When you're looking to establish a clientele for the first time, you might run into a dilemma. You've probably tried going door to door to attract potential customers, and some were probably less than enthused with the idea of a teen tending to their lawn. Basically, some homeowners are afraid that they'll pay an inexperienced teenager who won't be able to provide high quality, professional services.

So what's a good way to boost the legitimacy of your lawn care business? You need to find a way to assure potential customers that you're a reliable individual with the credentials to perform quality work. Purchasing a surety bond could help give you such a boost by proving that you intend to do a good job, and you'll have the financial guarantee of a surety provider to back you up.

Surety bonds basically function as contracts that guarantee the quality of a business's work. There are three parties involved with each bond:

1. the principal who gets the bond (this would be you)
2. the obligee who requires the bond (this would be a government agency)
3. the surety who sells you the bond (this can be a local insurance company or an online nationwide surety bond producer)

Basically, by selling you a bond the surety provides your potential consumers with a financial guarantee that you will perform your work appropriately. If you're able to purchase a bond, you're giving your consumers an additional level of reassurance in case you go against the bond's language and fail to follow industry regulations in some way.

Getting a surety bond will likely only be an option for your lawn care business if you plan to have it officially licensed as a business in the state in which you work. If you're operating the business on your own without officially registering it and paying taxes it won't be recognized as a "legitimate" business in the eyes of the government.

If you're ready to purchase a bond, you should know that each bond executed has a unique surety bond cost that is calculated by taking a number of variables into account, including:

• Industry Regulations: Do you have to purchase a surety bond in a certain amount?
• Location: The surety bond will need to be valid for all areas in which you plan to work. Depending on the bond type and its applicable regulations, this could vary by state, county, or even city.
• Credit Score: To get licensed in your state, you'll need proof of a reasonably good credit score, which means you'll probably need one of your parents to sign as your partner. Otherwise you probably won't have the necessary credit information to get approved for a bond. With a good credit score you'll get a much cheaper price for a bond, and with a low credit score you'll have to pay a much higher fee.

When it comes to your personal lawn care business, it's probably up to you whether or not you want to take advantage of the benefits a surety bond can offer. When making the decision you'll want to weigh the actual financial costs with the potential benefits of attracting new customers and determine which option is best for your business.

This article was written by Kevin Kaiser of Surety Bonds, a nationwide surety bond producer that operates online. Kevin had also been involved with his own successful lawn business in high school. Feel free to leave any questions in the comments or email him at kevin {at} suretybonds {dot} com.

Labels: business

Alright, a few days ago I noticed the first professional lawn service advertisement at my door. Time to start going out and advertising your lawn business!

Paper the neighborhood! Oh, and don't forget to reconnect with last year's customers. Shoot them an email or call them to reestablish your business.

This post should give you a good idea about papering the neighborhood with your lawn service:

Advertise Your Teen Lawn Service With Flyers

If you are just starting out your lawn business new this season, check out some of these links:

So You Want to Start a Teen Lawn Mowing Business
How to Start a Teen Lawn Service
Questions to Consider When Starting a Teen Lawn Business

Good luck with your lawn businesses this year, and stay tuned for upcoming posts in the next few weeks!

Labels: business, Spring/Summer

Photo by: Tracy O

Saving money for the future of your lawn business is important if you ever want to expand your company and bring it to the next level. Putting money away will give you more security, as well as increasing the opportunities for your business in the future.

Steps to Take When Saving

When saving money for the future of your lawn business, there are a few steps you must take:

1. Make goals for how much money you want to save

First off, you'll want to make some goals regarding the money you want to save. What are you saving money for? Here are a few examples of things you could be saving money for:

• Buying new equipment (commercial lawn mower, edgers, weed eaters, backpack blowers, etc.)
• A truck or a trailer
• Future expenses regarding equipment repairs, gas, etc.

Once you have decided what you plan on spending the money you save on, the next part is to figure out how much money you will need to save to get there. First, figure out a rough estimate of how much money you think you will make in the coming season. Then, do some research and find out how much your expenses are, and how much the equipment you plan to buy will cost. Now, let's say your goals are to buy a leaf blower in the fall as well as have some extra money on hand for future expenses, like gas. Your total comes out to $300. Next, you figure out how much you will most likely earn during the coming season, which comes out to be $1,000. So, you'll need to save 30% of your business's income this season in order to reach your goal. You'll need to take out that percentage of money every time you receive payment from a customer-- trust me, if you don't take the money out immediately, you'll forget.

In conclusion, you'll need to make some concrete goals, then figure out how much money you'll need to save to accomplish them.

