Key Takeaways

Efficient lawn care enhances:

Communication: Prompt and clear communication fosters better service customization.
Preparation: Pre-service preparation by homeowners, such as providing access and addressing pet concerns, ensures smoother operations.
Feedback: Constructive feedback post-service allows for continuous improvement and personalization.

It has become evident to me that in the lawn care industry there is a much better approach to make money, but I am not sure if the hard economy would allow people to be open to the idea. What is it? Help other businesses make money. Yes, I know that owning and operating a small business in this country is rather cut-throat, but there are some very effective ways that lawn care and landscaping professionals could help each other make money.

After talking today with a fellow friend and landscaper Joe Colacurcio, owner of Hillside Landscape in Reno, it became very obvious that we had an opportunity to help each other make money. Joe, being very experienced in the landscaping and snow removal realm, had heard that this previous year I was contacted by Cabela's in Reno for a snow removal contract. Since our business is not equipped to take on such a large contract, I simply told them "Thank you for contacting us, but we are currently not able to provide service for you." After the discussion with Joe today, I realized that I had a potential gold mine for someone that could handle a contract like this.

Joe and I generally work in the same field, but we have two completely different business models. Joe focuses on high end landscaping jobs while my business mainly focuses on the weekly lawn maintenance contracts. However, each of our businesses get calls for both types of work because the public does not always know the difference between our companies. At this point in time I was reminded of Steve Carrell's character from the movie Despicable Me saying, "Liiiiiiggght buuulllllb!!!"

Whats the Solution?

This is when I realized that so many lawn care companies stretch themselves thin by trying to serve homes/businesses all across Reno. We each find our niche in a specific part of town that allows us to cut down on drive time (and therefore gas), enabling us to complete more jobs in a shorter period of time. So I propose, "help me, help you." I honestly don't want to be driving to Sparks or south Reno to do a lawn maintenance job just as some companies believe that the NW area is out of their way. If we are able to refer business to each other it would allow us to offer lower rates, drive less, and in the end provide better service for our customers! In my opinion this is a win win situation for both the business and the customer.