giving a estimate

[plantzpropertymanagement]

I was just wondering how you guys go about giving a estimate to a buisness do you just walk in there and ask for the manager and give him a price for lawn care and your buisness card?

[plantzpropertymanagement]

nobody wants to reply oh well

[sporter96]

I would be interested in hearing about this also. I am going to start Searching other threads/forums also.

Later

[CAG]

if its a small biz give them a price when your their..larger properties u should probably write something up .. start with some quick small talk, then get to the point for the reason your there..also don't go in there when they are busy..

[get rich]

I simply get out the phone book and call all restraunts and hotels and ask to speak to a manager. Then once i got em on the phone i explain i own and operate a local lawncare business and ask if they are excepting bids for the up coming season. If they are they will tell you and allow you to bid. I ask if i can set up an appointment with them in the upcoming days to do a walk through and get some info on what ammount of services they are a custom to contracting out. Idon't wanna bid for five fertilization apps and have joe smoe bid two and them not realize why my bid is higher. Or i'll bid everything a per service and let them see it, and hold their hand and explain if you want two or three apps then that will be the contract i draw up. so on and so forth. If it is a small business, the i show up in person and ask if they are excepting bids and ask if i can submit one. I print my own fancy tri-fold brocure, introduce myself too them give them a card and brocure and then tell them i am gonna do some quick measuring and be on my way. I am more than polite, and acknowledge that i do not want to take up their time. I go back to the office draw it up, mail it to them with a note telling them i would love to explain this all in person. If the prices are in line they will call and ask you to meet with them. If i don't hear back from them in a couple weeks....i call them. Timing is everything with commercial accounts, most are under contract for a full calender yaer do too snow removal. And the existing company will be quick to re-sign them at the end of it. So knowing that the snow season is almost done early spring is a good time. Or simply make phone calls in the fall to line up spring biding. Ithink that might have answered most of your questions i hope. Good luck!! forgive any miss spellings...hd too type fast, gotta run.

[lawn]

Can you post your brochure here please? Thanks:) I simply get out the phone book and call all restraunts and hotels and ask to speak to a manager. Then once i got em on the phone i explain i own and operate a local lawncare business and ask if they are excepting bids for the up coming season. If they are they will tell you and allow you to bid. I ask if i can set up an appointment with them in the upcoming days to do a walk through and get some info on what ammount of services they are a custom to contracting out. Idon't wanna bid for five fertilization apps and have joe smoe bid two and them not realize why my bid is higher. Or i'll bid everything a per service and let them see it, and hold their hand and explain if you want two or three apps then that will be the contract i draw up. so on and so forth. If it is a small business, the i show up in person and ask if they are excepting bids and ask if i can submit one. I print my own fancy tri-fold brocure, introduce myself too them give them a card and brocure and then tell them i am gonna do some quick measuring and be on my way. I am more than polite, and acknowledge that i do not want to take up their time. I go back to the office draw it up, mail it to them with a note telling them i would love to explain this all in person. If the prices are in line they will call and ask you to meet with them. If i don't hear back from them in a couple weeks....i call them. Timing is everything with commercial accounts, most are under contract for a full calender yaer do too snow removal. And the existing company will be quick to re-sign them at the end of it. So knowing that the snow season is almost done early spring is a good time. Or simply make phone calls in the fall to line up spring biding. Ithink that might have answered most of your questions i hope. Good luck!! forgive any miss spellings...hd too type fast, gotta run.

[get rich]

This is just the out side of a tri-fold brocure, with microsoft publisher i can play around alot with it. In the winter in the down time i try to come up with some sales stuff. I have one for home owners and one for commercial acounts. The only difference would be the photos. For commercial accounts, i'd paste photos of my commercial accounts. In order to upload this i have to save it as a jpeg and then open up adobe and re-size it to fit the dimensions lawnsite allows, so i am sure it will be hard to read and look fuzzy. If anyone is real interrested in seeing it email me an address and i can email it to ya. It will look much more professional. I don't believe the cost to do these myself is too expensive. I buy my ink cartridges off ebay for half the price if not less than oofice max. And i can print quite a few of them off one set of color and black cartridge. Well lets see if this worked, my up loading skills need work.

[get rich]

Hey not bad for a dirty scaper, i'll try the inside now.

[get rich]

Here is the inside of my homeowner brochure. I have never really tracked the exact cost of these other that i know it doesn't't cost me more than 30-40 dollars to make around sixty or so. Which is more than i need. I have to be careful not to get swamped with work, i am only a one man crew and only care to grow at a controlled pace. I've seen first hand what out of control growth can do to a company. Let me know what you all think of this brochure, and remember i not very compooter savvy nor a college grad. Just been a very hard working and VERY observant person for the past 15 years. Hey works for me....good luck to all this spring.

[get rich]

I realize there are a couple of typo's on this version. I accidently saved this version after revising it. I also have a revised versions that are the ones i print. I guess i should clean my files up in some of my quickly disappearing free time as spring temps approach. Oh well you get my jist right?

[AlleganyLawnCare]

My business isn't very big at all, but I guess I have been lucky with networking and all.

This past Saturday I got a call from my father-in-law's neighbor. He has given me a riding tractor, a lawn boy mower for free. He has also got his brother to give me a commercial account taking care of a football field, baseball field, and playground community area. Well anyways, he calls me Saturday, and states that he was at a local box retailer in the area. Somehow the conversation was brought up about lawncare being needed. He tells me that I need to go see the general manager first thing Monday morning. So I do. I go in and ask for the gm. He comes out, and I explain about my phone call. He states (paraphrasing - "You definitely did need to come talk to me!" He stated in a very positive voice. We talk for a few minutes, then I stated that I would bring my estimate to him tomorrow. He said fine. I gave him my card and a company pen. I thanked him. I took a quick "look-over" by myself to get more of an idea of how long and what would all be involved.

An hour or two late, he calls telling me he forgot about a pice of property on the back side of the building. I stated I took a wlak-around after we had talked. but had thanked him for letting me know. I also told him, I would bring the estimate over shortly. No problem he stated.

About 2 hours later, I go see him. He looked at the estimate. Liked it. And said I would get a call from corporate within a day or so approving the deal.

It was that easy. I don't advertise alot. Very little to be honest. Postcards here and there. And a little newspaper ad once a year at the most. Almost all (90%) of my work, residential and commercial is by word-of-mouth.

I don't have fancy or uptodate equipment. I wish I did to be honest. I just let my work and reputation for being honest and trying to provide the best quality speak for me.

I hope this helps.

P.S. I do in the late fall prepare bid letters to prospective commercial accounts, but normally like I said, I get work from word-of-mouth.