This week I want to tell you how you can grow your business just by looking the part!

I have talked before about how important your Brand is, and part of your brand is your Image and the way you look. Your image includes the First Impression you give to your prospects. People are happy to buy off you because they feel you are professional and they have confidence in your ability. A lot of the perception that people have of you is based on what they see.

A Professional Appearance Is Essential For Success.

First Impressions are everything.

You have a look at the successful Landscaping and Contractor (plumbers, electricians, etc) companies about town. All the staff wear the same Professional uniform and outfit.

A Professional Outfit includes:

• Professional Company Shirts – Go with a standard shirt, and advertise your company name, phone number, website address on it. Think about your corporate colours and a professionally designed Logo. Personally, I am not a fan of the fluoro safety shirts but if you have to have these then wear a safety vest over your uniform so you can take the vest off to show off your uniform
• Work trousers – these can be jeans, or just even khaki shorts. Make sure your work trousers or shorts are “work” pants, not a pair of gym shorts or shorts with holes in them. Make sure the trousers are of a colour that presents you professionally. Remember that You and your crew will be working in nice neighborhoods or at retail or commercial locations: so you want to look professional at all times
• Work boots – your work boots should be boots, not tennis shoes! Your footwear should complement your uniform, and should also be appropriate for type of work you are carrying out – keeping in mind the danger of work as well. You are performing a serious task with sometimes dangerous equipment, so you and your employees should wear the appropriate footwear and safety equipment
• Company hats – if standardized company hats also create a good First Impression. Do your employees wear hats?  Get standard hats or caps with your company name and Logo on them
• Personal appearance – make sure all your staff are clean, well groomed, clean shaven, neat haircuts and No visible Body Piercings!

As you are in the business of growing your business and You want more customers, and more importantly more lucrative customers, then you need to create a good First Impression.

People are willing to pay for a high level of service and professionalism. Even though you maybe running the greatest lawn care service in the world, nobody will know if you and your employees do NOT look the part.

Did you know that How you look determines whether you get more and better paying contracts!?

#4ContractorChallenge:

So, to find out more about your Gardening Business, go across to the Free Report in the box on the Right Hand side of your computer screen, and subscribe for The “How To Build Your Own Successful Lawn and Garden Business in 30 Days” Blueprint – it’s FREE!!!!

If you have ever read any books, or gone to any seminars, on “Business Planning” you will get the same old advice, that is, write up a business plan, do your SWOT analysis, analyse the competitors in your market place, etc, etc, etc.
 
But all this is doing is just holding you back from what you should be doing, and that is, you should Just Do It!
 
“Do what?” you ask.
 
Just write up small Flyer (A5 will do!), print off 500 from your own computer and get it out there around your local area!
 
You see, there is no point in doing a business plan and all that stuff, if what you have to offer is not what the customers want.
 
So, if you want to risk as little as you have to, then knock up a small flyer, put a few hundred out in your area, and see what sort of response you get. If the phone rings, you have a business. After this, the only thing you need to worry about is how effective your advertising flyer is, and you can work on that later!
 
OK, so up until now we have got into the nitty gritty of our (new) business…but where to from here.
 
Quite often we get through the first period of our business all fired up, and then we can become a bit lethargic and maybe lose our way a little.
 
When this happens it’s time for some solid Goal Setting. What you need now is a (Business) Plan of Attack!
 
Your new Action Plan is all about setting SMART Goals: your new Goals should be [S]pecific, [M]easurable, [A]ttainable, [R]ealistic and [T]imely.
 
This Plan of Attack is not a Business Plan as such, but a To Do List for each Day of the Week, each Week of the Month, each Month of the Year, each Year of the next 5 years and so on.
 