2. Find a good place to keep your funds

The next step in saving money for the future of your lawn business is putting your money in a good location. Here's a list of places you DO NOT want to keep your the money:

• In your wallet where you keep your spending money
• Out in the open where your crack-smoking brother can steal it for drug money
• Someplace you'll lose it
• Someplace you'll mix it up with something else

Here's a list of places YOU SHOULD keep your money:

• In a safe
• In a jar within your desk-drawer
• Someplace where you don't keep any other money
• Someplace it won't get stolen or lost
• Somewhere hidden
• Someplace safe

Once you have found a good place to keep your saved money, containerize it and put a small piece of paper on it. Label the piece of paper "Lawn Business Money" or something similar so you won't mix it up with anything else, and write down the current amount of money on that label.

3. Track you savings

Once you have made all the plans for saving your money and started actually putting some away, you'll need to begin tracking the amount you have saved. Using a spreadsheet on Microsoft Excel is a great way to accomplish this.

Why this is Important

Tracking your progress is important for a couple of reasons.

First of all, it keeps you on track. If you are organized and making sure you are saving exactly what you planned to, none of your funds will slip away.

Second, it will allow you to make adjustments. Previously, I talked about making rough estimates when deciding how much money you need to save. If you are keeping track of how much money is ACTUALLY being put away, you can change the amount you are saving based on hard data. Making these adjustments will increase the likelihood of saving exactly the amount you need to for the goals you have created. Tracking your savings will help you make sure you get to where you need to be.

Make sure to follow these steps

If you follow these steps and don't slip up too badly, your business will be able to expand. You will have money for new equipment, and you will be able to pay for expenses that arise when running your lawn business.

My Business

A few weeks ago, my buddy and I decided to start saving 30% of our earnings for the future of our yard care service. To tell you the truth, we haven't made any concrete goals yet (we ought to), but we have some tentative plans for perhaps buying a more powerful backpack blower if we decide to do fall cleanups. This will depend on our schedules and whether or not we can get some helpers to rake leaves with us, but I suppose we do technically have a goal. So far, we have saved $105. We are getting there for being in the price range for some used equipment.

Conclusion

Saving money for the future of your business is important if you ever want your lawn care enterprise to get anywhere. My advice to you? Start saving now-- I guarantee that you and your business will reap rewards later.

Labels: business

Welcome to Teen Lawn Care's very first series post! I wrote a post about "Getting Helpers for When You're Gone", and it turned out to be too long for one writing. So, here's the last in a four part series about getting helpers when you're gone. View Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here. Enjoy!

Making your Relationship More Permanent

For now, your helpers are only there for when you are out of town or can't do a lawn. However, you could extend this relationship between you and your employee by making it more permanent.

For example, one day, you may hope to have more lawns than you can do on your own. Since you don't have time to mow all of them yourself, your call-up employees could help you manage them. You get a cut of what the customer pays for the lawn to be mowed, and you pay your helpers the standard wage you have always paid them.

Eventually, your company role could morph into one that coordinates, markets, and keeps track of financial information than that of manual labor-- other people are actually mowing the lawn, and you are taking a cut of that.

It doesn't have to just be for mowing, either. For example, I don't have enough time in the fall to run a profitable leaf raking venture. However, if I get some helpers who have more time than I do on their hands, I could make a lot of money just finding jobs for my employees.

The possibilities for expansion could become endless. ;)

My Business

This method works, I've done it myself. My buddy and I have two people who can potentially mow when either of us goes out of town. They are both very happy about how much they get paid, and my buddy and I are very happy about the cut we get from the payment the customer gives us.

As an interesting scenario, if my buddy and I had our two helpers mow all our lawns (which would kind of ruin our reputation with our customers, but that's a different post ;] ), we would make $14.50 a week, each. (And that's with taking out 30% for the future of our business, a post that will come later.) If I owned the company myself, I would get $29 a week. No manual labor.

It's an interesting side note, and a potential for your business, too.

Conclusion

Having helpers is a good idea for your business. It allows you to go on vacation and not have to worry too much about the length of your customers' grass. As long as you execute your plan to get your friends working for you, having helpers can be a real asset to your business.

This is the last in a four part series. View the previous posts: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Labels: business

Welcome to Teen Lawn Care's very first series post! I wrote a post about "Getting Helpers for When You're Gone", and it turned out to be too long for one writing. So, here's the third in a four part series about getting helpers when you're gone. See Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

Setting up for When you Leave Town

By now, you have all the preparatory work set up with you and your helpers. When the actual time comes when you are going out of town and you need your workers to take care of your customers' lawns, there are a few steps you should take:

1. First, you'll want to see what times are best for each of your helpers. Figure out when each of your lawns need mowing, then give your helpers the times they will need to be mowing. Drill it into their heads, they can't forget.
2. Next, you'll want to email your customers. Tell them you will be out of town for [a certain amount of time] and [your helper] will be mowing [at this time]. You might want to tell them that your helper knows their way around a lawn and that you expect that they will do a good job.
3. Leave town and don't stress. If you can, remind your friend via text message or something that they need to mow. Don't be annoying about it-- just remind them a little while before they will have to perform the job.

