There are a lot of new lawn care business owners just getting started this year due to many economic factors. Because they are new, they dont know where they can get away with using a verbal agreement when providing lawn care services or when they need to use a signed agreement. I want to use these recent discussion as an example to help you expand your business knowledge base.

Dean wrote us and said Here is my situation: I posted an ad on craigslist to perform lawn care for any realtors who have vacant homes that need lawn care. I was contacted by one wanting mowing, seeding, plugging, fertilizing and pine straw put out. This job was for two homes, both on the same street. I came up with a price for labor and got prices for material. I was then contacted and told I could go ahead with job. The problem is I had no address to send the bill to and had not met anyone in person. I called back and asked for an address for which I could send an invoice to and guy said the work was for someone else and he would get back to me with an address. I have not heard from him as of yet. I am looking at spending $400.00 out of my pocket for materials to do this work. I think there should be a meeting and signing of a contract to ensure I am covered in getting paid for this work. Without any meeting or something signed if whoever decides not to pay, I have no recourse in recouping my expenses. I need to know from all of you if I am right and should not do any work until there is something signed to cover me and the lawn care customer so everyone gets what they paid for. All suggestions are welcomed.

Eli: You are correct. I think you have plenty of reason to be concerned. I would not perform any work until you have laid eyes on the lawn care customer and, especially in this strange case, until you have a signed contract in hand. I think I would make sure the contract included specifically who is responsible for payment. Then I would make sure that the person signing the contract also prints his name (I would probably have a spot for him to print and another spot for him to sign rather than just having him sign and print his name below the signature.).

I think I would start out with drawing up the contract and then calling him to ask for a place to meet him or whoever is authorizing the work. Make it clear to him during your telephone conversation that no materials will be ordered and no work will be done until a contract is signed. Maybe even ask for some money upfront to purchase materials. This would help ensure they are willing to go through with the deal. I suspect someone is trying to pull a fast one on you. I would not lose a lot of sleep over the deal until you have met the customer and have that signed contract in hand.

Victor: We have had past problems with realtors and owners who are actively selling/managing foreclosure properties. We only do prepayments with signed agreements for these types of customers now. We either meet with them for signing or mail them an agreement. They can provide guaranteed full payment or a good faith deposit in cash, check or money order or via PayPal. Once payment and agreement is received/cleared then the work will start. And so it goes with ongoing service.

With renters, we asked that they provide their drivers license # on an agreement in the event of defaulted payments.

Chuck: Be careful here. Like other have said above, meet the client & get a contract signed. I have had 2 or 3 instances where a new client called, requested an estimate, I called them back & they approved the estimate by phone & gave a billing address. I did the work & got stiffed. Prepaid cell phones & BS billing addresses. I cant track anything at all, it sucks!

These are great responses from people who are in the know. Dont be so desperate to get your business started and do this kind of work only to find out when its completed that you cant find the person to pay you. If you would like to join in on this discussion visit the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum.

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 less time, allowing you more time to grow or enjoy your life. Check out my lawn care business blog at http://www.lawnchat.com and my lawn care business forum at http://www.gopherforum.com

Duration : 0:10:0

Technorati Tags: advertising, Business, care, Entrepreneur, forum, Gopher, GopherHaul, grass, landscaper, landscaping, lawn, logo, Marketing, mower, mowing, plowing, service, snow, software, tree, yard

Duration : 0:2:12

Technorati Tags: accounting, Business, small, software

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 has no warranty and passes the test as follows below, I would pay no more than about 60-70% of the new price of a similar piece of equipment. Do you know if $3000 is the lowest price you can get on it? Have you tried to get a lower price?

Here are some questions you should ask the seller before you buy a used mower.
1. If you are buying from an individual, why are they selling it?
2. Was it used to mow their own yard only? or was it used for commercial use (to mow more than their own lawn).
3. Can you verify their answer to the first two questions without asking them directly or even indicating you are questioning their answer (they may answer I no longer need this big of a mower, or I decided to get out of the lawn care business, or.. Just think, does their answer make sense?)
4. Do they have maintenance records? Will they provide these records to you to preview before the purchase? Will they provide these records to you with the purchase?
5. Can they tell you who serviced the equipment when it was serviced? Can you verify this?
6. If buying from a dealer, have they serviced the mower including sharpen the blades, check the belts, change spark plugs, Air Filter, Fuel Filter, and oil?
7. Have they ever serviced this mower before buying it?
8. Did they sell the mower new?
9. Why did the original owners sell it? (Again, think about their answer to see if it makes sense or not. Typically power equipment dealers are considerably more honest than car dealers but there are a few here and there that may still lie to you.)

