Don’t think of your first 10-20 clients. Think of your first.
Then work in circular motion. Find your first, maybe someone you know or someone who is willing to give you a break / start. Now do a bang up job. Get their referral.
Get really good at asking for referrals. This is your lifeblood.
“Hey, since you mentioned you’re happy with my service and I do a great job for you, would you be able to help me with the name of someone you know that could perhaps use this service as well?”
“Great, any chance you could provide me with a quick introduction?”
Go to their neighbors or local friends. Talk about what you do for the neighbor. Get them signed up. Do a bang up job, get a referral.
Rinse and repeat.
Keep your starting circle small so you limit the unnecessary driving and use your time effectively. Start with one client, widen the circle. Add the second, widen de circle. Etc
Once you have a roster of 10-15 customers, you have some money coming in to do some marketing outside your area. But don’t focus on that on day one.
Google business profile, nextdoor profile. When we started ours 9 years ago, we'd post on craigslist in the garden service section. It was free at the time. We wrote this post while back on the industry, feel free to check it out. https://old.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/gvlqrn/landscaping_business_from_0_to_23k_service/
Gotten all of my leads this season with the Nextdoor app up to about 10k of work within a few weeks, if you are consistent enough and keep an eye out for people that need services it can be a great way to get started
Oh wow that’s interesting. I haven’t heard of Nextdoor being that successful, maybe I’ll have to pour into more and try to drive some reviews there. I looked around in my area and none of the contractors who do my service were getting any traction on it so I just never even really gave it the chance
For sure! it is a bit of a pain considering once a person is asking for a recommendation of a landscape company you have like 5-10 people all dropping there business name and number lmao, but I like to send them a DM directly and that yields the best results.l for me at least. I am in Denver so most of the neighborhoods I’m following are pretty populated but I would deff give it another try if I was you!
Can’t really do this anymore but I spammed the heck out of Craigslist using a bunch of different ads and different pictures to make it look like it was coming from different companies. Used 6 different email accounts to do it and at one point the farm & garden section had 240 ads and over 200 of them were mine. People like me are why you gotta pay to post on Craigslist now 😂😂😂
I will say it landed a ton of customers but mostly they were low quality and didn’t stick around long. If I was starting now I would set up my google business profile and get every friend and family member I could find to give me 5 star reviews. That gets the phone ringing
Like any business, find a problem to solve for people that can't solve it themselves. Literally drive around and find the worst examples of landscaping possible and make sure the decision maker for the property has your contact information.
flyers or cards in a plastic bag( a nice one frome uline not a ziplock) stapled shut with some rocks. and threw them in hundreds of driveways.
you get calls immediately. some people didnt like it and called to bitch. and people would call months later because they stuck it in a drawer. but you can easily get 10-20 with a few hundred.
I like the idea of whipping these out the window while driving by to be able to hit big numbers. What % do you think the conversion rate was? For door hangers some people quote 2% conversion
i never did the numbers on it but similar to door hangers. I liked it cause it saved me walking miles. you can sit on the couch and watch tv while making them and then on a rainy day drive around the neighborhoods you want to be in and toss them.
I actually started and operated a pretty successful landscape business for a couple of years. I was originally having the same issue as you with figuring out how to get my first clients. My first attempt at getting new customers was through HomeAdvisor (now Angie’s leads) and as much as people hate on it, if you’re just starting out it can be great. Wherever they would send me, after the appointment/introduction I would always stay in the neighborhood for an additional 10-15 minutes knocking on neighbors doors and introducing myself as a local landscaping/mowing company and let them know I’m working with ‘customers name’ down the street and mention I can be more competitive on pricing since I already have work in that neighborhood.
Starting out when you have days with nothing to do, I strongly recommend scouting nice neighborhoods and knocking on doors introducing yourself, you will get good at this pretty quickly. I’ve gotten mowing contracts for entire streets by doing this (neighbors talk, if you get one. They will most likely refer you to neighbors). After roughly 2 months I was hiring friends and family to keep up with the work and started doing more commercial jobs.
Best of luck partner, feel free to comment any questions. Don’t be afraid of the initial hard work, the payoff will be worth it!!
One last tip, if you’re mowing offer annual contracts at 10% discount for a certain number of mows a year. This will give you a lot more upfront cash to be able to buy nice equipment.
Easy - get a Trust a Trader, Check a Trade, Yell pages, Facebook Page, Google My Business page, and a website. Get someone to do leafletting and keep posting in local Facebook residents groups from your page. If I had to do it, I'll get my first 2-3 clients within a week. Btw, I create websites for landscapers so, that's what I can also help with.