This set of steps should work fine for you and your helpers. Just be methodical and don't forget anything when coordinating jobs.

Monitoring the Work of your Helpers

Since you aren't actually performing the work, you can't be absolutely sure how well your helpers will do their job. So, after they mow/weed eat, you should go to the lawn(s) they worked on and make sure they are done well. If the lawns are in good shape, then give your helper a pat on the back, because all is well. However, if not, there are a couple things you need to do.

First of all, you need to fix it. If you can, get the buddy who worked on the yard out with you so you can show them what they did wrong. Making a mistake isn't necessarily grounds for releasing them from service-- however, you do need to fix your customer's lawn and reteach your employee. You should also have another, more extensive training session to help fix whatever issues your helper has with mowing/weed eating lawns.

If you have to do this a lot, and it turns out your helper just plain sucks, don't call them to mow your customers' lawns anymore. Find a new employee, and move on. It's not worth it to you or to your business.

This is the third in a four part series. View the rest of the series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 4

Labels: business

Welcome to Teen Lawn Care's very first series post! I wrote a post about "Getting Helpers for When You're Gone", and it turned out to be too long for one writing. So, here's the second in a four part series about getting helpers when you're gone. View Part 1 here. Enjoy!

Preparing your Helpers

Once you have found some good people to help you with your yard service, you have to prepare them for the work they are going to be performing. To begin, have a training session on your lawn to show them all the techniques you have acquired while mowing peoples' yards. Teach them the ins and outs of working both the lawn mower as well as the weed eater. They don't have to become lawn artists, but you should have them using the mower and weed eater proficiently by the time you are done.

Next, take your helpers to each of your customers' yards, and show them the ins and outs of mowing them. If you want, you can also introduce your new employees to your customers. However, this isn't completely necessary.

How to Pay your Helpers

When figuring out how much you will pay your helpers, there are a few things you have to keep in mind:

1. Your employees could be making steady income flipping burgers. To prevent them from having negative thoughts about sweating in the sun, give them a competitive wage. I try to pay my helpers about $15 for what amounts to an hour of work. I know that sounds like a lot, but it keeps them interested, and I still get to take a healthy cut of it for myself.
2. When using the paying by the hour method, first figure out how long it takes you to finish a job. Then, do the necessary calculations to figure out how much that would be to make $15 for an hour of work, keeping in mind the fact that it's either less or more than an hour. Round the number you get to the nearest dollar. However, if the number goes below $7 or $8, you are going to have to round up to one of those numbers. I doubt your employees will be willing to take the effort to go out and mow if you plan on giving them less than that.
3. Before ever having your helpers mow one of your customers' lawns, tell them how much they will be paid. You don't have to be too detailed. A simple, "You'll be making $8-$15 a mow, is that good with you?" is fine. Make sure they are alright with the rate. You don't want to have messy arguments after they have performed a job. You could lose not only an employee, but also a friend.
4. Deciding actually when to pay your helpers is also important. If they are actually mowing/weed eating with you, then I would pay them on the job. However, if you aren't going to actually be there, you should talk to your employee about what would be best for you and for them. It really depends on the situation, so you should just come to an agreement together.

In short, pay your helper a competitive wage that makes sense for both of you. You should be able to make a bit of money for yourself (without doing any manual labor, NICE!), so the arrangement is mutually beneficial.

This is the second in a four part series. View the rest of the series: Part 1 | Part 3 | Part 4

Labels: business

Welcome to Teen Lawn Care's very first series post! I wrote a post about "Getting Helpers for When You're Gone", and it turned out to be too long for one writing. So, here's the first in a four part series about getting helpers when you're gone. Enjoy!

The key to running a successful lawn business is consistency. You have to be able to mow your client's lawn once a week, every week, for several months. You can't miss a week, or else their grass will grow too tall.

Mowing every week would be easy if you didn't go anywhere during the summer. If you don't, then fine. Life is easier for you. However, chances are you will be leaving your house for a week or more during the summer. How are you going to keep your customers' grass short? Hiring your friends to help you out.

Finding Helpers

The people who will most likely be helping you with your lawns are going to be friends who live close by. I would suggest you try to find at least two people to help you-- those that you choose might go out of town the same time you do. Below are a few questions to ask yourself about each candidate who you might want to offer a job to:

Are they reliable?

You need someone who will mow the lawn when you ask them to. They need to be on time, and do as good a job as they say they will.

Are they suited for the job?

If your candidate can't push a mower, then you shouldn't try to get them to work for you. Plain and simple.

Do they want to work for you?

You can't hire them if they don't want to work for you. Also, a person might say they want to work for you, but in reality they don't really care to do the work. Or they think they are partners in the business. Which is one thing I have to make clear: Your helpers are employees, not business partners. Treat your business relationship as such. Trust me, having them as employees makes a lot more business sense for you.

