Ears, you continue to imagine how things won’t work for you.
Instead of taking advantage of the opportunities staring you in the face, you insist on pursuing what you insist are impossibilities.
You also insist on doing everything the most unimaginative, conventional way possible.
You know who also does this? Brain-dead drones.
I’ve already explained how you can own a home without a bank here: http://www.reiclub.com/forums/index.php/topic,60764.msg284856.html#msg284856
You continue to be paralyzed by fear of making mistakes.
Assuming that isn’t true, the fastest way to expand your business, is to buy out contracts from existing contractors. The next best way is to get referrals from existing clients.
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Don’t your existing clients have neighbors that are sick and tired of their lazy landscaper, who won’t come on time, or on the right day, won’t call, and/or pay attention to details? That’s like low-hanging fruit.
That’s how I found my landscapers. I’ve been through several of them until they each sold their businesses. My neighbor, with more time to sift through new ones, would find ones that we both liked, and we signed them up.
Why aren’t you offering to landscape the yards of people who obviously need it done? You quote the ‘introductory’ mow and blow price; charge extra for everything else; and after three months of baby-sitting them, you charge the regular price, and they’re hooked on you. The best landscaper I ever had, was always up-selling me. “Time to prune the palms. Time to trim the roses. Want me to rebury Aunt Bessie? Her fingers are showing again.”
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I started a successful window washing business while I was in college, and got so much work, I hired two of my roommates. I advertised in the throw away papers, “Students Wash Windows.” I was so reasonable, I was getting practically every contract I bid on, including monthly contracts. Competitors called me for faux bids, and one operator’s wife became belligerent telling me that “nobody can do windows that cheap.” One prospect asked me if I was insured. I said, “Not at this price.” I never lost a customer over that. The work was rewarding, and I learned how to put the art of the up-sell to work.
That is, get in cheap, and then up-sell extra services like crazy. I up-sold razor cleaning, window track cleaning, storm window removal, paint over-spray removal, frame cleaning, screen washing, screen frame cleaning, rubber beading cleaning, un-sticking sliders, lubricating rollers, and removing spider webs, dead flies, and leaves. Of course, I would do the works on one window for free, and now the other windows looked worse than ever by comparison.
So, when I pitched the full range of up-sells on the rest of the owner’s windows from hell, they became a no-brainer. I itemized everything I did on the first window, and offered a discount on the remaining windows. The itemized cost was about $45 a window, but 'since I was there already, I asked if they wanted it all done for just $25 a window? Sure!!!"
Never mind, in actuality, I was already doing pretty much everything, short of a razor cleaning, by default, but the owners loved the extra TLC and wanted to pay for it.
If you think a little, you can find all sorts of things to up-sell to your existing clients. Planting flowers. Install edging. Replacing sprinkler lines/heads/valves. Trimming hedges. Planting trees. Removing trees. Nothing gets done for free.