My Flier

[JakobHarper]

The top of my flier reads in big bold letters...

FREE LAWN CARE FOR A WHOLE MONTH!!!

That’s RIGHT! With a One-Year Service agreement contract you will receive the first month of service free of charge.
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What are your thoughts on this strategy for building a quick solid base?

I do have the capital and means of staying afloat until the money comes in down the road so I don't see a problem but I'd like to know your thoughts. I figure if some people offer the 5th cut free...your looking at what maybe 5-8 free cuts a year? Why not do four in a row at the start and be done with the freebies.

(Yes, Grassmaster, I got the idea from your thread back when. But there is just too much competition in my area and I really want to blow past them this year so I'm going above and beyond the 5th cut is free method)

--Edit

Oh and I forgot to mention that my contract will definitely state that a breach by the client will result in a 10% fee off the yearly total maintenance fee. So if I'm looking at a 100$ a month account and they use me during the free month and drop me in the second they will owe me 10% of $1,200 which = $120 bucks...making me an additional $20 for the time I've spent with them so far.

[Bulldog26]

I don't like the wording. Free Lawn Care For a Whole Month. How about, Free Lawn Care for a Month, or
Free Lawn Care
1st Month Free

The idea..... not for me..... I would be worried about them dumbing you and moving on to the next great flyer they get, then I spent more time trying to get the 10% back from them. Do what you think will work for you, just be ready for some hassel. You could spend a lot of time running down the those $120 checks. Good Luck!
bt

[JakobHarper]

I own stock in Sirius Satellite Radio. This really doesn't have much to do with Lawn Care I know, but take it from a company that adds 6 million new subscribers in less than 2 years that they have an effective way to advertise. You might think $12.95 is expensive to pay for 120 channels of commercial free radio a month but when they offer the first 3 months free of charge it doesn't sound so bad.

Anyways, what I'm getting at is a lot of the Big Boys in any industry use advertising techniques like this to boost their subscriber counts and clientel.

[Scaper-S2k]

I don't like the idea that much, but if you're fine with it, then that's your business.


I will offer up a recommendation though. Don't give the first month for free! Give the last month for free.

Or better yet, give them August for free! You know, a month that isn't hectic and may have less mowings.

[MASTERMOWER]

What are your thoughts on this strategy for building a quick solid base?

In all honesty, it's a lose-lose situation. Your out money, and it will not build a solid client base.

Why? Because as someone else mentioned, the people attracted towards these kinda promotions will jump on yours for sure, but they'll jump right onto another guys offer if his is better.

True you are working with contracts, but you'd be surprised by the people that attempt to wiggle out of a contract early. Your dissolution of contract terms are fairly weak. $120 to break a contract is chump change. You'll need solid terms to ground them in the agreement or at a minimum you'll be compensated fairly if they jump onto another companies bandwagon.

If you should continue with this idea, I'd follow Scapers advice....give them the free month further down the road - not upfront.

Good luck!

[MASTERMOWER]

Allow me to elaborate on your problem:

-Customer signs contract for the $1200 yearly amount.

-You begin work as stated in contract. You give first month free. ($100 value on 12 month payment terms)

-Meanwhile, you're getting calls out the wazoo for mowing service. This is great, but you draw the line somewhere and can no longer take on any more accounts.

-Time passes, but customer receives a new flier. Filer states this guy will mow for $15/wk! Wow, they can't pass this one up.

-Customer calls you and breaks contract.

**This is just great....you had all the work you could handle, but now one goes, not to mention a few more are sure to follow suit in lieu of this dude banging out lawns for $15! (this is the point when some LSF members get online and whine how they don't know how they'll replace those clients!!) What will you do? Somehow call all those people back who you told that you where no longer accepting new clients? Nah, most of them already found someone else, or either Mr. $15 Cuts found them. At this stage you most likely hit the streets again with another special offer which you hope lures in a few more clients to replace those you lost.