To continue, you obviously will have to actually ask the candidate if he or she wants to work for you yourself, but take note if you think they really wouldn't want to do the work.

Are you comfortable with them representing your business?

The people you choose to help you over the summer don't have to be perfect goody-two-shoes, but you don't want them swearing at your customers either.

So...

The helpers you search for don't have to be as meticulously chosen as a business partner, but you should still put some thought into who you want representing your yard care company.

This is the first in a four part series. View the rest of the series: Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Labels: business

The other day, my dad, mom and I were sitting at our dining room table eating breakfast. My dad was telling my mom about how there were a lot of new maple saplings sprouting up in our yard, and that he was going to have to take them out.

While listening to this conversation, I saw an opportunity: offer to plant those trees in my customer's yards.

I talked to my dad about it, and he said it would be fine if I did that. I already knew how to replant a tree, seeing as we had replanted a few last year. (More on how to replant a tree later in the post.)

I wrote an email pitching the offer to my clients. It looked like the following:

Hi, this is Ben. I have a few maple trees that have sprouted up in my yard, and was wondering if you would like J and I to plant one of them in your yard.

These are just young saplings, and might not survive. If they don't live, we would give you a full refund.

Just wondering if you wanted another tree or two in your yard. (:

- Ben

I sent it individually, and personalized each message. Notice how I offered a full refund if the saplings did not survive. It is important to give your customers security if they are paying you to do a job.

Out of the four clients my buddy and I mow, I sent the offer to two. Of the two I didn't pitch the offer to, one doesn't communicate by email, and the other is temporarily renting their house.

Both my offers were rejected-- neither of the two customers needed more trees in their yard.

Although my plan didn't work out as hoped, I have learned a couple of things from it:

Don't be afraid to offer

Just because your customer rejects the offer you make doesn't mean that you will lose their business or the customer-service provider relationship you have developed with them.

Be on the lookout for opportunities to further your business

Just learning a small tidbit, like the fact that you have extra saplings in your yard, could help you to provide another service to your customers and to help your business make more money. Always be looking for new ways to help your customers with their lawns: this will turn into cash for your business.

Nick Tart told me recently that Emil Motycka has 40 lawns this summer. (Stay tuned! Emil has agreed to answer a set of interview questions from me, so there should be a post about this coming up in the near future.) Now, if I had 40 lawns, I bet I would have gotten a much better return on my offer than 0%. But you know what? This experience just motivates me to want to grow my business even more. Maybe one day, the same offer will boost my earnings quite a bit.

The post isn't over yet. Although I have told you my own story about offering to plant trees in my customer's yard, I haven't actually told you how to do it. Well, here we are:

How to Replant a Sapling

Important tools:

Shovel
Wheel barrow

Steps

1. Dig a wide hole around the roots of the sapling. Do not break or cut the roots.

2. Place the sapling with the dirt in the roots into a wheelbarrow. Put dirt around the roots in the wheelbarrow.

3. Slog your way to the place where you will plant the tree with your wheel barrow and the shovel.

4. Dig a hole half again or two times larger than the roots.

5. Place the tree in the hole. Make sure you fill in the area around the roots with nutrient-rich topsoil, because then the tree will have a greater likelihood of surviving.

6. The tree has been planted. Congratulate yourself on a job well done. Advise your customer to water the sapling often.

Conclusion

If you have a few extra saplings sprouting up in your yard, it can't hurt to offer to plant them in the yards of your customers. Offering won't hurt your relationship, and it presents a chance of furthering your business.

Labels: business, services, Spring/Summer

While looking around Small Business Brief, I found an article on Andy Sernovitz's blog about how to Make it Goofy, Make it Outrageous, and Make it Last. This article talks about how to do something ridiculous with your product or service and get people to notice/talk about it. Some of the examples of this phenomenon listed in the article are Trader Joe's 10 pound candy bar, the Pirate language for Google Search, and a 300 year warranty (as opposed to lifetime) on the furniture of a Swedish company called Brikolor.

The whole idea is to do something crazy and noticeable so that people will be more likely to use your product or service. I'm sure these ideas can be used to market your teen lawn business as well.

1) Wear something noticeable

A great way to advertise your lawn service is to be seen by neighbors while you mow a customer's lawn. To increase visibility, wear a bright t-shirt or an eye-catching hat while you mow. If you wear something with a dull shade, like brown or black, you will blend in with the scenery. However, a bright red shirt or a funny-looking hat will cause your customer's neighbors to walk over and start negotiating prices with you. Nick recommends it, and I do, too.

2) Liven up your mower

Paint your mower an outrageously bright color, or make some kind of cool design like flames. The effects of decorating your lawn mower can be two-fold: The first effect is basically the same as the first "outrageous" idea: get the neighbors to notice you. However, if your mower looks downright sexy, people will start to talk about you. Not only will George who lives next door know about your service, but also his friend who lives a couple blocks away. Using this idea could very well jump start word of mouth (WOM) for your business.

