Finally...someone willing to take a risk.

[scagguy]

Today we're mowing a clients yard and I see this door hanger against a fence. Normally, I throw them away unless I see it's a lawn or landscaping ad.
This one was. In bold letters it says ...PRICES STARTING AT $38.99. With all the riff raff and scrubs out there charging chump change for mowing, I found this to be a breath of fresh air. I even called the guy and told him that.He was appreciative of the fact that I would take the time and call just to say thanks for not cheapening our industry. I'm going to check back with him in a month or so to see how he's doing and how effective his door hangers were. Even though he is part of the competition in my area, I wish him well.

[Scaper-S2k]

Did he just turn YOU into a lowballer????

[gregn]

I am starting up in a new area this year as well. My strategy is to sell a quality service not just on price.

[Ric]

Curtis Mathe's Marketing, Expensive, But well worth it.

IMHO this type of Advertising is not sucessful unless your Reputation is already Established.

Yes I have many customers from word of mouth, who tell me they don't care what is costs. I don't charge them any more than my other customers. I am already charging higher prices than my competitors. But My reputation is well established because I believe in using only the best and more expensive chemicals and my yards show the differences. I only do Fert & Squirt.

[TRANSMAN]

Considering its so quite here i`ll ask somthing

Today we're mowing a clients yard and I see this door hanger against a fence. Normally, I throw them away unless I see it's a lawn or landscaping ad.
This one was. In bold letters it says ...PRICES STARTING AT $38.99. With all the riff raff and scrubs out there charging chump change for mowing, I found this to be a breath of fresh air. I even called the guy and told him that.He was appreciative of the fact that I would take the time and call just to say thanks for not cheapening our industry. I'm going to check back with him in a month or so to see how he's doing and how effective his door hangers were. Even though he is part of the competition in my area, I wish him well.

What good does it do to advertise starting at $39 bucks when 50+ percent of potential customers will never call that guy?????

Doesn't it matter if someone has a yard with under 5000 sq feet of grass that can be cut , weedwacked , and blown in 10 minutes ,and that its in a low cost community setting where there's 150 other customers there that will also hire you for say $ 20 bucks and you drive the mower from yard to yard and dont have to guzzle gas transporting equipment miles between jobs?????

Who's smarter in the end??????

That so called dummy guy ,doing a Park style community and can cut 80 postage stamp size yards a day and hardly break a sweat at $20 per pop , or the more professional somebody charging $40 but with the travel time and loading and unloading that gets 15 yards done per day , and is breaking his balls????

80 X 20 = $1600 pr day..... And uses $8 bucks (if that) in gas a day?????

He actually has almost 200 lawns in the community and makes about $3000 week give , or take ,working 2 days per week....

So Scrubby goes home with $3000 at the end of 2 days , and swallows his pride because he thinks!!!!:laughing:

Or:

Joe PRO,

15 X $39.99 = $600 per day...... And uses $30 in gas a day driving around because he has to find people that make enough to pay what the potential customer can do himself or have a kid do anyway??????

Plus he only makes $600 a week gross , minus $30 in gas , each of the other days of the week , because he has to go chase down customers that cant afford throwing $39.99 a week out the window when the kid next door will cut the yard for $10 bucks so he wates all that time an energy finding people just cant pay 40-50 a week because they gotta eat....



So in reality after all the expenses chasing down customers , he (Mr big shot) "Professional pricer" makes $300 clear at the end of the week if he`s lucky because he doesent think!!!!!!:laughing:



Plus he has to start off slower , will grow much slower ,and be out of business before he gets 15 customers to start off with , and in the meantime sucks welfare because he insists he`s worth whatever , because the more educated air conditioning tech, or electrician gets whatever???? $$$$$$ so much per visit but is a one time thing and not weekly like mowing....

Does anyone even consider that when they say "well im worth such and such just like the plumber , electrician , and , air conditioning teck" that those others only do the job once per year then have to look for new customers or hope for them??????

Does anyone here have the electrician , plumber , and air conditioner serviced weekly?????? I dont think so...............

It would be very expensive wouldn't it , or do you just forget that whole notion of common sense???????

Their not weekly drains on the customers fixed income like the lawn guy....

Would you pay your Barber $39.99 a week to keep your hair trimmed to a crew cut just because he so stupidly wants to compare to what a lawn guy or what some other person makes who isnt a weekly money drain??????