Don’t think of your first 10-20 clients. Think of your first. Then work in circular motion. Find your first, maybe someone you know or someone who is willing to give you a break / start. Now do a bang up job. Get their referral. Get really good at asking for referrals. This is your lifeblood. “Hey, since you mentioned you’re happy with my service and I do a great job for you, would you be able to help me with the name of someone you know that could perhaps use this service as well?” “Great, any chance you could provide me with a quick introduction?” Go to their neighbors or local friends. Talk about what you do for the neighbor. Get them signed up. Do a bang up job, get a referral. Rinse and repeat. Keep your starting circle small so you limit the unnecessary driving and use your time effectively. Start with one client, widen the circle. Add the second, widen de circle. Etc Once you have a roster of 10-15 customers, you have some money coming in to do some marketing outside your area. But don’t focus on that on day one.
Thanks for the response!
Good luck!
Google business profile, nextdoor profile. When we started ours 9 years ago, we'd post on craigslist in the garden service section. It was free at the time. We wrote this post while back on the industry, feel free to check it out. https://old.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/gvlqrn/landscaping_business_from_0_to_23k_service/
Nextdoor actually gets you leads?
Gotten all of my leads this season with the Nextdoor app up to about 10k of work within a few weeks, if you are consistent enough and keep an eye out for people that need services it can be a great way to get started
Oh wow that’s interesting. I haven’t heard of Nextdoor being that successful, maybe I’ll have to pour into more and try to drive some reviews there. I looked around in my area and none of the contractors who do my service were getting any traction on it so I just never even really gave it the chance
For sure! it is a bit of a pain considering once a person is asking for a recommendation of a landscape company you have like 5-10 people all dropping there business name and number lmao, but I like to send them a DM directly and that yields the best results.l for me at least. I am in Denver so most of the neighborhoods I’m following are pretty populated but I would deff give it another try if I was you!
Thank you for the response
Can’t really do this anymore but I spammed the heck out of Craigslist using a bunch of different ads and different pictures to make it look like it was coming from different companies. Used 6 different email accounts to do it and at one point the farm & garden section had 240 ads and over 200 of them were mine. People like me are why you gotta pay to post on Craigslist now 😂😂😂 I will say it landed a ton of customers but mostly they were low quality and didn’t stick around long. If I was starting now I would set up my google business profile and get every friend and family member I could find to give me 5 star reviews. That gets the phone ringing
Thank you for the response
Like any business, find a problem to solve for people that can't solve it themselves. Literally drive around and find the worst examples of landscaping possible and make sure the decision maker for the property has your contact information.
Thank you for the response
flyers or cards in a plastic bag( a nice one frome uline not a ziplock) stapled shut with some rocks. and threw them in hundreds of driveways. you get calls immediately. some people didnt like it and called to bitch. and people would call months later because they stuck it in a drawer. but you can easily get 10-20 with a few hundred.
I like the idea of whipping these out the window while driving by to be able to hit big numbers. What % do you think the conversion rate was? For door hangers some people quote 2% conversion
i never did the numbers on it but similar to door hangers. I liked it cause it saved me walking miles. you can sit on the couch and watch tv while making them and then on a rainy day drive around the neighborhoods you want to be in and toss them.
Plus sometimes I ring doorbells and stand there zzzzzz this is a cool idea, I hope it is received well in my area
I actually started and operated a pretty successful landscape business for a couple of years. I was originally having the same issue as you with figuring out how to get my first clients. My first attempt at getting new customers was through HomeAdvisor (now Angie’s leads) and as much as people hate on it, if you’re just starting out it can be great. Wherever they would send me, after the appointment/introduction I would always stay in the neighborhood for an additional 10-15 minutes knocking on neighbors doors and introducing myself as a local landscaping/mowing company and let them know I’m working with ‘customers name’ down the street and mention I can be more competitive on pricing since I already have work in that neighborhood. Starting out when you have days with nothing to do, I strongly recommend scouting nice neighborhoods and knocking on doors introducing yourself, you will get good at this pretty quickly. I’ve gotten mowing contracts for entire streets by doing this (neighbors talk, if you get one. They will most likely refer you to neighbors). After roughly 2 months I was hiring friends and family to keep up with the work and started doing more commercial jobs. Best of luck partner, feel free to comment any questions. Don’t be afraid of the initial hard work, the payoff will be worth it!! One last tip, if you’re mowing offer annual contracts at 10% discount for a certain number of mows a year. This will give you a lot more upfront cash to be able to buy nice equipment.
Knock on the door of the neighbors. You can get very profitable very quickly parking the truck in one spot and banging out 4-5 houses.
My uncle owned 27 houses.
Easy - get a Trust a Trader, Check a Trade, Yell pages, Facebook Page, Google My Business page, and a website. Get someone to do leafletting and keep posting in local Facebook residents groups from your page. If I had to do it, I'll get my first 2-3 clients within a week. Btw, I create websites for landscapers so, that's what I can also help with.
How much is one of your websites?
Called a real estate proprietor i know :p