediate income in my lawn care business?

Question: “I’m just getting started. How can I create immediate income in my lawn care business?

One of the great things about the landscape industry is that you really can create immediate income.

You can go out and get work versus waiting for it to come to you.  As a result it is possible to find work quickly.

All you have to do is walk down the street, knock on doors, introduce yourself and tell the story of your company.  It takes a small bit of courage, but it works!

If you are selling commercial, you walk in the door and ask for the business.  You ask to bid the property.

If they don’t need you now (most won’t), find out when their existing agreement expires or when the contract will go out for bid.  Put that date on your calendar and follow up months in advance to ensure you have an opportunity to participate in the bidding process.

Don’t forget to ask for the name of the person who will make the decision.

These are the three fastest ways to get immediate income:

1) Knock on doors.

2) Put out door hangers. If you don’t have money, pass them out yourself.

3) Build a high quality website and run PPC ads. Google the term Adwords to learn more.

Let’s assume during the start up phase you are in the field 40% of the week. You don’t have enough work to fill up an entire week.  So, the other 60% of the week you need to spend your time prospecting for new business.

Regarding price…

I’ve heard many say when you are starting out, price low. Then, once you earn some business and your customers trust you, raise your prices.

I disagree.

Start out pricing yourself near the middle of the market or higher.

If you price too low, as you start growing, you will not have any money to hire help.  You won’t have money to buy good eqiupment.  You won’t have money to advertise your business.

You will get trapped in the field if you don’t have money.

Long term, the only way to make a lot of money is to get yourself out of the field and pay others to do all of the field work.

As you grow you will have less and less time to focus on sales and marketing.  You MUST constantly replace yourself in the field by hiring help.

Doing so frees up more of your time to seek out new business.

If you stop marketing and selling, your revenue stream will dry up.

Each time you replace yourself in the field, resume exactly what made you successful in the first place…knocking on doors, distributing door hangers, online marketing, asking for referrals, etc.

As you hire ‘guys’ to help, demand hard work and quality. Don’t accept poor or slow work. If you look at an employee and realize that you could do that job in 30% the time it takes them, you’ve hired the wrong person.

There are plenty of great guys. A lot of those guys will surprise you by out-working you.

Don’t settle for mediocre people.  It will kill your business and burn you out.

Once you hire your first foreman and have successfully replaced yourself with a self-operating crew, you have accomplished a major milestone.

Repeat this several times, price correctly, and you will find you have the money to hire an operations person to help you run the business.

Once you reach this point you are well on your way.

You will be ahead of most of your peers in the industry.

Go make your first sell.  Not next month.  Now.

 

 

2 Replies to “How can I create immediate income in my lawn care business?”

  1. Thanks for your encouraging articles.

    Yeah, I don’t know how to bid jobs and I can tell one’s self – confidence when properly based in being able to deliver and ask for help and not be afraid to make mistakes is our most valuable asset as humans let alone entrepreneurs.

    I’ve been on both sides of having and not having money so I know the American dream is still alive for whomever steps up with an attitude of being thankful for what we do have and can do.

    I started with a barely drivable ’93 toyota camry I put my Honda mower and trimmer in the trunk of.

    Little Rock, Arkansas is still negatively affected by racial division. I am an individual so I treat people the way I want to be treated and ignore popular opinion which is usually not so helpful because its based on people that just do what everyone else is doing and not direct experience or the bigger picture so if someone is saying you can’t do something its probably because they are afraid you can and it will reveal they are held back by fear.

    I thought the wealthier neighborhoods would be my best bet but I will tackle that when I’m more experienced because they are better consumers being able to get exactly what their money can buy and they are often sold something that doesn’t do what is promised like make their lawn as green as their neighbors. Ofcourse, they can be more demanding than I am able to satisfy too so that’s a waste of our time as well.

    Evidently, people avoid the neighborhoods I have been going to because of fear of crime which does occur – its not so easy to tell who can afford and appreciate your services and who will bring you business that is for sure so give people a chance like you want them to give you a chance.

    This is what is so exciting about learning about my first business – you learn about your community real quick and I look forward to being able to help clean up neglected parts of town so we all feel better about where and how we live.

    Now, I’m going to look through this wonderful website to learn about how to educate myself so I can help my customers and business.

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