Hello and welcome to the lawn hustle.
Season number two, episode number 15.
I appreciate you tuning in.
I trust you've had a good week and a great weekend so far.
If you're in the lawn care business,
I know you are extremely busy during this time of the year.
The grass is growing quicker than you can mow it.
The phone is blowing up with mulch jobs and pruning and river rock installs.
I know you're busy and I appreciate you listening.
In this episode, we're going to discuss
10 ways that you can grow your lawn care business.
Growing a lawn care business requires a combination of quality service,
smart marketing, and solid business practices.
I want to share with you 10 ways that will help your business grow.
Number one, offer quality service.
Make it a habit to consistently deliver high quality service.
You don't want to go in and mow a yard, skip trimming one week,
or the back doesn't look too bad, so I'm not going to mow it today.
I'm just going to rush, rush, rush and get through the schedule.
Don't create those kind of habits.
When you show up every week, you do the best job possible.
I was raised whatever you do, you do it as unto the Lord.
In other words, you show up every week and you give it your very best.
Be the best version of yourself and offer high quality work every week.
Get into a pattern, whether it's you trim first
and then you mow and blow, or you mow, trim and blow.
However you do it, whatever works best for you.
I have my routine, I have my pattern.
It works best for me.
So that's what I do every week. I show up, we trim, we mow, and we blow.
If there's obvious weeds in flower beds or mulch beds, we take just a little bit of time
and pull the weeds as we go.
The little things that you do make the difference.
The things that maybe no one asked you to do, but you saw it,
and you respond to it, and you go above and beyond.
That's what creates quality service.
You've got to realize that a satisfied customer becomes a repeat customer.
And more likely they are to refer you to others.
No one wants to make a recommendation to somebody
who they don't know if they can depend on,
or they don't know if they're going to show up from week to week.
Put every customer on a schedule.
That way every morning when you wake up
and you stumble to the coffee pot, you can look at your schedule and you know
before you leave your home what has to be done that day.
Every customer of mine is on a schedule, Monday through Friday.
Saturdays are set aside for catch-up days if we get a lot of rain during the week
or side jobs.
But set your customers on a schedule and you show up.
You're dependable and they know if their day is Tuesday or Wednesday
or whatever their day is, they know you will be there
and they will get the best quality job possible.
Number two,
get certified and educate yourself in the green industry.
Now I know some areas you might not be required to be certified,
but it's always good to educate yourself.
Take a course,
read a good book, take notes.
I enjoy watching our influencers
reels and watch their their content
because I can learn something from it.
I read the comments, I read their replies.
I get a better understanding of why they do what they do,
the steps that they take, what order they take those steps in.
So educate yourself,
get certified. Obtaining certifications related to lawn care
and landscaping can enhance your credibility.
Continuous education and new technologies, new techniques
and eco-friendly practices can also give you the edge.
You want your business to be on the cutting edge.
You want your business to stand out. You as a business owner,
you want to stand out in the crowd and I have noticed in my area
there's lawn care businesses popping up like crazy.
Every day you see on Facebook somebody new
looking to cut grass, $20, $25.
Trucking the truck, Dan in a van.
They go out of business as fast as they got in business
and that's why I encourage you if you want your business to grow
stand out. Be elite in your area.
Number one, we said offer quality service.
Number two, get certified and educate yourself.
Number three, invest in good equipment.
Now when I started out all I could afford
was a couple motors that I found on Craig's list
and I had problem after problem after problem.
Wheel motors going out, hydro pumps going out,
tracking, being off hard to keep a straight line.
Just one thing after another and those mowers become a money trap
because all I was doing was working hard and throwing money into an old mower
just to try to keep it running.
So as soon as you can I encourage you to invest
in high quality good equipment.
Number four, build a strong brand.
Create a memorable name and a logo.
Ensure your branding is consistent across your uniforms,
your equipment, your website, your marketing material.
It builds recognition and trust.
When they see your logo on your shirts, match the logo on your truck,
match the logo on your envelopes, on your social media sites, on your website.
Everything is consistent. It brings authenticity to your business.
It makes potential customers feel like they can trust you.
Number five, build you a professional website
that is friendly, that showcases your service
before and after photos, client testimonials, contact information.
Not only is it important for you to have a website, it is also equally important
for you to have good social media websites
or web pages.
TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, all of those are great marketing tools.
When I post a reel, I tag my city.
That way people in my local area see the work that I do.
I was in the grocery store, standing in line, waiting to purchase
the few groceries that I was there for.
And a lady, about three registers over from me,
started pointing at me and shaking her hand.
I didn't know what was going on. I was about half scared to death.
And all of a sudden she said, I recognize you.
We watch your reels on Instagram and TikTok.
She said, we love to watch those videos where you are going real fast.
What she meant was she likes watching the time lapse videos.
She recognized me because I had a company shirt on
and the name professional lawn maintenance.
And the lawn care service that she follows on TikTok
just happened to be professional lawn maintenance.
So I encourage you to post reels, post high quality content,
make it interesting,
build a following. You're marketing yourself, you're selling
yourself, you're letting your community know that you are available
for service.
Number six, word of mouth.
Encourage your satisfied customers to refer others
by offering incentives such as maybe a discount on a future
service.
For every successful referral that they give you,
maybe a small finder's fee.
Number seven, network locally.
During local business groups, I belong to all of mine on Facebook.
What's up in Newcastle, Indiana?
Mowing Muncie, out and about in Newcastle, out and about in Henry County.
These are local pages groups that I belong to
because I can advertise my business on their pages
and I have gotten a lot of work from customers
on Facebook.
You want to number eight offer a wide range of services.
You don't want to get stuck just offering one thing
because seasons change
and when the grass is no longer growing, you got to be able to stay busy
and keep your business running, keep employees working,
keep finances coming in. So offer a range of services
include landscaping. There is a difference in
lawn care and landscaping.
Major difference, not everyone that mows is a landscaper
but not all landscapers know how to cut grass.
Maybe offer garden care,
pest control, seasonal cleanups, spring and fall cleanups.
You might want to offer fertilization,
irrigation,
aeration. There is a wide range of work
that you can offer your clients and your community
and by adding services to your business
it increases
the probability of financial blessing and success.
So don't get stuck just offering one service.
Offer a wide range of services.
Now
if you are good in one thing it certainly is okay to focus on that.
If it's landscaping focus on it, if it's aquascape focus on it,
water features are beautiful. If it's mowing and you can lay the best
stripe in town focus on that but add other services
to your list of services.
Number nine, focus on customer service.
Be prompt in your responses to inquiries.
When someone sends you a text or someone calls
be quick to answer the text or return the phone call.
Reliability and keeping appointments
and friendliness can set you apart. In other words if you schedule
a time to meet a client
don't show up early and don't show up late and God forbid
you not show up at all.
If you tell somebody you're going to be there at six o'clock to give a mulch
estimate you're pulling up at six o'clock
because being punctual, being a man of your word
sets you apart from your competitors.
And number 11, excuse me number 10
always seek feedback to improve your service.
Ask the customer are you satisfied?
And if you are satisfied will you go to my google page
and leave me a five star review. Don't be
intimidated to ask for a five star rating.
When I do a job whether it's mulch maybe a privacy fence
or a deck something that we do in the slow
season when the grass is not growing
I ask every customer are you satisfied?
The answer is yes. Then will you please go to my google page
and please leave me a five star review.
That helps me when people are searching
in my area for lawn service. It moves me up the list
and I'm one of the first ones that catches their eye
when they're scrolling through google looking for
a lawn care business.
Implementing these strategies can help increase
your customer base and improve your customer retention.
It's not just about getting a bunch of customers.
It's how long can you retain those customers.
I've got customers that I'm working for today
that I started servicing their property the first year I was in business
so I've been able to retain them. It's not just a number.
You know I've got this many clients
but how long can you retain that list of clients.
That's what sets you apart when you're able to take a video
and post it on social media and you can write a caption.
I've been servicing this property for 15 years.
The thought automatically is he must do good work
to be able to retain that customer.
So
I hope that
these 10 things that we have talked about will help you
grow your business, stay motivated,
find the right balance between work
and continuous improvement,
taking care of yourself, celebrating achievements
and staying connected with others in the industry
will help you maintain a high level of motivation
and will help you to continue to grow your lawn care business.
I wish you much success.
I wish you much happiness
and thank you for listening to the Lawn Hustle.
Join us again.