Imagine yourself on a summer day cutting grass on a riding mower to the song Xanadu as performed by the group RUSH. If your a transcendentalist you might find this better than Aum-ing your day away.

A   more...thousand years have come and gone, but time has passed me by.
Stars stopped in the sky, frozen in an everlasting view.
Waiting for the world to end, weary of the night, praying for the light,
Prison of the lost, Xanadu... a mad immortal man ...  less

Lawn mower doesn't do so well in this video clip. See more crashes at: http://crashes.smartvideochannel.com

is she crazy or something. if you see this, you will totally agree with me

Funny home video taken by a nosy neighbor. This girl gets upset and destroys her lawn mower. No more grass cutting for you. See more funny videos at: http://jptigger.smartvideochannel.com

A beautiful drive on some winding roads ends abruptly

Ah, rednecks...

It mows!

Riding your lawnmower around the neighborhood is awesome, but try not to wreck!

Daniel thought he would help daddy mow the lawn with his very own lawn mower....how cute...lol

This guy sure knows how to mow the lawn. He built his own remote controlled lawn mower using radio controlled parts from a hobby store. For more how to videos check out http://www.hackerdaily.com

An Evil Monster Lawn Mower Attacks three innocent Teenage boys.

Edited together with clips from our Chris and Richie Episodes One And Two. Watch the full videos by visiting my channel at

http://www.youtube.com/richalvarez
  more...
or our website at

http://www.rmastudios.sitesled.com

Now Please Watch "Revenge Of Monster Mower" at
http://www.youtube.com/richalvarez  less

What's the point of being an aristocrat if you can't mow your lawn?

What I did this weekend. I used a slideshow because I'm sitting here half naked, waiting for my clothes to dry. :))

http://www.gopherforum.com - How should you handle lawn care customers that are problems? A member of the Gopher lawn Care Business Forum asked this question and told us of a new customer. This new commercial   more...lawn care job is really going to help his business grow next year. And I asked him:

When you read some of the post on this forum and see some lawn care business owners have such a difficult time getting their footing in this business, do you feel they are missing something? What do you feel has gotten you to the next level when so many fail at even getting a footing? What are others simply not doing?

If you are in need of free lawn care marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at http://www.gophersoftware.com. 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 your life. Check out my lawn care business blog at http://www.lawnchat.com and my lawn care business forum at http://www.gopherforum.com  less

http://www.gopherforum.com - Depending on how you present your snow plowing bid can have a direct result on if you get hired or not and what kinds of services your customer will sign up for. I asked a   more...member of the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum about his methods for estimating snow removal services and how he gets so many upsells. He told me of the importance of breaking down each service in your bid to show the cost of each. Then I followed up with more questions.

If you are in need of free lawn care marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at http://www.gophersoftware.com. 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 your life. Check out my lawn care business blog at http://www.lawnchat.com and my lawn care business forum at http://www.gopherforum.com  less

http://www.gopherforum.com - Trying to crack open customers that live within certain homeowner associations can be tough to do. Especially if the HOA is a gated community. One lawn care business owner   more...figured out a way to get their foot in the door with a interesting marketing tip. They shared with us their lawn care marketing secret on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum, where you can download the newsletter and they wrote “we are sponsoring a neighborhood association newsletter that reaches 86 homes. Currently, we take care of two customers in this sub-division.

If you are in need of free lawn care marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at http://www.gophersoftware.com. 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 your life. Check out my lawn care business blog at http://www.lawnchat.com and my lawn care business forum at http://www.gopherforum.com  less

http://www.gopherforum.com - Have you had difficulties landing commercial snow plowing accounts? It can be difficult to break through a companies layer of insulation before you get to the person in charge   more...of making such decisions. Persistance seems to be a big part of the key to success. Let’s look into this discussion that took place on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum. A new member wrote “landing a large commercial account is not the easiest thing to do but once you have them you can keep them for a very long time provided you are doing a professional job. And the amount of money you can generate for your company is great.

I landed a few medium size commercial snow plow accounts for this winter and have some good leads on summer work. I will be pushing for residential lawn care very heavily at the beginning of next year. My feeling is that my company WILL be successful in both residential and commercial accounts.”

How do you feel you were able to land your initial snow plow accounts? Did you happen to know the decision makers or are did it come down to just being good at sales? Do you have any advice for others looking to land commercial snow plow accounts in their area? I am sure others would appreciate any insight you have.

