Georgia Business Owners, LETS NETWORK

[TriageLawn]

Look guys. I have always been a supporter of networking and let me tell you why. When I first got into this lawn game, I didn't know too much about nothing. I created a profile on Lawnsite.com and started reading posts and threads by more experienced guys. Wow, I had no idea there was so much to learn, so I immersed myself in the green industry and became more and more fascinated about the business.

After my first summer of cutting lawns, I realized that everybody had a lawn mower and everybody was out to make a quick buck. I would literally pass 4 or 5 guys a day with lawn mowers on their trailer. It made me question my method of securing customers, so I changed my approach and started networking.

I started talking to other small businesses that were struggling like me. I met a guy at Subway that did pressure washing. We exchanged numbers and started meeting every Thursday at a Sportsbar to discuss our strategies. We were more alike than we knew because he was trying to pick my brain and I was trying to pick his. I just said," Look Danny, we are both underdogs out here because we don't have many customers and we have no leads. How about we share our customers list and lets go from there".

That was the start of something beautiful because we developed something very unique. Then about 2 months later, we met a guy that overheard us talking in the parking lot of a Home Depot; He carefully approached us and said he was in the Pest Control field and wanted to know more about our operation.

Let me make this story short because I can go on for days. After it was all said and done, my network grew from just a one man operation to 10 businesses.

Lawn Care
Landscape
Pest Control
Pressure Washing
Gutter Cleaning
Paint
Handyman
HVAC
Plumber

We help each other as much as we can. For instance, I have a system where I will pick the ugliest yard in the neighborhood and convince the home owners to let me cleanup their yard FREE. Yes FREE!! The catch is, you have to let me advertise in your yard and tell as many people as you about the service. That has worked wonders. I have gotten 35 customers just from that one house.

That also helped my partners with leads from customers. When I did FREE yard work, I would bring my pressure wash guy, my painter and my landscaper. I would do all the lawn work, aerate, seed, fertilize and trimming. Landscape guy did more of the detail work like borders, flowers, designing layout of garden. Pressure wash guy would clean driveway, house and walkways. Painter would do something simple like handrails or mailbox. The information that was left as advertisements would list everyone in the network. So if the painter got a call from a customer that only needed paint work done, he would convince the customer that staying within our network would save him more money and he would get free stuff by doing so.

Our new project is building a Georgia House Crashers business. This is where we come into your house and do everything we can for free. Yes you are right, there is a catch. We will be filming every episode to add to our website, so that people can see our work.

[Boaz]

What about HOA policies on yard signs? I have yard signs but home owners rarely let me put them in the yard due to the HOA folks and thier ticket books.