Help W/ Business Plan

[user name]

Can anyone help me W/ my business plan. its for my entreprenuership class. i need help on marketing stratigies, how to hire and train employees, and how much to pay them, how many yards do you start off with when you hire employees, do they work five days a week. how do you price yards. Thank you for your time.

[GeeVee]

Use the search feature.

[Phil Nilsson]

Can anyone help me W/ my business plan. its for my entreprenuership class. i need help on marketing stratigies, how to hire and train employees, and how much to pay them, how many yards do you start off with when you hire employees, do they work five days a week. how do you price yards. Thank you for your time.

If this is a homework assignment or for class prep ... you need to burn some midnight oil and learn it yourself via research ... right?

[user name]

If this is a homework assignment or for class prep ... you need to burn some midnight oil and learn it yourself via research ... right?

right,and this is where my research has led me...so far

[Ric]

right,and this is where my research has led me...so far

User Name

First a little originality would be nice. You might try that with a Screen name. Now Yard Care service might be broken into three categories

1 Mow & go (Minimal service)
2. Full service (Which includes Tree & shrub trimming)
3 Total Service ( which is the addition of Pesticide, Fertilization and Irrigation and plant replacement as needed)

These are just some of the categories that are representative of the Yard Service Industry. To design a Business plan and mission statement you should take into account the Following.

1. Industry experience of the owner (CEO)
2. Capital available for investment including Cash and credit.
3. Potential Market area that your business wishes to target.

Now research the market in your target area and find out where the highest demand and lowest competition is and then Examine your ability to compete in that market.

Now assuming you have examined the market and your ability to compete. You have found that you have little experience in this industry and Little Capital. In order to compete you will pick Mow & Go because it takes the least amount of knowledge and capital. Once again you look at your Capital and decide weather you will target market to Garden type homes with small lawns requiring only a $ 100 push mower or one acre homes requiring a $ 10,000 mower.

Pricing is generally done on a per thousand square feet basic. But Time is what you are really selling, so how much time it takes to do the job plus travel time is your costing factor.

Training is a matter of teaching mower maintenance and proper cutting height and of course how to operate a mower.

Wages are of local prevailing wage for unskilled labor, plus labor burden.

Marketing is a college degree in its self but certainly Direct Mail, Flyers, Telephone Book and Newspaper Advertisement are the most popular.

Now I have skipped over this very Lightly and Left out a great deal of the refinements. This should get you started in the right direction at least.

[bubbagumplawn]

ric -

i'm a bit new at this too. been following the forum for sometime. i appreciated the time you took to give some advice.

fil, on the other hand....jesus, what can i say. way to go.

user name -

it may be a safe bet that you don't have many if any jobs secured yet. that said, i'd put the staffing issues aside and plan to go it alone until you can support yourself.

buy the equipment you can afford. don't go into debt to get this monster off the ground. there is typically a flood of used equipment on the market in late summer, early fall due to failed upstarts like your and mine. more than likely the overhead crushed'em. too bad for them, great for us.

stick to flyers and put out a bunch of 'em. for "mow&go" they seem to have the highest rate of return. incidently, i like magnetic business cards. they're easy to attach to a mailbox or car door (and don't get blow away) and folks are likely to keep'em, even if they don't buy your service...today. you can buy about a 1000 blank ones for $150 and print them yourself.


truthfully, you may get overwhelmed. that's when you and i both will need to revisit and consider hiring a crew.

for service businesses like "mow&go", if you're price is competitive, the customer will likely buy subsequent to contacting you. if you provide good service, he'll keep you on.

as far as a business plan, that's stuff great for loan officers and other investors, but its not critical to getting started. as a matter of fact, if you're putting one together for loan officer at your bank, tear it up. the only person who will benefit from it will be him, when he forecloses on your loan. i said it before, don't go into debt to get started. if you can't afford to buy equipment today, keep your day job and buy it a piece at a time. for that matter, you should likely keep your day job after you get started. in my market, i'm gonna need 60 active accounts to keep food on my table and pay the light bill. until you can build the client base, stay with your current job.

a good game plan is important. a game plan will include competitor information (prices, service, availability, etc), revenue and cost projections and active review of both, market planning development and measurement (advertising medium; measure the return, remember: flyers are cheap and you control the distribution), planning for future growth (put your dreams on paper and take action).

bgl

[Ric]

ric -

i'm a bit new at this too. been following the forum for sometime. i appreciated the time you took to give some advice.

fil, on the other hand....jesus, what can i say. way to go.

bgl

bubbagumplawn

Fil does have some informative posts that are worth reading. However IMHO personality and common sense are not his strong points.

right,and this is where my research has led me...so far

User Name

Yes talking with people in the industry is one of the first places you should research. They can guide you to other resources and give you insight that you may not find anywhere else. College only teaching you about 20% of what you need to know, and hopefully how to study and find answers. However nothing will substitute for the school of hard knocks. Working in an Industry for someone else is the best way to learn that Industry. Too many people think Grass cutting is not a real business and that anyone can do it. Maybe this is the reason for the 70% failure rate of most start up lawn cutters.

[Elwood]

as far as a business plan, that's stuff great for loan officers and other investors, but its not critical to getting started. as a matter of fact,

I disagee, YOU are the one who will benifit from a business plan. It helps to lead you in the right direction and keep you focused.

a good game plan is important. a game plan will include competitor information (prices, service, availability, etc), revenue and cost projections and active review of both, market planning development and measurement (advertising medium; measure the return, remember: flyers are cheap and you control the distribution), planning for future growth (put your dreams on paper and take action).

These are some of the things you should have in a business plan.

[Elwood]

As far as Phil's comment,.......well, consider the source. He even has a nice "cut and paste" from somewhere else, I think even on this forum that would have been a nice help to "user name".