Famous Entrepreneurs

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/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=29;t=7525;st=0;r=1;&#entry36897

Should you offer to buy lawn care accounts on craigslist?

http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=8;t=7521;

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/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=34;t=7567;st=0;r=1;&#entry37074

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/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=1;t=7635;r=1

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/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=NW;f=36;t=7605

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.

Duration : 0:9:50

Technorati Tags: advertising, Business, care, Entrepreneur, forum, GopherHaul, guru, home, landscaping, lawn, Marketing, mower, software