3) Liven up your flyers

Make people actually notice your flyers by adding a clever picture or slogan.

"Hey Fred!"

"Yes, Sherry?"

"Look at the picture on the flyer those kids put on our doorstep!"

"Haha. You know, the grass IS getting kind of long..."

Check out these two sites for lawn business slogan ideas:
Slogans/Catch phrases
Good Slogans For A Lawn Mowing Business

4) Offer a Ridiculous Service

Offer as a service something far-fetched like cutting a customer's grass with a machete, advertised on your flyers.

"Fred?"

"Yes, Sherry?"

"Want to get the grass cut with a machete?"

Just get people to notice your flyers.

I'm sure there are many more ideas out there, these are just a basic few I thought of. Now, go out there, and do something crazy with your lawn business!

Labels: business

While running your teen lawn mowing business, it is good to be clear on exactly WHY people hire you to cut their grass. This can be important so you know who to market your services to, as well as understanding what people want from you.

I was feeling contemplative as I walked home from a sweatier-than-usual job the other day, and I came up with the following, I suppose relativly obivous, but important idea:

Your customers have a surplus of money, but not enough time/energy to mow their lawn.

You, on the other hand, have a monetary deficiency and an excess of time/energy.

I find this loaded with meaning.

First of all, according to the two above statements, the amount of money changing hands should equal the amount of time/energy expended. Therefore, the amount of work you put into the job should result in a just reward.

Formula Example:

$$$ - time/energy = time/energy - $$$

2 x $$$ = 2 x time/energy

$$$ = time/energy

More on How Much to Charge Per Job if you follow the link.

There is more to this. Usually, the only reason someone will hire you is if they have enough money to expend and/or do not have enough time or energy. This produces a certain demographic you should be marketing to. The people who you are advertising to have to have enough money to pay you. Some people just like to see teens out working hard. However, most of the people you serve probably either don't feel like toiling in the sun or simply do not have time.

Although it isn't completely necessary to have the above information, it is good to know when you are marketing and figuring out how to charge clients.

Good luck in your teen lawn business.

Labels: business

This is a guest post by Josh, my lawn business partner.

The business of lawn care can be a tiring one, and often ends up being too big of a time commitment for most teens to handle. Here are my ideas, mixed with personal experience, on the hiring of other teens for your lawn care business.

If, (and most probably when), you start getting too many costumers to service on your own, one of the first questions you may have is whether or not to hire some other teens to help you out. You may or may not have started your lawn care business with a friend of yours, but eventually the work load will become too much for any one person, or partnership, to handle. When my partner and I predicted that we would soon have too many clients to easily service, we started investigating whether or not to hire some local teens to help us out. One of the first questions you should ask yourself is, how many clients can I, (or we), handle on our own? Consider the amount of spare time you have, and how long it takes to mow each of your costumers' lawns, I think you can do the math. Once you have that number in your head, figure out if the number of clients you have outnumbers the amount of clients you can service. I know this sounds like a pretty elementary question, but it is pretty easy to get ahead of yourself and start looking to hire more workers when you are perfectly capable of mowing your clients' lawns on your own! If it turns out that you truly need to hire more workers, than you now have to move on to the wonderfully confusing and unpredictable world of hiring teenagers!

In our case, we had a fairly large “labor supply” that we could pull from, which made the idea of hiring workers more plausible from the beginning; but it is fairly likely that you will not have enough teens willing to mow lawns which will put a damper on your plans pretty quickly. If you determine that you have enough teens willing to mow lawns, you have to find some way to tell them that you have a great job for them! Depending on how old you are, many of your friends may have already taken the patty flipping plunge of no return, in which case they will be less than enthusiastic about pushing a lawn mower up and down hills in 90 degree weather. If you are able to convince these minimum wage workers that you can pay them more than what they are currently making, (which might not be the case), than they might be willing to work for you, but I doubt it. Your best bet is to find unemployed kids who don’t fit into the patty flipping mold, and give them a good enough pitch to convince them that playing World of Warcraft eight hours a day isn’t a good way to spend their Saturdays.

Even if you manage to convince some teens to work for you in theory, the practicality of teen workers is slim to none. If you have a lawn mowing partner, chances are you both decided to mow, and you both decided to commit to your costumers from the get-go, don’t assume that all teens will be so committed to your money-making schemes. It turns out that most teens are rather unreliable and untrustworthy, and you need to decide whether or not it is worth having another teen go out and represent your company. You need to decide how they money is handled after the job is done; we usually collected the money from the costumer right after the job, but you probably shouldn’t trust a hired hand to handle your hard-earned cash. Also, your workers will probably not be as interested in protecting your company's name with your costumers, and all it really takes is one shabby mow to lose a client, (speaking from personal experience)! It’s a lot to consider, and in the end we decided not to hire any additional workers; but it also meant that we couldn’t move forward with our company expansion ideas!

