GopherHaul Lawn Care Marketing Business

What if, instead of business cards, you had coupons printed up that were the size of dollar bills. You could hold them in your wallet and when you handed them to people, they could keep it in their wallet as well. You could hand these out to current customers to give to their friends or to people you just meet around town. You could add in a few conditions like they can not be combined and maybe have an expiration date, but I think it would sure beat just getting a business card. This is something, as a potential customer, you could use! Here is a concept you can download and use. See how they work out. You could have your wife or husband give these out too. Maybe even your employees or your kids! Heck give your entire extended family some to hand out. Get everyone into the act of promoting your lawn care business. Join this discussion further at the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum. http://www.gopherforum.com. Also download your free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software http://www.gophersoftware.com

I am constantly learning new things on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum www.gopherforum.com . The things that amaze me the most are the things that I just would have never thought of without the help of others. Take for example this simple topic. How many welcome letters should you send to each of your new lawn care customers? I would figure one would suffice. However, when we started talking about it, I learned that other lawn care business owners were sending up to FOUR! Four welcome letters at different times to a new customer! Who would have thunk! Initially I was talking about a concept where each new lawn care customer would get a letter specific to their needs. However as we got into this the discussion grew and taught me as your lawn care business grows, so does your need to change your marketing. As your client list grows longer, you are probably going to be afforded less time to individually customize your marketing for each client. Instead you will find a need to create more generic material that can be used for all of the new customers. Ed: â??Our company is a little to big to customize our marketing. With 15 lawn care technicians and an average of 25 lawns per technician, it would be difficult to keep track of. I think making sure the customer is well informed on how your company handles different situations would help with the customer retention. In my welcome kit, I have tried to include answers to every question they may have. I started my welcome kits in July. Next month I will do an analysis on the retention rate from the customers that received a welcome kit to see if it really has any affect.â?? Steve: â??Do you mean you include a general list of business frequently asked questions? Like who to contact. How you bill etc. Or do you mean more like lawn specific problem questions?â?? Ed: â??Both. It contains the frequently ask questions about how we do business & answers about how much the lawn should be watered, mowed, etc. Also answers about what to do after the applications, and if they come across any problems with their lawns.â?? Chestin: â??I can see how sending a personalized letter with specifics about the property could be very beneficial, but at the same time itâ??s almost too much work. I think Ed hit the nail on the head in the sense you want to create materials that are reusable and duplicatible. Instead of taking Before & After shots of that particular customers lawn, using â??any lawnâ?? youâ??ve done previously should be enough to convey the story you want to get across. Also, consider sending a few â??welcomeâ?? letters. * One immediately after they sign the contract. * Another before the first service visit, this could be your â??Welcome Kitâ??. * Another immediately after the first lawn care service visit. * And then maybe another one a week later. Each one would contain something different that cements the relationship, reminds the customer of all the benefits theyâ??ll be receiving, and potentially even upsells or lets them know about additional services you offer as well. Ultimately, it comes down to building a relationship with the customer and viewing them like a person, not a transaction. The instant they become simply a transaction is the instant theyâ??re on their way out the door as a customer. Especially in todayâ??s economy.â?? Ed: â??That is a good point. I think I will look into doing that also. Maybe by sending them a survey to see if we have met their expectations so far, or to see if they have any questions we may be able to answer.â?? Steve: â??How do you suggest coming up with a list of frequently asked questions, to answer?â?? Chestin: â??I always suggest sitting down and making a list of general questions. Ideally theyâ??re ones that come up frequently, but it could also include questions that we might think are extremely basic. One thing to remember is that itâ??s easy to assume people know the basics about what you do. In most cases however, people donâ??t have the first idea so my rule of thumb is never assume anything.â?? So the next time you sign up a new lawn care customer, you will be well equipped to do the best you can to retain that customer for the long haul and make them feel appreciated and wanted. Join this discussion further at the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum. Visit www.gophersoftware.com

