[Josh]

I am wanting to know what i need to know on how to get a landscaping buisness going. I want to start out doing lawns i think that would be the most inexpesive way. Probally residential I have a lawn mower and various hand tools. Need some advice as how to get my name out in the community. I have a big background of yard maintence and light landscaping through various jobs i have worked for the past 4 years but now I want to have my own. I am thinking of getting a loan for some of the eqipment i am thinking of a pickup and maybe a new lawnmower. Would it be wise to spend a lot on marketing? Or just trying to create something on paper and puting them on boards around my area? Any replies would be helpfull thanks.

[Stonehenge]

Josh - If I could give you a recommendation, it would be to spend more of your money on those things where you know you'll get a return, like on new equipment. Marketing can be a fickle mistress, and there are lots of people out there who will be more than happy to separate you from your money. A lot of really strong marketing can be done for virtually nothing. I would recommend going to the bookstore and buying the latest edition of Guerilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson. It'll give you some great ideas of how to get the most out of your marketing dollars.

Oh - and try not to get yourself too leveraged with new equipment, right out of the gate. You don;t know what your receivables are going to be, and right now you're a wildcard - might do really well, you might be a slow starter, like I was (and still am).

So only buy what you can afford and really need to have.

[Josh]

Thanks Stonehenge for the advice your right I dont know what my recevibles are going to be. I still have some putting together of some things like what I want to specilize in and if I want to be strickly resedential or if I want to get into the commercial aspect of it all. What do you mean by door hangers? Are they the things that I see that are like from the pizza places that are actuallly hung on the door? Who does that kind of stuff for you? Where did you get your ideas? Do you put your rates on them?
Anyway thank you for your response.
Josh

[GLAN]

Josh

Door hangers are exactly what they are....Yes, Pizza places use them. You would have to go out into neighborhoods that you currently have work in or would like to work in and distribute yourself.

Now as for door hangers...go to this website....they have free marketing templates you can download and create your own stuff.

www.gophersoftware.com

Gopher is a tremendous asset to the landscape industry as is their business software.