Get your landscape and lawn care business questions answered by Jonathan by posting them in the comment section below.
Over the years, I’ve been asked so many lawn care and landscape questions that it’s been near impossible to keep up. I like answering the questions, there’s just been too many. If you’ve asked me a question and I haven’t answered, I apologize. Please note, it’s nothing personal. I wasn’t intentionally ignoring you, there’s just an awful lot going on between Service Autopilot and Service Autopilot Academy and CitiTurf.
What I’ve decided is to try and experiment and see if I could keep up with some of the questions if they were posted as comments below this video. If you have a business question for me, please post it in the comments section below this video and again, it needs to be below this video and I will keep an eye on this video in the months to come. What I’m going to do is, I’m going to respond by text to your question. Or, if the question necessitates a longer video, then I’ll eventually record the video and that could take me a while but when I do record the video, I’ll reply to your comment and I’ll post the link to that video.
Now, to get me to answer, ideally, you’re going to leave me a short question and a concise question. Asking me how you should market your business is a question that’s just too difficult to answer without us getting on the phone. If you could ask me a question where I could answer yes or no, that would be awesome. That would make it easy for me to respond quick. If you’ve got two questions for me, please post those questions as two separate thoughts, meaning two separate comments. If you post a book of questions, it’s going to be difficult for me to answer, basically when I look at it it’s just going to feel a bit overwhelming and I’ll probably skip to the next question.
As you’re posting your question, if you want it answered, think about whether it’s something you would likely respond to, think about whether it is the simplest way and most clear way that you could ask that question and you’ll have the best chance of me responding to it.
Again, post as a comment below this video. I will periodically reply to the comments and hopefully I can get through a whole lot of questions this way. Look forward to hearing your question. Thanks a lot.
13 Replies to “Get Your Landscape And Lawn Care Business Questions Answered”
I have a small business that does very well April-October, but very little income November-March. What are some ideas for winter cash flow? Snow and ice is inconsistent here, some years alot and some years not very much at all. I can’t hire anybody full-time because I can’t promise any winter hours. I have 3-4 seasonal helpers that work 1-2 days per week April-October.
What are the top things you do to improve the culture within your business?
Hi Jonathan. I’m Houston and I have a lawn care business in a town with about 9,000 people. I make about 5,000 per summer for I’ve built up my setup and have basically everything I need to operate ethically and logistically. But my question is how you would go about boosting my profits to 20k and year compared to 5k. On what caliber do I need to operate to achieve that? What would you do? I’m sorry your probably exhausted from these sort of questions.
Have you found that offering perks to your employees helps to offset the low pay scale common to labor positions?
I’m constantly adjusting to accommodate the relationship between sales/scheduling. I don’t want to sell more work than I can handle, or vice versa. When I scale I’m concerned about delegating these positions to separate people.
Can one employee be responsible for both selling and scheduling?
Could you give us a peek into the organizational hierarchy of your lawn company, or just describe the ideal lawn company hierarchy in your opinion?
I plan on joining SAA once I have the time to dedicate to it. I can’t wait for the day. But in the meantime, what mastermind group/groups would you recommend for a young entrepreneur that are primarily based online?
I have no experience in the lawn care business but I looking at possibly buying and existing business. It is an established business of over 10 years. It has 85 accounts, non on contract. It also includes some fertilization jobs. The equipment included are, a 2014 Exmark 36″ turf tracer, 2013 Exmark vantage 60″, an older Exmark large frame turf tracer, a 2014 arising dovetail enclosed trailer and several commercial trimmers (red max) and backpack leaf blower. Seller says annual gross sales has been between $108000 and $125000 a year. He is asking $95000, he has also offered to work with me for several weeks learning the business. Is this something I should pursue?
What is some of the basic training that you give to all of your new hires?
How do you set the tone in your organization and what are some key tips to improve culture?
What are the most important elements to the culture in your business?
My business is off to a smooth start. I’m out of the field. I track all of my marketing and every other piece of data possible. My cash flow is healthy and I’m running good margins. What are some things I can do to work ON my business?
I have a bundle of ten commercial accounts that are under contract for weekly lawncare, two annual cleanups and twice a year shrub trimming.
They occasionally request additional shrub trims on some of the properties that grow faster.
Should I change for these additional services? I’m in the habit of doing them for free to keep the relationship healthy, as these accounts make up a significant portion of my revenue.
Johnathan, I have 0 experience in lawn care never used a mower or a trimmer but I’m looking to start a business because something caught my eye. I’m currently working and I earn about 45k per year in a good company, I can buy the equipment I need with the cash flow I have from my job. I already have the truck and utility trailer soon to buy the other toys. I have 0 customers my wife is a major in marketing and we really want to do this. I will start on weekends with my brother. If you were in my shoes, what steps or advise can you give me???