Who typically needs a residential lawn service?

[DBM]

Who typically uses a lawn care company? I've been targeting homes worth $250,000 and up. Does anyone know the demographics of those who use our services? I'm talking about residential here. How about targeting seniors for our service? There is alot of disposable income here (it's the second best city for retail in the province of British Columbia), I just have to figure out who's spending it.

Doug

[landscaper3]

We use to be all residential, but we are doing a 70% commercial and 30% residential. We found the richer they are the most likely will be taken for a ride (hard to get $$$$$ out of them,) Elderly need maintenance, middle class and upper middle class. Dont get me wrong we maintain homes well over 1 million on the Ocean and lakes in our area. As far as demographics are concerned we find the average homes we maintain are between $150,000 to $250,000. May i suggest getting some commercial accounts also!

[mmorgan]

Doug,

Residential work is the best and the worst. The residential customers who "need" your service are the elderly. They generally can't do it. They will pinch pennies though. Families with both spouses working out of the house. The free time that they have, they want to do something fun, not cut the lawn. Single people. Actually single people with a social schedule. There are a lot of residential factors. Residential customers can tend to be your most loyal and "best" customers. You can be more successful with up sells with residential customers. Most don't want to deal with 10 people for their property, they like to deal with one company they trust and like. On the other hand, when times get tough, Lawn Care may be a luxury expense that they may decide to eliminate. You are targeting the right neighborhoods, but I'm sure several others are too.
Good Luck!

[kutnkru]

I would start to target those neighborhoods where you can see that people like to take care of their properties. I try not to bid on lawns under 6m/sf unless they can get us some of their neighbors to make it worth our while.

I believe that the main thing to look for is are you in an area where people are willing to take pride in their homes and put forth that extra dollar to get the end result we are all looking for.

I would not just target the more expensive homes because you will find that more often than not that they are so strapped because of the glam of their lifestyle, that they by store brand labels when shopping at the grocery because they cannot afford to do otherwise.

I have found that the mid-range neighborhoods are actually more profitable because I can pick up 12-15 in a three block radius vs. 1-2 in the high-end residentials.

Hope this helps.
Kris

[joshua]

target a area with well maintained yards and pass out fliers, i found that if you actual knock at the door and talk to the people even if they don't need you they might tell a friend. most of the time they ask me to bid on the job right them. it works out great if you have alot of spare time on your hand, some people say what company is doing yards on the street if you are really nice and what houses they do, then just go to those houses but just hang a flier at the rest. you can't go wrong. good luck

[Eric ELM]

When I started out, I passed out flyers where I saw a lot of striped lawns in an upper class area. Been there for the past 15 years. :)

[Fantasy Lawns]

I like Dual Income Households ....one of my favorite questions to a new customer is => How Much is Your Free Time Worth?

[awm]

What Ive found is RESIDENTIAL either
DONT LIKE YD WORK and have money
WANT A REALLY NICE YD AND HAVE FAILED IN HEIR EFFORTS AND HAVE MONEY
LOVE YD WK BUT ARE NO LONGER ABLE and have money.These can
really get in the way,but you can learn something from them sometime.
ARE WIDOWS AND OVER WHELMED WITH DECEASEDS HOBBY YD .
and hopefully have the money.

[Guido]

Typically its people that have a house with a lawn also on the property, but you never know!

LOL ;)

J/K

[1stclasslawns]

Any who dosent have the time or isnt healthy enough to do it theirselvs.

[DanG]

One of my best customers is an Alky :)

He's too drunk most times to even find the lawn let alone see if it's been mowed. LOL

but he pays very well.

Dan

[1MajorTom]

I would have to say here a lot of our customers are widowed women. They make up a good portion of our accounts.
Others just aren`t healthy enough to keep up with their lawns.

The main thing to look for is to find customers that actually care what their property looks like.

Just because they live in a well-to-do plan of homes doesn`t necessarily mean that they will want to pay for lawn services. There have been cases where we have found these type of people to have been very cheap. They have so many bills to pay, their grass is the last thing they think of.

[Evan528]

My favorite customers are single women who work a lot of hours! They never complain about prices and always are very apreciative! My least favorite are widows and especially the ederly! They try to nickle and dime you over 5 dollars are are very irritating.... most have nothing better to do than watch your every move!

[LScom Addict]

I like the dual income households the best. Both family members are too busy contributing to the economic aspect of the home to waste valuable leisure time in the yard. They are always glad to have that headache eliminated.