There are more questions to ask, review them here http://lawnchat.com/?p=640

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 less time, allowing you more time to grow or enjoy your life. Check out my lawn care business blog at http://www.lawnchat.com and my lawn care business forum at http://www.gopherforum.com

Duration : 0:7:35

Technorati Tags: advertising, blower, Business, care, Entrepreneur, equipment, forum, Gopher, GopherHaul, grass, insurance, landscaper, landscaping, lawn, logo, Marketing, mower, mowing, page, plowing, power, pressure, sales, service, snow, software, squeeze, tree, trimmer, upsells, washing, Website, yard

In each episode we discuss lawn care industry issues.
We also Talk about different tips and tricks to improve your lawn care business

This show’s goal is to get you excited about running your business
and excited about life.

If you haven’t started your own business yet, what are you waiting for?
To paraphrase Warren Miller, If you don’t start your business this year,
You’ll be at least one year older when you do.
So get started today!

In this episode we are going to be talking about:
Lee, the winner of our help a veteran marketing campaign
He also happens to run a bikini lawn care service
We are going to see new ways to distribute flyers from your vehicle
What’s the biggest trend emerging in the lawn care industry?
Its going electric, we will learn more about that
A new lawn care business owner wrote us to figure out why he hasn’t been able to get enough new customers
We’ll find out why and these reasons will help your business too.

We are also going to meet an entrepreneur who manufactures electric powered mowers
plus much much more

Now Let’s get to work!

Do you like to read?
Well as a business owner you should always be reading.
It will help you and your business grow

If you are a business owner you know that running a business can be a monster.
This monster can take over your life and destroy everything.
It can make you bankrupt.
You can lose your family.
You can even lose your mind at times.

Which leads me to this episode book of the month

Written by Joe Berlinger, the book is called Metallica, This Monster Lives.
This book gives you behind the scenes insight into the filming of Metallica’s movie, Some Kind Of Monster.
The movie follows the band going through counseling and rehab for substance abuse after their bass player left in 2000.
If you or someone you know is suffering from alcohol or drug abuse, please get help or get them help.
It’s tough enough trying to start and run your own business when you are healthy,
If you are going to have any chance at all of finding success, you need to live a clean lifestyle.
In this book, It is really is amazing to see that such a huge band with so many resources at their finger tips,
still deals with the same issues you and I deal with in our lives.

I hope reading this book will leave you with this thought.
Whatever is bothering you in your life,
whatever difficulties you find yourself in
whether they be substance abuse, financial issues, family issues or whatever
it is important for you to talk about them.
Don’t hold it in.
It’s important for you to talk.
We all care about your well being.

If you haven’t seen the movie, go out and rent it and read this book.
I think you will find their journey to be inspirational.

In our last episode of GopherHaul, we ask the lawn care business owners viewing this show to go out into your community and help a veteran with their lawn care.
Send in your photos and we would pick a winner to receive some magenetic truck signs from amw-graphics and a lawn care business training package from summer 101.
Thanks for your submissions.
The purpose of the promotion was to teach you how to create goodwill between your business and your community.
The more goodwill you create,
the higher your business will be looked upon and thought of when your community needs lawn service.

Our business challenge winner is Lee Cathey and his staff at Tiger Time Lawn Care.
They were really up to the challenge and assisted veteran Ed Debarry.

Ed, who is a widower and no longer able to care for his property, is a veteran of WWII.
Lee said he was able to meet Ed Debarry through a friend
and was able to cut Ed’s lawn and redo his flower beds to create more curb appeal.
Lee sent in some great pictures.