Labels: business

If you are looking for more customers for your teen lawn service, which is almost always the case, you might not always be sure about when you should advertise. Well, I have some ideas that might help you.

My basic principle is that the best time to advertise is just a little bit before the season starts. Where I live, late Feburary and early March are good times to be advertising for lawn mowing. Also, at this time you can advertise for services like mulching. For leaf raking, you are probably going to want to be advertising in September. I wouldn't suggest advertsing for snow shoveling by itself. I mean, you could put that you snow shovel, too on an advertisment for leaf raking, but I have found that generally, advertisments for snow shoveling don't tend to be very effective. For snow shoveling, door to door with your shovel is good enough.

However, this year, I'm in a tight spot. I am taking some tough courses in school, which means homework is plentiful. And, I'm playing ultimate, which will be three hours for two days a week, not including Saturday games. I have Boy Scouts on Tuesday nights, and my Sundays are packed with church stuff. My buddy, with whom I mow lawns with, will have less time than me to do anything. So, honestly, we can't advertise early, because we can't be mowing lawns this spring, and we can't mow for anyone but the few clients we already have. But we are looking ahead to the summer.

If you won't have time to mow lawns in the spring, you will need to start advertising when you will have time. For me, that's in June. I'm going to market like a maniac, using several different advertsing strategies.

So, advertise when you can, but advertise as early as you can. Good luck attaining new clients for your teen lawn service!

Labels: business

So, you and your buddy Jim decide to mow some lawns this summer and earn some cash. However, you are stumped. How should you guys divide the work? Well, I work with a partner, and we've made some mistakes. For example, do not have one person weed eat and one person mow, then split the cash 50-50. Honestly, it takes so much less time to weed-eat than to mow that mower ought to earn a bit more. I would figure out how long each takes to do. Then, charge accordingly. Weed-eater makes his share. Mower makes his share. End of story.

But there are other kinds of work you must divide. For example, I would designate one person as "secretary." This person will control contact with customers. This is probably the one with the best people skills. However, the other person needs a job so that the secretary doesn't feel overworked. The other person could be "webmaster" if you have a website for your teen lawn service. Alternatively, this other person could be "head of marketing" and deal with advertising.

I figure there isn't much else to divide. When raking leaves or shoveling walks, just split the profits down the middle. If you have a business partner, just remember to always listen and compromise. Have fun running your teen lawn mowing business!

Labels: business

Customer service is probably the chief reason Grandma Georgina hired you to mow her lawn. Besides the fact that she wants to put a neighborhood kid to work, I imagine she also likes the better customer service that comes from a neighborhood kid as opposed to some faceless, corporate lawn care. I have put together a few tips for you to use when on the job so you can get your customers to start talking about you and to give them a better experience. You might even receive a tip!

1) Smile

Whenever you are interacting with your customers, always make sure to have a warm smile on your face. Nothing false, because those are gross. Grandma Georgina will love that.

2) Listen

Listen to everything your customer says, without interrupting, and respond accordingly. A customer might be offended if you don't let them finish what they want to say. They also might not enjoy having to repeat themselves, either.

3) Be polite

Never EVER be rude to your customers. Ever. Mind your P's and Q's, and treat them with respect. One of the worst things you can do is be rude to a customer. Bad, bad, no-no.

4) Know exactly who your customers are

Make sure you know the connection between a lawn, a name, a voice, and an address. Mixing these up could be disastrous (you go to the wrong house your something). Grandma Georgina will love it if she can just call you up and say, "Little Freddy, please come trim the back hedges Tuesday, they are getting a little long." Know who your customers are.

5) Give your customer the benefit of the doubt

If, God forbid, your customer is spoiling for an argument, do not argue back. You will never win an argument with a customer, and unless you know something as an explicit fact, take your customer's word for it. I mean, unless you are trying to find a messy way to lose a customer. Go here for tips on dealing with an irate customer.

6) Try to be accommodating if your customer wants a little extra

If your customer wants a little more than they asked for initially, do your best to try and do it. I mean, if you just plain don't have time to do it, then you obviously can't-- But do it if you can. You will have a more highly satisfied customer who may feel inclined to tip you.

7) Be reliable

Although this may seem rather obvious, you should NEVER miss a job. Do what you say you will do. This is a pretty down to earth principle that I hope you already know. Be reliable.

8) Be willing to just talk

When Grandma Georgina asks you if you are doing any camps in the summer, don't blow her off. Obviously, if you just have to go, you have to go, but make sure to be polite about it. However if you do have time, make a little extra effort and build your customer-service provider bond. It will really help your business.