This whole "I`m set at my weekly price thing ,and ain't gonna budge period " idea "regardless of what anyone thinks" shows a lack of logical thinking to me and its no wonder why 90 percent go out of business......

Well just my opinion , and stirring the pot , but who is willing to pay their barber $50 bucks a week here , when money is supposedly so tight and everyone seems to be constantly complaining about the price of things and say the economy sucks ?????

Seems to be like a double standard exists here without even thinking about how often and secure yard work is compared to others who are supposed to be a 1 time per year repair ,then their gig is up and have to wait for the phone to ring .....

The whole idea of (you gotta charge whatever) is ridicules because you cant compare yourself to a electrician or Surgeon.... Their totally different but people keep wondering why......

Here's The reason

Neither works for you weekly!!!!!!

Hopefully they do a job right , and you never see , or have to pay them again , but they have to constantly get new clientele if they do it right and charge more to float in between......

Tanky..... im sure im thinking this all wrong anyway but its dead here ,so no loss.....

T

[scagguy]

What good does it do to advertise starting at $39 bucks when 50+ percent of potential customers will never call that guy?????

Doesn't it matter if someone has a yard with under 5000 sq feet of grass that can be cut , weedwacked , and blown in 10 minutes ,and that its in a low cost community setting where there's 150 other customers there that will also hire you for say $ 20 bucks and you drive the mower from yard to yard and dont have to guzzle gas transporting equipment miles between jobs?????

Who's smarter in the end??????

That so called dummy guy ,doing a Park style community and can cut 80 postage stamp size yards a day and hardly break a sweat at $20 per pop , or the more professional somebody charging $40 but with the travel time and loading and unloading that gets 15 yards done per day , and is breaking his balls????

80 X 20 = $1600 pr day..... And uses $8 bucks (if that) in gas a day?????

He actually has almost 200 lawns in the community and makes about $3000 week give , or take ,working 2 days per week....

So Scrubby goes home with $3000 at the end of 2 days , and swallows his pride because he thinks!!!!:laughing:

Or:

Joe PRO,

15 X $39.99 = $600 per day...... And uses $30 in gas a day driving around because he has to find people that make enough to pay what the potential customer can do himself or have a kid do anyway??????

Plus he only makes $600 a week gross , minus $30 in gas , each of the other days of the week , because he has to go chase down customers that cant afford throwing $39.99 a week out the window when the kid next door will cut the yard for $10 bucks so he wates all that time an energy finding people just cant pay 40-50 a week because they gotta eat....



So in reality after all the expenses chasing down customers , he (Mr big shot) "Professional pricer" makes $300 clear at the end of the week if he`s lucky !!!!!!:laughing:



Plus he has to start off slower , will grow much slower ,and be out of business before he gets 15 customers to start off with , and in the meantime sucks welfare because he insists he`s worth whatever , because the more educated air conditioning tech, or electrician gets whatever???? so much per visit but is a one time thing and not weekly like mowing....

Does anyone even consider that when they say "well im worth such and such just like the plumber , electrician , and , air conditioning teck" that those others only do the job once per year then have to look for new customers or hope for them??????

Does anyone here have the electrician , plumber , and air conditioner serviced weekly?????? I dont think so...............

It would be very expensive wouldn't it , or do you just forget that whole notion of common sense???????

Their not weekly drains on the customers fixed income like the lawn guy....

Would you pay your Barber $39.99 a week to keep your hair trimmed to a crew cut just because he so stupidly wants to compare to what a lawn guy or what some other person makes who isnt a weekly money drain??????

This whole "I`m set at my weekly price thing ,and ain't gonna budge period " idea "regardless of what anyone thinks" shows a lack of logical thinking to me and its no wonder why 90 percent go out of business......

Well just my opinion , and stirring the pot , but who is willing to pay their barber $50 bucks a week here , when money is supposedly so tight and everyone seems to be constantly complaining about the price of things and say the economy sucks ?????

Seems to be like a double standard exists here without even thinking about how often and secure yard work is compared to others who are supposed to be a 1 time per year repair ,then their gig is up and have to wait for the phone to ring .....

The whole idea of (you gotta charge whatever) is ridiculas because you cant compare yourself to a electrician or Surgeon.... Their totally different but people keep wondering why......

