BREAK.com -

How to win home owner association lawn jobs - GopherHaul 49 lawn

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 02:34:30 GMT

http://www.gopherforum.com - Trying to crack open customers that live within certain homeowner associations can be tough to do. Especially if the HOA is a gated community. One lawn care business owner figured out a way to get their foot in the door with a interesting marketing tip. They shared with us their lawn care marketing secret on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum, where you can download the newsletter and they wrote “we are sponsoring a neighborhood association newsletter that reaches 86 homes. Currently, we take care of two customers in this sub-division.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, estimate and proposal forms. Download our trial version of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. Gopher will help your lawn care bus

Tips for winning commercial snow plowing accounts - GopherHaul 4

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:44:49 GMT

http://www.gopherforum.com - Have you had difficulties landing commercial snow plowing accounts? It can be difficult to break through a companies layer of insulation before you get to the person in charge of making such decisions. Persistance seems to be a big part of the key to success. Let’s look into this discussion that took place on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum. A new member wrote “landing a large commercial account is not the easiest thing to do but once you have them you can keep them for a very long time provided you are doing a professional job. And the amount of money you can generate for your company is great.

How to win commercial lawn care jobs - GopherHaul 47 Lawn Care B

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:32:15 GMT

http://www.gopherforum.com - This is a very interesting topic. Lawn care business owners are always looking for ways to land commercial lawn care bids. But what’s the best way to do it? There are many ways to go about getting close with property managers to win bids but there is nothing like hearing the inside scoop straight from a property manager himself. That is what we were lucky enough to hear in this discussion. A lawn care business owner had asked on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum this, “my question is how to get commercial properties? Everyone tells me I have to go to them, they won’t come to me. Before we get into this I would like to tell you about my business.I started my lawn care business four or five years ago with about four accounts my first season and second season I got up to about ten. That’s all I had for the next two seasons. So for this season I advertised with signs and that got me up to about twenty five accounts give or take. I now moved up from a 21 in push mower to a 36 in co

Lawn Care Marketing Ideas for Halloween - GopherHaul 46 Lawn Car

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:05:20 GMT

http://www.gopherforum.com - There are plenty of things you can do to market your lawn care business in the Fall. What if you decorated a local store that has high foot traffic.You could really go all out and put a sign up in front to promote your lawn care business and your seasonal services. Maybe have a pick-a-card display on the sign so people can walk up and take one.If you are doing this for a local pizzeria, why not get a bunch of fall menu flyers to promote your fall cleanup services on one side and the pizzeria menu on the other side that the store could hand out to each person who has an order.You could also promote your Fall Halloween outdoor decoration services to other commercial establishments and homes.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 fre

GopherHaul 45 Lawn Care Software Show - How to speed up leaf col

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 06:00:30 GMT

http://www.gopherforum.com - When the leaves fall and you are hired to clean them up, a lot of times you are not only fighting with trying to collect wet leaves but with wind! How do you collect the leaves when the wind is blowing them all over? That is a question asked on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum. A business owner wrote “I was wondering if anyone could help me with a fall clean up problem. I bought and a little wonder high output blower 2 years ago and have learned all of the tricks to getting the best performance and power out of my blower, except when there is wind.Some of my customers have very open properties that the wind can really blow across and I just have the toughest time blowing the leaves in any other direction than the direction the wind is blowing!! My buddy said there are “techniques” he uses to be able to work on windy days, but he wont give up any of his techniques! Does anyone know of anything that might help so that the leaves don’t blow back over my head if I blow against th

Being on site longer improves your chances of selling more. Goph

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 23:54:28 GMT

http://www.gopherforum.com - With many small lawn care businesses, the owners tend to feel there is more money when you get in and get out fast. However as we will see in this discussion, offering more services than simply lawn mowing can help you be on the job site longer. The longer you are on the job site, the better your chances are of meeting neighbors and others driving by. These meetings can lead to adding new customers. One of the members of the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum asked a question that kicked off this discussion “I thought of a neat idea for all of us. Everyone will state what services we offer & explain how you go about doing them if you want. This will give everyone a clear idea on what services they might add to their business. I’ll start.Services I Offered.Gutter CleaningWeedingSpring/Fall CleanupsTopsoil/Fertilizer/Grass SeedHedge TrimmingBranch CuttingTHE SERVICES I WANT TO START:Grub EliminatingAeration, $50.00 a yard is the cost around here.Driveway Crack Sealing (i

UDEP ACTION MOWING!

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 07:00:00 GMT

MOWING! HOW INTENSE! ... mowing lawnmower action UDEP deer hunting funny comedy ametuer intense.