Lawn care business owners are always looking for a way to keep their name and phone number in front of potential customers. Here is an idea to make sure you stick around. Why not get some magnets. But not just any old magnet, how about one that pays for itself and could even make you a profit. Here is what you can do. Get a list of local important numbers in the area. Town numbers like the mayor, police, library, water and sewer dept. You can find most of these on your towns websites. Then list other numbers like local pizzerias, sub shops, and others. Maybe get a local electrician, plumber, carpenter, roofer etc. They could potentially help you buy some of these magnets and hand them out themselves as well, to help offset the costs. Then have a section for lawn care and list only your phone number. Stick these on doors in your area and be sure that your number will stick around for quite some time. You could also have different discounts for services through out the year. One of our forum members' Rob had such an easy time selling them. Why? Because he knew most of the people he was presenting the idea too and they trusted him. http://gopherforum.com/showthread.php?t=7522 http://lawnchat.com/?p=224 This is a great lesson in how the more people you know, the more you can sell. So if you are looking for a wild way to get media attention, why not consider this idea. Run for president! http://lawnchat.com/?p=239 http://gopherforum.com/showthread.php?t=7548 If you put up lawn signs along the road and they are for your lawn care business, they will get pulled by your local township. But what if you were running for president? Your lawn signs would stay up and the local media would want to know all about what you are doing. Wouldnâ??t this be a great way to get noticed in your area? Is it crazy? Yes it is. Crazy enough to get you attention. Why not do this. Register a domain bobforpresident.com Have that domain forwarded to a subfolder of your lawn care business This will then allow you to get the people visiting your political website to then be forwarded to your business website where you would have a separate page for your political campaign. Create political signs with your picture on it. Create some kind of platform you are running for. The more quasi-serious you keep it, the better the chance it will get picked up by your local media. Ask people to write you in on the ballot. Create door hangers and flyers for this. Hand them out. Meet people in your area. When the election is over, everyone will still be talking about you. Create a video of you talking about your platform and upload it to youtube. Get all your friends involved. Have them put signs on their car doors and trunks. Your political party could be the grass roots party. Which leads me to another marketing idea. How about these new free does lawn care make you crazy postcards? http://lawnchat.com/?p=236 http://gopherforum.com/showthread.php?t=7559 I also put together a new free lawn care business irrigation winterization postcard design http://lawnchat.com/?p=246 As well as a new fall leaf clean up postcard design http://lawnchat.com/?p=233 If our show or forum has helped you, or if you have any business questions, please let us know and send an email or make a post about your experience! I hope all these ideas have helped you expand and grow your business and mind. So until the next time, always remember to Dream it, Build it, Gopher it! If you are in need of free lawn care marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at http://www.gophersoftware.com. We have hundreds of free lawn care logo, flyer, door hanger and web templates you can download and use for your lawn care business. We also have free lawn care business contracts. Also download our trial version of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. Gopher will help your lawn care business schedule and invoice more customers in less time, allowing you more time to grow or enjoy your life.

