So… you’re putting all the pieces together to start your own lawn care business. Make sure you have your business name right at the top, because there are lots of things to consider before making a final decision.

How To Develop The Perfect Name For Your Lawn Care Business

Your lawn care business name will have two jobs.  One is to be unique enough that people can remember who to call when they need lawn work done. The other is to tell the customer something about your business.  If you decide on John Nelson’s Lawn Services, (assuming you are John Nelson), your personal credibility is built into part of your company name. The downside of using your name as part of your business identity is that if you ever decide to sell your lawn care business, your name would go with it. In fact, if it has played a big part in the success of your business, the buyer will probably insist on it. But, what happens to your reputation if the buyer runs down the business? On the other hand, if you name your lawn care business something like Good Looking Lawns, there’s no personal involvement left once you sell it.

Just be sure you keep the name generic enough so you can add new services. If you name the company, John’s Lawn Mowing Service, it limits what you do.  By changing “lawn mowing” to “lawn care”, you can add trimming, gardening and other related services all under the same corporate ID. 

Will the name you want to use for your lawn care business be suitable for a web site domain name? These days, it’s vital for businesses to have a web presence, and the experts say the best domain address (URL) is your company name. To continue the above example, the best URL for John Nelson’s Lawn Services is johnnelsonslawnservices.com.  When people see your business name on your truck, or some other promotional material, they will enter your company name in their computer internet browser.  So make it easy for them to find you on the internet, and you will bring in more customers through your web site.

Also be sure to verify with your county clerk that the name you want to use is available. If it is, register it right away to reserve that name for your business.

Sometimes, its appropriate to use a  whimsical or funny company name.  The guys who created the moving company, “Two Guys and a Truck” knew the value of a humorous name.  A funny name can have some serious marketing value. 

So give your new company name a lot of thought, even if you already have one in mind that you really like.  Pick a name you love for your new lawn care business, just make sure you take everything into consideration first.

How To Develop A Profitable Lawn Care Business

There are a lot of good reasons for starting your own lawn care company.  You might do it for the freedom that being your own boss gives you. You might do it to focus 100% on doing work that you are very good at which is making people’s lawns and gardens look great.  Or you might do it because you know you can do a better job running a business than the people you work for.  Regardless of the reason, it must be profitable enough to support you and your family.

So is it possible to make a good profit running a lawn care business?  Absolutely, most serious lawncare business owners stay in business for years.  So, what are the basics of building a profitable business that you must keep in mind to apply to your situation as you launch your lawn care business, and begin to get clients and generate revenue?

Strong Management Skills Will Keep Your Lawncare Business Profitable

Profitability is not a complicated idea.  It is basically making more money than you spend.  But it is a mistake to think you can reach profitability simply by controlling costs.  Too many businesses have gone under putting all the emphasis on efficiency and cost savings and not enough emphasis on getting new clients, and client retention.  You can see profitability when you and your crews are all fully engaged in money generating work every working hour of every day.

This can be a challenge particularly as you grow to the point where you need multiple crews.  To keep each crew on a job site, completing work and then moving to the next job site, and juggle the work and the workers each and every day will definitely test of your management ability.  But you learn the art of managing larger and larger crews and larger jobs AS your business grows beyond just you and your small collection of tools… to an empire. (Maybe empire is a bit much, but the point is to be willing to grow!)

You need to focus a good deal on these three things to keep your lawn care business growing:

1. Client retention. 
2. Bring in new clients. 
3. Cost control… making sure your crews are performing at peak efficiency while delivering top quality work to your clients. 

The kind of client focus that you need in order to become profitable must involve more than just you, the owner.  You must instill it in your lawn care business employees.  Satisfied, repeat clients are the foundation for profitability. So make sure you and your staff give each of them the “royal treatment”. 

The Best Lawn Care Advertising Is Good Old Word-Of-Mouth

As the owner and manager of your lawncare company, you must always be looking for ways to capture more business.  This sometimes means marketing and advertising .  But it also includes the best source of all… word of mouth from all those satisfied clients!

