What You Won’t Find Here

I have been having a real big think about how things should be run at this blog.

What I have come to understand with contractors is they don’t want to hear someone preaching about marketing theory. What they want to know are the “how to things” that will earn a dollar or save one.

So from now on, we are only going to discuss things that will help you Earn and Save…

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What Are Your 2 Biggest Frustrations and Concerns in Running Your Business

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The Ultimate (and Best-est and Free-est) Referral System for Contractors

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Want to know how You can make mo.ney from Facebook…in other words, do You want know how You can generate really good (high quality) leads, prospects and great new customers for your Contractor Business…all for free!

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How To Start A Lawn Care Business – Fake It ‘Til You Make It!

This week I want to tell you how you can grow your business just by looking the part!

I have talked before about how important your Brand is, and part of your brand is your Image and the way you look. Your image includes the First Impression you give to your prospects. People are happy to buy off you because they feel you are professional and they have confidence in your ability. A lot of the perception that people have of you is based on what they see.

A Professional Appearance Is Essential For Success.

First Impressions are everything.

You have a look at the successful Landscaping and Contractor (plumbers, electricians, etc) companies about town. All the staff wear the same Professional uniform and outfit.

A Professional Outfit includes:

• Professional Company Shirts – Go with a standard shirt, and advertise your company name, phone number, website address on it. Think about your corporate colours and a professionally designed Logo. Personally, I am not a fan of the fluoro safety shirts but if you have to have these then wear a safety vest over your uniform so you can take the vest off to show off your uniform
• Work trousers – these can be jeans, or just even khaki shorts. Make sure your work trousers or shorts are “work” pants, not a pair of gym shorts or shorts with holes in them. Make sure the trousers are of a colour that presents you professionally. Remember that You and your crew will be working in nice neighborhoods or at retail or commercial locations: so you want to look professional at all times
• Work boots – your work boots should be boots, not tennis shoes! Your footwear should complement your uniform, and should also be appropriate for type of work you are carrying out – keeping in mind the danger of work as well. You are performing a serious task with sometimes dangerous equipment, so you and your employees should wear the appropriate footwear and safety equipment
• Company hats – if standardized company hats also create a good First Impression. Do your employees wear hats?  Get standard hats or caps with your company name and Logo on them
• Personal appearance – make sure all your staff are clean, well groomed, clean shaven, neat haircuts and No visible Body Piercings!

As you are in the business of growing your business and You want more customers, and more importantly more lucrative customers, then you need to create a good First Impression.

People are willing to pay for a high level of service and professionalism. Even though you maybe running the greatest lawn care service in the world, nobody will know if you and your employees do NOT look the part.

Did you know that How you look determines whether you get more and better paying contracts!?

#4ContractorChallenge:

So, to find out more about your Gardening Business, go across to the Free Report in the box on the Right Hand side of your computer screen, and subscribe for The “How To Build Your Own Successful Lawn and Garden Business in 30 Days” Blueprint – it’s FREE!!!!

How To Start a Lawn Mowing and Gardening Business – Your Plan (of Attack) for Success:

If you have ever read any books, or gone to any seminars, on “Business Planning” you will get the same old advice, that is, write up a business plan, do your SWOT analysis, analyse the competitors in your market place, etc, etc, etc.
 
But all this is doing is just holding you back from what you should be doing, and that is, you should Just Do It!
 
“Do what?” you ask.
 
Just write up small Flyer (A5 will do!), print off 500 from your own computer and get it out there around your local area!
 
You see, there is no point in doing a business plan and all that stuff, if what you have to offer is not what the customers want.
 
So, if you want to risk as little as you have to, then knock up a small flyer, put a few hundred out in your area, and see what sort of response you get. If the phone rings, you have a business. After this, the only thing you need to worry about is how effective your advertising flyer is, and you can work on that later!
 
OK, so up until now we have got into the nitty gritty of our (new) business…but where to from here.
 
Quite often we get through the first period of our business all fired up, and then we can become a bit lethargic and maybe lose our way a little.
 
When this happens it’s time for some solid Goal Setting. What you need now is a (Business) Plan of Attack!
 
Your new Action Plan is all about setting SMART Goals: your new Goals should be [S]pecific, [M]easurable, [A]ttainable, [R]ealistic and [T]imely.
 
This Plan of Attack is not a Business Plan as such, but a To Do List for each Day of the Week, each Week of the Month, each Month of the Year, each Year of the next 5 years and so on.
 
With Goal Setting it is important to:

1. Write Your Goals down – keeping in mind the SMART goal setting system
2. Revise these goals from time to time because some of them may be unreasonable or unnecessary 

Goal Setting helps you:

1. Get over the fear of failure and success
2. Motivate yourself
3. Prioritise the important tasks
4. Take Action to achieve your goals
5. To plan your business
6. To overcome obstacles

#3ContractorChallenge…

So, to find out more about your Gardening Business, go across to the Free Report in the box on the Right Hand side of your computer screen, and subscribe for The “How To Build Your Own Successful Lawn and Garden Business in 30 Days” Blueprint – it’s FREE!!!!