Title: GopherHaul 27 - Lawn Care Software Business Marketing Forum Show Show description: Hello and welcome to GopherHaul 27 - Lawn Care Software Business Forum Show Intro. First off I'd like to say hi to everyone after this summer's hiatus from producing the GopherHaul Show. There has a lot that has been going on. If you haven't noticed, the Gopher Forum has gotten a make over and a new website. Http://www.gopherforum.com I have been busy trying to organize all the great lawn care business content on there to provide you with an easier way to read and learn. Also I got a bunch of lawn care business and lawn care marketing books published. There are some on sale too so jump on this. Click on the link on the Gopher Lawn Care Business forum. Here are a listing of the new lawn care business books. Stop Lowballing! A Lawn Care Business Owner's Guide To Success The GopherHaul Lawn Care Marketing & Landscaping Business Show Episode Guide. How to get customers for your landscaping and lawn care business all year long. Volume #1 & #2 The Big Lawn Care Marketing Book How to use Gopher Lawn Care Business Billing & Scheduling Software. The landscaping and lawn care business plan startup guide. This one is just about to be published. Fall leaf clean up letter. I want to thank Gary for sharing with us this fall lawn care business leaf clean up letter. Before fall comes along, why not send out this letter in your invoices to your lawn care customers. Ask them how you should handle their leaf clean up and also offer other additional fall services like gutter cleaning. Gary also suggested when bidding out your gutter cleaning, he charges $60 per hour. This should help you when you are estimating your jobs. Read more about this discussion and download the letter here http://www.gopherforum.com/showthread.php?t=7455&page=2 http://lawnchat.com/?p=213 How to get your lawn care business on commercial lawn care bid lists? Ron wrote â??Hi me and my brother have mainly had residential accounts and a couple commercial accounts. We are trying to get 2 to3 town homes this next season. The only problem is that we are not sure how we get a meeting with the association. We are hoping that somebody could help us out on this, and maybe tell us how they came about getting townhomes. If you are looking to get commercial lawn care accounts next year, now is the time to get on their bid lists. This also applies to home owner associations and condos. There is a new free lawn care business letter for this in the letter section. http://www.gopherforum.com/showthread.php?t=7209 Lawn Care Marketing Idea This fall when your lawn care business is looking for more services to offer, why not consider offering your lawn care customers, stump grinding services. Our friend Bob from plan-itgraphics.com put together this great flyer concept to help you sell your stump grinding services. Why not get some of these flyers printed up and then hand them out in your area. Try and schedule as many stump grinding services as closely together and then rent a stump grinder for a couple of days. You could also consider placing an ad in a local paper and mentioning 10% off stump grinding services if you contact us by xx/xx/xx. Or you could use a catchy headline like GET RID OF THAT EYESORE STUMP. Service your lawn care customerâ??s stumps and make some great money to get your through the winter! If you are unsure about how to price your stump grinding services consider this and visit the post on this discussion at the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum. Large stump grinding services range around $150-$300. Small stumps are about $75. http://lawnchat.com/?p=214 http://gopherforum.com/showthread.php?t=7356 If our show or forum has helped you, or if you have any business questions, please let us know and send an email or make a post about your experience! I hope all these ideas have helped you expand and grow your business and mind. So until the next time, always remember to Dream it, Build it, Gopher it! If you are in need of free lawn care marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at http://www.gophersoftware.com. We have hundreds of free lawn care logo, flyer, door hanger and web templates you can download and use for your lawn care business. We also have free lawn care business contracts. Also download our trial version of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. Gopher will help your lawn care business schedule and invoice more customers in less time, allowing you more time to grow or enjoy your life.

This is Steve with GopherHaul. Check out the GopherHaul video show on youtube and download Gopher Lawn Care Business Software at http://www.gophersoftware.com I am here today with Keith Harper of www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com A recent question on the Gopher Lawn Care Business forum had to do with bidding government mowing contract. Keith has experience bidding and winning large scale government contracts and he is willing to share some advice on the procedure. GH: Keith, how does a lawn care company go about finding which contracts they might want to bid on? SALCB: There are four primary avenues to finding contract on which to bid. 1) Newspapers: Many local governments have a set schedule to place public notices in the newspaper classified section. Normally they are placed Mondays or Wednesdays. Keep an eye on your local newspaper in the classifieds section under the "Public Notices" heading. 2) Purchasing Departments: For anyone wishing to bid on a contract it is imperative for them to get their name known at their local purchasing department. Many smaller contracts are knows as "no bid contracts." The threshold of when a contract is no-bid depends on the contracting agency. Often, any job under $250 can be a no-bid contract. The purchasing department is your primary source for this information. 3) Bidding Lists: Bidding list are handled through the purchasing department. A contractor requests being put on a bidding list. He will normally sign an acknowledgement that he has read a statement of conduct outlining the basic regulations of bidding jobs. 4) Agency Website: Most government agencies now put their contracts up for bid on their websites. Do not rely on any one of these avenues. An LCO should follow through with each one. GH: You mention Purchasing Departments. Where do you find the purchasing department?