The real heart of profitability is customer satisfaction. You can build a reliable income from the monthly payments of a satisfied client base.  They will give you new work as you expand the kinds of services your lawn care business offers.   And they’ll gladly give you referrals by telling their friends and neighbors about the lawn service they are so pleased with.  That word of mouth marketing is free to you, and it will get you more business than any other type of advertising. 

These are all great reasons to take very good care of the lawn care customers you have, and grow your lawncare business from that base to greater profitability each year.

When you start your own lawn care business, there are a lot of new situations you have to get used to.  Perhaps you did lawn care for years as an independent contractor or you worked for someone else on their payroll.  The lawn care doesn’t change, and if that is what you love to do, you are on the right track starting your own lawn care business.  But when you’re the boss, the world is a very different place.

Perhaps the biggest adjustment will be that when you own your own business, you suddenly are confronted with this new creature called an employee.  But it is the employees you have on board with you that will make or break your yard care business.  That means that one of the most important skills you will develop as a manager and owner of a business will be your ability to pick, hire, and retain great employees.  That is because your business will truly be “as strong as your weakest link”.

If you used contract labor when you got busy before you turned your lawn care into a business, you developed some skills for evaluating who would be a good worker.  If you did get that chance, that judgment will be invaluable to you as you build your own small army of quality employees.  It is quite a balancing act to capture enough business to keep all of your employees busy, and at the same time think about growing your business. 

If you get a rush of new business, you want to capture it and turn those customers into long term clients.  But you have to be able to add new employees to take care of all of that business. Consider this:  can you trust your employees to take care of your customers as well as you would yourself?  You will soon discover that the most important resource you have is a labor source who can provide you with a consistent supply of workers who do a good job for you.  Whether this is a community that you network with to draw workers from, or a placement service, your lawn care business will benefit from having a way to recruit good employees.

Above all, when you develop a strong staff of good employees, you should bend heaven and earth to take care of them.  And if you can give your employees a little part of the success you are enjoying, they will become an even more valuable asset.

If you can keep a good group of employees working with you and you are always developing new talent, you will have conquered one of the biggest challenges of running your own lawn care business.  It will be a skill that will be a key component to long term success.

Susan’s Lawn Gardens is pleased to feature this article from today’s guest authors at  LANDSCAPING-BLOG. They are landscape experts, so we feel very comfortable recommending their work to our visitors. 

Common Landscaping Tools for Each Landscaper

by Landscaping-blog

For the avid do-it-yourself landscaper, the right tools are important. After all, if one wishes to save money on the expenses associated with having a well cared for yard, it is best to make sure that he or she has all of the tools necessary to create an attractive landscape. By understanding some of the most common tools used for basic landscaping needs, you can ensure that you have everything you need to keep your lawn in the best possible shape, bringing delight and distinction to your grounds, be they large or small.

Shovels, rakes, trowels, and hand cultivators. These are the most basic of tools when it comes to landscaping. Every home should be supplied with these basic implements. They make just about every landscaping endeavor possible. Shovels to remove sod and turn soil, as well as dig the holes necessary for fixtures like trees and hardscapes, Rakes are essential to smooth out planting beds and prepare ground for things like sod without packing the dirt. Trowels and hand cultivators allow you to perform minute work that requires more attention to detail. All of these tools are necessary to the proper functioning and care of a landscape.

Pruners and shears. These tools are used to improve the appearance of woody plants and trees. They keep plants from encroaching in other areas, and they also promote the overall health of the plants. They help maintain a neat appearance, and if you have topiary concerns, they are indispensable in maintaining a set shape. There are hand pruners, tools that help with the smaller branches and are easier to use, loppers for getting thicker branches that are to large for pruners, and even pruning saws that can help you with the toughest of branches. Hedge shears provide a way for hedges to be trimmed more conscientiously than with electric or gas-run trimmers (although these are widely available and can make maintaining hedges much easier).

