Welch is famous for speaking straight from the gut (the title of his autobiography), and he didnt disappoint. Sitting down for a lively question-and-answer session with University President Donna E. Shalala, he also took questions from the audience.
Posts Tagged ‘Forum’
2009 Global Business Forum: Jack Welch – Former CEO, General Electric
26
Dec
How to use the snow plow estimate calculator – GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Forum Podcast
12
Dec
www.gopherforum.com Trying to figure out how much to charge for snow plowing can be pretty tough. If you charge too much, you wont get any jobs. If you charge too little you wont make any profit. Now it is important to keep in mind what the going rate for snow plowing services is in your…
Recession marketing ideas – GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Marketing Forum Show
16
Nov
www.gopherforum.com We had a great conversation on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum that I wanted to share with you. Feel free to jump on it and offer your views as well. Luna joined up on the forum and wrote Hello! Just joined here and was looking to get opinions on a couple of truck…
Being a good landscaper is not enough. – GopherHaul 58 Lawn Care Forum Show
08
Nov
www.gopherforum.com – Its fascinating the lessons learned by new lawn care business owners who leave their full time jobs to go off on their own and start their own business. A member of the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum shared with us some of the issues he ran into when he got started. He wrote Its one thing to manage a business for someone but its definitely another to own a business. I thought that because I was a great landscaper people would just call. I thought wrong. I now have an interactive website and advertise locally in the community papers. I am trying to make the community aware of the services that I offer. I think many employees of lawn care businesses tend to not realize how difficult it is to find work. They are normally told where the job is and what they need to do when they get there but rarely are the involved with the sales process. That tends to be where the magic happens. A lawn care business owner who is a good salesman, can find much success in the industry where a quiet more introverted business owner may struggle a lot more to get attention. When I asked this lawn care business owner to share more of the lessons he learned as he started his own business and how it differed from working for another lawn care company he responded I learned that in order to grow I need to have systems in place that allow any person with reasonable landscape experience to deliver the same results every time the customer was visited. By this I mean an employee …
Lawn care business growth of 200% – GopherHaul 60 Lawn Care Forum Show
31
Oct
www.gopherforum.com – What would you do if you received a phone call from a local landscaping company and they offered to give you all their lawn care customers? Would you find this to be a curse or a blessing? At first glance it may seem like a fantastic opportunity to jump on, however there are many issues to consider. This is a situation a member of the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum was facing when he wrote us about it. How much growth is helpful and how much is too much? He wrote “I just got a call from another landscaping company in town who has been doing yard care as well as landscaping. He wanted to know if I would be interested in taking on his yard care clients as he has decided to concentrate on landscaping only. He is willing to turn them over to me, however I am not in the position of being able to handle them all. It would increase my client base by 200%, which would require hiring guys. The extra work would be awesome, but here are my issues. Ifyou are in need of free lawn care marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at http We have hundreds of free lawn care logo, flyer, door hanger and web templates you can download and use for your lawn care business. We also have free lawn care business contracts, estimate and proposal forms. Download our trial version of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. Gopher will help your lawn care business schedule and invoice more customers in less time, allowing you more time to grow or enjoy …
Improve your chances of selling more. GopherHaul 44 Lawn Care Business Forum Show.
30
Oct
www.gopherforum.com – With many small lawn care businesses, the owners tend to feel there is more money when you get in and get out fast. However as we will see in this discussion, offering more services than simply lawn mowing can help you be on the job site longer. The longer you are on the job site, the better your chances are of meeting neighbors and others driving by. These meetings can lead to adding new customers. One of the members of the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum asked a question that kicked off this discussion I thought of a neat idea for all of us. Everyone will state what services we offer & explain how you go about doing them if you want. This will give everyone a clear idea on what services they might add to their business. Ill start. Services I Offered. Gutter Cleaning Weeding Spring Cleanups Topsoil/Fertilizer/Grass Seed Hedge Trimming Branch Cutting THE SERVICES I WANT TO START: Grub Eliminating Aeration, $50.00 a yard is the cost around here. Driveway Crack Sealing (id add dye to the sealant to create the aged color) THE SERVICES I DONT WANT TO START: Gardening, planting Tree Removal Anything that keeps me in the same spot for the entire day. I dont like to stay in one spot doing a big job, which could bring me really nice income. I like lawn mowing because its quick & keeps me moving, I tackle a lot more & it feels great. I do weeding, but personally I hate at a job site for even more than 5 minutes. As for landscaping in general, even if Im good …
GopherHaul 28 – Landscaping and Lawn Care Marketing Business Forum Show.
