Struggling to Spread the Scent of Freshly Cut Grass

Gasoline's rising prices not only affect us drivers, but they also affect those working hard to pretty up our yards and gardens. Landscapers rely on gasoline for lawn mowers as well as blow-packs.

Consumers expected their contractors who do the gardening, weeding, and other yard work to keep prices stable. After all, hiring landscapers and yard workers -- for many -- is a luxury and one of the first things customers cut in a recession.

Landscapers are doing what they can to absorb the rising costs and cut back in other areas. They know customers will take on landscaping work, if they need to save money.

Ways to save on costs or earn money:

• Plan jobs to minimize mileage. For example, don't schedule a job on the east side of town followed by the west side and back to the east. Instead, do both jobs on the east side before traveling west.
• Take care in filling gas tanks.
• Sell parts. Even if customers take on jobs themselves, they may need replacement parts for lawn mowers they haven't used in years.
• Offer repairing services. You save customers the time and trouble of finding someone who can repair their landscaping equipment. It's better than not earning anything and plus goodwill goes a long way. Eventually, things will improve and they will remember your helping them when they're ready to contract out yard work.
• Take care of cash flow. Commercial accounts often don't pay until 60 or 90 days after you do the work. Remember to send invoices immediately after the job. Billing administration is as important as landscaping tasks. Here are cash flow spreadsheet tools from Grand Valley State University.

Since it's cheaper and easier to retain customers than find new ones, maintaining a relationship with customers is vital -- even if they decide to do the work themselves. One way to stay in the customer's mind is to create an e-mail newsletter with landscaping tips including suggestions of places to buy plants for lower prices.

The e-mail newsletter is about providing customers with information they can use while keeping your company's name in their minds for when they need you.

Though you might be a green guru, you still need to take care of the business aspect of your landscaping business. This includes marketing and growth planning. This article from Grounds Maintenance has excellent information on the business aspect of landscaping including cash flow, marketing, and growth.

If you struggle to keep your cash flow from growing like weeds despite sending timely invoices, you may want to explore working with a working capital provider to get cash to kill the weeds that come with cash flow. If this is something you're open to, here are questions to ask a potential financing resource.

Here are a few recent post about how landscaping companies are handling these economic times.

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