With Goal Setting it is important to:

1. Write Your Goals down – keeping in mind the SMART goal setting system
2. Revise these goals from time to time because some of them may be unreasonable or unnecessary 

Goal Setting helps you:

1. Get over the fear of failure and success
2. Motivate yourself
3. Prioritise the important tasks
4. Take Action to achieve your goals
5. To plan your business
6. To overcome obstacles

#3ContractorChallenge…

So, to find out more about your Gardening Business, go across to the Free Report in the box on the Right Hand side of your computer screen, and subscribe for The “How To Build Your Own Successful Lawn and Garden Business in 30 Days” Blueprint – it’s FREE!!!!

There are two (2) concepts that you need to understand and embrace if you want to succeed in business. These concepts are your Elevator Pitch and your Unique Selling Proposition (or USP).
 
The Elevator Pitch is:

1. a short and sweet summary of what you do and it is not really about trying to sell to someone. So instead of telling someone “I mow Lawns”, you might say “We turn our customers gardens into Landscape Showpieces”.
2. a pitch for other people’s attention
3. what you tell people if you were in an elevator and you only have 30 seconds (or 100 to 150 words) to impress them or to engage them
4. a pitch for someone’s attention telling them what you do and hopefully they will be interested to ask you for more information. It is an introduction to what you do and in the process you create some intrigue and hopefully generate some enquiry from the listener

Your USP, or Unique Selling Proposition is:

1. the reason (or the compelling Point Of Difference) your customers choose you over your competition
2. the foundation of your advertising program – your USP is what you communicate to your market-place
3. the foundation of your professional image – Your image and brand are a result of devising your USP, and your image and brand is carried through to all your livery – clothing – uniforms, letterheads, business cards, magnetic stickers, motor vehicle signage, web sites, emails, flyers, brochures
4. the first impression new customers and prospects have of you
5. most probably more important to have than your Elevator Pitch

If you avoid or skip defining your own USP, you’ll struggle to grow your business.

Your Unique Selling Proposition is what you tell the market place through your Flyers, Leaflets, Website (if you have a website – I can show you how you can get your own website without paying a cent), Business cards, Brochures, Radio advertisements and so on. Your USP helps to remind prospects and existing customers why you are different to your competitors. Your USP is a summary of all the benefits (as opposed to all the features) you provide to your customers.

This Point of Difference (your USP) that you articulate may be something as insignificant as the location of your business, the way you carry out your service, or the speed of service delivery.

Famous examples of good USPs include:
Domino’s Pizza: “You get fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less – or it’s free.”
FedEx: “When your package absolutely, positively has to get there overnight”
Coca-Cola: “It’s the real thing”
DeBeers’: “Diamonds are forever”
 
You can see why the Domino’s & FedEx slogans / USPs are so effective because they are very specific with their mentions of benefits & guarantees. These USPs are complete statements which can be verified by the customer and they doesn’t resort to marketing hype words like “ultimate”, “best”, “greatest”.
 
The “Advertising Age” voted the DeBeers’ “Diamonds are forever” the best advertising slogan in the 20th century. Also, DeBeers would have benefited nicely from the glamorous James Bond film and book with the same name.

So when you develop these concepts or slogans don’t say something like “We provide excellent service”, because anyone can say that. In other words there is NO point of difference here!!!
 
In summary, with both the Elevator Pitch and your USP, you are communicating to prospects and customers how you take Prospects with a Problem or Pain to another place where there is Pleasure.

#2ContractorChallenge…

So, to find out more about your Gardening Business, go across to the Free Report in the box on the Right Hand side of your computer screen, and subscribe for The “How To Build Your Own Successful Lawn and Garden Business in 30 Days” Blueprint – it’s FREE!!!!

Gardening Business Plan- how to get sales the easy way: mmm, I should correct myself there, it is not easy getting sales but it is made easier if you have a little bit of theory and have some practical know-how.

The 3 main sales and marketing objectives of any business are to:

1. Increase the number of its customers
2. Increase the $ value of sales, or more importantly increase the profit per sale, and finally
3. Increase the frequency of sales per client

When you are planning your gardening business (especially your sales forecasts and marketing) you need to understand that sales can only come from 3 ways.