Title: GopherHaul 26 - Lawn Care Marketing Business Forum Show Show description: Hello and welcome to GopherHaul 26 - Lawn Care Marketing Business Forum Show GopherHaul breaks the 1,000,000 view mark! Thank you everyone for watching us! New 1-on-1 private lawn care business consulting forum added. I just added a new section to the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum. This section will fill a gap that I have seen for quite some time. I have met a few very talented businessmen and lawn care business authors who are able to assist in answering questions on the forum. However they were not able to dedicate the amount of time that they could have because of other commitments. So I asked them, if we set up a private forum area where a reader paid a subscription fee of $19.95 a month to get 1-on-1 business consulting advice, would they be able to make time to assist the forum readers? They both agreed, so lucky for us, we now have access to tap into their insights and thoughts for business advice. If you are running a lawn care business and are in need of business advice that will put you ahead of your competition by leaps and bounds all for less than the price of mowing one lawn per month, we have a great service for you. To sign up, either visit the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum or visit Keith's site at http://www.startalawncarebusiness.com or visit Ken's website at http://www.lawnguru.net and you can sign up for a subscription from either lawn care business expert. New Lawn Care Business Book I just got our latest Gopher Lawn Care Business Book â??Stop Lowballing, A Lawn Care Business Owner's Guide To Successâ?? available online. It's 122 pages packed with great information we learned over the years on the forum. You should get this book and read it to help yourself grow and succeed. To order the book visit http://www.createspace.com/3342248 or check it out on amazon.com in the next few days. Also I am putting together the GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Show Episode Guide and I want to include as many of the forum members as possible. So please send me your photos for the book cover and a short bio I can use to promote your business. Visit this post to learn more and see what others have sent me so far. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=NW;f=22;t=7967 If our show or forum has helped you, or if you have any business questions, please let us know and send an email or make a post about your experience! I hope all these ideas have helped you expand and grow your business and mind. So until the next time, always remember to Dream it, Build it, Gopher it! If you are in need of free lawn care marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at http://www.gophersoftware.com. We have hundreds of free lawn care logo, flyer, door hanger and web templates you can download and use for your lawn care business. We also have free lawn care business contracts. Also download our trial version of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. Gopher will help your lawn care business schedule and invoice more customers in less time, allowing you more time to grow or enjoy your life. If you are on myspace send us a friend request. We are located at http://www.myspace.com/teamgopher.

Hello and welcome to GopherHaul 25 - Lawn Care Marketing Business Show In this episode we will be talking about GopherHaul breaks the 900,000 view mark! Thank you everyone for watching us! Lawn Care Business Question: â??I need help selling my accounts.â?? Greenmind wrote us â??I am selling my accounts this week to a local landscaper. He wants to pay me in 3 payments. Over a 3 month period or 90 days as people stay with the new company. Also he does not want to pay the initial payment until all customers are contacted. Is he buying my business or my customers? Also is the 90 day period normal or am I being to generous, I have talked with several people and they seem to think that he is taking some risk by buying my accounts and thats part of the business and some suggest that I charge more for letting him pay over 90 days. What do you guys think? Any help with someone with experience in this area would be very helpful. I don't want to get taking on this transaction. I worked very hard to get and keep these customers.â?? A bunch of the Gopher Lawn Care Forum members responded in this post http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=28;t=7823; Lawn Care Business Podcast Discussion: I had a great podcast interview with Author Ken Lavoie. Of lawnguru.net 1. We talked about the pitfalls of buying too much new too soon, Ken calls this 'Iron Addiction.' 2. How ego effects business decisions and how to control it. 3. Then we talked about what marketing ideas worked and what didn't. 4. When and how you should integrate your first employee into your business. 5. And this was a fantastic topic Finance, Debt and Growth - "The 50/50 Rule and stay in the black with the 20% Rule!" If you find yourself making a lot of money but at the end of the year wondering where it all went, it's very possible you are growing too fast. In Ken's 50/50 rule, he suggests not financing any more than 50% of the equipment price. If you need to finance more than that, you shouldn't be purchasing the equipment. Listen to this podcast in it's entirety at our podcast directory http://odeo.com/channel/412313/view Join our discussion on this podcast here http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=22;t=7744 Lawn Care Marketing Material Review: Chuck posted a post card design he was considering sending out and said â??Here's what I've been contemplating sending out. I know I have no fancy logo or nice looking lawn photos on it but I can't fit them with all the text I'd like on it.â?? He asked everyone to give him a review of his lawn care marketing material and we got a lot of great responses. If you would like us to review your marketing material, please feel free to make a post and include it. You can read the lawn care marketing material review here. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=8;t=7623 Tips on Buying Used Lawn Care Equipment. Chuck, a member of the Gopher Lawn Care Forum asked a great question today I wanted to pass on to everyone. He asked: â??I came across this in my local area on craigslistâ?¦.is 3000 hrs alot for a diesel mower? I know it is for a gas machine but I donâ??t know..â??? To find the answer to this question visit the discussion here http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=28;t=7791 Free Lawn Care Marketing Flyer Chestin gave us a lot of great lawn care marketing tips this episode and to further illustrate how important it is to create a great flyer, he even posted a flyer you can download and edit to use with your own lawn care business. Thanks Chestin! Visit this post to join the discussion and download the Free lawn care flyer template. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=8;t=7521;hl=new;st=40 Book of the Month: Think Big and Kick Ass by Donald Trump Conclusion If our show or forum has helped you, or if you have any business questions, please let us know and send an email or make a post about your experience! I hope all these ideas have helped you expand and grow your business and mind. So until the next time, always remember to Dream it, Build it, Gopher it! If you are in need of free lawn care marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at http://www.gophersoftware.com. We have hundreds of free lawn care logo, flyer, door hanger and web templates you can download and use for your lawn care business. We also have free lawn care business contracts. Also download our trial version of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. Gopher will help your lawn care business schedule and invoice more customers in less time, allowing you more time to grow or enjoy your life. If you are on myspace send us a friend request. We are located at http://www.myspace.com/teamgopher.