“Landing the commercial accounts last year was just luck I guess. I am sure it had a lot to do with my approach and attitude for wanting to do the work. I did not know any of the decision makers when I first made contact. You need to spend a great deal of time to find who is really in charge. Sometimes I will spend hours making phone calls just to try and get some contact information and that is just the start or trying to land a commercial account. I have one here in the area that I have been working on for two years now and have not landed any business so far. I will keep trying however because I want the account.

As far as advice for landing commercial snow plowing accounts I would recommend that you try and find someone who knows someone connected with the facility you are trying to land. These guys and gals get so many phone calls for services that if they don’t know you chances are you will not get to first base with them. I find that having a referral is the best way to make contact. It gets your foot in the door and then the rest is up to you. Depending on the type of commercial account it is you might need to be available 24/7 during the winter months. There is a lot of prep work and a lot of behind the scene work that you need to do in order to perform a professional job.

This year has been very tough to break into commercial accounts. I had two large accounts that I have been working on for the past two years and I got the impression that I was in for this year. I got this feeling from conversations that I was having with the persons in charge. I spent three weeks trying to get a detailed quote together for one of them. They wanted the service quoted several different ways. Turned out that both told me they were staying with their current company. My felling is that with the economy as bad as it is this year you have people trying to land accounts just to try to survive. Most are under bidding and I would guess that most will fall flat on their face when the time comes to service the accounts. You can not do a large account with a small pickup truck and a 7 foot plow. One other piece of advice is that when I look at a possible account I try and decide how much I want to profit on the account before I put a bid together and stick by my guns. I will not take an account for little profit just to get the account.”

If you are in need of free lawn care marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at http://www.gophersoftware.com. 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  less

http://www.gopherforum.com - There are plenty of things you can do to market your lawn care business in the Fall. What if you decorated a local store that has high foot traffic.

You could really go all   more...out and put a sign up in front to promote your lawn care business and your seasonal services. Maybe have a pick-a-card display on the sign so people can walk up and take one.

If you are doing this for a local pizzeria, why not get a bunch of fall menu flyers to promote your fall cleanup services on one side and the pizzeria menu on the other side that the store could hand out to each person who has an order.

You could also promote your Fall Halloween outdoor decoration services to other commercial establishments and homes.

If you are in need of free lawn care marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at http://www.gophersoftware.com. 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 your life. Check out my lawn care business blog at http://www.lawnchat.com and my lawn care business forum at http://www.gopherforum.com  less

http://www.gopherforum.com - Buying used outdoor power equipment can be a great way to save money but it can also open a can of worms and end up costing if repairs are needed. How do you know if a used   more...lawn mower is going to be a good deal? That’s what one of our forum member’s asked when he wrote no the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum “I have found a deal on a 2007 ExMark LZ25KC604 60? with 25 HP Kohler with 240 Hours. I have been offered this for $3000.00. It appears to be in great shape.

This is my first zero turn and I have been looking at Scags and Exmarks. What should I look for before I decide? I think this is a good deal. Any comments or suggestions appreciated.”

Thankfully one of our forum members is a outdoor power equipment dealer and he knows his stuff. He responded “First, are you buying this from a Dealer or from an individual? If from a dealer, will they give you any warranty? Since you have been looking at new mowers of the same brand, how much would a similar one cost you new? Assuming it has no warranty and passes the test as follows below, I would pay no more than about 60-70% of the new price of a similar piece of equipment. Do you know if $3000 is the lowest price you can get on it? Have you tried to get a lower price?

Here are some questions you should ask the seller before you buy a used mower.
1. If you are buying from an individual, why are they selling it?
2. Was it used to mow their own yard only? or was it used for commercial use (to mow more than their own lawn).
3. Can you verify their answer to the first two questions without asking them directly or even indicating you are questioning their answer (they may answer ”I no longer need this big of a mower”, or “I decided to get out of the lawn care business”, or….. Just think, “does their answer make sense?”)
4. Do they have maintenance records? Will they provide these records to you to preview before the purchase? Will they provide these records to you with the purchase?
5. Can they tell you who serviced the equipment when it was serviced? Can you verify this?
6. If buying from a dealer, have they serviced the mower including sharpen the blades, check the belts, change spark plugs, Air Filter, Fuel Filter, and oil?
7. Have they ever serviced this mower before buying it?
8. Did they sell the mower new?
9. Why did the original owners sell it? (Again, think about their answer to see if it makes sense or not. Typically power equipment dealers are considerably more honest than car dealers but there are a few here and there that may still lie to you….)

