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.