Ring Lawn Care

Craigslist Lawn Care Ad

Craigslist Lawn Care

One day I was posting an ad on Craigslist, when I paused to take a peek at another ad. This gentlemen was advertising his services for lawn mowing too. His name is Richard, from Woodbury, MN.

Not the prettiest of ads to say the least, but I continued to gander. Then it struck me, since he was so close to my service area I should give him a call and see if he needs some work.

Attempting to see if he wanted to pick up some of my accounts (12 of them), he probably thought this was a scam. We hung up and I had not received a call back, so I called him again. This time he knew this was for real. I did not want any kick-backs or anything, just trying to help a guy out. So I started asking him what type of mowers he had and to my amazement, he said only a push mower!!

I almost started cracking up right then and there! I told him, “You cannot do any of these properties with just a push mower”. So I loaned him my 54″ commercial zero-turn lawn mower, which he later purchased.

It must have been two or three months later that he tells me he is a United States Air Force Veteran. This absolutely blew me away! Today he tells people; “Bryan is the biggest Patriot I have ever met”.

Richard and I met through Craigslist of all places!! Today we jokingly say were are like “Brothers from different Mothers”. Yes I did end up building his company website that same year. He will be the first to tell you how that has paid dividends. Heading into his fourth season (2015) under the name Hansen’s Lawn Care, he is supporting his family instead of being trapped in a 9 to 5 job he was pursuing until my phone call that day!

Today we talk a lot about the lawn Care industry! Hang out like buddies do, except when football is on. He is a Packer fan and I support the Minnesota Vikings #SKOL!!! But I can honestly say that I have never met anybody other than my wife, that sticks to their convictions as I do! Proud to call this guy my brother!!

NOTE: I think I have created a monster – Richard has aspirations to have a Snow Plowing only company one day. He constantly talks about this Tractor he wants, to plow snow! You have to love his passion for the industry!

UPDATE: Well, here is the tractor!!! He made the plunge and is one more step towards his dream of providing only snow plowing!

No Strings Attached

Richard and I were interviewed during the winter of 2015/2016 about our experience of how we came to meet. The interviewer Brooke Bates found me on Instagram.

This is the link to that article No Strings Attached November 2016 Issue of Lawn & Landscape Magazine.

Snow Plowing With The Bobcat

This is a shot from the other day (January 14th). The view is from inside the bobcat machine. We only had about a 1/2″ of snow, and we were required to only dispatch our sidewalk crew.

Usually when I get into the bobcat it is not meaningful (usually in the dump truck). But on this day I set out to take care of a couple commercial proper Inside Bobcat ties with high traffic. Since temperatures were going to be much warmer and it was a work day, we would be able to have pavement showing for the high traffic accounts.

With 98% of our properties within bobcat driving distance we are able to be very serviceable. Before I knew it, I darn near completed all but four of our accounts in a matter of 5.5 hours. Sure we only had a minimal snow fall, but the annoyance of this event would have left a sloppy mess.

There really is no greater feeling when you know that you have actually made a difference on a property. We have all visited parking lots or businesses where (as a snow plow contractor or customer) there seems no effort was put forth to clean it up.

My son Adam and I did scrape pavement with our snow plow trucks the next day at the four I did not make it to, which are not bobcat driving distance. We are still anticipating that we will get a significant snow plowing event this year.

Bitterly Cold Snow Plowing Event

After a long and dry December we finally received a snow fall around three inches. January 8th was bitterly cold with a wind chill around -30. The crews fought through it and managed to get the route finished in a timely manner.

Most snow events are a “schedule on the fly” situation. Meaning, there are certain factors that play a part in what properties take precedent. Factors such as:

Business Hours
Call from property
Time of Snow Fall
Employee Punctuality

Communication is a big player when attempting to service as many properties as we have. The number of properties we have may not seem significant, but the ratio – Equipment to Property is significant. It really does not matter how many properties you have, being serviceable should consume you as an owner/operations manager.

Hats off to the crews for toughing this one out! With no snow in sight for all of next week, back to working on lawn care service agreements.

One Time Lawn Mowing

There are occasions established lawn care providers will take on “one time lawn mowing” jobs. Most hate to refuse work, but there are times they just have to. Newer lawn care providers may take these requests in order to build-up a base of accounts, but soon will realize that they will have a hard time relying on a weekly lawn mowing income.

One time lawn mowing customers may be unaware of a lawn care provider list. List of factors may look like this:

Wear & tear on equipment
Weekly Lawn Mower Maintenance
Client location
Maintenance of equipment
Scheduling
Customer service
Fuel
Hourly wages
Insurance

With a demanding weekly schedule and not losing sight of your beginnings, you have learned from your mistakes. With this in mind, when a potential client should call for a “One time lawn mowing“, you need to let them know that your schedule is set up for weekly lawn care.

Owning A Lawn Mowing Business

Being your own boss comes with much responsibility. There are many aspects that were not thought of in the very beginning. Landscape provider’s must watch the bottom line more accurately and wisely as the cost of living continues to rise.

Basic costs a lawn mowing business cannot overlook: compose_256px

Insurance
Workmen Compensation
Fuel per month
Hourly wages
Part and labor costs
Taxes
Advertising/Marketing
Annual D.O.T. inspection

These are only a few of the most over-looked aspects of this industry.

If you have lost the passion or love for your lawn mowing business don’t just hang it up or quit. Take a step back and start over, YES I said start over. Reevaluate your commitment to yourself, employees and customers.

Operating a lawn mowing business can be scary in any economy. Having the right people in place for your operation will create time for you to market and promote weekly services. If you think your lawn business will run itself after it has grown, forget it. The landscape industry is demanding. Only hard-working and committed individuals will succeed.

Fall Leaf Clean Up 2014

Purchased a new dump truck for the business! This thing is pretty much everything I have been looking for in one vehicle. The multiple uses:

Fall Leaf Clean Up
Landscaping
Snow Plowing
De-Icing

The Crew Pleased With New Equipment

The crew loves the capabilities the Billy Goat Leaf Vacuum provides vacuuming up compost too.

Concerns were also heard about the back pack leaf blowers we were using, so I purchased a few Stihl Magnum 600’s.

The leaf removal process for some properties can be trying to say the least, especially if you do not have the right equipment.

This fall leaf clean up was cut short this year. Mother nature decided to snow earlier than normal this year, but we did complete 80% of our clean ups in nine days.