There are more questions to ask, review them here http://lawnchat.com/?p=640


If you are in need of free lawn care marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at http://www.gophersoftware.com. 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 your life. Check out my lawn care business blog at http://www.lawnchat.com and my lawn care business forum at http://www.gopherforum.com  less

http://www.gopherforum.com - Are you afraid of hearing the word no? Is it keeping your lawn care business from growing? This fear afflicts more of us than we would probably care to admit. A new lawn care   more...business owner shared with us his insights as to how fearing the word ‘no’ had stifled his growth for some time.

He wrote us on the Gopher Lawn Care Business forum and said “I have been in the lawn care business since 1973 and it is still one of my passions of life. I have worked for large corporations and small landscapers and have taken every opportunity to learn as much as I can.

I now work for myself. I hope to continue learning from you folks and have no problems at all with sharing my experiences and knowledge with any of you. I have great customers and am looking to expand on services I offer and neighborhoods I service in my area. I’m going to do this a little at a time in steps so as not to scare people off.”

You have been in the business for quite some time! What do you feel about the differences between working for all those companies and running your own business? Any thoughts as to why you decided to make the jump and how you did it?

“I would suggest to all that I have NEVER been afraid to tell a lawn care customer or potential customer that I didn’t know the answer to something, but I always made it a point to get back to them with an honest, sensible solution to problems they presented to me. It took me a long time to accept that some people can have differing views of things that will not agree with what you are presenting.

For the longest time, I was scared to death to hear “NO”. I suffered economically, physically, and psychologically to keep from hearing that dreaded two-lettered word. I would suggest that we have to accept some failures in order to appreciate our successes. None of us wants to lose money in our daily endeavors, nor should we. I decided to go out and start my own because at a certain point, I figured out I can take my knowledge to the public and not be stuck or limited by my “boss’s” imagination. The freedom to be my own representative out there in the world was too strong to ignore. I’ve gone back to work for other people from time to time but have finally settled on my independence and am truly enjoying myself. Yeh, I think I’ll do this until I’m forced to retire.”

With all of your experiences, what advice do you have for the new lawn care business owner who is trying to attract customers? What have you found that works and what doesn’t?

“My advice to everyone would be to make up some fliers or have them made up for you. You can be as fancy as you can afford but be careful not to make it too long. Keep it short and sweet. Identify your services offered and maybe your service call policies, along with guarantees and licenses. We all have differing ideas about details but getting to the point is more a plus than a minus. You can always expand on what you are offering once you get in the door. Eyeball to eyeball is still the best way to sell yourself to anyone. I speak from experience, folks.”

So if we can learn from his year of experience, it’s that should constantly try to learn from others. Don’t be afraid to hear the word no and to really sell yourself, get out there and talk to people eyeball to eyeball.

If you are in need of free lawn care marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at http://www.gophersoftware.com. 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 your life. Check out my lawn care business blog at http://www.lawnchat.com and my lawn care business forum at http://www.  less

http://www.gopherforum.com - One of the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum members recently made a trade with a local publisher. He offered to do lawn care in return for ad space. In this discussion we learn   more...how creating a ’squeeze page’ on your website can help you collect potential customer contact information to allow you to market to these people later via email. We also learn what your advertising should say in order to get as many people as possible to want to click through your internet banner advertisement. If you would like to read more about this topic, check out my newest lawn care business book 'GopherHaul Extreme Lawn Care Business Tips.' You can read more about it here http://www.gopherforum.com/showthread.php?p=56597#post56597

He wrote “I made a trade with a local advertising business a few weeks ago for them to do a magazine ad for me in return for me to do her yard for so a certain period of time.

I have been working on her yard off and on since the ad was published.

They want to put a banner with my business name on their website and have it linked to my website. They also want me to write an article in the (ask the expert section) of their website on the topic of fall/winter upkeep advice to help people. I will also be in the coupon section.”

Another member responded “In terms of the banner ad, your concept looks great but if you want MORE people to respond you need to give them a reason. Sure, some people will respond because they need something right now, but what about all the people just THINKING about a particular service you might offer? What about the people that have a service provider, but aren’t very happy with them and are considering getting someone else?

