So you’ve got started with your lawn care business, and now you are looking to snag some new clients.  What is the best way of doing that?

There are lots of different ways to promote yourself to a new clientele. But one of the best ways of all is to have proof of the work you have already done for someone else.

Let’s look at a situation from two different angles to illustrate this point. Let’s suppose a lawn care expert arrives at your home and offers to take care of your lawn for you.  They tell you all about what they have done in the past and offer you a great deal on future services.

Now let’s look at the same situation again, except this time they have brought a portfolio with them, displaying before and after pictures of other gardens and lawns they have worked on in the past.  I’m betting this will persuade you to sign up for their services more so than the first example would.

This is why you should work on building up a portfolio that you can show people.  Ideally you actually want two of them – one to put on your website and one to have in a folder which you can take round to show potential clients.

If you are just starting out and you don’t yet have any evidence of your skills, ask your friends and relatives if you can tackle their lawns for them and take photos of the results.  Remember the ‘before’ photos as well though, otherwise you will have nothing to compare it to.

Whenever you meet a new client – particularly one whose lawn needs a lot of work – ask them for permission to take some pictures.  You can then add these to your portfolio too.

Having an online portfolio is a good idea because not everyone will find you as you are out and about working.  Similarly some people are more likely to find you online than they are by looking through local adverts.  If you take your pictures with a digital camera it is easy to print them out for your hard copy portfolio and also to download them onto your computer and then upload them to your website.  Make sure you have a specific section on your site for your portfolio, and add your contact telephone number or email address (or both) to that same page.  This will make it much easier for people to contact you when they want a quotation.

In a sense your portfolio works for you, encouraging people to sign up for your services.  But more than this, you should also view it as a living thing that can be developed and updated as time goes on.  Keep it current and up to date and fill it with as many before and after scenarios as you can.

Try and add different styles and types of gardens as well, so you can illustrate that no job is too big for you and your business to tackle.

If you have only just started up your lawn care business you may not be able to imagine having employees of your own to help you expand your business.  But there could well be some point in the future where this dream will become a reality.  Alternatively you might be approaching that point already.

If you are in the situation of thinking seriously about bringing more people on board, you need to think carefully about what you want to find in a recruit.  Obviously you want to employ the best people for the job, so what do you look for and how do you make sure you hire just the right people?

For starters you need to make sure you write out a good advert that will tell people what to expect.  If you want experienced workers make sure you say so.  You should certainly look for people who have some knowledge and love for gardening and lawn care.  But if you can weed some people out at the job advert stage you will find the interview process tends to be a lot easier as a result.

For example if you just ask for lawn care employees you’ll get anyone and everyone who wants a job applying for the position.  But if you say ‘must have experience of ride on mowers’ or ‘this is a highly physical position requiring outdoor work’ you’ll get rid of those who think it’s going to be an easy job before they even consider applying.

Another good idea is to have a set of questions ready to ask before you interview anyone.  If you go in without preparing yourself you are less likely to come out of it with the right employees you were looking for.

For instance, you could compile some questions designed to help you find out what people actually know about gardening.  Try asking them about their own garden and how they take care of it, for example.  How do they treat their lawn throughout the year?  You can keep things fairly conversational and you’ll find out a lot about what they know and don’t know as a result.

A lack of knowledge in certain areas shouldn’t preclude someone from getting the job.  If you know someone has the basics and they clearly love gardening you should be able to teach them the rest.  You would arguably find that this kind of person is better to have on your team than someone who knows more but doesn’t have much enthusiasm for the work.

One final point worth mentioning is that it is usually worth trusting your instincts about people as well.  Sometimes you might find someone ticks all the boxes with regard to knowledge and experience, but you just don’t feel they are a good fit for some reason.  In this case you should always defer to your best judgment – it will usually prove to be correct further down the line.  Good lawn care employees are there to be found, and if you follow these tips the search will be that much easier.