-Meanwhile, you send your now former customer a bill for $120. If they pay the fee, you did make $120 off them for that month. That's just $20 over what they would have paid. Not to mention, the customer won't really care about paying it since they haven't paid a cent for services as of yet. $120 breaks the contract and they begin to $ave further with Mr. $15 Cuts. So what was the real cost to your customer to break the contract? $20 to be exact. They won't flinch to break a contract hanging on a measily $20....guaranteed! I might add, $pend thrifty clients usually end up being crappy payers to begin with.

When you begin to offer such incentives, you have to think things through throughly. Think it through with putting the free month at the end of the contract. Do you see how that would change the dynamics?

IMO, it's just easier to slowly build up a strong client base. I'm not a believer that you can lure quality clients on price.

Yes, this is a worst case scenerio, but wouldn't you rather avoid a potential mess like this?

Oh...and PS: I attempted a flier with an 'every fifth cut free' promotion. I didn't get a single response - though the fact I was in 5th grade at the time probably played a part in that.

[NC Lawnscaper]

I tend to agree with MasterMower. I cringe at the idea of mowing someone's lawn for free for a month and then have them dump me. I don't want to spend my time trying to collect broken contract money.

What I want to do is break myself out from the pack with quality service, offer more services than my competitors. And then I want to increase what I charge them based on the value of my service.

Gary

[steve-o]

BAD IDEA in my book. i don't give anything for free and if i give any extras then you can bet they paid for it in some way. get good clients who want your service for what you can do for their lawns not ones who will nickel and dime you to death. i think most people who respond to these types of gimmicks are cheap to begin with and as already stated not good payers. get a good solid client base of good customers. the good ones will stick with you no matter what. also and i've said this b/4 , adds like that make you look desparate for business in my opinion. good luck which ever way you go.

steve

[jagmagic]

I do like the idea. It sounds great in theory, however...


GRASSMASTER is right on in his analysis of the problems with it.

1. I still offer the 6th cut free, keep in mind the yearly contract is figured on cuts aprox. 20% higher than what I would normally charged, so I'm really not out anything.

2. My early termination fee is a little more stiff than yours. If they cancel prior to the end of the year they are then charged for any and all of the FREE cuts they have received as this is mention as a discount offered with a complete years worth of service. They are responsible for 25% of the ramaining contract as the early cancelation fee.

So, that same $1,200.00 customer decided 3 months into his contract he wants out. He will have had about 3 free cuts to that point which he would then have to pay for, totalling $128.55. He then would have paid off about $514.26 of his $1,200.00 agreement leaving $685.75. This will leave him an early term. fee of $171.44. In essence it will cost him $299.99. That is a true deterant to breaking the contract and TRUST me it will hold up in court if need be and the you could add court costs and legal fees on top of it.

[JakobHarper]

Ok Guys,

I'm loving the feedback because you are opening my eyes a little more to this idea. But I still like my idea for building a quick work schedule (I just need something to do! I can't build off of 1-2 sign-ups every now and then) So please continue to help me build on this idea.

So here's where I'm at. 10% breach of contract might be too cheap and let them off the hook too easily. Im now thinking 15%....thats 180$ for my same scenario as above. I plan on making several different flier promotions........some will have this offer and some will just be a general info "call for free estimate."

I know where your coming from Erich when you say offer the month of free services at the end....but who wants to wait around forever for the good deal. Most furniture companies and other retailers will give you the option of paying zilch until 6 months after or w/e. So I think more people will jump on my deal faster with an upfront savings bonus

Plus, the way I look at it. Come the end of the year I still did the same amount of work, I still got paid the same amount of cash. So I don't care. I might even tell them they have a free months service to take whenever they need it so some people might want to use it later for a month or can split it up and take a week now and then. Anyways keep the feedback coming, I'm off to class. Thanks!

JakobHarper

[jagmagic]

Please keep in mind, I don't make my contracts mandatory, I only use them in conjunction with promotions and if I'm "giving" something away like the FREE mowings.

[steve-o]

mr. jako, how big is your operation ?

steve

[OLD HAT]

if you want to offer something at a discount give them a coupon on the flier for a service they might not know about.
example:
free leaf mulching w/1yr service contract (haul off extra)
free fall aeriation w/1yr service contract
free fall gutter clean out w/1yr service contract
free soil test w/1yr service contract
1/2 off overseeding w/1yr service contract
1/2 off fertilization, in may w/1 yr service contract (if you are lic.)