If you include some type of offer that gets people to at least click on the banner so you can take them to your website to continue or begin the relationship building process. And keep in mind that ‘FREE Estimates’ or some type of discount aren’t very effective anymore because EVERYONE’S doing them."

He then asked “do you have any ideas on what I could put in the banner ad to get them to click on it. The ad rotates with others so it only pauses on mine for 2-3 seconds. I currently have on the ad 'call for details', but i doubt that would get them to call. Any thing catchy up your sleeve?”

“Free mowing might attract a few people, but one thing to remember is that you want to get as many people as possible into your sales funnel as possible. Saying ‘Free Mowing’ will definitely get a few people to respond, but I bet you’d get even more if you offered a free report titled, ‘5 Secrets to a Thick, Green, Weed-Free Lawn’, then include your call to action like, ‘Click Here’.

Then what I’d do is instead of sending them to your regular website I’d set up a special web page called a squeeze page. All it is is a web page who’s only purpose is to get people to submit their name and email address in exchange for this free report. You don’t mention anything about the 15 different services you offer, or how you’ve been in business since 19XX, or how…..well, you get the idea.

Then once they submit their information, THEN you could take them to your regular website because you now have their contact information and you can communicate with them via email for free.

Remember, marketing is a step-by-step process and if you try to take your prospects from A to Z in one giant leap, you’ll lose more than you’ll manage to keep!”

I asked “Can you give us a little more insight as what this squeeze page is?”

The other member said “you want to offer the free report BEFORE taking them to your regular web page. It’s called a squeeze page and it’s only purpose is to capture visitors name and email.

On most websites there are WAYYYYY too many places someone could get lost. A confused mind doesn’t act/buy so the key is to create a web page who’s ONLY OPTION is to submit their contact information.

Once they’ve done this, then you take them  less

http://www.gopherforum.com - A question I get asked often on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum is, what other services can I offer to make more money? I usually have a bunch of ideas to share with them   more...but here is a great idea I hadn’t even considered. One of our members wrote “Yesterday I was out giving lawn care quotes.

We have had a few customers ask if we would seal their paved driveway, our response has been this is not a service we offer at this time however we will note you are interested should we decide to offer it.

I had two clients ask me about this today. I was at their homes for other work when it just came up.

As I was driving to find a milk shake I noticed two guys with a small truck spraying sealer on a paved driveway and decided to stop. They had a pretty simple setup. I asked for some business cards as we had clients asking and it was something we didn’t do. I liked the job they did and we talked about pricing, subcontracting them etc.

They do this straight by the square foot, they roll around the edges of the driveway with a 16? roller then spray. It is very quick to do this job but what a mess the back of their truck was.

They offered me a 20% referral which I think I will do for now, I don’t think this is something that interests me due to the mess.

But as I was driving home I started looking at paved driveways, I think this could be another gold mine.

I think lawn care extends to property care. Any thing we can do to help the home owner and make a buck at, interests me.

Did more reading tonight on it and found this is a high profit margin service, seems like it is a fairly easy sale also.

The number one downside is the mess, I looked at a number of companies, pictures etc. The vehicles are a mess which I understand, it would be next to impossible to keep things clean and staff being what they are, it would not fit well with my image push in yard care. Eventually even the inside of vehicles would be a mess even if we did use a trailer.

I called and spoke with the owner of this small company again last night, I received the names of two of his clients and called them to see if they were happy with the work done, that passed so I emailed him two of my clients and we shall see how this goes.

The issue with sub contracting in my experience is if there is an issue with the work, even though it’s not your issue, your client will make it your issue as you referred someone. I have to take a chance and see how this goes, this could work for both of us.”

What a fantastic insight! Maybe you could offer this service to your current lawn care customers or maybe you could find a company and sub-contract them out for a %. Experiment with both options and see which works best for you.

If you are in need of free lawn care marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at http://www.gophersoftware.com. 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 your life. Check out my lawn care business blog at http://www.lawnchat.com and my lawn care business forum at http://www.gopherforum.com  less

http://www.gopherforum.com - I just love the creative marketing ideas that get posted on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum. There are so many ideas posted, you will never run out of ways to promote   more...yourself. Let’s talk about the latest great idea. One of our members shared with us a story on how he uses napkin dispensers to promote his real estate business.

He wrote “I advertise in about 25 to 30 restaurants right now. I went and bought these great Napkin Holders that you can put ads on both sides.