This is going to be a great and insightful podcast when I get a chance to talk with author Ken LaVoie. He wrote the book "How to start a lawn care business a whole new way." Some of the topics I hope to be discussing will include: - Talking about his experiences of getting started and what happened when he bought too much new equipment. - The pitfalls of buying too much new too soon. - How ego effects business decisions. - Then we will talk about what marketing ideas worked and what didn't. - When and how you should integrate your first employee into your business. -And this will be a fantastic topic Finance, Debt and Growth - "The 50/50 Rule and stay in the black with the 20% Rule!" So don't forget to call in and ask Lawn Care Business author Ken LaVoie your questions too!

GopherHaul 24- Lawn Care Software Business Entrepreneur Show Business Question: A member of our Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum, Michelle asked about buying a lawn care business. How much should she be paying? In response a member wrote: "General rule of thumb for buying customers is that they are worth about 1 month revenue. If they are commercial you'll pay a little more and if there is a signed multi-year agreement in place ( which you said there is ) then this will push the price up too. So it could be worth as much as 2 or 3 months revenue depending on the situation." Mike then joined the discussion and talked about how many customers would stay with him after he bought their accounts. "I did lose a few here and there, but I only paid 2.5 times the mowing price, and usually got at least 3 mows before they quit me." "Have you checked some of his accounts to make sure they are priced in accordance with what you would charge? One of the lawn companies I bought out was considerably higher in pricing than mine, so I ended up raising all my original customers up to that standard." Read more or join this post here: http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/c... Should you offer to buy lawn care accounts on craigslist? http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/c... Fernando joined the discussion and said he posts ads in free online sites in which he offers to buy lawn care customer accounts. Here is the ad he posted in craigslist. Check out the full ad on our forum. "-Too Tired over the Summer? ...or can't keep up during the hot season? -Too Hard to work from Sunrise to Sundown? -Too busy to take care of ALL of your accounts during the "Crunch Time"? -Customers complaining about not cutting the lawn on time? I am willing to buy Lawn Accounts" All this information is great if you are interested in knowing how to buy lawn care accounts but what about selling them? How do you sell lawn care accounts? This poster wants to sell his accounts. How much and how should he do it. One Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum member made a post about how best to make the transition when you sell lawn care accounts to a new lawn care business. "I bought out 3 lawn companies, and all we did was send a letter to the customers, describing what happened(a new lawn company would be taking care of your yard) If you want to meet each and everyone of them, then do it. The new lawn care business owner may want you to sign a non-compete clause so you can't compete to take the customers back." Read more about this post and join in on the discussion here: http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/c... Product Promotion Kenneth LaVoie III wrote a book and starting a lawn care business entitled "How to start a lawn care business a whole NEW way." One of the many fascinating things he discusses in the book is about pruning customers once a year. If there are customers that you find yourself clashing with, he suggests not to raise their price but to simply cancel service for them and replace them with newer clients you do work well with. Read more about this post here http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/c... Also Ken was kind enough to offer 50% off his book if you purchase his book from his site http://www.lawnguru.net. When ordering, use coupon code C7815 to receive your discount. Read more about his book and this great offer here http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/c... If our show or forum has helped you, or if you have any business questions, please let us know and send an email or make a post about your experience! I hope all these ideas have helped you expand and grow your business and mind. So until the next time, always remember to Dream it, Build it, Gopher it! If you are in need of free lawn care marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at http://www.gophersoftware.com. We have hundreds of free lawn care logo, flyer, door hanger and web templates you can download and use for your lawn care business. We also have free lawn care business contracts. Also download our trial version of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. Gopher will help your lawn care business schedule and invoice more customers in less time, allowing you more time to grow or enjoy your life. If you are on myspace send us a friend request. We are located at http://www.myspace.com/teamgopher.

