Professional Lawn and Landscape Maintenance Paper Essay Example

penalties by submitting tax returns on time.

Understanding the guidelines of the IRS is only one small part of the accounting process. You are busy every day from sun up to sun down but are you making any profits? A successful entrepeneer in the lawn care business will need to learn how to understand the basic elements of a balance sheet and income statement.

For example, where are you seeing the most profit against expenses? Is it in the lawn care, fertilization program or light landscaping projects? One could look at the balance sheet and determine that after capturing all the expenses of the three programs being offered that the fertilization program is making the owner the most money. One reason you are making more money than lawn care is you are putting more skill and expertise in learning the chemicals and the spreader will not depreciate like a 10,000. 00 lawn mower that will run its course in three-four years.

One might want to study the accounting balance sheets more closely in the off season to get a better understanding of where he/she should spend more time maximizing profits. Once you make the decision that you are going into business for you how do people find out about you? Marketing your small business is key to success! If no one knows you are in market place you can only expect failure. Most small businesses fail within the first two years to three years of operation.

This is why understanding who your target audience is what medium are you going to use to reach

out to that person. One successful marketing method is knocking door to door and asking if the owner of the property would like to receive a quote? A lot of family’s Self-Employed in Professional Lawn Maintenance 4 have both parents in the workplace and some of the best times for reaching these people for a quote are Saturday mornings, not to early though! Try targeting upscale neighborhoods as these are the types of people that will have more disposable income.

You are marketing yourself first so first impression make all the difference! Dress in uniform with you company logo and hand them a free brosure while you are talking to them. You need to stand out amongst the other people competing for their business. Direct mailers are a great way to advertise as well. Research what zip codes you are going to target. There are community papers that are great places to run ads. Try running a special promotion to get business the first time like free delivery with any mulch/bark installation. There are two main areas to target home owners and business that you want to target.

We talked about some home owner ways to get business but for the business owner on the casual corner you can use things like direct mail but one great way is to network. Find out who might own businesses from your local church, schools you are attending, linked in friends. Business owners are much more willing to talk to you if there is direct connection from people networking. One example you can use if you get in front of a business owner is tell him how you want to

get there first thing Monday and get your property mowed and looking good for all the customers to see during the week.

This works well anyway because home owners want their grass mowed on Thursday or Friday so it looks good for the weekend while they are home. It’s all about understanding your target audience and how you can provide that exceptional service. “Setting the Standard’s” on professional landscape maintenance on every piece of literature that goes out says something about you and your company. In dealing with marketing mix strategies what you are talking about it the entire process from product to price. For lawn care the product is the service you are giving to the customer.

The cost Self-Employed in Professional Lawn Maintenance 5 for services is based on quality of work times the number of satisfied customers or reputation. The greater service you can provide the more you should be able to charge. People will pay more for continued good quality service. You need to factor in overhead expenses and depending at what stage your business in is going to determine your bottom price.

For example the one man show that cuts 5 lawns on the side for fun can for the most part get away with a minimum stop of $20. 0 while a large scaled service will not be able to stop, mow a lawn and move on for less than $30. 00 because of operating expenses. When you are marketing an area the best thing you can do is combine neighbor’s properties and try to get a route where you unload the trailer in the morning and because you built such a

nice route you do not need to load the mower up till the end of the day. Most successful lawn care companies look for these opportunities and will heavily market a neighborhood they are already established it. Strategic management is another key that is going to drive your elf-employed business to success.

The Five Tasks of Strategic Management . Forming a strategic vision of what the company’s future business makeup will be and where the organization is headed – so as to provide long-term direction, delineate what kind of enterprise the company is trying to become, and infuse the organization with a sense of purposeful action.  Setting objectives – converting the strategic vision into specific performance outcomes for the company to achieve.  Crafting a strategy to achieve the desired outcomes.

Implementing and executing the chosen strategy efficiently and effectively.  Evaluating performance and initiating corrective adjustments in vision, long-term direction, objectives, strategy, or implementation in light of actual experience, changing conditions, new ideas, and new opportunities. (Knapp, 2000)

Self-Employed in Professional Lawn Maintenance 6 Once you have determined that you are going into business for yourself you need to develop a management strategy to be successful. How large of a company do you want to become? How many employees do you want to have?

How many services are you going to provide and what skill sets of employees are needed to fill those rolls? The key is put a goal that meets the criteria above and develop an action plan on how to get there. One example of a service that can set you apart from the rest is finding a niche service to include that goes with your routine

services of mowing, fertilizing, mulch, and weeding. Try looking into a service like waterscaping! These are hot items that people want but not everyone can develop or incorporate a waterscaping waterfall that flows into a pond in the back yard.

These types of innovations and ideas are what strategic management it all about. All business in the world today has an international piece to them. While the self employed person starting a lawn care may not be doing business in China he or she is always in need of products. Keeping up with what products are out there and of what quality has an international piece to it. One thing you could do once you have established successful business you could think how to market your service and sell franchises perhaps as far as China.

As we dive into the 5 core usiness classes later we will discuss in more detail how international business strategies and the global impact can play on your self employed business. If you have been fortunate and still in your second and third year it’s time to start some financial analysis of the company. Analyze goals and the role of the owner to meet these goals. Is it time to take on new risk? Is the capitol being invested getting a good rate of return? As we get further into the program we are going to break the categories up of financial analyses and illustrate the how time and money can drive your business in the black.