Marketing is the fuel for lawn care business growth. If you don’t have any money to put in your business fuel tank your going to have to get out and push it for a while.
And that’s okay. We all start somewhere. Not every new lawn care business starts out with startup capital.
But there are Do-It-Yourself marketing methods you can employ when you have NO MONEY to invest in marketing…
Watch the video to find out more…
One of the most common questions I get is from people who have send me random e-mails who say that, “You know what, I don’t have a marketing budget yet. I can’t afford your services but what I can do to grow my business without any money?” Or this one I got just a few weeks ago. “I need to add 300 new clients in four weeks but I have virtually no marketing budget. How do I do that?” The answer to both those questions is it’s going to be pretty tough. If you have no money to invest in acquiring clients, you’re going to have a really difficult time growing quickly. If you don’t have any money you’re not going to be able to hire somebody like me. You’re not going to be able to do a number of things. You’re not going to be able to go put postcards online. You’re not going to be able to do any of the more advanced things that cost a little bit of money.
But we all start somewhere. Every business starts out and not all of … not everybody has startup capital. Not everybody has money left after they’ve bought equipment, bough their truck, done all the things that they need to do to incorporate their business and get their paperwork straight. Often times smaller companies might find themselves in this situation. If you’re a one-truck company, if you’re a one-man shop, what can you do? How can you grow organically? What can you do to get business that doesn’t cost much money at all?
First thing, you start with your friends and family that live in the areas that you want to start this. See if you can start doing work for them and then build off that job. Start with the account set you have; maybe you only have five accounts, maybe you have 10 accounts but build off of that. One thing that you could is be aggressive about acquiring referrals from your existing client base. If you’re doing great work, your existing customers are going to be a great resource for you to get even more business. If you have fantastic service they’re going to want to refer you to their friends and family. It makes them feel good about themselves when they can help other people by turning them onto a great service that you’re providing.
The next is to rely on DIY marketing, “Do Yourself Marketing”. Create, print, and distribute your own flyers and door hangers. The higher quality design that you have, the message that you put on their – again think about your unique selling points – the more seriously you’re going to be taken. If you don’t have any money you’re going to have to do it yourself, you know Microsoft Word, Microsoft Publisher; a program that you probably already have you can start using that.
The number one most effective thing that you can do if you don’t have any money is to put on some sneakers, put on a nice polo shirt, nice colored shirt, hopefully with your company logo on it and hit the pavement. Get out there and talk to your potential customers. Get out there and meet your prospects face-to-face. Going door-to-door and introducing yourself to your prospective clients is a great way to build a business from scratch. Give them a refrigerator magnet, maybe a sales call highlighting your unique selling points, and tell them about your services; sell to them face- to-face. It takes some balls. It’s not for everybody but if you do it a few times you’re going to get over any embarrassment that you have about doing it. It’s very effective. I’ve done it. Jonathan, the CEO of Service Autopilot has done it. It’s every effective.
Don’t be afraid to talk to your customers. Don’t be afraid to talk to your prospects. Get over that, get pass it. it’s silly. I know this is a big hesitation for people and we’re not mentioning this to other companies. They don’t like this idea. They want to receive leads passively and not ever have to speak to anybody; just take their payment and not ever have to speak to their customers or put in any effort to get new ones. Well, I’ve got to tell you the most successful entrepreneurs are the ones that are willing to do what their competitors aren’t. If you don’t have any money this is this kind of things that you’re going to have to rely on.
As you get more and more clients, you can you build on that. You can continue to get referrals from them and you also … as you get more clients you have more incoming revenue. You’ll take that revenue and reinvest it, you invest it in marketing. You invest in a professional website. You’ll start to invest in some online marketing techniques. You’ll get some professional postcards, door hangers printed. You invest in your marketing and it’s going to build on itself. Your marketing is going to get better and better, and bigger and bigger, and you’re going to have a wider and wider net and that’s how you’re going to grow.
Don’t be discouraged. You just have to be a little bit more aggressive. You have to think outside the box and do some things that your competitors aren’t willing to do; but you can do it. If you want to go organically, that’s how you do it. Good luck to you, I know you can do it. Thanks. Take care.
Each job that you get … we’ve got an airplane coming overhead now.
You want to grow organically.
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