Heres The reason

Neither works for you weekly!!!!!!

Hopefully they do a job right , and you never see , or have to pay them again , but they have to constantly get new clientel if they do it right and charge more to float in between......

Tanky..... im sure im thinking this all wrong anyway but its dead here ,so no loss.....

T

You raise some valid points. However, what if he has a decent measure of success? If so, then my thought is that he might be changing things up a bit for the better. If not, then at least someone had the balls to put their prices up front. Like I said earlier, I'm going to check back with him in a month or so and see how well he did with the door hangers.

[Ric]

Cranky

What is wrong with you?? Everyone likes to blow money and buy the most expensive service from new guys in the business during a time of inflation and devalued Dollars.

[clclawn]

I question the flyer also.

It is possible he had differant price points for differant hoods. If that is the case, then it may work. Maybe all the 39 dollar flyers went on the 50-60 dollar yards. If so he's still a low baller.

Tranny, your 90% right. The attatude by some seem either fake or they are just dumb. There is a hood i have about 10 yards in. I charge 15$ per yard. My guys are in and out in less the an hour. Thats $75 per man hour. But alot on here would call that lowballing because i don't have a $35 min drop gate fee. I hate mowing these yards, and haven't in about 2 years, but the guys don't complain once they find out what we make in there.

[spotremix]

im thinking this thread is full of extremely valuable information for me since i would prefer to be the mow and go company.

my concern with only doing a mow and go is that it seems to me these are the companys that would get dropped when the economy goes bad? i mean a lot of people will think they can save some money by doing it themselves.

if you offer the other services people would be more inclinded to stick with you i would think. people aren't gonna wanna trim there hedges, spread mulch, edge, all that extra stuff. it takes to long and obviously since they have a service to begin with they either don't like doing yard work or don't have the time.

[highlander316]

^check the thread I made.

[spotremix]

^check the thread I made.

already did. but what i wrote was just a theory. it might not actually work i don't know.

for now i'm sticking with offering the extra services. down the road though who knows.

with the sagging economy now's not the time to change up something that is already working pretty well for me.

[highlander316]

yea. I think mow and blows are gonna get hit the hardest. Stay outta debt, keep your expenses low and you might be fine.

[clclawn]

yea. I think mow and blows are gonna get hit the hardest. Stay outta debt, keep your expenses low and you might be fine.

Best advice i've heard all week.




The mow and gose are always going to ify. There is always going to a freind, a grandson or what ever.

[snowmaster]

Today we're mowing a clients yard and I see this door hanger against a fence. Normally, I throw them away unless I see it's a lawn or landscaping ad.
This one was. In bold letters it says ...PRICES STARTING AT $38.99. With all the riff raff and scrubs out there charging chump change for mowing, I found this to be a breath of fresh air. I even called the guy and told him that.He was appreciative of the fact that I would take the time and call just to say thanks for not cheapening our industry. I'm going to check back with him in a month or so to see how he's doing and how effective his door hangers were. Even though he is part of the competition in my area, I wish him well.

I had a guy yesterday put a complete list of services and pricing flyer on my mailbox when I had my truck and trailer loaded up in the driveway. Is the guy an idiot!?! Why would you let your competetion in the area know what you are charging?

And I'm getting tired of these LOWBALLERS! I had a 1.5 acre commercial account decline my bid because some idiot undercut my bid by $20 per time!

[Number 10]

It depends

im thinking this thread is full of extremely valuable information for me since i would prefer to be the mow and go company.

my concern with only doing a mow and go is that it seems to me these are the companys that would get dropped when the economy goes bad? i mean a lot of people will think they can save some money by doing it themselves.

if you offer the other services people would be more inclinded to stick with you i would think. people aren't gonna wanna trim there hedges, spread mulch, edge, all that extra stuff. it takes to long and obviously since they have a service to begin with they either don't like doing yard work or don't have the time.

Sporty, I think it depends on what percentage of the family budget your services consume. Sure, low dollar yards will generally see the most volatility but that works both ways; adding and subtracting. i would try to focus on the houses that appear to be the best maintained all around. Not the ones with the coolest cars because hey are probably overstretched but folks that seem to have it together enough to keep and succeed at their job. Also if possible get to know the customer as pesonally as ou can Its harder to fire someone you like!