As you cater for more and more clients in your lawn care and landscaping business, you will find it pays to offer more services as well.  Pressure washing is a good thing to offer as it can vastly improve the condition and appearance of patios and paths in many gardens – both at the front and back of the house.

If you get a job to pressure wash an area, the first thing to do is to sweep it as clean as possible.  If you don’t there is the possibility that you will end up forcing some of the dirt and dust into the patio – making your job harder in the process.  You’ll need to move all the furniture and pots out of the way as well, so make sure you do that before you sweep.  Put them somewhere safe where they won’t be affected by the washing process.  Pull out any weeds you spot during this part of the task too.

Once the sweeping is done you can get on with the actual pressure washing itself.  There is one more thing to do first though, and that is to make sure you are dressed for the occasion!  You’ll get wet if you aren’t.  Grab some goggles and wear those along with some waterproof boots and trousers.

Figure out where the slope is on the patio and work with it to ensure all the dirty water goes away from you and down to the drain.  Read the instructions on the cleaner you are using so you know exactly how much to use and whether you need to dilute it at all.  And before you use any chemicals give the area a quick wash down with plain water to prepare it.

Once you start the washing process you need to keep yourself at an angle to the patio at all times.  Don’t point the nozzle of the pressure washer straight down at the ground.  If you do this you’ll be forcing all the dirt to go into the patio instead of being washed away from it.  Work methodically and make sure you wash all the dirt away from where you are and down towards the nearest drain.

Most cleaners then require a short period of waiting to ensure they do their best work.  Consult the instructions and keep all pets and children away from the area while you are treating it.

The next step is to clean the fluid off the patio.  You should do this by using the exact same technique you did before.  Don’t keep focusing on one or two spots though; wash off the whole area thoroughly.  You will soon see the benefits of the chemical treatment when you do this, as it will bring up the condition of the patio much better that just water would.

Ideally speaking the pots and furniture should not be put back until the ground is fully dry.  Once that is done, your client can look forward to a cleaner, brighter patio to enjoy.

A lot of people who take care of their own lawns only do so during the summer when they need to mow them.  As a lawn care expert you can grab customers all year round by taking good care of their lawns during winter and fall as well.

Some people believe they only need to keep cutting their grass during the summer and it can be left for the rest of the year.  But this isn’t true.  It is well worth spending some time caring for a lawn as we go into fall and through to winter, because it can help it to grow and develop for the following year.

So what should you do at this stage?

Well, one of the most important things is to get rid of anything that shouldn’t be there.  This basically means dethatching your lawn by raking out all the dead compacted grass and moss that is still there.  You don’t want this settling on a lawn during these months as it can have an impact on how good it looks when the weather starts to warm up again.  Raking off any leaves that fall on the lawn is another good step to take.  Not only will the lawn look better it will also prevent leaves from rotting down and contributing to the thatch you are trying to get rid of.  If the client has children and has various garden play equipment left outside, see if you can get permission to move it so the grass won’t die underneath.

As you perform the last few acts of mowing, cut down the amount you take off the lawn as well.  This should help keep it in a better condition for the colder months.  Once this is done make sure you give the lawn a good dose of the appropriate fertilizer to get the results you want.  Do a soil test first to check what is needed and then apply the right product by following the pack instructions.  This will give the lawn you are treating the right care and nutrients to help it get through the fall and winter months more successfully.

Ideally a lawn should be fed twice to ensure it has everything it needs to move through the colder months and be prepared to thrive when the next spring and summer eventually arrive.  If you think about it, you will realize that any lawn needs nourishment during the winter months.  Just as we need warming and nourishing food to get us through those cold days, so our lawns need a similar treatment.  Fertilizing at this point is the best thing you can do.  Anything which has potassium in it as well as nitrogen will do a good job.

As you can see, taking care of your customers’ lawns during the fall and winter months is essential if you want to give them a lush green lawn the following spring and summer.  They’ll certainly appreciate the care and attention you pay to it.