How to inspect a used mower before you buy it. GopherHaul 43 Law

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:07:43 GMT

http://www.gopherforum.com - Buying used outdoor power equipment can be a great way to save money but it can also open a can of worms and end up costing if repairs are needed. How do you know if a used lawn mower is going to be a good deal? That’s what one of our forum member’s asked when he wrote no the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum “I have found a deal on a 2007 ExMark LZ25KC604 60? with 25 HP Kohler with 240 Hours. I have been offered this for $3000.00. It appears to be in great shape.This is my first zero turn and I have been looking at Scags and Exmarks. What should I look for before I decide? I think this is a good deal. Any comments or suggestions appreciated.”Thankfully one of our forum members is a outdoor power equipment dealer and he knows his stuff. He responded “First, are you buying this from a Dealer or from an individual? If from a dealer, will they give you any warranty? Since you have been looking at new mowers of the same brand, how much would a similar one cost you new? Assuming it h

Don’t be afraid to hear the word No. - GopherHaul 42 Lawn Care B

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:34:21 GMT

http://www.gopherforum.com - Are you afraid of hearing the word no? Is it keeping your lawn care business from growing? This fear afflicts more of us than we would probably care to admit. A new lawn care business owner shared with us his insights as to how fearing the word ‘no’ had stifled his growth for some time.He wrote us on the Gopher Lawn Care Business forum and said “I have been in the lawn care business since 1973 and it is still one of my passions of life. I have worked for large corporations and small landscapers and have taken every opportunity to learn as much as I can.I now work for myself. I hope to continue learning from you folks and have no problems at all with sharing my experiences and knowledge with any of you. I have great customers and am looking to expand on services I offer and neighborhoods I service in my area. I’m going to do this a little at a time in steps so as not to scare people off.”You have been in the business for quite some time! What do you feel about the difference

Mowing the Lawn Can Sometimes Be a Real Adventure!!

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 07:00:00 GMT

www.fuzzymonkeynuts.com ... Mowing the Lawn Can Sometimes Be Real Adventure eva mendes tobe kieth

The fear of getting too many lawn care customers - GopherHaul 41

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 12:30:35 GMT

http://www.gopherforum.com - Fear is an interesting topic. It is amazing how the fears we have can effect how we see the world and what we do in the world. A member of the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum brought up a great topic that has popped up in the past, leading me to think many lawn care business owners may share this fear. He wrote “I had a nightmare about gaining 1,000 lawn care clients. The problem was, I couldn’t afford to serve them.I didn’t have the equipment, or the crew.In my dream I wanted to serve all of the lawn care clients, I didn’t want to lose any of them. I was afraid that they’d never think of hiring me again if I said no this time, so what happens?I wake up…Now imagine if the nightmare was true. In the Spring you send out 10,000 flyers and BAM, everyone calls you? Wouldn’t that be worse than not having enough customers to fill your schedule?I guess it’s good to know what your maximum number of clients is. You never know what kind of trouble you’ll have if you get too many. S

Fill the Boot (and a lawn mowing lady)

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 07:00:00 GMT

The Fill-The-Boot charity is a group effort by MDA and fire fighters from around the nation to raise money and awareness for Muscular Dystrophy. If you see a fire fighter or EMT person holding a boot, donate something! ... fill the boot muscular dystrophy fire fighters charity donate

Epic Fail Mowing, W/ the Ghetto Mower

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 07:00:00 GMT

still leaks, ah well, we tried :P anyone have a gas tank? lol

Lawn Care Business Insurance Basics. Gopher Lawn Care Business F

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:31:27 GMT

http://www.gopherforum.com - Understanding what insurance you need when you are just starting your lawn care business can be quite overwhelming. I have been able to have a few discussions on landscape contractor insurance over the years to help you understand the topic better. In this most recent discussion I had an opportunity to talk with an insurance agent who sold insurance mainly to the lawn care industry. Here are some of the insights he shared on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum that I hope you find beneficial.What kind of insurance does a lawn care contractor need?“What insurance coverage a contractor needs is dependent on the type of work he or she engages in as well as the risks associated and protection desired. The general purpose of contractor insurance is to provide financial backing for a contractor who is liable to a client who hires the contractor to perform a certain job. The most purchased type of contractors insurance is general liability insurance. As with other types of insurance,

How to use a squeeze page on your lawn care business website. Go

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 07:22:27 GMT

http://www.gopherforum.com - One of the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum members recently made a trade with a local publisher. He offered to do lawn care in return for ad space. In this discussion we learn how creating a ’squeeze page’ on your website can help you collect potential customer contact information to allow you to market to these people later via email. We also learn what your advertising should say in order to get as many people as possible to want to click through your internet banner advertisement. If you would like to read more about this topic, check out my newest lawn care business book GopherHaul Extreme Lawn Care Business Tips. You can read more about it here http://www.gopherforum.com/showthread.php?p=56597#post56597He wrote “I made a trade with a local advertising business a few weeks ago for them to do a magazine ad for me in return for me to do her yard for so a certain period of time.I have been working on her yard off and on since the ad was published.They want to put a banner

Team Landscape Versus The Squirrel

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 07:00:00 GMT

What up, squirrel?

