Here is another 10 mistakes made by Contractors Starting their own Lawn Mowing and Gardening Business:

1. Collecting and Bagging Grass Clippings:  If you can, mulch the lawn clippings back into the lawn. If not, make sure the customer agrees to you disposing of the clippings in their green waste bin or compost heap.

2. Not getting Paid for any extras and add-ons: Don’t be the hero and do extras for customers without them paying. Be sure to have an agreement in place (verbal or written) that says charges will apply for any additional work completed.

3. Not having Clear Goals for the different Seaons: In the Australian climate we have distinctly different seasons. The warmer season is around 6 months long, and a sort of slow period in the winter. Once you recognise the seasonal patterns, you can plan your work and set goals for the year.

4. Inadequate Experience in the business: This is easily rectified by starting off small, and starting in the easier part of the business. By Small, I mean just do as much as you have to without compromising on Quality & Workmanship. By Starting in the Easier Part of the Business, I mean lawn mowing. As you go along, you will accumulate experience with the more challenging Gardening side of things.

5. Quitting job security too soon: There is a lot to be said for planning, planning and planning. Then quit the old job!

6. Launching yourself into the business without a business plan: This is taken care of by subscribing to The “Zero To A Hundred K in 30 Days” Blueprint. This Blueprint is effectively a Business Plan that shows You how to build a $100,000 a year Lawn & Garden Business in 30 Days, and for less than $300. The Blueprint will “hit the shelves” so to speak in the next month or so.

7. Inadequate Cash Flow, or in other words ”running out of money”:

8. Partnerships: Why bother with partnerships, unless the partnershiop is with your wife! Just work on your own with help from subbies and employees.

9. Lack of selling and marketing know-how: Goes without saying!

10. Expanding too rapidl: This alos ties in with Cash Flow issues, subbies etc.

Here are some things contractors often get wrong when they start out:

1. Working by the Hour: Once you commit yourself to working for customers on an hourly rate then in their eyes you are not worth anymore than that hourly rate. Working by the hour kills any chance to make serious money.  Always quote a fixed price for jobs. $20 for this lawn, $40 for that one, $980 for the list of gardening tasks – get the picture

2. Inefficiencies: Slow machines and clumsy, inefficient operations hinder your chances of making serious money. Even though it will cost in the beginning, be sure to have the best equipment for the job at hand

3. Bad Attitude: Get rid of the bad attitude! Customers can pick you a mile away. Some contractors (young and old) regard customers as old fogies or as easy targets to be ripped off.  Big Mistake! You’ll make loads more money by cultivating respectful, friendly relationships with your customers

4. Unreliability: Nothing infuriates and upsets customers faster than erratic and unreliable service. On occasions you may fall behind in your roster of work, but keep the customers informed and “in the loop”

5. Arbitrary Price Increases: Sudden price hikes also infuriate customers. You can raise prices, but only with a spirit of friendly negotiation

6. Poor Quality Work: Sloppy work is another good way to lose customers. You’re a professional, so your customers’ lawns should look as good as or better than any in the neighbourhood

7. Big Spending: Buying a bunch of fancy stuff up front – brand new truck, brand new trailer, etc, brand new ride on mowers, tools and so on  – is a big mistake. Buy things only as they are needed and as the business has the actual cash flow to pay for them

8. Executive Mowing: This is that wonderful scheme where you send out the troops to do the grunt work while you sit home by the pool sipping on cocktails.  This one belongs in your “Maybe someday” file.  For beginners it’s usually fatal.

9. Homeowner Machines: Most of us start with machines designed for homeowners. That’s fine if you start out with Dad’s old mower etc, but buying more of the same when the Dad’s old mower blows up is another big mistake. Only acquire machinery with Commercial warranty

10. Hiring “Under the Table” workers: This is a giant mistake.  If you’re going to classify your workers as “subcontractors”, make sure they qualify. Check these details with your accountant

Just how do You know whether Your Customers value Your Service? The answer is in the asking, that is, by surveying Your Customers! You will never know how well You are performing if You never ask!

