Cut Lawns for FREE & Make a Pile of Money!

[GrassMaster]

Hello Everybody:

These Parts between the Question Marks is Just to get You Thinking?
???????????????????????????
Cut it for Free, Pile up the Clippings against Front & Back Door, If they want you to Dispose of Clippings, Charge them say $15 Bucks per 2.5 Bushels.

Cut Trees for Free, Pile the wood up against Front & Back Door. They want it Hauled off, Charge them a $1 per 24" piece of Wood!

LOL, You own the Business & if everything goes wrong you can Write it Off Right? LOL
???????????????????????????

Or if you want a Lot of Business?????

Ok, FREE is a Powerful Word in any Business!

Make you a Flier or Door Hanger?

At the Very Top Put on there all the way across the Top in Big Letters!

"I Will Cut Your Lawn for FREE!"

Or " FREE Lawn Service!"

Then below it have,
I will Cut any lawn in this Neighborhood for $35 per Cut,
The 5th Cut is FREE! Just use my Service 5 times in less than 60 Days & Your 5th Cut is absolutely FREE!

Now how hard is that?
There goes your Measly 1% to 2% per 1,000 Fliers!
You might only want to put out a 100 to Start with?

The Words:
"I Will Cut Your Lawn for FREE!"

or " FREE Lawn Service!"

This Will Reel them in! Btw this is a Neighborhood that the average cut is $30 a Pop.

What have you got to Loose?

What have You got to Gain!
Folks just go Crazy over anything FREE!

Now to add more Value, Make it Personal & To the Point!

What about doing the above FREE thing per 5 lawns, Hand Write in the Amount (leave a Blank Space), then at the Bottom, have a Small Guarantee in print, Then Have a Blank Space for the Companies Owner to Hand Sign the Guarantee?

This has FREE & hand written Price & Guarantee on it & it has a Documented Price in hand writing not in Print but Personal (specific to their Lawn & The Customer) then it has a Hand Signed Guarantee by the Companies Owner!

What Else can you Ask For?

Money is Work Divided by Time!

You can Pass out a 1,000 fliers & try to get 10 to 25 jobs if you are Lucky, or you can Gear it toward FREE & Make it Personalized then pass out 500 Fliers & Maybe get 25 to 50 Jobs or more!

Ok, I don't care what you think about the above. If you never cut a Lawn for FREE you will make more Money per Job, But I will get Many More Lawns than you & in the Long Run I will make a LOT MORE Money!

Please don't never do this if you are Happy where you are at Now or You Love Meeting the Neighborhood Folks Spending Days & Days walking through Countless Neighborhoods...

I'm Trying to Build up a Large Customer Base in the Shortest amount of Time & with the Least amount of Money Spent!

I Run My Business & I know how to market My Services!

You can't make Money Walking & Looking for Work, but...

If I do this in one of Your Neighborhoods, I will Put you back on the Street Looking for Customers! I WILL take Some of Your Customers!

BTW: I over Priced everyone of the Lawns at least $5 more than I would normally Charge, I will Up-sell some of them on Other Services, I provide & I will over charge them for these extra services! A Fact!

I will be Cleaning some of their Roof Gutters at about a $1 per Foot, I will be Pressure washing some of their Homes & Driveways making over $50 an Hour, I will be Fertilizing Some of their Lawns, Trimming some of their Hedges, I Might Even Fix their Gates or Fences in My Off Season & I will get Paid Top Dollar and then some for My Services because I have already got my foot in the Door, They Like Me & I offer a lot of Services for their Property and they can save time by using me!

And I'm Worth Every Penny of it and then some, Because I know What They Want & I Deliver it Professionally!

[UPS]

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So, are you doing every 5th cut the entire yr. for free or just the first 5th cut???

Could a guy get away with doing every 5th cut for free??

[Hoosier Mower]

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Just the 5th cut period! If you do every 5th cut in the long run you will loose your a$$ in a hurry!!!

[GrassMaster]

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Hello Everybody:

Ok, maybe make it a Little Clearer on the 5th Cut... But remember you are already charging $5 more Per Cut as mentioned above, because this particular Development has lawns that you would price at $30 a cut to Start with!

If you wanted to you could change it & say every 7th cut is FREE, doing it from now on & since you are over charging by $5 a cut, you would still be getting $30 a cut as you normally would? Get the Picture?

<b>Just try to Find something that Separates you from the Others!</b>

The only purpose in my Initial post was to get Folks thinking about what they could do Creatively to Get more Business in Less Time & Less Money, by Offering them something. FREE is a Powerful word in any business!

I can't tell you how many Times I got Year Round Maintenance Agreements, Telling Folks when they ask me what I would charge them to cut their Bushes & Weed their Beds. That I would say, well I'm Already Cutting your Property Now From April to Nov now for $45 every 10 days & if you paid me a $135 a month...

I will be more than Glad to Mow, Hedge, Edge, Trim & Blow off all concrete surfaces year round for the $135 a Month as needed, I'm already charging you for 8 months a year.

I could do it for that because we have a lot of Steady Growth during the Growing Season, but we had quite a few months where we just had very little to do!