Lawnmower. This is perhaps one of the most common and most obvious of landscaping tools. It is meant to keep the grass at a reasonable level, and to keep the lawn neat and healthy. Related to lawnmowers in the trimming department are things like weed wackers, which are very useful in keeping edges that can’t be cut by a mower nice and neat. Additionally, the use of some special machinery, designed to eliminate thick brush is useful to have on hand, even it is only in the form of a machine rented once a year.

Other tools of interest. Of course, there are specialty tools that may be needed depending upon on the features of your landscape. If you have a water fixture, it is important to make sure that you have the proper pumps and filters, and that you have little skimmers that can allow you to remove larger pieces of debris from the water. Automatic sprinklers can make watering the lawn and your other plants much easier, and you should have a garden hose for special watering needs. Regular household tools such as hammer and nails, levels, and drills can be helpful if you have built landscape features like patios, decks, pergolas, and trellises. They can also be useful in building things like containers and creating raised beds.

Wheelbarrow. A wheelbarrow will always be of infinite use for the avid landscaper and improver. Wheelbarrows are very useful for moving debris as well as bringing needed implements to their proper places. They haul dirt and bring in plants. They make it possible to for one person to carry a load that otherwise she or he would not be able to handle. For the serious landscaper, a wheelbarrow is indeed necessary.

When you have all of the tools necessary to take care of your landscape, then you are well rewarded for your hard work. Acquiring the more common tools can also save you money in the long run, as they can be used over and over again. Additionally, many of the more common landscape tools are fairly small in size and easy to store in a garage or a shed. As long as they are kept neatly arranged in place, they are easy to get to when needed, and not hard to find. Proper maintenance of you tools is important: keep them from becoming rusty, and make sure your lawnmower and other gas or electric implements are well oiled and always have plenty of gas. Proper care of your tools ensures that you will be able to properly care for your landscape.

Above information is brought to you by www.Landscaping-Blog.com   Landscaping-Blog.com is world’s online informative resources for Gardening & Landscaping where you may find information related to landscaping, gardening, flowers & plants, gardening equipments, various tips & tricks for your home garden etc. To find out more, please visit www.Landscaping-Blog.com

Article Source: Common Landscaping Tools for Each Landscaper

 
Susan’s Lawn Gardens is pleased to feature this article from today’s guest author, Jeremy Bolton. He is an expert gardener, so we feel very comfortable recommending his work to our visitors.

Advantages of Using Organic Fertilizers

by Jeremy Bolton

These days, there is so much hype about organic fertilizers and its benefits. Most of us who have gotten used to chemical fertilizers are still skeptical whether facts are stretched too much to make it more appealing. Let us take a quick look at some of the advantages of using organic fertilizers so that you can decide whether it is really necessary to switch to organic fertilizer and organic gardening.

Long before the existence of synthetic fertilizers, plants obtained nutrients from decomposed organic matter such as bone, blood, fish and other organic waste, however it was the growth of farming and crop production that brought about so called “need” for synthetic fertilizers. As more research and studies have been conducted, the detrimental effects of chemical fertilizers are being made aware and more people and environmental groups are beginning to tout the advantages of the organic fertilizers that are readily available now.

Probably the most noteworthy advantage of organic fertilizers is the fact that they are mostly insoluble and therefore are slower to release nutrients to the plant.  This reduces the leaching effect that results from most chemical fertilizers that causes so many problems.  Plants can only uptake so many nutrients at a time and in most cases the plants will not uptake all of the nutrients from a synthetic fertilizer application. Additionally, the likelihood of burning plants due to the overuses is almost non-existent as the overuse of chemical fertilizers can result in the burning and even killing of plants and turf.

Organic fertilizers also help to improve soil quality.  Poor soil can only be improved through the introduction of organic matter, which is what organic fertilizer is.  The consistent use of chemicals creates plant life dependent upon synthetic fertilization as these fertilizers only work at the plant level.  Consequently you may see fluctuations in the vibrance and quality of the plant in between fertilizations.  Through the introduction of organic matter and resulting improvement of the soil and stimulation of soil microbial activity, an environment can be created to better support plant life and provide a slow and consistent flow of nutrients to the plant thus creating a harmonious balance between soil and plant.

