WHy am I so Different

[Mean Green Lawns]

Okay I have been doing this type of work for about 15 years now (on and off) and next summer I'll be 30... lol ( I feel 25) I have been in business for myself once before but an entire different field. I have owned Mean Green now for 3 full seasons and have had many ups and downs and many lessons learned the hard way. My first year I put out about 10K flyers that were not very good flyers and I took 60 customers which all but 2 stayed with me the next year. My second year I fixed the flyers and put out another 7K before I took 75 and 11 fell off through the season for various reasons.. This year my flyers were better than ever. The return on them was amazing. I got 86 phone calls out of 4K flyers and took another 70 new customers.
I charged 20-28 $'s depending on the property and had to contract some more help. Not to mention I take on all kinds of landscaping and hardscape projects... I am cutting that part of the business oout this year and I'm focusing on cutting lawns only. (lost money due to lazy labor not showing up, or breaking things that I had to repair, or just plain stupidity and bad attitudes)

THIS IS MY QUESTION,.... (drum roll lol )
Why do I do everything different than all the competition seems to do things. The only way I have organized my business and season is by listening to the homeowners and nothing I do seems to fit the standard lawn service.


1st I spend the whole month of April doing Spring Cleanups

2nd I start cutting here in MI MAY1st for reasons I could explain but I know most of you will not agree with me and I dont know why

3rd I only cut 24 Weeks and then start fall clean up

4th I do 3- 6 weeks of clean ups every week and every other week. I do a full cut, and clean the beds, landscaped areas, and the entire yeard. I mulch it all and Haul it away every week or every other week.

2007 I am going to put these into a complete package and keep only the customers that want it all this year and add on to replentish those who drop out.

Why do most places start regular cutting in April? Should I Not be doing spring clean ups.. I did 40 this year and it took me a full 4 weeks...

Also Why do people cut right over leaves, mulching them right onto the yard adding tons of thatch every fall?
I wont even cut a yard if I see more than 95 % of the grass through the leaves unless they pay me to bag the lawn. It creates a mess and over time destroyes the lawn if not taken care of.

Why do so many places cut right through water saturated grass and leave black tire marks all over the lawn??? Whats that about?? Why not push everything up a day and let it dry out before you destroy someones yard?


Please help me cause I have a few ideas but I want some input..

[nobagger]

Well then I must be as different as you in some cases I guess. We start cutting whenever we can, usually in May. We do bag a lot of lawns through June so the leaves are not an issue. April is for our spring clean ups, and we usually stop cutting in 1st or 2nd week of Nov. then its fall clean up time until some time in Dec. then I have to focus on plowing. There really hasn't been much to focus on as far as plowing goes but none the less we still have to be prepared. Then in Jan./Feb. all things are focused on lawn care again.

[Mike's All Season Service]

Being totally honest here, We start spring clean-ups in march-April14, then April 15 usually starts mowing. We get 27 cuts in and then we start Fall Clean-ups(no specific date) we go with fall clean-ups until the first snow, and if it melts then we go back to the clean-ups until they are done or we get more snow. January is for new paperwork,flyers,taxes,new advertising ideas, etc. Febuary is for bidding the big commercial jobs. March is for organizing the lists and starting in!!!! Have a good season

[kkls2006]

Different than who? These kids on here that only want to talk about what equipment they have (or wish they had)??????

[Allure]

Also Why do people cut right over leaves, mulching them right onto the yard adding tons of thatch every fall?

mulched leaves & grass clippings do not cause thatch. they return nutrients to the soil.
If there are to many leaves left on the lawn that's another story.

As for you being different i can not say if you are or not.

[Team-Green L&L]

You have to be referring to the kids. You are just like every other professional company. I don't know about re-mulching and raking old mulch every other week, but if you have the manpower so-be-it.

This thread is an obvious gloat and is brewed by reading posts written by 14 yr olds with a Gravely and a Dream!

[lawnpro724]

Why is this even an issue? We start doing cleanups as soon as weather permits be it March or April and start mowing as soon as its growing, sometimes as early as March and we mow as late as December depending on weather conditions. I do last mowing of season with cleanup.

[Inman's lawn care]

We start doing cleanups as soon as weather permits starting around March or April. Sometimes as early as March and we mow as late as December depending on weather conditions.
I look at spring clean-ups around March and fall clean-ups till December.
January Tax's,Flyers,Adds for the year
Febuary Advertise, Advertise and Advertise.

[PatriotLandscape]

What is it that you are doing that is different? If you did 40 and took you four weeks and you double your staff it will take you two weeks. now you have more man hours to fill the day so you do what? I really don't understand this thread.

[Gardenworker]

Dude,

You're Lawn cuts top out at $28?

??????

[rmarkham]

$28??? That is where we are really different. My cuts start at $35.00 and go up. I don't even drop the trailer gate for less than that. Of course I don't do any postage stamp yards, most are $350,000 holmes or up.

[topsites]

Oh man, everybody here does things a little different, I think it's what sets us apart, idk...

I used to kill myself arguing with them, talk about why they did things like that...
Now I just figure they do their thing, and I do mine...
And let it be, because it's not my problem and evidently if they don't have a problem with it, then who am I to disagree...

But, it took more than 3 years for me to settle in.
Thou by the end of my 3rd year, I was getting pretty good, or so I thought.
I thought by my 4th year that I 'had it.'
But my 5th year was far better...
So, who knows what the 6th year will bring?

It's like, I grew a little bit leaner or smarter with every passing year...
In some ways, dumber lol.
For example...
Most jobs I would've accepted my 1st and even 2nd year, I won't touch with a 10-foot pole today.
Certain jobs I accepted my 3rd year, I won't go near them now.
And, a few jobs that came around my 4th year, I will at least think twice about today.

To say that back when, I used to accept 90% of what came along.
Nowadays, if I close on 10% of all new calls, that would be a little on the high side.
I'm content now if I get somewhere between 1 out of 10 to 1 out of 20...
I guess you could say that with time, I got picky.
Not so much the work per se, but everything surrounding it, to include the lessons I learned from when people simply did not pay, stuff like that...
So from what I learned, if a job comes around where I've gotten burned at least once before in a similar situation, I'm done before I even give the price.
I also raised my prices, and today they can't talk me down, and I mean they can not.

But it didn't happen overnight, it is always a slow, ongoing process.

So, I might advise sticking around, things always improve with time, best measured in years.