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Newbie made a huge committment!!!

3K views 20 replies 21 participants last post by  promower 
#1 ·
Hi all... I have decided last winter that this season upcoming that I am going to get into the Landscaping business. I have already done lawncare for 3 years. I have spent the past year or so researching and preparing to startup this spring coming. Yesterday I just got my ad placed in the Yellow Pages. It is a 1/4 page ad that is all color and we spent alot of time making it right. It is going to come with internet listing and a website as well. The grand total is $655.00 per month!!!! Please tell me that it will be okay and I'll be glad I did it! I'm so nervous, I don't know for sure if I can afford this if the ad doesn't bring me sales. They say it will give me many sales, but that was them trying to sell me on the ad too. The thing is... there are only 3 or 4 other Landscaping companies in my phonebook that are my competition. All of their ads SUCK!!! They are small and black and white. One of these guys is huge too! My ad since it is larger and in color, will be first in the book, and look at least 4 times better than what is in there now. So mine will look the most professional and draw people in fast. Wow... I see this being a turning point in my life....
What do you all think of this risky situation that I have put myself in?

Thanks in advance....
 
#2 ·
If you are serious about getting into landscaping $655 is gonna be your smallest bill. I assure you of that. Labor, insurance, equipent and fuel are gonna make that pale in comparison. Our expenses average around 20K/month. But to answer your question, a good yellow page ad is worth every penny.
 
#4 ·
Any advertising is a crapshoot. Just don't expect the phone to ring off the hook with landscape jobs, because it won't. I have found that landscaping, obviously, is usually a big investment for people and they like to use referrals more than just cold calling out of the phone book. You should really be hitting up your current client list and sending a letter stating your situation and what you are now also offering as services. I went from a $500 a month ad like yours, 1/4 page full color, to a 1/4 page black & white and cut my cost in half. Reason being, for my size of company (4 people) I had all the work we could handle booked for the entire summer by the time spring arrived. That work all came from existing clients or referrals. Most phone calls from the yellow pages could not be handled because we were already booked solid. Certainly a lesson learned from it, but you just never know how much work to expect when your business is in the growing stages. I was afraid to hire too much help and then not have work. Now I have a better understanding on how this season should go, hopefully. It's always a gamble, but one that needs to be taken as well to succeed.

You may have gone a little overboard, but it's too late now, your locked for a year with that payment. That will be $7860 worth of advertising, a lot, but not a lot. I think your only downfall will be that it sounds like you will be learning landscaping as you go, that will be where it will cost you. Learning comes with a price, it's called efficiency, which equals profits, or lack thereof. I think you will do fine just don't expect huge volumes of work or profits until you build your reputation. Just because you've done lawns for three years doesn't make you a landscaper. Not that you can't be, it just will take some time. Good luck with it.
 
#5 ·
I think the small ads are there for a reason. They already have their clientel and really don't rely on the yellow pages at all for business. After 17 yrs in business I bet 95% of my business is referral and repeat bus. Just do a good job and only then will you reap the rewards.

Good luck

zed
 
#7 ·
I concur w/ Hoss! That $ would be better spent toward a vehicle or new equipment. You may wind up spending a lot of time on meeting w/ potential clients and submitting bids. This will create more overhead as your time is spent on managerial tasks and not in the field generating income. I sure hope you have a few good people to do your on-site operations to your satisfaction.
 
#8 ·
I myself recently thaught of doing a 2x2 inch ad in the yellow pages. for 96.00 per mo.

Should I go for the biz card size ad for 150 mo for my first year in the yellow pages?
 
#9 ·
Word of mouth and In-person sales are worth 100 times what the yellow pages are. Tried it for a couple of years.....Think about how much work you have to get from the ad and profit just to cover the cost.
 
#10 ·
It may be a bit too much, but it all depends on your area. I pay about $500 per month for mine, and its well worth every penny. I dont know if your near a bigger city, but if you are you will be fine. I think that referalls and word of mouth is kind of for a smaller town, i have never met about 10-15 of my customers, and wouldnt recognize probably 20-30 more if i saw them on the street. Just dont let on to how small your company is, with an ad like that they probably think your bigger than you are.
 
#13 ·
How long was it before you exhaled when you signed I think I was on 60 seconds myself I just did a ad smaller then that for 5500 a year the dollar size and the ad is not color. One other thing I’m not one of 4 landscapers I’m one of 8 pages but I would say I have one of the best ads we did spent a long time on it and it ought to bring in some decent calls my area is a bit more then yours a full page ad would have been 3-4 k per month hehehe let the lawyers have those ads. I'm still gona do another 5 k in direct marketing as well I just figured I wont need the news paper this year so I tried the yellow pages roughly the same cost for me.
 
#14 ·
10 years ago I used to run full color/full page ads in the yellow pages at a rate of $1500/month for my area. I still like the color pictures, but I'm down to about a business card size at a rate of $500.

Spend the money on nice postcards and truck signage, in my opinion.

Dan
 
#15 ·
you will be suprised at the results. i do lawn care only and have a pretty full slate so all i have for yellow page ad anymore is a one liner but i know one thing, when i am looking for a service my self, the first thing i look for in the yellow page ads is the most informative and professional one there. that may not be an exact representation of their business but it shows that they want the business so i call them first.
honestly though, just being listed in the yellow pages, regardless of the size is good. i thought my new truck sineage last spring would rake in a few customers from being seen around town and it did not. but that is all in your market, my town is FLOODED with lawn care trucks, everybody and their dog is dragging a trailer with a mower on it!

good luck with the ad, hope it works well for you!
 
#16 ·
Hey guys, if you're starting out, go with door to door flyers. It's the way to go. At least it was for me. I only put out about 300 flyers in October and I'm only now starting to slow down. That may be because it's winter, but in mid Feb. I'm going to put out about 500. Yes it takes time but I'm the owner and it's worth it. The Pilgrims never got corn unless they drew sweat and blood. An easier way I was thinking of is to hire a flyer guy. It'll still be cheaper to do that than to pay for $150/month ad.
 
#17 ·
go to your local high school put up a flier summer work i have 3 kids that work with me 8.00 hr to mow and 30.00 a day to hand out flyer's works out good for me I'm at 45.00 hr if the custom wont pay that for the kids 25.00 for the kid then and every bodes happy
 
#19 ·
Besides learning the skills for landscaping, the first thing you need to do is learn how to qualify the leads that you get. There is no point in going to see someone if what they want doesn't mesh with what you offer, if their budget is totally unrealistic or they want it done tomorrow and you're already booked. Since there is still some winter ahead of us, this is a good time to brush up on training. There are several training seminars in this region during the next two months. (See the notice at the top of the page). Also, you might consider making the trip to Herndon, VA to the ALCA headquarters/bookstore and picking up a couple of books. They have many resources.
 
#20 ·
I have to agree with newleaflandscape. Only calls I got from the phone book were price shoppers who I usually quoted extremely high on the phone to avoid future pricing wars and management companies who just need to submit as many bids as possible to their accounts to show they are working for their condo associations. The second year I ran our large yellow pages ad, I had our secretary ask the caller where they got our name, two residential people said from the phone book. All the rest were by referral by someone who was praising our work.
 
#21 ·
Since you already made this decision just go with it. Dont worry about it, it will only stress you out. You say you have been doing lawn care for 3 years so you have a cash flow, and now with nice new ad you will get more work, maybe one big one that will pay for the ad in itself. Last year my ad was $100 per month and when I signed I was already strapped so I was nervous. Spring came had no trouble paying for it but made sure it was paid off before the slow season. This year my ad is $300, think off the bill as motivation to get off the couch and make some money:D
 
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