You can forget about how profitable Your business is, if Your Customers are not happy! So the obvious thing to do is ask Your Customers how they rate the performance of Your service!

In designing a Customer Satisfaction Survey, you will need to identify the critical areas of performance that your customers can judge you on. These criticals areas may include whether:

1. you delivered your service on time
2. your service was acceptable
3. you provided adequate after sales service
4. you responded well to after sales enquiries
5. you delivered at every point of contact with customers

The key customer performance areas (that can be rated on a scale of 1 to 10) include:

1. product/service quality
2. on time service delivery
3. additional services provided
4. staff courtesy
5. staff professionalism
6. staff knowledge of products and service
7. complaint resolution
8. ease of doing business
9. invoicing and accounts
10. general expectations versus reality
11. responsiveness to enquiries
12. after sales service

It will help in your own business to identify the Points Of Contact that you have with Prospects and Customers, then to see how prospects and customers rate you on these interactions.

These Points Of Contact with customers include:

1. Initial telephone enquiry – how is Your telephone (Bedside) manner
2. Prospect expectations met with when quote will be done
3. If prospect goes ahead with quote, when can they expect the job to be completed by
4. Your in person bedside manner
5. Your presentation – uniform and manner
6. Your phone manner with arrogant prospects and customers
7. Your phone manner with irate customers

Last week in “How To Improve The Sales Figures In Your Lawn Mowing Business” we spoke about the 3 generic ways that any business can improve its sales and turnover figures.

These are:

• Increase the number of customers – ie getting more customers from an increased level of advertising and promotion
• Increase the frequency of sales to existing customers – ie customers buying more often
• Increase the dollar value per sale – ie putting your price up

The 3rd way – by increasing the dollar value per sale – is worth exploring to see if we can open our eyes to further possibilities!

A price rise is a rather unimaginative but highly effective way of increasing the customer spend with you. However, you could also look at providing your products, services or both in bundles that are presented with an emphasis on quality or more features.

…products, services or both in bundles that are presented with an emphasis on quality or more features…

What is good with this is you can charge more for your service because you have differentiated yourself from your competition!

You may:

1. Launch a premium version of existing service or product ie mowing with a cylinder or barrel mower
2. Increase the price in line with inflation – make sure this is documented in your flyer
3. Charge for incidentals like tipping, remove grass clippings, an add on service that does not take too long
4. Charge a premium for immediate service – charge a premium for weekend work especially if you have been called out at late notice – do not be afraid of capitalising on customer’s desperation
5. Bundle your service with other suppliers
6. Offer a discount for services that run for more than 6 hours - larger jobs can be completed with extra staff – in the end you make more per hour!
7. Develop new services that can be bundled with your existing service – new services may include Mulching (chipping) service, irrigation installations and repairs, tankwater installations, trench digging service for plumbers and other irrigation contractors (where trenching machine is already used in your irrigation business) etc

Unfortunately, when most people make the transition from a full time job to their full time business they do not realise that their “New Job Description” actually entails Marketing as their Number 1 Task.

When you think about it, any business’s survival relies totally on its customers, new and old. So, if the business stops marketing, it will eventually die!

Also, without Marketing Systems you just end being a slave to your own business forever! The reality is that You must become a Marketing Expert first, and then a Landscaping Expert second. If you have all the Marketing humming along, all you have to do is have staff and sub-contractors on hand to complete the work.

The “Sad Fact” is that You may be the best Lawn Care technician around with the best equipment and so on, but unless you can attract New Customers and more importantly prevent Your Competitors from poaching Your existing Customers, then Your Business will die!

1. Study Your Competitors’ Marketing and Operational Strategies
2. Network with other business owners who share a similar customer base
3. Create Referral Systems to help generate new leads from your existing clients
4. Write sales letters and advertisements to promote new and different services to your client base
5. Test your ads and marketing campaigns to try and improve response rates
6. Find new and low cost ways to get new accounts
7. Develop new ways to differentiate your company from your competitors
8. Write articles for newspapers, magazines or your company newsletter
9. Attend mastermind and networking meetings, and marketing conferences and seminars

What now? Maybe start with 2 or 3 of the above marketing activities to begin with – Marketing activities should then become a regular feature of your working week. Your thoughts? What works for You?