Another interesting business item about Tiger Time Lawn Care is a they recently began experimenting with a bikini Lawn Care service.
If you remember, we had discussed another lawn care operator utilizing this marketing concept in a previous GopherHaul episode.
Seeing Lee’s staff wear a bikini as they mow lawns has really gotten people to talk about his business and it is growing by leaps and bounds.
Will these marketing gimmicks last?
Who knows, business is all about experimentation.
Sometimes such outrageous marketing concepts can really bring a lot of attention to your business and that can help push it to a new level.

Just today Lee posted on our forum that
A local radio station, Rock 103 called and asked about the bikini cut service.

Lee said he was floored.
They put him on live radio and talked about it
A lot of good promotion came from it he said

Have you thought of some wild and outrageous marketing concepts?
Have you experimented with them?
If you have, send us some pictures of what you did.
If you haven’t, what are you waiting for?
Try them out today!

Congratulations again to Lee and his staff.
I look forwards to seeing your pictures with your new truck signs.

Next up is Flyer distribution.
How often are you trying to come up with a way to drive through your neighborhood
and distribute your flyers as fast as possible?
Have you come up with some crazy ideas on how to do it?
Well, we have seen the best way to do it is usually the most time consuming.
That is going door to door and meeting people as you hand out your flyers.
If you are not going to do that and you don’t want to mail your flyers,
Please what ever you do, don’t do this.
Here is a flyer that was thrown from a passing truck.
It is enclosed in a sandwhich bag and weighted down with some small stones.
When we were talking about this on the forum, the point that came up is how mad it makes people.
Home owners consider this littering and not very earth friendly.
If you get your potential customers mad at you, they are not going to call you for service.
If you insist on throwing flyers out of your truck as you drive down the street
how about stapling a small bag of grass seed to it?
It’s a unique marketing concept and the grass seed is a free gift from you to help the homeowner grow grass on bare spots.
If you need a free flyer template visit our site at www.gophersoftware.com and click on the flyer link at the top of the page.

The next big thing in lawn care is quiet.

Have you heard of whispercut?

Check out there site at whispercut.com
The company was started by Richard Evans who once worked at a hedge fund in Delray Beach, Fl.
On his weekends, he looked forward to sleeping in on the weekends. But every Saturday morning, the sound of neighborhood cutting crews woke him up like a blaring alarm clock.
The screeches of leaf blowers drove him out of bed an hour after sunrise.
One Saturday, he decided to do something about all the noise.
He started Whispercut.
A lawn care service that “quietly runs on the sun.”
Electric powered equipment.

A new wave of electric powered lawn care equipment is on it’s way.
Check out this video our friend jon from Global Neighbor Inc sent us.
Jon and his company have been featured in many national publications.
Remember, if you have an idea for a product, why not experiment and bring the idea to life?
Jon did.
Now let’s check out his product.

When you are trying to come up with a marketing angle that will help you stand out from competitors
why not consider electric powered equipment.
It’s quiet and it’s earth friendly.
Can you imagine how much you could work that angle to gain customers?
You could become a local hero in your town by being the first to do this.

Next up – here is a section we call “Ask Team Gopher”

A question came in from our forum member Darrin .

He wrote, you said “If your business could use a GopherHaul, please email us.” so, I’m contacting you.
I have seen your flyers and such on your web site/forum.
I have been in the business part time since 2005.
I made my own flyers based on what I saw on those web sites.
The first year I had 8 customers, This year I spent $3,300 on new equipment and repairs and advertising.
Put out about 1500 flyers so far this year (I’ll include them) and only got about 3 calls.
I really need help BUT, I don’t think I can afford it.
Anything you guys can do would be greatly appreciated.

The “free lawn service 4″ flyer was put out once, about 200 of them in one area, I got 2 calls, no jobs.

The coupon flyer was put out in another area at about 100, no calls.

Purrfection flyer 4 has been put out at about 1000 houses, 1 call.
As you can see by the numbers, something is wrong, VERY wrong.
I did not expect any jobs out of the flyers but, more than 2 calls would have been nice.
Thanks in advance
Darrin

Here is my take.
First off I really like what you are doing.
I think your flyers are creative and being creative is a good thing.
Since you said you aren’t getting a good response,
I think I would get rid of having the customer need to sign a contract.
That might be scaring people away.
When you are just getting your lawn care business started,
you really want to put as few barriers between you and your potential customer, as possible.
Don’t make them jump through hoops.
Keep things simple until you start getting a feel for what your customers want
Then experiment with different marketing elements to see what works and what doesn’t.