These 3 ways of making more sales are:

1. Getting new customers - think about your sales funnel and all the new leads that you want to attract into your funnel. The Sales Funnel analogy is really important as it creates a picture in our mind of where all our prospects are hanging out and how we can attract them to our funnel. Getting new customers (and obviously, leads) requires a knowledge of what are the right marketing efforts needed to attract new leads / prospects and then to acquire new customers. Marketing your business is a whole new area to look at.
2. Increasing the dollar amount of sales to your customers, that is, a combination of increasing your prices and driving down your costs – therefore, improving your profits or bottom line
3. Selling more to your existing customer base, or make more sales to existing customers - that is, “Would you like fries with that?” should help you understand this point of up-selling. The aim here is to extract as much as you can from existing customers. It’s a fact that you can sell a whole lot easier to an existing customer than to a new prospect.

#1ContractorChallenge

So, to find out more about your Gardening Business, go across to the Free Report in the box on the Right Hand side of your computer screen, and subscribe for The “How To Build Your Own Successful Lawn and Garden Business in 30 Days” Blueprint – it’s FREE!!!!

You have come to this page to leave a Comment / Question for the 13 Week Contractor Challenge.

Leaving a comment is valued as the question will be answered in time, or may even be used as a challenge for one week.

Thanks for your contribution.

If you are new here then hop on over to the FREE report box on the right hand side of the screen for The “How To Build Your Own Successful Lawn and Garden Business in 30 Days” Blueprint – it’s Free!

Think how good it would be if you had the answers to all of those big questions like:

1. What are the entry costs for getting into the business?
2. What equipment do you buy?
3. What are the different motor vehicle set-up options available (inc trailer option)?
4. How to Employ Others to Work in Your Business?
5. What are the best financing options for buying a motor vehicle and equipment?
6. Do you buy a new or second hand motor vehicle?
7. General know how re lawnmowing and gardening like how do you mow a lawn, how do you edge a lawn and how often do you mow and service your customer’s lawns?
8. With regard to quoting are you scared of under-quoting or over-quoting – how do you manage quoting on jobs?
9. Will the business be viable? This is a commonly asked question! Do you have any idea of Income versus Cost?
10. Regarding the physical demands of the job, are you up to it?
11. Is there enough work around?
12. What happens to rubbish & clippings removal?
13. Where do you start with marketing and sales? Should you go with leaflets, Yellow Pages, websites, etc?
14. How To Run A Successful Business with extra sets of hands? Direct Employees versus SubContractors – which way do you go?
15. How to use Persuasive Selling Techniques To Win New Customers and Close The Sale? This is a really simple technique utilized by the big companies around the world!

If you have a look at the questions above and replaced the words “lawn mowing” and “gardening” with “painting” or “cleaning” then any of those questions would apply to any trade. All in all, wouldn’t it be great if you had all the answers to “How To Be A Successful Contractor“ – well you are in luck because I am writing a book on this very topic.

“How To Be A Successful Contractor“ – this book will answer all the questions contractors have for running their own business (whether it is gardening, painting or roof repairs). This book will provide answers for tradesmen of all types! It is about 45% completed and will not be ready for publication for 6-12 months, but I will be answering these questions and more along the way.

So, to be part of the learning process, hop over to the Free Report in the box on the Right Hand side of your computer screen, and register for The “How To Build Your Own Successful Lawn and Garden Business in 30 days” Blueprint – it’s FREE!!!

If I have not got around to all the answers let me know at the Feedback Page.

What Are The Risks To You?

www.YourLawnAndGarden.com is here to provide you with a low-to-almost-no risk way of getting into and succeeding in the Lawn Mowing, Gardening and Landscaping industry at a fraction of the cost of buying a traditional Lawn Mowing franchise.

If you are interested in running a successful business with minimal start up costs and ongoing fees, then help is here for you!

For a fraction of the up front fees and other monthly charges that you could pay for a Bearded One’s Lawn Mowing franchise, we can help you establish and run your own successful Lawn Mowing and Gardening business in a short space of time.