Once you have developed a relationship with Customers, Prospects and indeed, Past Customers, it makes sense to maintain the relationship so all the above become Your Advocates (at least)!

Quite often we are too busy looking for new (and expensive) customers, when it’s a whole lot easier and cheaper to sell to existing and past customers.

Your current and old customers have faith and trust in You. So it makes sense that if you were to run a New Offer or promote a New Service they are likely to buy from you rather than the competitors.

Here are some things You can do to Stay In Touch with Customers, Past Customers and even Prospects:

1. Email newsletters
2. Greeting cards
3. New Offer notice
4. Offer of an Expanded Range Of Services
5. Seasonal Greetings
6. Thank You Notes
7. Information letters

Can you think of other ways to communcate more with your customers and prospects? Let us know what works for you.

I don’t know about You but whenever I scan the Yellow Pages (which isn’t that often…as I mostly use Google) searching, for example, Plumbers, I usually just see pages of adverts that draw me to no one in particular. Why do these adverts do this? It’s because they are pathetic adverts.

Why are they pathetic? It’s because all they scream out is “me too!”.

97% of the adverts in the Yellow Pages are expensive versions of Business Cards – the information conveyed being the same as you would find on the plumber’s business card, that is, Business Name, Address, Telephone Number – so what compelling reason have I to ring? None, really because the adverts don’t address my problem or pain!

Advertising only works when an advertisement focusses on “What Is In It For Me” – meaning if the advert presses my Pain or Pleasure Buttons, then I am likely to respond positively to the advertisement.

Another reason why advertising doesn’t work, is apart from not having a Hook (that is, the headline crafted with a Pain or Pleasure reason to respond), is that the advert fails to tell the Prospect what to do. This what-to-do is called the Call-To-Action.

The art to scripting and designing ads, known as copywriting, is a skill all of its own. We may get to talk about this down the track – it depends on what you want?

So, what do You want? Let me know by leaving a Comment!

When Prospects call You they are ready to Buy right there and Now - so don’t be putting obstacles in their way. When Prospects call, you have got to make the experience an enjoyable one for them!

Every moment You have interacting with Prospects and Customers must demonstrate Your Enthusiasm and Eagerness to serve them.

That’s right, You must be ready to do business with them.

How do we demonstrate this Enthusiasm?

• Always answer the telephone with a set script…this way even when You are feeling lousy, tired and even sick You will always appear Professional and Ready To Do Business
• Always end the telephone call with a Goodbye followed by “Mrs Jones, Thank you for calling!”
• Sprinkle the telephone call with a few mentions of the caller’s name!
• Organise the quote to be done ASAP – now if You get lots of calls You may have to let the Prospect know that you will call them on the next Booking Day (say, the next Monday or Tuesday) – just make sure you leave them with a firm commitment
• Under promise and over deliver!
• Do the quote sooner than later – that’s right, You know the feeling when you keep putting it off, it ends up just not getting done! Depending on Your business, try to have quote done within a reliable time frame!
• If they accept quote, tell them you will have the job done within 7 days
• Always under promise and over deliver
• Be on time for the quote - it’s amazing the number of times Prospects have remarked that we were on time (a miracle!!) let alone arriving at all to do the quote!!!! It really is pathetic the negative publicity the Bad contractors give us Good Ones – but having said that “Being On Time” is what ends up winning us the job!
• Another thing…Under promise and over deliver!
• Be polite and try to solve problems even if the Prospect is not ready to buy
• If you are in a filthy mood or just really sick, then let someone else take the calls
• If you cannot answer the telephone (and the call goes to answering service or message bank) make sure the Prospect or customer has a firm commitment about when you will call back

Some contractors would say they get a bit of extra work from Word Of Mouth Referrals – this is good but it could be Fantastic if a System was put in place to generate bucket loads of highly qualified leads that expect to pay the money You ask for!