Above and beyond all that, think about,
What else are you doing to network?
Flyers are a just a part in your marketing campaign.
What else are you doing to build buzz?
Are you handing out business cards to everyone you know?
Are you talking with your neighbors?
Are you using community bulletin boards in local stores?
Are you doing anything to get media attention in your area?
Performing good deeds to others is a great way to accomplish this.
Do you have truck or trailer signs?

Another important step in flyer distribution is are you simply putting the flyer in the home owners door
or are you knocking first and talking to the homeowner?
Our Forum member “Littles” pointed this out and said
He knocked on about 200 doors and left business cards with the people that answered,
He left the business card at the door if no one answered.
Of the 200 doors he knocked on,
he got about 10 customers.
It took about 2 weeks for all the calls to come in.

Darrin then replied he wasn’t knocking on doors

What have we learned from this, knocking on doors and talking to home owners
is a very important step
don’t forget to do this.

Around the time Darrin wrote us, a friend emailed a very simple lawn care flyer to us.

In the email he said he signed up with this particular lawn care operator.
The flyer is painfully simple.
At the top it says MOWING,
followed by edging and blowing, free estimates
and the name and phone number of the lawn care operator.
As the lawn care operator was servicing this lawn,
a neighbor walked over and asked him to mow his lawn too.
Two clients were landed in that one day!
Now that is keeping it simple.

When you are just getting started, keep your marketing simple.

If you need more suggestions download our free e-book, be a lawn care business rebel from gophergraphics.com.

Also if you need business advice, please either post your question on our forum
or email us at support@gophersoftware.com

Do you need more viewers to your site? Post our show on your forum, blog, or website and we will promote it in a future gopherhaul episode

GopherHaul audio version is now available for FREE through Apple’s iTunes.

We are also on myspace at www.myspace.com/teamgopher.

If you are on there as well, send us a friend request!

I’d like to send a thanks out to Lee for promoting our GopherHaul show on his site at
tigertimelawncare.com

Can you help us promote our show?
Post our show on your site or forum and we will promote your site in a future show.
Send to support@gophersoftware.com

Download our new free lawn care business book – Be a Lawn Care Business Rebel

Lastly don’t re-create the wheel, use the lawn care business software, professional lawn care business owners have been using for the past decade.

Gopher Billing & Scheduling Software will help you schedule your jobs and get your bills out on time. You will be amazed how much easier the right tool can help your business grow.

We offer great add on modules as well. Such as the Gopher Palm Software and Barcode reader. Did you know Gopher also links with Quickbooks?

With our software currently on sale starting at just $99.95 and a free 30 day trial download, we make it easy for you to take the hassle out of billing and scheduling.

Visit www.getgopher.com for your free download.
There are also free lawn care contracts, flyer, door hanger and web templates all ready to download as well.

Thanks everyone for watching the show.

Keep learning and keep making your dreams come true.

Remember always to dream it, build it, Gopher It!

Check out http://www.gophersoftware.com for more information and download the free trial of our lawn care business software.
Also check out our FREE lawn care / landscaping / landscaper business contracts, door hanger, flyer and web templates available for free download at http://www.gophergraphics.com

Duration : 0:10:0

Technorati Tags: advice, bikini, Business, care, distribution, Entrepreneur, flyer, GopherHaul, landscaping, lawn, mow, mower, software, tree, trimmer

Duration : 0:5:0

Technorati Tags: Adobe, and, Beyond, Business, Foxit, PDF, software

Online marketing service will cost you a fraction of what it might cost to gain the equivalent amount of targeted internet marketing exposure in traditional advertising or by using pay-per-click ads.

Duration : 0:2:25

Technorati Tags: Business, cart, how, idea, Internet, Marketing, Online, service, shopping, small, software, start, targeted, to, Website

Business Question:

A member of our Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum, Michelle asked about buying a lawn care business. How much should she be paying?

