Landscape Startup » Uncategorized

52 Page Project Launched

Yaacov — Wed, 09 May 2007 16:45:40 +0000

Blogging really is the easiest and cheapest way for small businesses to get started online. The 52 Page Project was started to help guide small business owners along the way. Each week for a year they will write one post for their site. One year later they will have 52 pages of great content indexed by google and other search engines. My money says that people who do this will have their sites ranked higher by search engines than websites in the same industry who put up a standard, static
5 page site years ago and never updated it. Visit http://www.52pageproject.com and get started today. Your competitors are. Don’t get left behind.

Where Do Your Customers Go for Local Gardening Information?

Yaacov — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 23:55:38 +0000

I hear many complaints from my clients about how hard it is to find good, local gardening information online. Sure you can find sites that may have information about what’s growing in your zone and cooperative extensions offer great information. How come nurseries haven’t gotten into the gardening news business yet? After all, they so sell all the plants, fertilizer, tools and more to local consumers. It would be a cinch for them to tell anyone who walked in the door to check out their website and subscribe to an email newsletter.

I’ve started a site I’m calling Bergen Gardening where I’ll be writing all kinds of good gardening and landscaping articles for my area. Home gardeners, landscapers, nurseries and anyone else with something worthwhile to contribute can easily register for a username and submit articles, pictures and more. There’s also an amazon.com store where I’ve added several of my favorite gardening books and tools I can’t live without. Soon, I’ll add a forum using phpbb so people can discuss local gardening topics, trade plants and ask questions. I’m looking for an automatic way for businesses to add directory listings. Until then, it’s going to be done manually. I’m thinking about adding adsense or another ad network in case a business wants to advertise locally.

The hardest part is going to be getting regular visitors. I know I have my work cut out for me.

Looking for Demographic Data?

Yaacov — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 22:06:08 +0000

Check out http://www.neighboroo.com/. Enter in the zipcode or town your are interested in and all kinds of fun data shows up such as average income, home prices, population, schools, etc. The best part though is being able to see how the neighboring towns are doing too.

Why work in a place with an average income of 60k when 15 minutes away they are earning triple that? Just a little something I stumbled upon.

What’s the Best Time to Send Out Bills?

Yaacov — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 14:15:26 +0000

There’s a debate going on in the landscaping forums about when the best time to bill is.

Money due at the beginning of the month for future work
Bill sent at the beginning of the month to be paid in 30 days
Bill sent at the end of the month for immediate or 15/30 day payment
Annual/Quarterly prepay discounts

I’m a big fan of getting payments before doing any work. I also offer an optional annual prepay with 10% off the total price. In uncertain financial markets, it’s the easiest way for my clients to lock in a nice discount. That money sitting in a savings account would earn a max of 6%. I offer it knowing that 10-15% of customers will take me up on it lowering my maintenance revenue by only 1-1.5%. That extra cash is essential for a small growing business in the spring. It allows me to send out ads, give thank you gifts and a cushion in the bank for any surprises. Oh, and the clients love it because they save money of course!

Get More Leads Using Merchantcircle’s Free Business Listings

Yaacov — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 02:46:20 +0000

I already have a free business listing on Google Local. It’s great because I show up right on top of natural search results when potential clients are searching for a new landscaper on google. There’s a google map with my address right on it, phone number and website link.

Merchantcircle.com is similar in that they offer free listings, but you can also add coupons, reviews, network with other local businesses, blog and more. It may seem like overkill to put much effort into adding your information to more sites, but they do get a significant amount of local traffic (alexa.com stats) which is just the kind you need to grow. Plus, google loves incoming links to your site so the more directories you are listed in the higher up your site will be in search results.

I’ll even give you a bump up here. Leave a comment with your merchantcircle.com listing and I’ll put a link to your site in a future post. Let’s keep this to only the first 10 guys to sign up or comment.

Get your free online business listing. Get more customers. – MerchantCircle.com

Free Online Seminar for Landscaping Flyers

Yaacov — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 19:26:57 +0000

Lots of landscapers have been coming here looking for information on how to make a flyer for their landscaping or irrigation business. Landscape Business Coach is offering a one time free online seminar that will take you through the process of designing and writing a landscaping flyer that will really jump start your spring sales. So if you have 60 minutes to spare on Friday the 23 of Feb I strongly recommend participating. It’s free and will be limited to only 10 people.

Think about how well your flyers did last year. How much is every new job worth to you? I know my minimum fee for a year is $1500. The right flyer is worth $1000′s! These could be the best 60 minutes you’ve ever spent in front of a computer this winter!

Does Your Landscaping Flyer Look Like the Competitions?

Yaacov — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 19:20:46 +0000

We’ve been finding landscape flyers littered all over town as landscapers like you have been leaving the flyers behind as door hangers or folded up and stuck in doorways. While it may seem smart to print something up quickly on your computer and have your workers distribute them door to door it’s a much better idea to spend a little bit of time on the copy and design. If the usual flyer like this one (pdf file) gets you a few job, then a professionally written and designed flyer will get you a multiple of that, guaranteed.

I’ve teamed up with graphic designer Joe Finkel to design and write spring landscaping flyer ads that will get you the qualified leads you need to make money this year. We’re starting off with an introductory price of only $97! If our flyers help get you just one more weekly cutting or even a small installation you’ve more than made back your money. Plus, you can reuse the flyer year after year.

Verizon Sends Millions of Cell Users to the Competition

Yaacov — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 20:29:27 +0000

Do you remember last summer when Starbucks pulled their free iced coffee coupon and several competitors announced they would honor the coupons or created their own? Verizon Wireless has just opened the door for Sprint, Cingular, T-Mobile and any other little guy to promise their customers and Verizon’s customers they will never force ads onto your cellphone. With acquisition costs ranging from $300-400 per user this is the best time to offer Verizon users a deal to switch carriers.

If I were a Verizon customer I would be running for the doors. Seth Godin wrote a letter to John Harrobin, Verizon’s chief marketer asking what customers have to do to get them to stop the ads. How about writing another one to the movie theater industry?

Do You Really Want to Hear How You’ve Performed?

Yaacov — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 20:52:12 +0000

Seth Godin suggests businesses call up their customers and ask how they like the job you just did. Psychologists should be researching this subject because no one likes doing it. It’s not hard to make a couple calls a day to check up on things with your customers. It shouldn’t even be a sales call. Just, “How is the new landscape I just installed for you doing?” It only takes a couple of minutes and even helps you manage any issues that your customers may not want to call and complain to you about.

By following up on a recent transaction, you reinforce your relationship with your customer which will surely lead to future business and referrals. It’s going to be raining on Friday so I will have plenty of time to make a few phone calls.

Seth, You Crack Me Up

Yaacov — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 22:50:25 +0000

Seth Godin’s #1 secret of the marketing process is “Don