How To Grow A Lawn Care Business

[RPM1]

I have a real dilema, i own and operate an auto repair shop and i also have started a lawn care company as of last year ,i do not have enough accounts to strickly do lawn care nor do i have the time to profesionaly sit down and contact perspective clients. my question is this should i hire a salesman/worker that knows the in and outs lawncare industry to go out and sell my services to prospective clients? my thought is i could pay him to work 3 days a week to sell and after that pay him for mowing and doing lawn care services and hope that the person aquires accounts that would keep him employed full time and make some good money. what does everyone else do any ideas would be greatly appreciated need to make a decision very soon on what to do. thanks matt

[bigmudder77]

stay with your repair shop if your any good and go out and cause wrecks. j/k if you dont have the time for your self to do it and want to go big ya your gonna need to hire some one

[RPM1]

just do not want this thread to get lost i am really looking for some solid professional advice

[Swampy]

Is your autoshop self supportive? like can you leave for a few weeks with out it falling apart? If so hire a general manager and place him in charge and start your lawn care business.

[echeandia]

Are you just doing lawncare or do you offer landscaping service? If you do landscaping you could get a sales rep and pay him a commission.

[mattfromNY]

You shouldn't need to 'sit down and contact prospective clients', what about door hangers, postcards, ads in the newspaper, yellow pages, church bulletin?? It might be more worthwhile to get a few ads going, catch a few more clients, then hire someone once they truly are needed. Sure would suck to hire someone and not have enough work to keep them paid.

[milsaps118]

RPM1, Honestly, I just don't really understand why you would want to venture into lawn care if you are already running an Auto Repair biz? Are you trying to start a new venture to support a existing one? You say, "I do not have enough accounts to strictly do lawn care nor do i have the time to professionally sit down and contact perspective clients". How the heck would you manage/run a repair shop, lawn care company, sales person/employee(s) and handle customers on both ends if you already don't have the time to go out and pound the pavement yourself? Sounds like a set up for nothing but head aches. My advice... stick to what you know, you'll be far more successful. If you think you have a dilemma figuring out what to do now, what do ya think is going to happen if you move forward on this? No offense, just my $.02.

[milsaps118]

You shouldn't need to 'sit down and contact prospective clients',

Some what true, but, he already stated that he doesn't have the time to meet potential customers. Who is going to answer calls from all the adds, door hangers, etc. and go out and give estimates? Just like any other business it requires 100% effort to become successful other wise its just treading water.

[Mr.Lawn]

starting and growing a business is a 110% job. These folks here have really good insight on these things. I have learned alot from the folks here on this forum.

[cl&l c.c. Tx]

It doesn't really make sense to me if you have someone go and find the work then do it too. No offense, but would you go find somebody a job, do the job, and then hand them the check?

[ccash]

door hangers

[lurch]

you have these things called ankles and attached to them are feet....you need those to get your name out

[ccash]

but how do those work?

[lurch]

The knee bones connected to the shin bone....

The shin bones connected to the etc. etc. etc......

[RPM1]

Great responses i really do not know why it is i even post anything on this site? there are way to many professional know it all's on here my auto repair shop is self supportive and has been for the last 13 years, i started mowing a couple apt. complexes last summer and it was fine, what i really was asking and maybe i didn't get to the point with my post, i have a lawncare company, i want to grow my company, i have an ad in the yellow pages already, i am not fluent enough in the lawncare industry to answer all the questions that people may ask, i wanted to hire a sales person whom was fluent in the lawncare industry to go and call on residential and commercial accounts, it would cheaper for me to hire a person to sell my companys services than to place an ad in the news paper for a few weeks ,that way i can target what company,s and residential accounts that i want to go after.that way if a potential client has a question about the their lawn it can be answered on the spot with a professional answer. p.s thank you to those of you that did respond with positive and intellegent responses it was greatly appreciated!

[ccash]

wow chill out man it was only a joke. and with a personality like that you dont need to be in any service industry we you have to talk to PEOPLE.

[Ecoscape01]

you have these things called ankles and attached to them are feet....you need those to get your name out

ccash
LawnSite Member Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: wallace nc
Posts: 19

but how do those work?

lurch
LawnSite Member Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Fort Worth, Texas
Posts: 39

The knee bones connected to the shin bone....

The shin bones connected to the etc. etc. etc......
__________________
I think I can finally breathe....

My business is doing fine....

Clients are rolling in and my mowers are rolling as well...

All is right in the world.... :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

I've gotten ripped way worse dude.....you need to chill

[ccash]

so whats your problem punk

[Ecoscape01]

who me? no i'm sayin that last three posts were hilarious

[ccash]

im just sturrin the pot.