This question is akin to ‘how long is a piece of string’ but you will soon be asked that self same question by anyone wanting to landscape their back yard.

The answer is never an easy one, as it all depends on what the individual wants to achieve.  For instance some people have a budget of around $1,000 and they want to get a good back yard out of it.  But they should recognize that a budget this small will probably not get them the garden of their dreams.

It goes without saying that the bigger the budget is, the more freedom you have to go for different ideas and more ambitious projects.  The amount that should be spent therefore depends on the end result you want to achieve.  It also depends on the state of the garden to begin with.

Let’s say for example you have a garden that is overgrown and has a very lumpy ground.  This will obviously need clearing and flattening down before you can even think about creating nice neat flowerbeds, installing a pond or water feature and laying the sod down to create a nice green lawn.

Compare that to a garden that is literally a blank canvas, with nothing to sort out first and a perfectly level ground to play with.  In the first situation you will need to allocate some funds to leveling off the ground and making it ready for whatever you are going to do with it.  So this will automatically mean you have to spend money to get to the same starting stage you’d be at in the second situation.

As you can see you need to think everything through carefully before you decide on a budget for landscaping, or before you help your client with a quote for the same.

In the end you can spend thousands of dollars on landscaping a garden but it all comes down to what the client can afford.  Some may have only a couple thousand dollars to spend, while others could have significantly more.  But whatever amount they settle on it needs to be within their budget and you need to make the most of the amount it is.

For instance they may want to have an outdoor fireplace installed as part of the landscaping procedure.  The design they would ideally want may be well outside of their budget, but you might find a way to scale it down that would bring it within their means.  This way they still get what they want but it fits in with what they can afford as well.

Deciding how much to spend on landscaping is always a tricky point.  It could also depend on how long the owner is intending to keep the property.  People on lower budgets could get the work completed in stages as they can afford it, to get the garden of their dreams.  Alternatively a quick makeover to help sell a property could be all that is required, meaning a lower budget will suffice.

Not all lawn care and landscaping jobs are small ones.  Some are quite involved, such as the act of removing a tree from someone’s garden for instance.  If someone asks you to quote for such a job, you will probably wonder how to go about pricing it up.

The truth is that no two tree removal jobs will be exactly the same.  For instance one client may have no more than a tree stump remaining that they would like to be shot of.  Another person could have a twenty foot high tree that needs removing.  Clearly these two jobs will require different tactics to complete them successfully.  One stump is very different from a whole tree.  You also need to consider the actual removal of the tree itself.  You could fit a stump in the back of your truck but with a whole tree you have to bring it down safely and get rid of the whole lot as well.

A good place to start is by thinking about your outgoings for each job.  You will need to have insurance to cover you, so this has to be factored in to the overall work.  Think about the safety issues as well.  For instance if you are going to remove a tree stump, you won’t have to do any climbing.  But what about a sixty foot tree that is right outside a house and has power lines not too far away either?  Clearly these are two very different situations and you would charge more for the latter than you would for the former.

If you do some research online you’ll find that typical prices at the moment run from a little over $100 for a simple and small job to well over $1,400 for a large, live tree in a small area with potential hazards nearby.  Some tree surgeons who work independently estimate their work at around $200 an hour, but again it depends on the individual and it will differ from large companies too.

A good way to get more figures is to call up local companies in the guise of a customer and see whether they have average hourly rates as a rough guide.  As you get more experience in this area you can adjust your prices if you wish; but don’t be afraid to charge what seems like a lot of money.  If you price too low you will end up out of pocket.  Tree removal is not a cheap job to get done if it is for a large tree or complicated area.  Most big name tree removal companies will always charge more than individual operators will and you only need to get some quotes to see how true this is.

Try and estimate for each individual job that comes along.  In the end no two trees are the same so it pays to see the site and the tree before you price up for anything.  This should help you progress with this part of your business.

