Tightly routed work? What should we do?

[syzer]

I know to be the most effective you can be, run a tight route. My brother just put his two weeks in to go full time in the biz (of course I'm jealous as heck). I want him to build as much of a customer base as possible so I can maybe get out of here also. We have 1 apartment complex and about 8 regulars. The 8 regulars are all within 2-3 miles of eachother besides the complex, which is one day in itself to cut but still isn't that far away.

Now we had an account last year about 10 miles away from our others. She just called, we need work right now and don't have anything else in her immediate area but haven't really tried and we just did her lawn twice last year for clean ups. (btw she has about a 11m/sf lawn)

Now another gentleman was referred to us about 5 miles away from her for an estimate. He said he has about a one acre lawn, and his neighbor is also interested (I'm assuming another acre?). He then notifies us that he has a shopping center a little further out the road (opposite way from our main 8 regulars)roughly 6-7 miles further away from his house. Now this could be good money but all of these jobs are away from our others and not really where we want to get established. Though if they can bring good money I guess we should do them.

We need accounts.....so I just don't know what do do. I'd hate to take him on then pick up accounts my way and have to get rid of them. But i would really hate to get rid of possibly 2 1 acre accounts and a shopping center =(. Please help me out.

[Eric ELM]

To start with, you have to do what you have to do. Take all the work you can get and then tighten up the route once you have more than you can handle.

[Runner]

However, driving 10 miles for 11m may not be the most feasible thing to do. I think you would be wasting your time.

[Eric ELM]

If you take that 11 msf, pass out fliers in that area and surrounding areas. A lot of times, once you start mowing in an area, others will see you and stop you to ask if you can do their lawns too. Somes times one lawn can turn in to several. Sometimes taking one isn't always bad, but you don't know until you try it.

[syzer]

That was the dilemma =), I really want this one acre lawn, and I'm sure his neighbor has the same. The 11msf lawn is only five miles away, so if we do the acre lots we should just get the other also. Thanks for the info guys. Like I said this guy owns a shopping center also. =).

[Scraper]

What's 11 miles?...better than not working waiting for lawns close by. You go that 11 miles and you may pick up more lawns nearby then you've got a full day in that area. Take them now and like Eric said weed the less desirable locations out. I have a roundtrip of 60 miles (3 separate neighborhoods)and I do 13 lawns for a gross of $500 for the day. Worth it? I think so... It'll be even more worth it when I can get more accounts in each neighborhood.

[SummitFarmer]

I'm with you Scraper...

Any more the way the suburbs are growing you can't even go to the darn grocery store with out driving 5 miles. ELM said it best with "You gotta do what you gotta do".
I go full time next week and I'm gonna be driving about 20 miles one way to my first stop on some days and then farther past that once I get there. If the grass is there you gotta go.

[awm]

you guys work in a totaly different situation than i.
PUT BOOKOO MILES EVERYDAY.JUST FIGURE IT IN COST.

[Fantasy Lawns]

when we first started out of our central location we travel 15 miles N & S to get work ....

by end of one season ....we sold the accounts way N of us after the winter and now travel less than 5 miles N ..E or W but still travel about 10 miles S ....

by the next year we tighten up some more and sold all the accounts way S of us (more than 10 miles) .....

so like Eric says get the work and then advo the heck out of it .....if it don't catch and your getting busy then cut the further ones but ONLY when you can afford it

Good Luck ;->

[lawnboy82]

last year and the year before that i drove 20 miles from my home for one account. that one account turned into 2 accounts. that turned into 3. they are million dollar homes. in a really upscale town where an acre of land goes for like 250,000 so it is worth it. you just gotta say what is my minimum to make it worth it for the travel time. if you can make a day or something from doing 4 accounts or whatever just get your money and relax. that is what i think. money is money. as long as you are not in the car longer than you are at the job it should be worth it.

[bob]

A bird in the hand, is worth 2 in the bush! Take it! You need it to fill out your week!

[GREG R]

You have to start somewhere
Somewhere is with a full schedule
Don't pick and chose in the beginning
Book a full schedule then weed out the
bad ones

[syzer]

Thanks for the info guys going out to check it on saturday =).