Now, just like any other part of Your Marketing arsenal, You should have a structured plan or system for Your Lead Generation from Referrals.

In my Weed and Feed Lawn Care business at Lawn Green, I can tell you what each Marketing effort generates in % terms. So, for example, with Leads Generated from Referrals, we get around 75-80% of Leads converting into Paying Customers.

Why? Because all the hard work in trying to talk a new Prospect into buying from us is already done by an existing customer who has referred the Prospect to us! So as a betting man, I can tell you that I have an 80% chance of converting a Prospect into a Paying Customer if that Prospect has come to Lawn Green via a Recommendation from an Existing Customer. Good Odds, eh!

So it leads us to say that it really does pay for you to educate your customers about referring their family and friends to you.

In summary, Referrals come from the following:

1. Customers
2. Non-competing Businesses that share the same Customer base as You
3. Family and Friends

With Customers: At every point of contact (including telephone calls, quotes, service, invoicing etc) you have with Customers remind them to send Referrals your way – maybe this is best timed for when the customer is the happiest – maybe you can share with us examples of letters /flyers you have sent to customers which include a request for referrals

With Non-Competing Businesses: form strategic alliances with other businesses that do business with the same sort of customers as You. You must be prepared to Give Before You Receive! That is, refer your customers to the other business to prove you mean business in the strategic alliance

With Family and Friends: Go to a mountain top and yell out to all your Family & friends that you need them to advertise your business to their family and friends

One last thought / question: Should we pay for or reward Referrals? I don’t think so! Why don’t you Leave A Comment - I would love to know what people think.

USP is short for Unique Selling Proposition (or Unique Selling Point, or it is the same as a Unique Perceived Benefit).

Very quickly, a USP is a marketing concept that takes into account the fact that their are many contractors providing the same service as you (or there are many product suppliers making the same product, for example, car manufacturers). So by having a USP you are communicating to your customers and prospects why you are better than the rest.

Basically, your USP should answer your prospects’ question:

Why should I do business with You instead of your competitors?

Your USP will tell your prospects and customers:

1. why You are Special
2. why You can provide Better Value than your competitors
3. what Your Point Of Difference is

Have you noticed in the Yellow Pages how bland and uninteresting all the adverts are? They just don’t exhibit any points of difference. Go to the plumbers section in the Yellow Pages and see what I mean…they are all the same…so how do you pick a good plumber? Now you get my point!

With a good USP you can stand out from the crowd!

Here are some great examples of USPs created by different manufacturers (for Products & Goods):

• Head & Sholders – “You Get Rid Of Dandruff”
• Olay – “You Get Younger Looking Skin”
• Wonder Bread – “Wonder Bread Helps Build Strong Bodies 12 Ways”
• M&Ms – “The milk chocolate melts in your mouth, not in your hand”

And here are some great examples of USPs created by different service providers (for Services):

• FedEx – “When your package absolutely, positively has to get there overnight”
• Dominos Pizza – “You get fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less – or it’s free”
• Lawn Green – “Greener Weed Free Lawns – Forever”

So what’s Your Point Of Difference? What makes You stand out in the crowd?

Let’s kick some ideas around. Here are some USPs to consider:

1. Your Lawnmowing business may only service the local area, so your USP might be…”Your Local Mowing”
2. Your USP could be as follows…”ABC Lawnmowing mows and trims Your Lawns 26 times per year from only $130 per month – your lawn is guaranteed to never get longer than 35mm!!”
3. Another USP could be “We turn your tired old garden into paradise” – and all you do is Garden Makeovers…”The Garden Makeover Specialist”
4. You have to start thinking about what customers want – talk to people about bad experiences they have with contractors…another USP might say “we guarantee to quote on your garden makeover within 24 hours”
5. OK I think I have given a bit…let me know what you think!

Finally, it is important to remember that the Bold Statement you make about your business should be difficult for others to imitate, and you should repeat it throughout your business – that is, keep mentioning Your USP in your business cards, flyers, invoices etc.