If you have a lawn care business you may think you can only appeal to homeowners with lawns in their back yards.  But this isn’t true.

A lot of people are looking for ways to keep their garden looking great all year round without having to keep on top of the grass.  Depending on where the garden is situated it may actually be a lot of work to try and develop a good looking lawn that is easy to keep on top of.  Properties close to the sea will have to withstand the constantly salty sea air for instance.

A good alternative comes in the form of gravel.  Decorative gravel can be used in plenty of ways to create a stunning garden that is low on maintenance and high on visual appeal.  You just need to be able to see the potential in any plot to offer your clients a versatile garden that never needs to see a lawn mower.

For instance you can start off with a basic plot and sketch out flowerbeds and other features in different areas.  You could have an area of decking at the opposite end of the garden, perhaps taking advantage of some trees by hanging a hammock from them.  A patio area near the house is good for barbecues and other family get togethers.  In addition to this you can build in raised beds and flowerbeds in various areas.

The gravel comes in by creating pathways that link each area with the next.  You can opt for formal paths in straight lines and at right angles to each other, or go for a more fluid feel by creating sweeping paths that aren’t the same width all the way along.

Bear in mind access points to various parts of the garden as well when you use gravel in place of grass.  You’ll need to get access to any sheds or other garden structures, and you will need to consider where the flowerbeds are and how easy they are to reach from each point nearby.

If the client does want a small section of lawn left in place – perhaps to create an area for the kids to play safely for example – make sure you create a definite edge between the lawn and the gravel.  If you don’t you could end up with the gravel damaging the lawn mower or the blades.  Make sure the gravel surface is lower than the grass, so you can mow to the edge without causing any problems.  This will also prevent the gravel from finding its way onto the lawn.

As you can see gravel has some definite advantages when it comes to creating a low maintenance garden that looks stunning.  And with lots of different types, sizes and colors of gravel to choose from, there is something just right for every garden to use.

And you can still cater for clients with this kind of garden because they’ll still need regular weeding and planting done at specific times of the year in many cases.

There is nothing quite like designing a garden that has climbing plants and vines making their way around it.  A newly designed garden can look a tad bare at times, depending on how well established the plants are and how many of them there are.  But if you add climbing plants to the mix you will soon see the garden develops and takes on a life of its own, as the plants climb and mix in with others that are in the area.

Many landscapers use trellis and other items to break up areas of the garden and provide interest as well.  And of course since climbing plants need some stability and something to climb up, you can solve two issues in one go by letting them climb up the trellis.

As such it is worth considering the use of various climbers as you sketch out your plans for any particular type of garden.  Identify potential points where these plants would do well.  You may not always have to add trellis and other similar items to give them somewhere to climb.  There could already be an arbor in place that you can soften and breathe new life into by training some vines to twirl and entwine around it for example.  Always keep your eyes open to potential areas and possibilities for vines and other similar plants to grow.

Vines can also be ideal if you have garden structures that look a bit stuck out on their own.  Let’s say you have just bought a garden shed and installed it as part of the overall garden plan.  On its own it might look a little out of place.  But if you plant some vines nearby they will eventually scramble up the side of the shed and over the roof.  This can look wonderful and it will soften the look of the shed and make it blend in with the garden more readily as well.

Make sure you plan to use plants that are hardy annuals and come up every year.  Ideally you want those which are lush and green all year round and flower at some point as well.  This can totally transform an area suitable for climbers, and it also prevents you from having an unsightly gap at a particular time of year when the plant dies back.

Another benefit of adding these plants is that you can use them to cover up things that are less desirable in the garden.  A good example is an old tree stump for instance.  The client may not want to pay the money to have it removed, and yet it looks bare and unattractive on its own.  By training ivy to grow around and over it, it can make it look more attractive and more a part of the garden.  As such it can be a focal point for the right reasons instead of the wrong ones.

Whatever you do, don’t discount the benefits offered by climbing plants and vines.