The other part about using organic fertilizers is selecting the right one as there are so many.  Typically organic fertilizers will only be high in one of the 3 key plant nutrients, Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium (NPK). For this reason it is important to understand the needs of your plant to help determine which organic fertilizer or combination of organic fertilizers you should choose to provide the necessary nutrients.  Or, you may simply want to add organic fertilizers to improve your soil quality, in which cases there are products better suited for that too.

No matter how you slice it, organic fertilizers are the only option for creating a long lasting and healthy plant/ soil environment that is ecologically responsible economically viable for the long run.

Jennifer Howerton is author of article written on organic fertilizer & natural soil conditioner. For more information, please visit :http://www.naturalenviro.com/Article.php?ArticleSKU=Organic-Fertilizer

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Susan’s Lawn Gardens is pleased to feature this article from today’s guest author, EUDORA DeWYNTER. She is an expert on gardening tools, so we feel very comfortable recommending her work to our visitors.

Hanging Garden Tool Organizers
By Eudora DeWynter

Garden tools need proper storage, and hanging garden tools properly is a must since tools come in a variety of sizes and styles from the small tool collection to the large tool collection. There are many, hanging garden tool organizers on the market, some for garden sheds, some for your garage and some even for the small work area of your basement. When your storage space is small or limited a hanging tool organizer is the only answer especially when garage storage space is also sometimes limited. Organize what kind of tools you have, how many you own and what kind of space do you have for storage since keeping them off the ground and floor is essential. Listed below are a few of the many hanging organizers that are available.

Garden Tool Tree: This organizer takes up only 32inches of wall space, has 48 hanging hooks and has a weight limit of 75 pounds. It has a powder coated frame and can be hung inside or outside.

Pro-Star PGR1 Garden Tool Rack: This little rack will hold hoes, rakes, shovels, brooms and just about any other long handled tool there is. It has a removable basket to easily transport small hand tools.

Achla Garden Tool Wall Bracket: This rack arches outward giving extra space for hanging small or larger tools, it anchors to the wall or another flat surface.

Top Mount Track and Tool Rack; extremely heavy duty and versatile, this hanging tool organizer also has attachable accessories. It has mounting holes every 4 inches and features a row of various sized holes along the top and bottom which allows for easy storage of small tools. It comes in lengths of 2, 4, or 6 feet lengths.

Arrowshed Tool Hanging Rack TH100: Mounts easily on any wall and features 5 separate large tool holders and a similar smaller tool holder.

Wall Mounting Tool Rack: Neat, quick and secure organization with this nickel plated 24 inch magnetic tool rack. Tools can easily be removed with one hand and the mounted holder keeps tools well organized and displayed, making them easy to find.

Organizer Ultra-Hold: Great for safely storing tools in your garage, the heavier the object, the stronger the hold. It has adjustable sliding clamps to accommodate the different shapes and sizes of tools, comes in a 4 or 8 hook model.

Heavy Duty Utility Rack: garage storage and organization made easy, this rack is made of heavy duty steel and can hold up to 250 pounds, has 5 hooks and easily installs on any wood studded wall.

Wall Mounted Hand tool Organizer: Easily stores 60 hand tools (garden or work tools) on one rack. This organizer mounts easily on a wall and frees up extra space in larger tool racks for larger tools.

Shelving Tool Rack: This rack comes complete with enough storage space for all your hand gardening tools.

Mesh Hanging Garden Tool Organizer: A coated poly mesh fabric has 8 deep pockets for long handled tools and 8 smaller pockets for short handled tools, 4 quick release straps and buckles.

For more ideas for garden tool organizers visit: Stacks and Stacks, backyard Gardens or Life with Ease.

Eudora DeWynter offers tips on Hanging Garden Tool Organizers on her blog at http://www.gardentoolguru.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Eudora_DeWynter
http://EzineArticles.com/?Hanging-Garden-Tool-Organizers&id=977287

Article Source: EzineArticles.com