9) Be honest

If you forgot to do a section of your customer's yard, and your customer points it out to you, apologize. Make sure that they know it is all your fault, and fix the problem. This is good customer service, and your client will really like you for it.

10) And last of all... Just use your instincts

I'm sure almost everyone has the common sense to know when and how to act in certain situations. If something makes your customer happy, try to do it. Customer service comes from you, and I have the feeling that you can make happy customers. Just make sure to follow the above rules, and remember to use your instincts. Good luck making some happy customers!

Further Reading:
http://sbinfocanada.about.com/od/customerservice/a/custservtipslt.htm
http://sbinfocanada.about.com/od/customerservice/a/custservrules.htm
http://sbinfocanada.about.com/cs/marketing/a/custserviceas.htm

Labels: business

Although it is rather easy to keep up with lawns during the summer, when you are mowing lawns or raking leaves while school and other activities are going on, it can become kind of tough. However, I have some tips for making sure you can handle both with ease.

Stay organized

Staying organized is a very important one. Make sure to schedule all your jobs in advance, and check the job times against school and other activities you have going on. Write this stuff down. Don't schedule something you won't have time for, but also keep in mind that your client depends on you.

School is more important

Let's face it-- most of us won't be making a steady income on lawn care. If that is what you end up doing, then good for you. However, your future job is more important than the $20 a pop you receive for mowing someone's yard. So, school will always come first.

Get a backup

There will be some times when you just won't be able to take care of someone's lawn. Find a trusted friend who you know will do a good job, and ask this friend if you can call him or her if you need them to mow a lawn every once and a while, when you don't have time. For example, what if you go on a two or three week vacation? A friend can be extremely helpful.

Make sacrifices

When you have school on one hand, and lawn care jobs on the other, something's got to give. Because you are doing both, you won't have as much personal time to do things like read, play video games, or hang out with friends. So, you will have to make sacrifices in order to balance school and work. Live with it.

Make some time for yourself

Life isn't only school and work. You need some time for yourself, your family, and your friends. Make sure to schedule some downtime so you can relax.

Most of all...

HAVE FUN!!! Wow that was corny. But it's sort of true. You should try it sometime. It's pretty cool. Ahem. So. In order to balance school and work, you must stay organized and get a backup, keep the more important things a priority, make sacrifices, and create for yourself some downtime.

Labels: business

Although I have posted lots of other stuff about operating a teen lawn service, I haven't gotten down to the basics as much as I should have. So, here goes...

When starting a teen lawn service, you will first want to ask yourself some questions:

Do I have time?

This question is a very important one to answer. If you don't have enough time to run your business, then you obviously can't make any money, and you will have some pissed customers.

Am I willing to make my business a priority?

If you tell someone you will mow their lawn and back out, they aren't likely to want you to service their lawn anymore. If you say you are going to do a job, you had better do it, no matter whatever else you have going on. Although some circumstances could prevent you from taking care of someone's lawn (ex. death in the family), you should still tell your customer in advance that you will not be able to do their lawn at the time you agreed on.

If you answered "yes" to both of these questions, then you are on track to starting your very own teen lawn business.

First, you need to secure equipment so that you can perform lawn duties. The most important items for your teen lawn service are a lawn mower and a weed whacker. If you can, borrow these items from your parents. However, if you can't secure them from your parents, then other measures must be taken. A lot of times you can acquire these on the side of the street when people throw them out-- often they require minimal repair. However, if worst comes to worst, you will have to buy them. If you already have the money, use it. You will definitely make the money back very quickly if you play your cards right. If you don't have the money, ask you parents if you can borrow some. Explain to them exactly how you will make the money back so that they can be sure. If they are still reluctant, offer an interest rate. I don't know what to tell you to do after that. Maybe get a job for a few weeks and invest that in a mower and weed whacker.

So, you have your equipment, it is March or early April and you're ready to start advertising. Flyers are a great way to announce your teen lawn care to the world. Place them under people's doormats and on telephone poles in your area. To get even more customers, go door to door offering your services. Dress up nice and give a small blurb about your business. Hand your potential client a business card and bid them good day.

Well, the calls should be rolling in by now. Believe me, it should really be that simple. You have now established your very own teen lawn business!

Labels: business

When I first started my lawn mowing business, I often wondered how to charge customers. Foolishly, I used a "flat rate." However, I have come up with an equation for deciding how much to charge clients:

($/Hour) X (# Hours spent) + (Expenses) = Cost per lawn

Now, we will break it down. First, figure out your equipment and supply costs per lawn. Let's start with equipment. If you just invested in a new lawn mower or weed whacker, take the cost of your new equipment and divide it by the number of jobs you will do that season. You will also use gasoline. Figure out how much gasoline you use in one mow, and how much that gasoline costs. Put that in the cost per lawn. Using the examples I have described above, place any other expenses you have per lawn into the right side of the equation.