12
Sep
GopherHaul 28 – Landscaping and Lawn Care Marketing Business Forum Show. My latest book The landscaping and lawn care business plan startup guide is now available. You can order it along with my other lawn care business books here. gopherforum.com Lawn care business owners are always looking for a way to keep their name and phone number in front of potential customers. Here is an idea to make sure you stick around. Why not get some magnets. But not just any old magnet, how about one that pays for itself and could even make you a profit. Here is what you can do. Get a list of local important numbers in the area. Town numbers like the mayor, police, library, water and sewer dept. You can find most of these on your towns websites. Then list other numbers like local pizzerias, sub shops, and others. Maybe get a local electrician, plumber, carpenter, roofer etc. They could potentially help you buy some of these magnets and hand them out themselves as well, to help offset the costs. Then have a section for lawn care and list only your phone number. Stick these on doors in your area and be sure that your number will stick around for quite some time. You could also have different discounts for services through out the year. One of our forum members’ Rob had such an easy time selling them. Why? Because he knew most of the people he was presenting the idea too and they trusted him. gopherforum.com lawnchat.com This is a great lesson in how the more people you know, the more you can …
GopherHaul 19 – Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Forum Show
09
Sep
Hello and welcome to GopherHaul 19 — Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show. In this episode we will be talking about Please continue to submit your pictures for our outdoor holiday lighting contest. www.gophergraphics.com Our lawn care business forum member of the month is Tim. Tim has shared with us three new contracts including a lawn cutting contract, a full service lawn care maintenance and a snow plow contract. You can download them here www.gophergraphics.com I added a new link on the left side of the forum for our lawn care business forum member to submit books they have read. I also added a new business book of the month to our list. The book is Guerrilla Marketing Success Secrets by Jay Levinson. Our friend Tony submitted this great marketing idea to the forum. He prints out stickers that include your business logo and then puts them on buckets of ice melt. He suggests handing these buckets out to your current customer base to help promote your snow removal services or you could use them as a marketing tool to hand out to homeowners in your area who you would like to service with snow removal and lawn care services next spring. If you live in a warmer climate you could also offer potted plants instead of ice melt. Review the post here www.gophergraphics.com Our lawn care forum member Tim suggested buying poinsettia plants in bulk and handing them out to your current customers along with a holiday card. You could also give these out to potential clients you would …
GopherHaul 33 – Landscaping and Lawn Care Business Marketing Forum Show.
30
Aug
www.gopherforum.com – Where your phone number should appear in your lawn care website. You would think by the title of this article, the story below would be so simple you didnt even have to read it but that is certainly not the case. Most lawn care business owners dont put much time into where their phone number should appear. Just ask yourself where does your phone number appear? One of our forum members had some great information to share in this post at the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum. He said You want your phone number PROMINENTLY displayed. You want to make sure you edit your html meta tag description to include your phone number first so your search engine listing will display your lawn care business like this. http – 111-222-3333 Joes lawn care blah blah blah blah blah lawn care in Your City blah blah blah blah blah . For those that dont know, I asked him what is the importance of having your phone number in that location? Why is it so important? He responded by saying Lets say you lawn care services in Somewhere, Arkansas. Your would want to make your web TITLE to read Somewhere Arkansas Lawn Care Service Your DESCRIPTION would be (assuming this is your website name): www.SomewhereLawnCare.com 111-222-3333 Somewhere Arkansas lawn care? We are the lawn service leaders in Somewhere Arkansas. We specialize in landscaping, lawn care, landscape lighting and sprinkler systems in the Somewhere Arkansas area. The phone number will show up in the link desciption on …
Open or enclosed landscape trailer? – GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Marketing Forum Show
22
Aug
www.gopherforum.com When most landscapers start up their business, they tend to start with a truck only. Then later they may add an open trailer. At a certain point you may be asking yourself whats better to have, an open or enclosed trailer and why? Thats the question one of our new forum members asked and he quite a few responses I think will help you make up your mind as well. Brandon Hi everyone my name is Brandon and I am the president of my own landscape & maintenance corp. I have been in business for 9 years and hope to find continued success long into the future. I was wondering if anyone could provide me with some positive and negative attributes of an enclosed trailer as opposed to an open utility trailer to move lawn care equipment from job to job? I have an open trailer now and I am thinking of making the switch over to an enclosed one. Keith: I can think of a few pros and cons of the top of my head. Pros: – Ability to lock. – Protection from rain. – Larger area to put name/logo/phone number. – Looks more professional. – Possible increased slipstreaming giving better gas milage (offset by weight, Im sure). – Ability to put shelves/storage areas. – Protects cargo from rocks kicked up by your truck. – Winter storage. Cons: – Increased cost. – Increased axle and tongue weight. – Inability to load from top (leaves, mulch, dirt). This is the biggest negative I can think of. – Doesnt air out well when mower has wet grass or fuel fumes. – Reduced freedom of movement …
