Mike Andes breaks down three essentials for starting a lawn care business: a mobile-friendly website for leads, social media presence on Facebook and Instagram to reach different customer types, and rates of at least $40 to $60 per hour so you can actually hire staff and grow.
Questions this episode answers
Mike Andes (landscapebusinesscourse.com).
January 28, 2021.
Bellingham (Augusta Lawn Care).
At least $40 per hour; ideally $50–$60 per hour.
Hey, everyone, It's Mike Andes, landscapebusinesscourse.com and today I'm going to be sharing the three tips you need to start a lawn care and landscaping business in 2021. Let's go ahead and walk around the shop a little bit while I'm talking. This is our shop here in Bellingham. It's our first location at Augusta Lawn Care. But today we're talking about your business. You just getting started. You not having all these trucks, a big shop, a big sign with a big logo like that. I'm talking to you, who is just starting getting started. You don't even have your first account. You don't have your first mowing job. Maybe you're just getting started. You want to do landscaping. You're passionate about this. What are my top three tips? Number one, you have to be online with a website. Getting a website where you can actually get leads from your website that you're not paying for every single day. What used to be a phone or radio is now social media. You need to be able to be online where your website is able to be viewed on a cell phone. It's mobile friendly and it ranks well. You've got to have a website. That's number one. Number two is that you've got to use those social media platforms to connect with your customers. Have a Facebook account, have a Google my business page, have Google local services, a nextdoor account. Back in the day, you might have used HomeAdvisor or Yelp or these other services that give you leads. Now you want to own the real estate the same way that someone who rents a real estate, they just pay every single month. It kind of goes into an empty hole. And Instead of giving HomeAdvisor $20 per lead, why not go and get traffic to your website through Google Ads or through Facebook ads, making sure that when they get there, remember number one, that website actually converts them into paying customers. So number two is be on social media. Instagram, Facebook. We're not really, right now really focusing on Snapchat or TikTok because that's a younger demographic. They're not going to be the ones buying lawn care services right now. So definitely need to focus on Facebook. Definitely. You can start thinking about Instagram, really when it comes to lawn care, we're talking about two different types of customer bases that we're trying to target. You got your working professional, they're gonna be on Instagram, they're younger, they're gonna usually have a tech job or well paying job in the city. Usually Smaller sized properties. But then we also have the retired affluent individual that needs you to do their lawn kit, they need you to do their landscaping, and they're gonna be on Facebook. That audience is much more mature and much older. And you've got to be there. You've got to be where your customers are at, whether that be at the country club, whether that be at a networking event. If you're going to try to go commercial, you've got to be where your customers are at. And right now, because of everything that happened with the pandemic, that older clientele is now moving online. They actually have a Facebook account, they have Amazon prime, they order their groceries online. You've got to be on those social media platforms and connect with, with your customers where they're at. And if that is at some sort of a social event, if that is at a networking event, if that is at the country club or playing tennis or playing golf, you need to be where your customers are at. So number two, get on those social media platforms, start to create content and be known where your audience already is at. Number three is charge what you're worth. I see so many people get started in this industry and they're charging 20, $30 per hour and they're not going to be able to grow their business. They're not ever going to be able to provide for their family or, or let alone have employees or really scale their business and pay for the website, pay for the social media ads. You have to be able to charge what you're worth. And if you're not charging at least $40 per hour in this market, it's going to be very difficult for you ever to hire someone. Right now with what's happened with COVID the labor market is only going to get more and more difficult. Migrant workers are no longer going to fill the void that we've had for so long in this industry. It's going to get harder and harder. Find good employees that are willing to work hard and can do it all day long in the heat, in the cold, in the rain. In order to find those people, you're gonna have to pay up. You're gonna have to charge, you know, be able to pay more than $5, $10 an hour or minimum wage. You're going to have to make sure it's a livable wage and attract great talent. To do that, you're gonna have to pay them more. And therefore, in order to make that sustainable, you're gonna have to charge the customer more. If you're charging 20, $30 an hour or you're just starting your business and thinking you're going to charge that, I highly recommend you hourly rate to the customer, at least to $40 an hour. I'd much rather you see 50 to $60 per hour that you're charging the customer. That's going to give you the leverage down the road to afford marketing, afford building that website, afford another truck, a trailer. All of these things cost money. If there's not margin in that hourly rate that you're charging the customer, you're never going to be able to grow. You're going to be stuck with a job with basically your brand on your front shirt instead of with working for someone else. You're gonna be stuck in your own job. But by the way, this job doesn't have benefits. You don't get weekends and you can get called 247 at any time when things go wrong. That's a horrible job. You don't want that. You wanna be able to grow. You wanna be able to scale. You wanna be able to hire other people in your community and give back to your community. You can't be charitable if literally you're charging barely enough to put food on your table. Charge what you're worth, Charge enough to be able to afford your marketing, afford growth and be able to afford to give back to other people in the form of jobs and be able to give back to your community. Those are my three tips. Number one, get a great website. Make sure it's great. I don't care if you use lawn care, web design, that's what we have. I don't care if you use it. Get online. Number two, make social media content, connect with your customers where they're at. And number three is make sure that you're charging what you're worth. I'm Mike Andes, landscapebusinesscourse.com, we'll see you next time.
