5 Lessons We Learned from Our Landscaping Business

Anyone can start a landscaping business. You don’t need to have much knowledge or invest thousands of dollars to start. We didn’t even have a truck, or a lawnmower when we started. This (https://imgur.com/a/W0XsHuD) is what we have. As you build up your client base, you can invest more into trucks, and equipment, and hire more workers. 

Our first hire in our lawn care business was our own yard guys. His brother also does work for us. He knows someone from his church. One leads to others. We now have 6 crews. We tried indeed, craigslist, have a job application page on our site. We never had luck with them. We’re lucky all our current guys are great. Very little turnover. They are the most hardworking people we know. Good crews are hard to come by. Pay them well above the average. If you had to fire someone, do it fast. It hurts all sides if you fire slowly.

Send clients service reminders at least a day before the service. Your crew should have access to all service info. Group all the houses in the same area on a specific day. It saves travel time and gas. Our maintenance service doesn’t just mow and go. We trim bushes, remove weeds on gravel (the majority of yards here have rocks). Check the irrigation system, help clients set up irrigation timers. Look out for leaks, broken sprinklers (add on revenue), report to clients if you see any. They will appreciate your attention to detail. Crews will forget the gate code, when they ask, tell them, don’t let them wait. Your job is to make their job easier. Clients will have special requests, how much to remove this bush, how much to trim this tree. Get the quote out asap, best to do that on the same day of maintenance. Crews may miss things. Forget to trim a shrub, left the debris at the corner. You need to be ready to fix the mistake, put out the “fire”. Maintain good communications, always. New leads will call to ask you to come out to see the yard, we direct them to our website that has an instant quote or have them send you the most recent photos (not the photos on Zillow that were 6 months ago) if they want an accurate quote. If mowing only, you can ask how tall the grass is in inches, go to findlotsize.com to measure the area. You can give them some rough estimates that way. You will get one-time cleanups often, try to turn them into recurring maintenance. We charge more on the one-time service and discount the first service if they sign up for maintenance. 

We have many message templates for generic questions, to save time communicating with leads and clients. Examples: “If you have recent photos of the yard, please send them to us so we can provide a much narrower price range. Thank you!”

Please refer to our ongoing maintenance service details here for your reference. >> “link to your site’s page that describes the maintenance work”

You can see some of our work here for your reference. “Link to your photo gallery or IG page of your work photos.”

These are some irrigation, tree trimming work of ours for your reference. “Links to your photo gallery”

You can also login here to view the service schedule and details. Thanks. “Link to the client login page.”

Refer to your friend and family to get a 10.0% discount on your next appointment if they book with us. >> link to your referral page <<

We have a few spreadsheets we created to calculate fertilizer, weed/feed, new sod, reseeding price. Plug in the area, give you a price. This makes it quick to send estimates.

People can book online on our website to book yard service appointments but there are still many who prefer to call you. Pick up the calls. I can’t tell you how many times we heard on the other side of the phone saying, “OMG, you’re the first one who picked up my call!” There’s no passive income in all of these. You’re active if you want to succeed. Crew, client questions, complaints, new leads requests. It’s non-stop. Don’t low ball any quotes, don’t use words like cheap, low cost in your marketing message. Use reasonable, competitive pricing instead. If you follow good practice, your business will grow, it won’t be a candlestick growth but it will grow. It happens to us. It will work for you too!!