In response a member wrote:
“General rule of thumb for buying customers is that they are worth about 1 month revenue. If they are commercial you’ll pay a little more and if there is a signed multi-year agreement in place ( which you said there is ) then this will push the price up too. So it could be worth as much as 2 or 3 months revenue depending on the situation.”

Mike then joined the discussion and talked about how many customers would stay with him after he bought their accounts.

“I did lose a few here and there, but I only paid 2.5 times the mowing price, and usually got at least 3 mows before they quit me.”

“Have you checked some of his accounts to make sure they are priced in accordance with what you would charge?

One of the lawn companies I bought out was considerably higher in pricing than mine, so I ended up raising all my original customers up to that standard.”

Read more or join this post here:

http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=29;t=7525;st=0;r=1;&#entry36897

Should you offer to buy lawn care accounts on craigslist?

http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=8;t=7521;

Fernando joined the discussion and said he posts ads in free online sites in which he offers to buy lawn care customer accounts. Here is the ad he posted in craigslist. Check out the full ad on our forum.

“-Too Tired over the Summer? …or can’t keep up during the hot season?
-Too Hard to work from Sunrise to Sundown?
-Too busy to take care of ALL of your accounts during the “Crunch Time”?
-Customers complaining about not cutting the lawn on time?

I am willing to buy Lawn Accounts”

All this information is great if you are interested in knowing how to buy lawn care accounts but what about selling them? How do you sell lawn care accounts? This poster wants to sell his accounts. How much and how should he do it.

One Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum member made a post about how best to make the transition when you sell lawn care accounts to a new lawn care business. “I bought out 3 lawn companies, and all we did was send a letter to the customers, describing what happened(a new lawn company would be taking care of your yard)

If you want to meet each and everyone of them, then do it.

The new lawn care business owner may want you to sign a non-compete clause so you can’t compete to take the customers back.”

Read more about this post and join in on the discussion here:

http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=34;t=7567;st=0;r=1;&#entry37074

Product Promotion

Kenneth LaVoie III wrote a book and starting a lawn care business entitled “How to start a lawn care business a whole NEW way.” One of the many fascinating things he discusses in the book is about pruning customers once a year. If there are customers that you find yourself clashing with, he suggests not to raise their price but to simply cancel service for them and replace them with newer clients you do work well with.

Read more about this post here

http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=1;t=7635;r=1

Also Ken was kind enough to offer 50% off his book if you purchase his book from his site http://www.lawnguru.net. When ordering, use coupon code C7815 to receive your discount.

Read more about his book and this great offer here

http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=NW;f=36;t=7605

If our show or forum has helped you, or if you have any business questions, please let us know and send an email or make a post about your experience! I hope all these ideas have helped you expand and grow your business and mind. So until the next time, always remember to Dream it, Build it, Gopher it!

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. Also download our trial version of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. Gopher will help your lawn care business schedule and invoice more customers in less time, allowing you more time to grow or enjoy your life. If you are on myspace send us a friend request. We are located at http://www.myspace.com/teamgopher.

Duration : 0:9:50

Technorati Tags: advertising, Business, care, Entrepreneur, forum, GopherHaul, guru, Home, landscaping, lawn, Marketing, mower, software

Duration : 0:4:58

Technorati Tags: alliance, bsa, Business, consumers, ebay, exposed, fraud, Internet, Online, piracy, shopping, software

Duration : 0:6:57

Technorati Tags: apparel, Business, distribution, ERP, food, ibm, partner, software, VAI

How To Make Money OnlineCan your website make more money? Try Google AdSense – Learn more. $500 in 15 Minutes?Terell Yes, it is possible and real. We make it possible. Try it now.
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The foreign exchange (currency or forex or FX) market exists wherever one currency is traded for another. It is by far the largest financial market in the world, and includes trading between large banks, central banks, currency speculators, multinational corporations, governments, and other financial markets and institutions. The average daily trade in the global forex and related markets currently is over US$ 3 trillion.

Duration : 0:2:41

Technorati Tags: auto, currency, forecast, forex, Money, myspace, oil, pilot, robot, software, stock, stocks, trade, trading