You may have a couple of customers already, but if you want this to be a steady, full-time job, you need to learn how to get more customers. Now you are ready to earn money mowing lawns, you may be wondering, "How can I find customers for my lawn mowing business?"
Well, in order to spread the word about your awesome lawn mowing service, you will either need to get out there on your own to let people know or have someone else do it for you. Like most lawn mowing companies, you can use a combination of both options.
With so many different ways you can find customers, the methods that you choose are only limited by your budget and imagination. To give your thinking a jumpstart, here are 23 tips to find customers and grow your lawn mowing business.
Tip 1: Use Directory Listings
Enhance your online presence by securing listings on popular directories through paid or free options. Platforms like Hot Frog, Start Local, and Yellow Pages can drive traffic to your website while you're focused on lawn care. However, standing out on crowded directories with numerous listings can pose a challenge.
Tip 2: Customer Acquisition with expertEasy
Register with expertEasy If you’d prefer to mow the lawn and let someone else find your customers, we truly believe this will work for you, expertEasy is a marketplace that specialises in lawn mowing, gardening, landscaping, and home improvement. We send customer jobs to you to provide quotes for and save you from having to go out to find jobs on your own to bid on.
There are other websites like ours that work a similar way charging for leads. However, usually, those sites send the opportunity for quotes to a greater number of lawn-mowing businesses. They charge more per lead, and some of them also charge an initial listing fee. We only send jobs to at most three local lawn mowing businesses and have transparent pricing with a satisfaction guarantee.
Tip 3: Partner with Other Companies
Partner with other lawn mowing companies and ask if they will send their extra work to you. Tell them you will pay them a commission for the lawn mowing jobs they refer you to. That system can work very well if you are able to partner with busy lawn mowing companies that are happy to have somebody helping them.
Just keep in mind that a majority of companies are going to be very protective of their customer leads, and the customer may never know what your business name is to refer you to people they know. If the work continues to come in then that's fine. However, it might not work so great in the long term, and you may find it's closer to being employed than running your own show.
Tip 4: Winter Preparation and Contract Wisdom
Plan ahead for the winter months and consider encouraging commercial clients to commit to a twelve-month contract. This strategic move not only prepares your business for the off-peak season but also alleviates financial pressure during slower periods.
Tip 5: Local Advertising Blitz – Newspaper Ads and Brochures
Boost your local presence by placing an advertisement in your local newspaper. Additionally, creating a brochure for your lawn care business and distributing it strategically in local gathering places can be a great advantage. This dual approach enhances your visibility and showcases your services to potential customers.
Tip 6: Direct Engagement with Door-to-Door Marketing
Take your marketing to the streets by delivering door hangers, marketing flyers, and/or business cards to houses in your local area. If you're confident, consider incorporating door-to-door visits into your strategy. Meeting customers in person allows them to associate a face with your business name, establishing a personal connection that fosters initial rapport.
Tip 7: Elevate Customer Service Standards
Invest in improving your customer service to go beyond mere friendliness. Strive for passion and a willingness to impress, ensuring a positive customer experience. It doesn't necessarily require additional time or expenses during lawn mowing jobs; often, it's about how you respond and listen to customers. Regularly evaluate your interactions, asking, "What else could I have done from the customer's perspective?"
Tip 8: Courageous Customer Recovery – Seek Lost Customers
Take a bold step by reaching out to lost customers and understanding the reasons behind their cancellation. This proactive approach can provide valuable insights into areas of improvement for your business. By addressing issues promptly, you can potentially save thousands of dollars in the long run and prevent future customer losses.
Tip 9: Harness the Power of Referrals
Incentivize your existing customers to become brand ambassadors by offering rewards for referrals to neighbors, family, and friends. This word-of-mouth strategy not only expands your customer base but also capitalizes on the trust built with your current clientele.
Tip 10: Master the Art of Networking – Spread the Word
Share your lawn care business with everyone in your network, from neighbors and former colleagues to family, friends, and even acquaintances at your child's sporting club or school. Don't forget to mention your services to store clerks you interact with. Utilise business cards to leave a lasting impression and ensure your contact information is readily available.
Tip 11: Forge Partnerships with Related Home Service Businesses
Seek out partnerships with businesses related to home services. This collaboration allows mutual promotion, with you endorsing their services to your customers and vice versa. Endorsements from businesses you're already associated with are more effective than anonymous flyers received in the mailbox.
Tip 12: Establish a Strong Online Presence with a Website
Build a professional website to establish a robust online presence that works for your business while you're actively mowing lawns or during periods of rest. Your website becomes a virtual storefront, showcasing your services to potential customers 24/7.