Making the most of lawn care business upsells? GopherHaul Lawn C

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 03:00:48 GMT

http://www.gopherforum.com - How often are you performing a service on a customer’s property when you see a problem that you feel you could fix? Do you mention this problem to the customer? If not, why not? Offering basic weekly mowing services is a great way to open the lines of communication with a customer that can lead to bigger profits if you know what to do. One of the members of the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum shared with us some of his suggestions on how he makes big money with upsells to his current lawn care customers.He wrote “I have three crews that do the lawn mowing, pressure washing, clean up jobs and I worked with them this week just to see how things were going. I try to encourage them to look around, look for things we do and talk to the client. I realize it’s not in everyone’s blood to simply hit up a conversation and say I happened to notice you could use…..this is something we offer if you like. Staff even ask me is it ok to talk to the customer….I wonder why…my response is always b

Lawn care business upsell idea - driveway sealing. GopherHaul La

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 21:45:00 GMT

http://www.gopherforum.com - A question I get asked often on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum is, what other services can I offer to make more money? I usually have a bunch of ideas to share with them but here is a great idea I hadn’t even considered. One of our members wrote “Yesterday I was out giving lawn care quotes.We have had a few customers ask if we would seal their paved driveway, our response has been this is not a service we offer at this time however we will note you are interested should we decide to offer it.I had two clients ask me about this today. I was at their homes for other work when it just came up.As I was driving to find a milk shake I noticed two guys with a small truck spraying sealer on a paved driveway and decided to stop. They had a pretty simple setup. I asked for some business cards as we had clients asking and it was something we didn’t do. I liked the job they did and we talked about pricing, subcontracting them etc.They do this straight by the square foot, they ro

Toro History: Strengthening Our Roots

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 07:00:00 GMT

Since its founding in 1914, The Toro Company has created a passion for building turf expertise and driving innovation in products and services to help customers care for golf courses, sports fields, residential lawns, public grounds and agricultural fields. ... Toro Toro history vintage historical mowing irrigation turf maintenance golf course sports field agriculture home lawn landscape Toro Motor Company Bull Tractor Company Toro Manufacturing Corp. ...

Lawn care business sales lesson. GopherHaul Lawn Care Business M

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 19:28:00 GMT

http://www.gopherforum.com - We can always learn more about sales. Without sales we would have no income and without an income we would have no business. So to boost your lawn care business sales let’s have a talk with Nick, a fellow Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum member. Nick used to be a car salesman before he moved on and decided to stop making others rich and start making himself rich. I got a chance to ask him to share with us some of his insight into how a lawn care business owner can improve their sales and here is what he had to say.Most any business revolves around sales, and in most cases you will sell something at least once in your life. A simple sale can be broken down into steps. There are many different forms of the steps to the sale but here are the ones I use:1. Meet and GreetThe meet and greet is the first and most important part of a sale. A lawn care customer is going to decide if they are going to buy something from you within the first 15 seconds of meeting you. During the meet an

Napkin dispenser lawn care marketing idea. GopherHaul Lawn Care

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 21:09:05 GMT

http://www.gopherforum.com - I just love the creative marketing ideas that get posted on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum. There are so many ideas posted, you will never run out of ways to promote yourself. Let’s talk about the latest great idea. One of our members shared with us a story on how he uses napkin dispensers to promote his real estate business.He wrote “I advertise in about 25 to 30 restaurants right now. I went and bought these great Napkin Holders that you can put ads on both sides.None of the restaurants charge me anything at all to put these dispensers in their location. When I recently bought the napkin holders, they where only $5 bucks each.I not only sold a couple house from those ads, but people run into me and say they are sick of seeing my face all over the place. That is good!I also bought a bunch of the large stand up napkin holder that have my advertising on the front of them. I have them in about 20 gas stations next the fountain drinks.The good thing about gas stations,

GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Show. How to charge bi-weekly lawn

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 22:40:31 GMT

http://www.gopherforum.com - When a lawn care customer decides mid-season they want to save money and only have you mow their property every other week, how should you handle this or even bill this? This was a dilemma that was presented to the members of the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum. The member wrote “I’ve had this weekly mowed lawn care customer since I started my business and now they want me to cut the grass every 2 weeks because they are “seniors” and they are getting low on “money” (that’s an excuse I think)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, estimate and proposal forms. Download our trial version of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. Gopher will help your lawn care business schedule and invoice more customers in l

