Advertisig question

[Braxton]

I just started my company this year; I've been advertising in the local paper and passing out fliers for about a month now. I have bid four landscaping jobs and gotten two of them and a let me think about it on one and a "let me check finances" on another (Which I beleive I'll get), but so far no response for lawn mowing. I would like to get at least ten accounts, this being my first year. Is it just too early, or do I need to do something different? I'm in Middle Tennessee.

Braxton

[nobagger]

Braxton, We are in NW Pa and still have snow on the ground. We are just now starting to advertise, but I'm sure there is no snow down there. So keep plugging away, keep advertising. Try the flyer thing, newspaper etc. Try cold calls to businesses to see if they are accepting bids for lawn care, if so bid away. :waving:

[LB1234]

Well, as a general rule of thumb, from reading on this site and others flyer will have ~1% callback rate. I would plan on sending over a 1000 flyers cause as you have experienced not every flyer callback will turn into a customer.

[Eddie B]

I put out 118 flyers for a short period this morning, and they've generated 3 calls so far.

[o-so-n-so]

I'm in North Central Alabama and from my experience people don't really get excited about their lawns until about 2 weeks into warm weather.

I would advertise lawn clean ups now for Easter. You might want to mention easter weekend in your add. Most of my lawn customers want everything looking good for the company on easter Sunday.

good luck

[Fantasy Lawns]

First thing too ask when it comes to Landscaping .... at least fer me is ...??

What is your budget ??

As far as lawn care ... charge what you need too cover ALL cost n make some $$

After that ... it's all good

[Braxton]

Any other southerners have advice here?

Braxton

[andersonmowing23]

best advice is to just keep plugging away at it, eventually you will get some calls.

[CWilliams]

Braxton, this is our first year too. We started advertising in the Smoky Mountain Trader the first week in March. We have not received any calls yet. We have 6300 flyers that will be in tomorrow's local paper. So, hopefully we will start getting some calls next week. I have been sending post cards out to certain subdivisions. Next week I will be distributing flyers.

Our fear is that we will advertise too late. So, this is the week that we will start getting more agressive in our advertising.

No one is mowing here yet. How about there?

Good luck.

[tiedeman]

the hardest year I feel is the first year that you actually "want" customers. It's weird, but when you don't want customers they always seem to come, but once you start to market for customers nobody wants to come. At least that is what I have experienced

[mtdman]

The most important thing your first year is getting your name out. No one knows who you are or if you exist. You gotta be everywhere with your advertising. My first few years I did non stop flyering and advertising for 2 months before the season started.

The thing I've found, at least around here, is calls usually don't start coming in until mid April. So by then, you gotta have your name out there to get people's attentions.

I still really haven't even started advertising yet, other than the phone book. Next couple weeks I'll gear things up.

[Mike TMI]

I have a flyer delivery company that hands out my flyers for me. They charge two and half cents per flyer. He does 2000 per week. This is his second week and I've done 55 estimates according to my QB. That being said...I hope that it stays this way. I gave him 30,000 flyers...so I have 13 weeks left (last set to go out the middle of June)

Last year...I picked up the majority of my accounts in late May and Early June. Once these homeowners realize they can't find the time to do it themselves or they can't stand the heat...

Good Luck in your first year!