Title: GopherHaul 23 - Lawn Care Marketing Business Show Show description: Hello and welcome to GopherHaul 23 - Lawn Care Marketing Business Show In this episode we will be talking about GopherHaul breaks the 700,000 view mark! Thank you everyone for watching us! Lawn Care Business Marketing Idea: One of our new Gopher lawn care forum members Emerald Green Lawn Care was kind enough to post a sample letter they use to contact property managers. In the letter they ask the property manager to put their lawn care business on the bidding list. This is important because when the property comes up for bid, your business will then be contacted. Download the letter template and read more about this post here: http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=29;t=7403;st=0;entry36220 Business Question: Are you keeping track of where your new customers initially heard of your business from? If you aren't you might be wasting a huge amount of advertising dollars. Let's jump to a post Chuck made in our lawn care forum. In his post Chuck said "I keep track of everything, I write the source (newspaper, phone book, word of mouth, walk up, online) on the top of my copy of an estimate or proposal because I always keep those. 2 nights ago I sat down with my wife to crunch those numbers, My findings were surprising. about 65-70% of my business thus far has come from 1 source & at an advertising cost of just over $10 per customer! Pretty cheap. I tracked how many from each source, What was the average amount spent by the customers from each source too. Sometimes an add in one place will bring several small spenders & while another brings a few big money accounts. Different publications have a different type or class of readers!" As you can see, this is powerful information for your lawn care business! I asked Chuck, with the knowledge you gained from tracking your lawn care marketing, will this effect your advertising spending? Chuck then said "Of course it will affect future marketing, I have a new add going into affect there asap. I can't believe we did so well with an add I only ran for about a month & a half. I kick myself in the butt for not realizing it earlier." Our friend Justin also jumped into the discussion and posted an excel sheet template to help you track your lawn care business advertising dollar. To download the template and get involved in the discussion join the post here: http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=8;t=7356;st=0;r=1;entry35873 Lawn Care Marketing Idea Have you ever experimented with offering a referral program to your lawn care customers? Emerald Green Lawn Care created a great referral coupon template that they posted on the forum. Check out the post and see what the best way is market your referral program to your current customer base in order to reach out to more customers. Join in on the discussion here: http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=8;t=7386;st=0;r=1;entry36079 Book of the Month: This month's business book of the month is Robert Slater's "No Such Thing As Over Exposure." If our show or forum has helped you, or if you have any business questions, please let us know and send an email or make a post about your experience! I hope all these ideas have helped you expand and grow your business and mind. So until the next time, always remember to Dream it, Build it, Gopher it! If you are in need of free lawn care marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at http://www.gophersoftware.com. We have hundreds of free lawn care logo, flyer, door hanger and web templates you can download and use for your lawn care business. We also have free lawn care business contracts. Also download our trial version of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. Gopher will help your lawn care business schedule and invoice more customers in less time, allowing you more time to grow or enjoy your life. If you are on myspace send us a friend request. We are located at http://www.myspace.com/teamgopher.

We will be discussing lawn care business topics brought up on the Gophersoftware.com forum. If you have a question or want to join in on our discussions, please visit our forum. Also check out the GopherHaul Lawn Care Business video. If you need billing and scheduling software for your lawn care business download our 30 day free trial at http://www.gophersoftware.com

This is a great podcast where we talked about a post on the GopherHaul forum at http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=NW;f=8;t=7386 We discussed one lawn care business owner's question on how to implement a referral program to attract new customers. Chestin from lawncaremarketingmagic.com has some great feedback on the topic. We also talked to Robert of BadBoyZTR.com and had a fascinating discussion on his dealership and marketing techniques he is using. Some of these great ideas could also be used by a lawn care business owner. If you run a lawn care business or are looking into starting one, this show is for you. You can watch our GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Video Show on youtube or at http://www.gophersoftware.com. You can also download free lawn care marketing templates like flyers, door hangers, we templates, lawn care business contracts and much much more at our lawn care business forum. Ask your lawn care and landscaping business questions on our forum. If you need billing and scheduling software for your lawn care business download and try out our Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. We have a free 30 day trial.