Just ask yourself, “why risk your money for something like a franchise?” – especially when it may not be your “cup of tea”.

So, to find out more, go across to the Free Report in the box on the Right Hand side of your computer screen, and subscribe for The “How To Build Your Own Successful Lawn and Garden Business in 30 Days” Blueprint – it’s FREE!!!!

If you have ever read any books on, or gone to any seminars on ”Business Planning” you will get the same old advice, that is, write up a business plan, do your SWOT analysis, analyse the competitors in your market place, etc, etc, etc.

But all this is doing is just holding you back from what you should be doing, and that is, you should Just Do It!

“Do what?” you ask.

…Just write up small Flyer (A5 will do!) and get it out there! Just drop 500 flyers around your local area to get started!

You see, there is no point in doing a business plan and all that stuff, if what you have to offer is not what the customers want.

So, if you want to risk as little as you have to, then knock up a small flyer, put a few hundred out in your area, and see what sort of response you get. If the phone rings, you have a business. After this, the only thing you need to worry about is how effective your advertising flyer is, and you can work on that later!

Now, If you want to know more about this then hop over to the Free Report box on the right hand side of your computer screen and register for The “How To Build Your Own Successful Lawn and Garden Business in 30 Days” Blueprint – it’s FREE!!

How Do You Start a Lawn and Garden Care Business from scratch? First let’s take a look at a few things that you need to consider.

Starting you own lawn and garden business presents a lot of challenges for you. However, it is not as hard as you think.

Initially, you need to consider the following:

• A Dream & The Desire: You must have a Dream and the Desire to succeed in the world of business.
• A Plan Of Action: With this desire, you need to put in place a plan of action in the form of a business plan. Smart operators can create a plan of action that is reduced to a One Pager Business Plan.
• Business Details: You need to nut out a few details of your new business venture - including what you are going to call your business. Instead of Joe Smith Lawnmowing, you are better calling yourself Greenfields Lawn Care for example. The advantage with this sort of business name is you can sell the business with a Business Name (and associated good will).
• Other Business Details: When you get down to the nitty gritty you will need to look at Marketing, Quoting Procedures, Branding, Cash Flow, and so on.

All these details are covered in The ”How To Build Your Own Successful Lawn and Garden Business in 30 Days” Blueprint – just hop over to the box on the Right Hand side of your computer screen and register for the Free Report / Blueprint. Do it now – it’s Free!

When you’re done and you have read all the Blueprint let us know what you have thought about it and leave us some feedback at the FeedBack Page.

Thanks.

Time and time again, I get asked by people what is the downside to getting into the Lawn and Garden Industry. The answer is there is no downside.

I will tell you now: the risk is minimal. I will show you why!

Basically, all the gear you need for a real simple Lawn Mowing business is the following:

1. A motor vehicle sedan with trailer, or just a motor vehicle utility (or as the Americans say, a pick up) – you can get by with your family motor vehicle
2. A basic push lawn mower with catcher (and mulch attachment, if possible) – you don’t need to invest in a self propelled lawn mower as these are about 2 to 3 times the cost of an ordinary push mower
3. A whipper-snipper / brushcutter for trimming grass along edges and fences etc – (this is the same as a weed eater)
4. A vacuum blower machine
5. A few wool bags or large hessian bags for grass clippings, otherwise ask customers if you can dispose of green waste in their green bins
6. Some basic garden tools including spade, rake, secateurs, clippers, pruners and bush saws

So all the above gear is stuff you need for your own home anyway, and apart from this if you had to sell all the equipment you would get most of your money back. Based on this, there is minimal risk to you starting your own lawn mowing business.

The only risk is you may not earn as much as you could in your old job working for the boss. However, if you want to find out more about how to earn an instant, solid, attractive and sustainable income then go over to the Free Report box on the right hand side and register for The “How To Build Your Own Successful Lawn and Garden Business in 30 Days” Blueprint and I will show you the pathway to a successful lifestyle.