April 26, 2021

Useful tips from Chapter 6 of my New Landscaping Book

32 minutes

I hear you. Building a business is tough, and my clients work hard to achieve results. I decided to record a short preview of Chapter Six of my new landscaping book. I will discuss the possible mistakes in setting up a business that I learned the hard way. It was hard for me because no one guided me when I started. There are few people I ran to and asked for advice when I noticed that I've been doing it wrong. That is why here are some tips from the mistakes that I had gone through and corrected, which you might also encounter along the way.

"Here's how to avoid when taking on landscaping jobs. It's easier than you'd think, have rails set up on your business. I learned this the hard way. Rails or clear limits are essential to understanding how to run a business. It comes down to realizing what your business is and what your business is not." - Keith Kalfas.

Topics Covered:

2:15 - One of the best practices that you can develop as a business owner is understanding the needs of your potential customers and whether you can actually meet them before investing resources in them. Not evaluating your potential customers is a mistake. Screening is vital in a business, and it is not just accepting customers because of money. Talk to them and see if you guys are a fit.

11:15 - Avoid giving numbers right away. And instead, take a step back and tell your customers that you'll send them a quote.

15:26 - Always, always, always prepare a contract. A signature is important to acknowledge the agreement between you and your client.

21:33 - Don't forget to put those tarps and canvass before trimming.

24:33 - Policy is important to run a business. Don't mess this up!

Key Takeaways:

"Ask yourself when you start. Who is your customer? Who is not your customer? What areas and zip codes do you want to target? What areas and zip codes you are not interested in? What types of jobs are you looking to take on? And what types of jobs are you not interested in? Now, that's really easy to say for me right now that I have an established business. But truthfully, when I first got started, I was doing anything, I would paint your shed, I would pull your weeds, I would shovel rocks, I would bust up concrete, I would do anything for $1. So I think that if you're straight up desperate and have a customer willing to do anything. I'm willing to pay you money, whatever, bro, do anything. But as soon as you get established, you kind of stopped doing all that stuff. It depends on how advanced you are in your thinking and your confidence, right?"

"We're known for doing the best highest quality work in my city, period. And I got to charge for it. So that's when you move upstream, higher up in the pyramid, where you say, you know what, I'm only going to do quality work for quality money. That's what we do. We do beautiful work, and we charge more because of my reputation on the line, and that's where I get in where I fit in. Right? That's just me, but think about stuff like that, right?"

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