Hello everyone and welcome to the GopherHaul Lawn Care Marketing & Business Podcast recorded 2/21/08. In this podcast we discuss: How to price a lawn? Join this topicâ??s discussion at this link. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=8;t=7298; How to make the jump from lawn care to landscaping and then what kind of profit potential will you see when you get into landscaping? Do you need the lawn cutting customer base to transition to landscaping or can you simply start off as a landscaper? Which way is easier? Which landscaping projects provide for the best profit margins with the least amount of work? Or friend and forum member Matt brought up a question if you should give a % of the profits to a friend/employee. How should this be handled? Join the discussion here. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=35;t=7316; Lawn painting service. This is where you would actually paint a dried up lawn, green to make it look healthy. It could be done during times of drought. $465.00 for a single application. Good idea? Would you offer it? Join the discussion here. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=8;t=7298;st=10;entry35624 Do you use a contract? Is it different from your residential to your commercial clients? How many pages is the contract? Also if you are going to put in your contract a surcharge for cleaning your mower of dog waste, why not offer it as an upsell for $50 per month for 1 dog? Would you offer that? Join the discussion here. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=1;t=7340;st=0;r=1;entry35758 Luke asked this great question on the forum. Whatâ??s the best way to introduce to your customers that you are using contracts in the new season? Should you use a letter? If so what would you have the letter say? Join the discussion here. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=17;t=7343; We discuss the lessons to be learned from the book Rich Dad Poor Dad. Why do rich people buy assets while poor and middle class people buy liabilities? What stops people from succeeding. Join the discussion here. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=1;t=7309;r=1 If you have lawn care business or marketing questions, please visit our forum. Also download our Gopher Lawn Care Business Billing & Scheduling Software. We offer a 30 day free trial. We also have the largest collection of free lawn care flyer templates, door hanger templates, logos, web templates, business contracts and business plans. Visit http://www.gophersoftware.com

Hello everyone and welcome to the GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Marketing Podcast. This episode was recorded on 2/14/08. We recorded this podcast with 6 members of our Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum, through Skype. If you are interested in taking part in future podcasts with us, download Skype and add GopherHaul to your contact list. Also check our forum for the date and time of an upcoming podcast. In this episode we discuss a bunch of topics posted in our forum. Should you use a 1-800-vanity number for your business. Say for instance 1-800-lawncutter Post Link: http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=26;t=7118;st=0;r=1;entry34256 Should you hire your 11 year old nephew to work in your lawn care business. How young of a relative would you hire? How young of an employee would you hire? Post Link http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST&f=29&t=7038&st= Would you do commercial property maintenance without a contract? Talk about how Tim said a commercial job this size without a contract is not worth doing. Post Link http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=35;t=7029;st=0;entry33730 Suggestions on what you should charge for late fees. How to handle late payments. Post Link. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=1;t=6955; We talk about this environmentally friendly lawn care business. Do you think they will break through? Blue Sky lawns â?? push mowers and electric trimmers with no trucks. Post Link http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=34;t=7265;r=1 Background checks, do you use them? What do you check for and who do you use to check? Is it a good idea? Post Link http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=17;t=7255; If you have lawn care business or marketing questions, please visit our forum. Also download our Gopher Lawn Care Business Billing & Scheduling Software. We offer a 30 day free trial. We also have the largest collection of free lawn care flyer templates, door hanger templates, logos, web templates, business contracts and business plans. Visit http://www.gophersoftware.com

Keith from http://www.summer101.com talks about commercial insurance for lawn care business owners and bonds. Keith gives us the low down on how much insurance a commercial bid may require and how much the insurance or bonds might cost a lawn care business owner. Join the discussion on our Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum here. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=22;t=7206;r=1 More info: www.gophersoftware.com