Shonuff
Mr. Poopybutthole
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Damn forum ate my 1000 word response.Cathan said:Reading through the thread here you said you do high end landscaping which sounds like a 1 time deal to me but you make good cash on it.
Later on in the thread you talk about partnering up with other businesses for referrals and various other methods of advertising. At another point you mention how some of your competitors mow lawns but don"t have the heavy equipment you do for the landscaping, how your guys don"t cut lawns...
Somehow I doubt this has escaped you but why not have either a separate business that cuts lawns or roll it into this business? Seems like you could use the lawn cutting business to bring in more clients for your landscaping business just by offerring more services and direct word of mouth referrals from one business to the other...
In a nutshell, an acquaintance of mine in another city told me that his largest competitor in the niche does zero advertising in the niche. While he might be on a few lawns a day, the other guy is on 1,000 lawns a day, mowing lawns. The mowers get paid commission and are trained to look for work while they go from house to house. So you have one guy specializing in the niche and relying on word of mouth and alot of advertising, while the other guy does the full gamut of lawn services, while being able to grab extra work as he goes along.
Its something I"ve thought of lately alot. The only way I could pull it off would be if the mowers were paid a seperate rate than my guys. My guys in the niche are highly trained, and they can command $15+ an hour at my competitors. You can"t pay a guy $17 an hour to mow lawns and make a profit doing so.
Maybe one day I"ll branch out to other services. But on the high end jobs (just ran an estimate on Tues for a trucking company that was $32k) we have more credibility, as I have a long list of difficult jobs that we"ve completed. Alot of firms that do multiple services around here get the rep of "jack of all trades, master of none."