Why do ppls do this?

[Carolina Cutter]

Can someone say T R O L L???? I thought this guy was legite when this thread first started but now it is apparent that it is just bull.

[C&KLawnCare]

Now one more time: Insurance is not required by law.
If you carry it, maybe it's because you need it.
Bye.

One good lawsuit and no insurence pal , Your going to find out by god how damn much its needed ,, 1 lawsuit= good bye to everything you own moron . What you sleep under a rock or what as sue happy as this countrie is i wouldnt dare be out their daily mowing with out insurence..... Sounds like a 100% flyby night guy to me.....plus his numbers dont add up to me either. I would and have been more than happy to shut my equipment off , and go talk to a could be customer. Plus i leave a estimate ,

[MarcSmith]

so 1K a week for let say 52 weeks a year. thats 52K- 10%expenses= 46800 - 25% taxes=35100 per year....again I dont profess to know what you husband/wife/life partner makes, but I'd like to see what kind of BMW's and home you could buy for 35K a year???

Walk up ads and word of mouth is the way to go....

Long lines at applebees..its not becasue of teh perfect food.

[Pecker]

Actually, the best customers I have came from people stopping by while I'm mowing and asking for me to drop by and give them an estimate. . .

[Gravely_Man]

I have gotten a few and I want to stress few people who have wasted my time by stopping by but far and large if the person stops you while working on someone else's lawn; you can close the deal. I like when I am stopped by a new person. Keep ghe clients coming.


Gravely_Man

[two_planks]

Originally Posted by merlin

Can someone say T R O L L???? I thought this guy was legite when this thread first started but now it is apparent that it is just bull.

I already did. Not a very good one at that either.

[marko]

Originally Posted by topsites

You just answered my question, thanks !

You are full of yourself if you think you can survive without paid advertising, because the only thing you will do is work for next to nothing! That has been my experience over and over.
Here it is: Cheap advertising = You do cheap work.
It is the reason why I have no business cards, no flyers, and no letters on the side of the truck (*ALL* of it, cheap ads).

That's likely why I never get any of this stuff, so yeah, I am correct by ignoring those *****.

You see, I advertise in the yellow pages.
Peace

language

If you only advertise in the yellow pages, I find that very ineffective. Door hangers/flyers, when professionally prepared are much more effective by allowing you to advertise only where you want to. I have no interest chasing the price shoppers from a yellow page ad. I would much rather work on my salesmanship skills by people seeking me out for a good job done or seeing me working. A majority of the battle is the selling. Sounds like if you could improve on this feature, you could dump your add and put the money towards more productive equipment, etc.

[YardPro]

Originally Posted by topsites

You just answered my question, thanks !

You are full of yourself if you think you can survive without paid advertising, because the only thing you will do is work for next to nothing! That has been my experience over and over.
Here it is: Cheap advertising = You do cheap work.
It is the reason why I have no business cards, no flyers, and no letters on the side of the truck (*ALL* of it, cheap ads).

That's likely why I never get any of this stuff, so yeah, I am correct by ignoring those *****.

You see, I advertise in the yellow pages.
Peace

language

LOL we don't advertise at all and are doing very well. lots of work and making money.........

[topsites]

Originally Posted by C&KLawnCare

One good lawsuit and no insurence pal , Your going to find out by god how damn much its needed ,, 1 lawsuit= good bye to everything you own moron . What you sleep under a rock or what as sue happy as this countrie is i wouldnt dare be out their daily mowing with out insurence..... Sounds like a 100% flyby night guy to me.....plus his numbers dont add up to me either. I would and have been more than happy to shut my equipment off , and go talk to a could be customer. Plus i leave a estimate ,

In the Commonwealth of Virginia you can not sue for stupid things such as pain and suffering. You can sue for actual damages, but nothing else. In addition, the Co. is registered as a Limited Liability Company, meaning the liability starts and ends with the business, so greedy folk can not just come after everything I own.

[topsites]

Originally Posted by marko

If you only advertise in the yellow pages, I find that very ineffective. Door hangers/flyers, when professionally prepared are much more effective by allowing you to advertise only where you want to. I have no interest chasing the price shoppers from a yellow page ad. I would much rather work on my salesmanship skills by people seeking me out for a good job done or seeing me working. A majority of the battle is the selling. Sounds like if you could improve on this feature, you could dump your add and put the money towards more productive equipment, etc.

Ok again I am very sorry the thread became negative, that was my fault I am sorry about the arrogance. There are still good points here, and again what comes to mind is that what works for me may or may not work for you (and vice versa).

Far as the above:
I do agree, somewhat. First of all, if sales are your forte and/or you actually enjoy doing that part, then more power to you. As for me, I am not a born salesman so I need the advertising for a boost. I do absolutely NO out-calls, all my calls come to me except if I need to call to check on something but it is NOT a 'would you like me to do some work' call, to be sure.
As a sidenote, when I said earlier that cheap advertising = cheap work, I was not referring to the quality, but the actual price of the job.
That the biggest part of the battle is selling, no doubt about it. Now when I get a TON of calls (more than 4/day), I can raise my price and that is how I do things. If I need x-amount... Let's say 10 more customers and I can foresee 100 phonecalls, then only 1 in 10 need say yes, and I adjust my price accordingly. When 9 out of 10 are saying no, I am on target. Imagine what this does to the bottom line :-)
If, per chance I get an insane slew of calls (more than 15/day), it's time to weed out further, such as - No message = no reply - (actually that one is standard fare, but as example). It doesn't make much sense to go too high on the price, but it never hurts to give out a TON of higher estimates because it does:
1) Set a standard. If someone doesn't set high prices, we'll never see the end of the low-balling - someone has to do it, and I like doing it.
2) Get the word out - this guy is NOT cheap (cauz I hate that assumption).

Now lets take a look:
3000 dollars in advertising allows me to raise the price an average of 5 bucks/yard, or sometimes 5/hour. So lets say I get 50 accounts, 20 visits per year, times the 5 extra bucks = 5 thousand dollars.
In the end it's the same amount of work, and I gain 2 thousand dollars and save myself a TON of hassle because a yellow book ad only takes an hour to set up (compare this to ALL the time spent on flyers + b.cards + signs).
They do all the publishing and crap, all I gotta do is look stupid and smile a lot, and give out some basic info.

Although some folk may not enjoy the window-shopping, I like the power of being able to pick-and-choose whom I want to work for. Now if they're just browsing, you can actually kinda tell over the phone and if I don't have a lot of work, I go over and quote some higher prices mainly for amusement.
But also if they are just window-shopping, that's an automatic NO and I can get on with life, estimate or not.
...
To the other part:
That machines can increase productivity and that money is better spent on machines, that part is also true. However, here we have a problem:
The cost of the ad returns more money than I invested.
To increase productivity, it is cheaper to buy another (better/newer) machine than it is (you ready?) to hire an employee!
...
I'll start another thread for this, and I promise to try and not get ignorant.

And no, it really isn't a mole thing, I really do cut grass, I cut 11 yards today and you can ask me anything you want. I don't come up with things like model 30197 for nothing, that is the model of my Toros (the fixdecks) and I have a '98 and an '05 (and yes, same model). I have also an old float toro which is model 30165 (look it up, it's an ancient one, a '95 52" w/ a 15hp Vanguard aftermarket).
...
atopqualitysite.com is my site, but I do that as a hobby, for fun!
After all, a million hits/month is only 20 thousand visitors and the revenue basically pays for the server, and not much else is left over so yes, I have to work for a living.
Peace out.