None of the restaurants charge me anything at all to put these dispensers in their location. When I recently bought the napkin holders, they where only $5 bucks each.

I not only sold a couple house from those ads, but people run into me and say they are sick of seeing my face all over the place. That is good!

I also bought a bunch of the large stand up napkin holder that have my advertising on the front of them. I have them in about 20 gas stations next the fountain drinks.

The good thing about gas stations, they get tons of traffic to see the advertising.

I put my outdoor business card holders on the top of these so people can Take A Card and the card holder does not fall open or go all over the place if someone knocks it over or when they put more napkins in the holder. They work great for me.

THINK OUTSIDE OF THE BOX!

You can see a picture of this display here http://lawnchat.com/?p=868

I do so many weird things because that is what works.”

After seeing this I asked him how do you go about getting them in the stores?

Do you offer to pay for the napkins or do they refill them, themselves?

He replied “For the gas stations I will supply the napkins for the first like 6 month or all year, They only use about a half case. Case of napkins are only $50 dollors.

With the restaurants, I just give them the holders and they get the napkins from their suppliers.

But when I bring the holders into the facilities just about everyone of them love the napkin holders and they say yes!

I put them in one gas stations and with in days I got calls from other gas stations asking for them. The owners are all family and are really great/smart business people. ”

I asked him how often does he go back to refill these dispensers and he said “I go back to them as much as possible, I have to show my face because I always like to talk to them about what’s new. They recommend people to me.”

Consider this lawn care marketing idea the next time you find yourself walking around in a gas station or at a restaurant, you just might pick up more customers than you know what to do with!

If you are in need of free lawn care marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at http://www.gophersoftware.com. 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 your life. Check out my lawn care business blog at http://www.lawnchat.com and my lawn care business forum at http://www.gopherforum.com  less

http://www.gopherforum.com - When a lawn care customer decides mid-season they want to save money and only have you mow their property every other week, how should you handle this or even bill this? This   more...was a dilemma that was presented to the members of the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum. The member wrote “I’ve had this weekly mowed lawn care customer since I started my business and now they want me to cut the grass every 2 weeks because they are “seniors” and they are getting low on “money” (that’s an excuse I think)

This yard I do, takes me 2 hrs with my tractor and another 15 to 20 minutes to trim all his stuff all over the yard.

I don’t want to lose this customer. I was talking to him about my possibly getting a ZTR and he was like, oh yeah that means you can lower your price. Why do old folks think this way ??? That when it’s mowed faster, you can charge less ???

He complains all the time my bill is too high and stuff.. and things like that

Not sure what to do…………”

One lawn care business owner wrote “my bi-weekly lawn care customers get charged a premium. I usually charge them 1 1/2 times the price of a weekly mowing. So if a lawn costs $40.00 per cut weekly, I’ll charge them$60.00 per cut bi-weekly. That way it allows me to clean up any extra mess or bag the lawn.

People need to understand that it is not a cost saving alternative. Weekly lawn mowing is best. Bi-weekly cuts usually take too much off the blade and can be detrimental for the turf.

If you are going past the customer’s home every week I would contact the client and let them know of the length of their lawn and let them know of concerns for their turf. If they care about how the lawn looks they should understand.”

Another lawn care business owner agreed and shared “cutting every other week makes it necessary to raise the price. I suppose it depends on how much you are making on the property but it’s always a bad idea to let the customer dictate when you can and can’t cut the lawn. It always turns out that they call you when it’s 28 inches high, takes 4 hours instead of 2 hours to mow. I was put in the same situation last week. A customer of mine decided they wanted their yard mowed every 2 weeks instead of weekly. Well I explained to them that the clippings will be left on the lawn and it’s gonna look terrible.

The only thing worse is sharing the job with the home owner. They’ll cut the lawn when it’s easy and call you when it’s 4 feet high.

I have an interesting technique when someone complains about my prices. I tell them that they can get someone else to come in and give them bid on cutting their lawn. They’ve never taken me up on the offer yet.”

Lastly don’t forget cutting higher grass puts added wear on your lawn mower. You will be adding more wear and tear to your machine. This can lead to a shortened mower life which then will raise your operational costs. So keep all these things in mind the next time a weekly lawn care customer is looking to get you to cut their lawn every other week.

If you are in need of free lawn care marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at http://www.gophersoftware.com. 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 your life. Check out my lawn care business blog at http://www.lawnchat.com and my lawn care business forum at http://www.gopherforum.com  less