Most of these are fall things, you already have the mojority of the money for the year. Just write it up to where if they break contract then they dont get the service. Also these services are out of the norm it should help you advertise these services if you offer them and also they dont cost you that much.

[dancom]

I'm loving the feedback because you are opening my eyes a little more to this idea. But I still like my idea for building a quick work schedule (I just need something to do! I can't build off of 1-2 sign-ups every now and then) So please continue to help me build on this idea.

Building a quick work schedule that you are not getting paid for does you no good. you build a quick customer base that does not pay the first month and might take up to 30 days to pay the second month. This means you are going to work the first 60 days with little to no money. Your are much better off to build 1-2 customers here and there that pay you. Go out and do the best job you can for those 1-2 customers and offer them discounts for referals like maybe a free cut for any new customer they get you.

[jagmagic]

Ok Guys,

I'm loving the feedback because you are opening my eyes a little more to this idea. But I still like my idea for building a quick work schedule (I just need something to do! I can't build off of 1-2 sign-ups every now and then) So please continue to help me build on this idea.

So here's where I'm at. 10% breach of contract might be too cheap and let them off the hook too easily. Im now thinking 15%....thats 180$ for my same scenario as above. I plan on making several different flier promotions........some will have this offer and some will just be a general info "call for free estimate."

I know where your coming from Erich when you say offer the month of free services at the end....but who wants to wait around forever for the good deal. Most furniture companies and other retailers will give you the option of paying zilch until 6 months after or w/e. So I think more people will jump on my deal faster with an upfront savings bonus

Plus, the way I look at it. Come the end of the year I still did the same amount of work, I still got paid the same amount of cash. So I don't care. I might even tell them they have a free months service to take whenever they need it so some people might want to use it later for a month or can split it up and take a week now and then. Anyways keep the feedback coming, I'm off to class. Thanks!

JakobHarper

I'm not trying to burst your bubble, but remember you have to "train" your customers. What kind of habbits do you want your customers to have?

You have to dictate to your customers how your business will run, otherwise they will learn to run all over you.

Trust me I know where you are coming from. Two years ago I was posting almost identicle threads. I lost a lot of money due to no, or crappy contracts, and pro-mo offers like the one you are talking about.

Let me give you another example. Please keep in mind the type of customer who will jump on this deal.

let's say you get 30 people to sign up due to this promotion. That's great. Now let's take the fact that 20% have no intention of paying, they are looking to prey on guys like you "and their are plenty out there" to get some free mowings. so, now you have mowed 6 lawns you have mowed 4 times 24 mowings that you will have to chase your money down. I don't know about you, but the months of May thru Sept. with the possible exception of August, I don't have time to "chase money" I expect it delivered!

Now, another 20%, 6 more customers will more than likely cancel for a different reason, job, illness in family, move, whatever. These people will get you your money, but when. So, now you are looking at the mowing of 48 lawns in 1 month and $0.00 to show for it.

That is the beauty of the 6th cut free. They have to pay you for 5 cuts prior to receiving your gift, therefore you are getting paid.

I'm not bashing your idea, It is a good one and should generate several calls, but as stated previously, these are not the Prime customers you should want to attract.

Have an attourney draw up papers for you so you know they will be binding, it's worth the $100.00 bill it will cost you. If you can put an attourney on retainer he will do it even cheaper. But the quality of your contract is a different discussion.

If you are going to run this promotion, and I do think it is a good one, you better have some stiff fees for them attempting to break the contract. 25% is not at all too high. Besides if they balk at it, then you know they are 1 of the 20% that would probably try to stiff you anyway. If they don't have a problem with it then they ARE the type of customers you want to try to gain and keep.

Price the cuts so that you are not truly losing the revenue off the free cuts, so you can tell him you will make him this same offer every year. That way it can become a business practice of yours and they won't get lured away by the next flyer (and their will be many more) that promises them something similar.