GopherHaul 36 - Overcoming lawn care business owner newbie syndrome.

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 youre so new? dilemma?

Id like to have some way of spinning that question into a positive if and when that should arise.

Thats 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 actually believe you are big and everything will fall into place. It does take some cash to get there however it pays off big time to have professional looking shirts & pants as well as lettered vehicles and trailers. If something needs a little paint to look great then personally we do it. All the equipment is washed at the end of the day, no exception, even the mowers, they always look new and clients like that.

Keith added I think everyones been in that situation. Many newbie lawn care business owners fall into the trap of lowering their prices to attract customers. In my opinion, lowering your price is a big mistake. Your customers will expect your prices to remain low and will resist when you try to raise them. Besides that, youre simply selling yourself short when you should be making good money.

Instead, arm yourself with knowledge. Obtain the ability to discuss problems with their yards.

Now, youre new and you dont have the experience and knowledge to diagnose a wide range of problems. Instead, pick one or two problem areas that are common to all your prospects. If everyone in your area has shrubbery beds, become a source of information on proper pruning. Learn all you can about proper mulch application. If everyone has clover in their yards, learn proper mowing techniques which will reduce clover production and discuss those solutions with your prospects.

Never seek customers from a position of desperation (i.e. - Im new, please let me cut your lawn). Do the opposite by making them need you more than you need them. If you know more than just how to run a lawn mower over their grass, and you can demonstrate that knowledge to your customers, you will quickly build a roster of profitable customers.

Joe shared if you have ever cut the lawns for family and friends, I would suggest you should take pictures of the jobs you have done and made a small photo album, you could show potential lawn care customers the work you have already done and that can take away the tag that you have been a Professional Lawn Care Specialist for a short time. Use it to your advantage when this question comes up. Take some before and after shots. Be BIG and believe in Yourself. Walk the Walk.

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

Category:

Education

Tags:

• lawn
• care
• business
• marketing
• forum
• entrepreneur
• collections
• GopherHaul
• landscaping
• advertising
• mower
• software
• grass
• yard
• snow
• plowing
• landscaper
• service
• mowing
• Gopher
• tree
• plow
• gutter
• cleaning
• logo
• outdoor
• power
• equipment
• debt