Regardless of whether you are new to the lawn care business or not, you will find you need to advertise your business if you want a steady stream of clients to cater for.

One good way of doing this is to create a lawn care flyer that adequately shows potential clients what you have to offer them.  While it might seem enough to pop a few good photos and your contact details on there, together with some basic details about what you can do, it pays to think about it in more depth first.  If you do you will end up with a flyer that can really help you beat out the competition.

It goes without saying that your flyer needs to be visually appealing if you are going to succeed with it.  You shouldn’t go for a crowded look at all, since this can put people off.  Simple, clean and effective – this is what you need to have in mind at all times.

You should look through your portfolio and choose a photo that gives a good idea of what you can do.  If you have room it can work exceptionally well to have a before and after photo on there, so people can see exactly how much better their garden could look given the right treatment.  Always ask for permission to use these photos before you do so though – even if they have already given permission for you to use them in your portfolio.

Appeal to the customer directly when you focus on developing your sales pitch.  The sales pitch is extremely important – remember that you may not be the only lawn care specialist advertising your services to the householders in your area.  You need to make sure you stand out from your competition – that’s why you need a simple and effective leaflet that isn’t too hard on the eye.

One good thing to put on a leaflet is a special offer or discount of some kind.  Time limited offers encourage people to act more readily, but they can also force a negative decision on people at the wrong time.  So think this through carefully before you go for it.

Make sure you trust your instincts as to whether the layout is balanced or not.  You don’t need to tell them every last detail about your business – just tempt them into wanting to know more by choosing good pictures and powerful words.  The right combination will lead them to getting in touch with you to find out more.  If you have your own logo you should definitely put this on your flyer as it is an important part of your branding.

In the end you must try out the flyer and see what kind of reaction you get.  If you don’t get any reaction at all you should tweak the design to see whether that helps.  Eventually you should end up with the perfect design that you can use over and over again in the future.

Everyone has a different idea of what makes the perfect flowerbed.  But for some clients you work for, nothing but a raised flowerbed will do.

There could be a couple of reasons for this.  Firstly they may find it easier coping with a higher flowerbed if they have trouble kneeling or bending down.  Secondly they may simply prefer the more rustic look you’ll get from constructing a raised bed out of landscaping timber.

It’s an easy enough job to do as well.  First you’ll need to work out where the flowerbeds need to go.  Measure out the ideal size and make sure the homeowner approves of it.  If they want two tiered flowerbeds ensure you build this into your plan. The rear, higher one should always be easily accessible if you go down this route.  It’s a good idea to ask them what they want to grow in it, so the ideal area can be agreed on.  Not every plant loves being in direct sunshine, and the customer will be disappointed if they have specific plans that will fail in this way.

Ideally you want to get some timber that measures six by six.  This reduces the number of lengths you need to build up the perfect bed.  Two of them on top of each other will provide a twelve inch high bed that is suitable for most types of planting.

Once you have your plot marked out you will need to dig a small trench.  The timbers will not sit directly on the ground – they need to be sunk into it to a certain extent.  By filling the trench with a small amount of gravel you’ll be able to help any water drain away and this will prolong the life of the timber you use.

Lay out the timbers in the correct places and then use landscaping nails to put them into place.  When you add the second layer of timber make sure you fix it to the bottom layer by hammering home the nails in different places to where you put them in before.  You should also ensure the joints don’t match up with the bottom layer.  Think of how a brick wall is built and follow the same idea to create more strength and stability.  By the time you have finished the whole thing should be nice and secure.

You can then fill up the planter with soil.  You should try and refrain from planting anything in it for a couple of days if you can.  The soil will start to sink down a little and even if you fill it to the top you’ll find that any plants put in it will sink down too and you won’t be able to top it up again.  A little patience works wonders!

Simple raised flowerbeds don’t take long to create and you can make anything from a simple rectangular bed to something more complex.  L-shapes and tiered beds can transform any garden from something basic to something rustic and charming.