Gardening Business – developing your Elevator Pitch and Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

There are two (2) concepts that you need to understand and embrace if you want to succeed in business. These concepts are your Elevator Pitch and your Unique Selling Proposition (or USP).
 
The Elevator Pitch is:

1. a short and sweet summary of what you do and it is not really about trying to sell to someone. So instead of telling someone “I mow Lawns”, you might say “We turn our customers gardens into Landscape Showpieces”.
2. a pitch for other people’s attention
3. what you tell people if you were in an elevator and you only have 30 seconds (or 100 to 150 words) to impress them or to engage them
4. a pitch for someone’s attention telling them what you do and hopefully they will be interested to ask you for more information. It is an introduction to what you do and in the process you create some intrigue and hopefully generate some enquiry from the listener

Your USP, or Unique Selling Proposition is:

1. the reason (or the compelling Point Of Difference) your customers choose you over your competition
2. the foundation of your advertising program – your USP is what you communicate to your market-place
3. the foundation of your professional image – Your image and brand are a result of devising your USP, and your image and brand is carried through to all your livery – clothing – uniforms, letterheads, business cards, magnetic stickers, motor vehicle signage, web sites, emails, flyers, brochures
4. the first impression new customers and prospects have of you
5. most probably more important to have than your Elevator Pitch

If you avoid or skip defining your own USP, you’ll struggle to grow your business.

Your Unique Selling Proposition is what you tell the market place through your Flyers, Leaflets, Website (if you have a website – I can show you how you can get your own website without paying a cent), Business cards, Brochures, Radio advertisements and so on. Your USP helps to remind prospects and existing customers why you are different to your competitors. Your USP is a summary of all the benefits (as opposed to all the features) you provide to your customers.

This Point of Difference (your USP) that you articulate may be something as insignificant as the location of your business, the way you carry out your service, or the speed of service delivery.

Famous examples of good USPs include:
Domino’s Pizza: “You get fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less – or it’s free.”
FedEx: “When your package absolutely, positively has to get there overnight”
Coca-Cola: “It’s the real thing”
DeBeers’: “Diamonds are forever”
 
You can see why the Domino’s & FedEx slogans / USPs are so effective because they are very specific with their mentions of benefits & guarantees. These USPs are complete statements which can be verified by the customer and they doesn’t resort to marketing hype words like “ultimate”, “best”, “greatest”.
 
The “Advertising Age” voted the DeBeers’ “Diamonds are forever” the best advertising slogan in the 20th century. Also, DeBeers would have benefited nicely from the glamorous James Bond film and book with the same name.

So when you develop these concepts or slogans don’t say something like “We provide excellent service”, because anyone can say that. In other words there is NO point of difference here!!!
 
In summary, with both the Elevator Pitch and your USP, you are communicating to prospects and customers how you take Prospects with a Problem or Pain to another place where there is Pleasure.

#2ContractorChallenge…

So, to find out more about your Gardening Business, go across to the Free Report in the box on the Right Hand side of your computer screen, and subscribe for The “How To Build Your Own Successful Lawn and Garden Business in 30 Days” Blueprint – it’s FREE!!!!

Gardening Business Plan – getting sales

Gardening Business Plan- how to get sales the easy way: mmm, I should correct myself there, it is not easy getting sales but it is made easier if you have a little bit of theory and have some practical know-how.

The 3 main sales and marketing objectives of any business are to:

1. Increase the number of its customers
2. Increase the $ value of sales, or more importantly increase the profit per sale, and finally
3. Increase the frequency of sales per client

When you are planning your gardening business (especially your sales forecasts and marketing) you need to understand that sales can only come from 3 ways.

These 3 ways of making more sales are:

1. Getting new customers - think about your sales funnel and all the new leads that you want to attract into your funnel. The Sales Funnel analogy is really important as it creates a picture in our mind of where all our prospects are hanging out and how we can attract them to our funnel. Getting new customers (and obviously, leads) requires a knowledge of what are the right marketing efforts needed to attract new leads / prospects and then to acquire new customers. Marketing your business is a whole new area to look at.
2. Increasing the dollar amount of sales to your customers, that is, a combination of increasing your prices and driving down your costs – therefore, improving your profits or bottom line
3. Selling more to your existing customer base, or make more sales to existing customers - that is, “Would you like fries with that?” should help you understand this point of up-selling. The aim here is to extract as much as you can from existing customers. It’s a fact that you can sell a whole lot easier to an existing customer than to a new prospect.

#1ContractorChallenge

So, to find out more about your Gardening Business, go across to the Free Report in the box on the Right Hand side of your computer screen, and subscribe for The “How To Build Your Own Successful Lawn and Garden Business in 30 Days” Blueprint – it’s FREE!!!!

13 Week Contractor Challenge

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