Don't get me wrong here, I'm just trying to Help You Figure out a Way off that Mower. Year Rounders, Add on Services, Clean ups & etc... is where it's at. I did anything I could to stay off that Mower.

All you got to do is get your Foot in the Door & then go after add on Services. Yes, a very few wouldn't bite on my add on services, But I got a Check every month Year Round & you haven't Seen Easy Money until you get those Jan. & Feb. Checks. It allowed me to Keep my Employees Year Round & that's worth a Lot in it's self!

When we walked on to the Year Rounder Properties during the Non Growing Season, We made sure their Properties were Immaculate & They Loved it. Whatever their Schedule was during the Summer, 7,10 or 14 days that was the same exact Schedule in the Winter.

Now you might not be able to get away with this up north where it snows, but Be Creative, Include Driveway & Sidewalk cleaning in the Winter, Also offer Roof & Gutter Cleaning in your Year Round Monthly fee. Because...

It's very nice getting a check every single month from everyone of them! []

[mjlawncare]

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I really thinh that's a good idea .

[fatherandson]

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Hello,
sounds really good....
Im just getting started myself as a part time job...

Do you have an example of a small Guarantee ????

Thanks,
Joe

[GH725]

GrassMaster, can you give me some examples of commercial contracts?? I'd rather cut larger lots that take 4+ hours to do. Maybe some residental lawns. How do most commercial contracts work?? Are they yearly? monthly? Does it pay to cut larger lots? How often would you have to cut for the money you'll get in the contract? Sorry for al the questions but I'm just starting to get involved in the idea of starting my own business.

Thanks again...

[JeffStickney]

Reminds me of one of my old newspaper display ads:

FREE LAWN SERVICE (in huge letters)
is not offered,but (in really tiny letters)

STICKNEY LANDSCAPING (huge letters)
IS (huge letters) affodable (tiny letters)
FREE (huge letters) estimates (tiny letters)


The ad didn't get a single call, but I thinkit got a few laughs.

[Elwood]

No offense Grassmaster, but it sounds a little too much like trying to sell them a used car.

Yes, the word FREE is very powerful, but I chose to use FREE for a taste of add on services. Give them a small taste of them spending big bucks with me.

Be competitive on your mowing price, sell quality and give them a free hedge trimming or better yet a broadleaf weed control application. Something they can really see the value in. Of course these things have to have a maximum value (max. 50$ value)

Once you trim their bushes or kill their weeds, it is very easy to upsell them on an entire turf program or bed program.

Of course, you need to protect yourself, in your contract, it MUST state that if the mowing contract is canceled by years end, they will be billed for the "Free service" that was performed.

Just my thoughts and the results have been great!

Elwood

[mjlawncare]

Sorry Grassmaster

I tried this back in April , this week I took all the signs down, never worked for me. I guess I live in a closed minded town that people thinks that they are going to get screwed!

[GrassMaster]

Sorry Guys, It Worked for Me!

Gee Thanks Everybody, just Hit me in the Head with a Lead Hammer will Ya!

The only purpose in my Initial post was to get Folks thinking about what they could do Creatively to Get more Business in Less Time & Less Money, by Offering them something. FREE is a Powerful word in any business!

I'm very sure this worked for some folks just as good as it did for me!

This worked fine for me getting new accounts from my referrals, Yes back then I was trying to sell them on my services, I'm just trying to get my foot in the door, anyway possible. I did a fine job of it T00!

Once my foot is in the door I'm going to upsell them on my other services, I'm only giving the FREEbie - Offer to the Client 1 time through a Flier or 1st bidding visit or the Referall for every client they help me get. I will any day of the week give a 1 Time FREE Cutting for 4 cuts, for a potential long term client. I wish it was that easy for all of them!

That Customer already gets Charged $5 extra as mentioned so I'm $20 ahead of the ball game already. The Same exact thing if it's a referral from another client. So in most cases I'm only losing $10 to $25 for each potential long term client. Then after that Free cut I'm making $5 more per cut...

I wanted to come in at a Higher price & I did it most of the time, No not all of the time but most of the time.

I only needed to do this my first few years, because after I built up my List of regulars, I then only did year round maintenance agreements, then I got all the extra upsells & addon services as they came to me!

We all can't do the exact same thing when it comes to selling, bidding or just flat out getting more accounts, we must find what works best for us as individuals, then refine, modify & Improve as Needed! Then Go with it!

[Elwood]

GM,

I don't bring my toolbox to this forum!!

I was just trying to bring a different view or way of using the word "FREE" to light.

[Phil Nilsson]

Offer the service ... FREE ... if the customer is not happy with the results of your work. This is the strongest guarantee you can offer.

For All NEW customers use the word FREE then explain the service guarantee such as ... first (month) of service FREE if you are not satisfied with the results.

If you do good work as you claim you do then this shouldn't be a problem?



Phil

[mh1314]

I would suggest placing the address on your flier for the house you are bidding on. If that flier makes it to a large acerage house, they will get the last laugh.

[a&lLandscape]

Grassmaster do you have a flier i can download so i can try this method in my neighborhoods and see if it works?