Next, figure out how long it will take you to mow the lawn. You eye might not be as practiced in the beginning. One idea is to give your customer the first one or two mows for free. Then you will know how long it takes you to mow their lawn. Remember to take into account things like hills and ditches that take a longer amount of time to get around.

The nice thing about owning your own business is that you get to decide how much you make. However, if you want customers, don't overcharge. I recommend taking from the profits just a little bit more than your friends who have normal jobs make. I try to make $15 or $20 an hour. But it all depends on the ending cost for the customer.

After you have come up with the cost per lawn, round it to a more comfortable number. Your customers aren't going to want to pay you $23.43 per job. That's just ridiculous. I would recommend rounding it to the nearest 5. For example, $15 or $20.

Well, the mystery has been solved. I bet there are more ways to complicate the equation, but I'm not going to get into that. Have fun, um, deciding how much to charge per job!

Labels: business

Having a partner in your teen lawn mowing business can be a great asset. I have a business partner, and it has worked out very well for me. However, you have to be careful in who you choose to help you with your business. A bad partner can really weigh you down, and you certainly can't afford that.

Reliability

Definitely ask yourself if your potential partner is reliable. This is probably the most important one. You can lose customers very easily if you don't mow their lawns. A business partner needs to go with you to the jobs they say they will go with you to, and be on time. Which brings us to the next one:

Punctuality

Does your potential business partner tend to arrive on time or when he or she says they will arrive to events? This is very important, because if you show up to a job and finish it before they arrive, well, that sucks.

Commitment

Is your potential business partner committed to the business? A partner isn't just extra labor, it is someone who will help you get more customers and make the business better. If the person isn't committed, then you will have a much harder time growing your business.

Free Time

Does you potential business partner have enough time to engage in your business? Don't make a deal with someone who won't even have time to make it to jobs. Different things come first to other people, and if they have bigger priorities that could conflict a lot with the business, this partner may not be right for you.

So...

Having a business partner can be great, but they are totally optional. If you feel that you want to run the business solo, go for it. Just make sure that if you do want a business partner that they are reliable, punctual, committed, and have enough time to commit to the business. Be smart.

Labels: business

Well, I've discussed several kinds of advertising for your teen lawn business. Flyers work great. "Other stuff" can be absolutely dandy. But one advertising technique I have not discussed in great depth is door-to-door, face-to-face.

First of all, you will need business cards. You can get them cheaply online or have them printed at the local print shop. For some tips on business cards, go here.

Now, the fun part. Customer-service provider interaction! First impressions are extremely important. You should wear something nice, a polo shirt is fine. Shower and wear deodorant, but nothing too strong. Before you set out, prepare what you will say at each door you will go to. Be sure to mention that you are a local teen. Make it short sweet, and to the point. Politeness is key, so mind your P's and Q's. When your potential customer opens the door, give your prepared blurb. Then, while looking them directly in the eye, give a firm handshake, and hand them your business card. If they aren't home, place your business card in the door. Then it's off to the next house. If you do this right, people will call you.

This kind of advertising is all about impressions. People are more likely to trust a well-dressed, sophisticated teen than a hoodlum off the street. Although this kind of advertising is hard for some people, it has great results. This technique will certainly increase your number of clients.

Labels: business

Previously, I have posted about putting out fliers to get customers for your teen lawn care. This is a great idea, and can work really well. Well, as I was searching around Associated Content for ideas to post about, I stumbled on an idea: other stuff!

Right now you are probably thinking, "What the heck does he mean by ‘other stuff?’" Well, I’ll tell you. "Other stuff" consists of frisbees, buttons, ink pens, refrigerator magnets, key chains, and other, well, stuff. In addition to or in lieu of putting out fliers, you could place some of the above mentioned items at peoples’ doors.

I think this is a good idea because people are more likely to check out and even keep a frisbee that they found on their doorstep than some boring flier. In fact, they might even talk to their neighbors about it. This could definitely stimulate some customers to choose you to mow their lawn.

Having a website for your business would be very helpful for this form of advertising. If you have a website, then you can simply print the name of your teen lawn service as well as the website on your items, and then hand them out. Just having a telephone number and/or email address can also work, and you can simply place those where a URL would normally be.

Cafepress has a great selection of customizable items. Click the previous link, and follow the instructions. Although I haven't tried it out myself specifically, it appears pretty hassle-free. Being the lazy cheapskate I am, I would probably use Microsoft Paint to make graphics for my items, with the help of CoolText and maybe some clipart. However, if you have a better graphics editor, definitely make use of it. It really isn't too hard to make your "stuff."

Fliers are great, and usually get the job done. But if you want to try something different, go for it. Using frisbees and key chains might be the edge you need to get the attention of some of those needed customers. Do it: Advertise your teen lawn lawn service in a new way.

Labels: business