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Lawn maintenance company massive expansion

andviv

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I have gotten them from strictly world of mouth advertising since I pride myself in high quality work.
My lawn service started by the guy that was working for my neighbors across the street. He came one day, rang the bell, told me they were doing the work for the other family (granted, their lawn looks great) and offered his services.

He was nice, offered me a great rate, and had already proven he could deliver.

I took his business card. Hired him the next week.

Maybe it is worth for you to do that for the next 6 or 10 blocks where you currently work, to increase your revenue. If you can take care of an entire neighborhood on Tuesdays, by simply doing this door to door marketing, and hiring two more employees, your growth should be great.

No need to buy any business yet.

Also, ask your current customers for referrals and offer them something in return (next week free service for each customer you find me?)

Only after you have that under control then makes sense to go after other businesses, no?
 
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andviv

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Added: I posted a reply without reading all the advice. most of what I said was already covered.

You are doing great and focusing on the right things.

Do you know what is your current revenue and profit per employee?

Current annual profit per customer?

What day of the week is the busiest? How can you balance it so you can handle more customers in the same area?
 

PHD

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Have you looked into chasing commercial/industrial tenders?

I used to work for a landscaping company and the best money and easiest jobs were the big commercial ones, with that said they usually require more equipment that you may not have at this stage (zero-turns, tractors, spray rigs, etc). One important thing to learn at this stage of the game (if you are considering large landscape/maintenance contracts) is accurate quoting and professional tender applications. I saw a lot of 'new' guys come in with cheap quotes on a tender only to find they couldn't actually back up on it and lost the job.
 

RustyOnRails

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You don't need to purchase any competitors, you need to learn marketing.

As they say, what got you here won't get you where you want to go. Word of mouth is great but I wouldn't trust it to fastlane a business.

What are you really purchasing by purchasing your competitors? Equipment? Probably not worth buying and if it is you can buy it when you put them out of business. Really the only thing worth buying is the customer base and you can just steal that by out-marketing them.

You need to figure out what your primary offer is going to be and then market it like crazy. What could you offer in your industry that nobody else does? How about free 'House Call' from a 'lawn doctor' (you). You show up in a white lab coat and do a 56 point landscape check up. Who's not going to believe you are the expert when you do something like this?

Don't buy a competitor yet - get good at marketing first.
 
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SeanKelly

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You don't need to purchase any competitors, you need to learn marketing.

As they say, what got you here won't get you where you want to go. Word of mouth is great but I wouldn't trust it to fastlane a business.

What are you really purchasing by purchasing your competitors? Equipment? Probably not worth buying and if it is you can buy it when you put them out of business. Really the only thing worth buying is the customer base and you can just steal that by out-marketing them.

You need to figure out what your primary offer is going to be and then market it like crazy. What could you offer in your industry that nobody else does? How about free 'House Call' from a 'lawn doctor' (you). You show up in a white lab coat and do a 56 point landscape check up. Who's not going to believe you are the expert when you do something like this?

Don't buy a competitor yet - get good at marketing first.

That's pretty damn creative! I'm going to think of some different ways I can out market my competitors. I still feel that acquiring other businesses is necessary, just not at this early of a stage in my business.
 

mayana

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You don't need to purchase any competitors, you need to learn marketing.

As they say, what got you here won't get you where you want to go. Word of mouth is great but I wouldn't trust it to fastlane a business.

What are you really purchasing by purchasing your competitors? Equipment? Probably not worth buying and if it is you can buy it when you put them out of business. Really the only thing worth buying is the customer base and you can just steal that by out-marketing them.

That is sound advice - the customer base IS the only reason that you would buy another landscaping business (in most cases). I like the doctor idea... lol... very creative.
 

Vic

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Try to get a contract with a large chain by starting with one of their local businesses. For example, I knew someone who was a Manager in a CVS, he had a friend who owned a landscaping business. Who do you think got hired to landscape around the building? Fast forward a year the Manager friend got promoted to District Manager, who do you think is going to be handling all those stores? And honestly we have all seen those stores, the landscaping involved takes about 10 minutes.

Admittedly this is an exceptional case, because they knew each other. But think about how you can "befriend" someone in a similar situation.

Best of luck to you!
 
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