Lawn care customer sales funnel - GopherHaul 39 Lawn Care Busine

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:02:22 GMT

http://www.gopherforum.com - Have you spent much time thinking about your lawn care customer sales funnel? Many newer lawn care businesses don’t think about this so I thought it would be a good idea to bring it to their attention.What is a sales funnel? Well think of it as a big scoop. You want to go out there and scoop up as many potential customers as you can when you broadcast your marketing message. Then you want to reel them in step by step. You want to offer something and then get something from the potential customer.Then offer a little something more and then get something more from them. You keep this process going in your sales funnel until you have the customer signed up for services. Ultimately you want to take the customer from step A to step Z, one step at a time.A lot of newer lawn care businesses don’t understand this and they tend to rush the sale with the end result of losing it. They want to take the potential customer from step A to step Z all in one step.So how do you take the po

Dedication

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 16:55:06 GMT

YouTube Version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZIBJ3GXxvcFor people working desk jobs rain might make it hard to get to work, but wont interfere with the actual job. For people who have outside jobs rain usually will call for a day off or doing something inside instead, but I guess with our current economy how it is its not a deterrent to the workers at my apartment complex!By the way, this is not the first time they did this either. I caught them (not on video) doing the same thing a few weeks ago as well.

GopherHaul 37 - Would you go with the name B.S. Lawn Care?

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:27:08 GMT

http://www.gopherforum.com Here is a really interesting question that was posted on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum. One of our friends wrote in and he had this idea for his new lawn care business name. His name is Brian S. and he was asking “What do you guys think about naming the business B.S. Lawn Care???? They happen to be my initials, do you think this would be a bad name or a good one cause people would remember it????” Another lawn care business owner responded by saying “that is a good question…it may be catchy at first. But if you mess up one lawn or upset someone it may backfire and become a joke. Here is a motto for you, B.S. Lawn Care - The only manure is in our Triple Mix!!!”Brian then wrote “The marketing tag lines for B.S. Lawn care would make for a good marketing angle. I was thinking about putting something at the bottom of advertisements,signs and card “Owned and Operated by Brian S.” Maybe they would put the to together and be like Ohhhhhhh.”You know self deprecating humor can rea

FATAL MOWING ACCIDENT

Fri, 22 May 2009 07:00:00 GMT

FATAL MOWING ACCIDENT

GopherHaul 36 - Overcoming lawn care business owner newbie syndr

Thu, 21 May 2009 00:46:29 GMT

http://www.gopherforum.com “Back in the days when you were starting your lawn care business, did you encounter the ‘Why would I hire you if you’re so new?’ dilemma?I’d like to have some way of spinning that question into a positive if and when that should arise.”That’s the question asked to us by Scott, a new lawn care business owner on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum.Without a doubt some lawn care customers, if they sense you are new, will try and screw with you. They will try and push you around on a lot of things such as price and how much work they want you to do. Just be wary of this.How do you spin it? Well I would say two things off the top of my head. Reliability and affordability. You would be amazed at how many start up lawn care businesses are just not reliable. Show them you are reliable and you will win their trust.Believe in yourself. You can do this.Andy shared that he “never had a lawn care customer ask. The key to starting out is to look and act big. If you do this, you will a

GopherHaul 35 - Lawn Care Business Postcard Marketing Ideas and

Thu, 14 May 2009 13:07:18 GMT

http://www.gopherforum.com Lawn care business website search engine optimization tip.Did you know you can appear on google’s search engine even if you don’t have a website? And if you have a lawn care website, here is a tip that you really need to take advantage of. The best part about all of this, is that it’s FREE. It’s amazing what you can learn when you read the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum.Google has a section on their search engine called the ‘Local Business Center.’ Do a quick search on google to find it.Within that section you can add your business to their list and what that will do is bring your business listing to the top of the search engine result page where the map appears.One of our forum members had added his lawn care business to this FREE listing and here is what he said “I just wanted to let you guys know i’m #3 on the first page of google and this is the third day after I filled out the information.” Isn’t that fantastic?Another forum member tried this and wrote Hey everyone I

GopherHaul 35 - Lawn Care Business Postcard Marketing Ideas and

Thu, 14 May 2009 12:48:26 GMT

http-//www.gopherforum.com Lawn care business website search engine optimization tip. Did you know you can appear on googles search engine even if you dont have a website? And if you have a lawn care website, here is a tip that you really need to take advantage of. The best part about all of this, is that its FREE. Its amazing what you can learn when you read the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum. Google has a section on their search engine called the Local Business Center. Do a quick search on google to find it. Within that section you can add your business to their list and what that will do is bring your business listing to the top of the search engine result page where the map appears. One of our forum members had added his lawn care business to this FREE listing and here is what he said I just wanted to let you guys know im #3 on the first page of google and this is the third day after I filled out the information. Isnt that fantastic? Another forum member tried this and wrote Hey everyone I just want

Police Dogs don't have hands?! (5/9/09-66)

Sun, 10 May 2009 07:00:00 GMT

twEEEtwer! www.twitter.com