Tip 13: Leverage Facebook for Business Growth
Create a Facebook business page to connect with individuals who enjoy spending time on the platform. This provides an accessible space for users to 'like' your business and engage in communication. Facebook's widespread reach enhances your visibility and accessibility.
Tip 14: Explore Diverse Social Media Channels
Experiment with various social media channels, such as Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. While social media success can vary, the experience can equip you with new online skills, inspire innovative business ideas, and foster connections with other lawn care services, even those beyond your local area.
Tip 15: Amplify Your Reputation with Customer Reviews
Encourage satisfied customers to leave reviews on expertEasy and gather video testimonials that you can showcase on your website and Facebook business page. Positive feedback builds credibility and trust, serving as valuable endorsements for potential customers.
Tip 16: Network Strategically at Local Business Events
Attend business networking events in your local area. People love doing business with people that they know personally. So go out to local events and meet people. This is an excellent way for more people to become familiar with what you do, get to know you better, and then start doing business with you.
If you are lucky, you may end up meeting some busy executives who might love to have someone take over their lawn-mowing responsibilities for them. And when you consider that a majority of lawnmowers are mowing lawns rather than networking, then you most likely won't have anybody competing with you during the networking breaks.
Tip 17: Get in the News
Journalists are always searching for stories, so think of a story that you could be included in that would give you free press coverage either in your local newspaper or thinking even bigger, a national or state paper. You will have to find an interesting angle (Some data you gathered? Someone you helped? Something you saw?) and make sure you use an attention-grabbing sentence in your phone call or email.
Tip 18: Consider Paying for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
That is something you most likely won't want to do in the very beginning unless you are very familiar with it and are able to interview your SEO agency effectively. However, it is something to consider for the future once you are earning decent revenue.
Qualified professionals offering SEO services definitely can work to get your business website ranking higher in the search engines - and that can save the amount of money you have to spend on Facebook ads, AdWords, and other advertising channels.
Tip 19: Consider Using Facebook Ads
It's easy just to click a couple of buttons and then have your online ad campaigns on 'set and forget' and discover later that the costs of your ads are much more than you were anticipating. So, make sure to set a daily limit for yourself and monitor your results every day.
Tip 20: Consider Using Google AdWords
However, just be careful that you don't overspend. If you don't set any limits it can be very easy to spend too much. Keep track of how much money you earn from online ads from your paying customers to determine whether or not this channel is worth investing in.
If you need more inspiration or some inspiration for kickstarting your efforts to find customers for your lawn mowing business? If so, check out the 28-minute video below called: "How To Market A Lawn Care Business."
Tip 21: Stay Organised From the Start Before You Get Busy
When you own a lawn care service, your most important job, of course, would be the actual lawn care. However, even if you only have a couple of customers when you first start your lawn care business, it is important that you record details so that you can create a good habit in the beginning.
These days, you should really be somewhat familiar with Excel, google sheets, or even specialised software. Here's a pretty entertaining video from Curtis from New Orleans on running his lawn care business. He really breaks things down.
Tip 22: Manage Your Equipment Spending
We understand you may want to go out there and buy the best equipment you can find. However, you don’t need to get yourself too far in debt before you even have routine customers.
If you already have some handy lawn equipment, learn how to make do with that. Having every piece of equipment you can think of isn’t that big of a deal – your clients are only going to care that the job is getting done – they’re not going to size you up based on the equipment you’re using.
As you start bringing in money, put money to the side for equipment breakdowns and, yes, new equipment. If you don’t set aside a certain portion of the money you make, you might find yourself stuck with broken equipment when you need it the most. Imagine having a lawn mower that won’t work when you need to mow a couple of lawns that day. That certainly isn’t going to be good for your business.
Tip 23: Build a Team of Trustworthy People
As your business grows, there may come a time when you need to pull in some extra help. Regardless of the position, whether it’s a full-time field tech or a part-time worker to help you manage your business, the individuals you decide to hire can have a major impact on your company.
Before you hire someone, we recommend performing a background check – there are numerous companies that can offer in-depth checks. You should also ask for references and follow up with them.
Conclusion
Doing everything yourself can be very difficult. That is why most lawn mowers tend to use a combination of get-my-customers-for-me and DIY approaches. There is no such thing as a right or wrong way.
It all depends on how you like hunting for customers compared to how much you would prefer to be out mowing lawns and how much you enjoy juggling two different marketing approaches. It's completely up to you since it is your lawn-mowing business.
As with any business, it’s going to take some time before you start to see some profit coming in. Just be patient, give it your best, work hard, and you stand a good chance at making your lawn care business a successful one.
