or more simply known as,

The “Nought To A Hundred K in 30 Days” Blueprint.

I am working pretty hard on getting this Blueprint (Report) together, spending a fair bit of my spare time putting together all the ideas and knowledge I have gathered over the last 19 years in the Lawn and Gardening Industry.

The “Nought To A Hundred K in 30 Days” Blueprint is a report based on:

1. over 19 years of industry experience
2. ideas and marketing knowledge shared with other successful contractors
3. marketing knowledge developed from experience, attending lots of seminars, reading copious marketing and business books, and
4. 3 years part-time of formal university study resulting in a Masters Of Business Administration from Macquarie University (in Sydney, Australia)

The Core Business Model of The “Nought To A Hundred K In 30 Days” Blueprint takes into account the following 7 factors:

1. you can hit the ground running with less than $300 in advertising costs
2. you can create a pipe-line of jobs just like Turning On A Tap
3. you are motivated for success
4. your competition is minimal
5. you will charge more for your service than you thought possible
6. you will under promise and over deliver
7. you get out of bed early each day, that is, You won’t be sleeping in!

The Blueprint report also explores the following:

1. the core Business Model and why it’s a go-er – that is, How To Implement The Strategy Successfully
2. Forecasting For Success
3. 6 Long-Term Business Strategies that support the core Business Model
4. 4 Business Strategies that I Do Not Recommend, and the reasons Why
5. and much much more ( the report is around 30 pages of solid information)

I am hopeful The Blueprint report will be ready for release in early 2010.

So to be 1 of the first to read The Blueprint, please make a Comment (and leave your email address), or alternately, hit the Grab The Content Feed (RSS) button on top Right Hand corner of the is page.

Thanks again for calling by. I will resume writing my regular weekly post next week.

In these less than glamorous times we live in (with the roller coaster Global Economy), we should be forever mindful that Marketing our Business should be our Number 1 focus!

In my mind, there are 7 Key Elements You Need to Successfully Market Your Business in Good Times & Bad.

These 7 elements are:

1. Marketing is Your Job First and Foremost – Marketing should be your #1 Priority Always
2. You should make it Your Business to do something everyday to market your business
3. Focus on getting Quality Leads (or Prospects) – in other words, it is far better to have a few Quality Customers than lots of low paying customers
4. Aim for Expert Status – become the expert in your field, otherwise develop your own niche
5. Don’t worry about branding your business so much, rather build Your Profile with consistent and effective direct response marketing efforts like flyers, website, referral systems
6. Establish an online presence – this something we are working on to provide for Free to our future Contractor partners
7. Always remember Your best customers are Your existing Customers – it is 9 times easier to sell to Your Existing Customers than to Prospects

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