Turn those falling leaves into big-time earnings for your lawn care business.
Hey Clippers! Dave Tucker here about the end of the lawn care season… or not!
It’s easy to think lawn care ends when fall hits and the grass slows down. But there’s still plenty of money to be made once the leaves start falling. I’m talking about fall clean-ups.
If your lawn care business isn’t already offering fall clean-ups, here’s your sign to get started. This is a great way to earn some extra money before the season wraps up for real. Fall is messy, and people are often willing to pay a pretty penny for someone else to deal with it.
What is a fall clean-up service?
Needless to say, the foundation of fall clean-up is raking, bagging, and hauling away all those leaves. Some properties get absolutely buried by all their trees, so this can be a big job. But there’s a lot more you can offer. You might:
- Remove annuals, like zinnias, petunias, and geraniums.
- Prune and cut back perennials, like daylilies, peonies, and hibiscus.
- Clean up fallen branches and other detritus.
- Apply mulch or manure to garden beds.
- Trim hedges and shrubs.
- Mow the grass one last time. You might cut it extra short so it’s less prone to frost damage. But don’t go too short, or the grass won’t be able to photosynthesize!
You can design your own fall clean-up package based on which services you want to offer and where you live. (If you’re in Florida, for example, you don’t really need to prep anyone’s yard for snow.) The point here is not to limit yourself to raking leaves!
Remember, fall clean-up is just like any other lawn care service: People will need it over and over. Repeat business is one of the best things about the lawn care business, if you ask me. Offering fall clean-ups is just another way to capitalize on that and keep them coming back year after year.
Marketing a fall clean-up service.
Whether you’re offering fall clean-ups for the first time or just looking to spread the word, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. At least not from a marketing perspective. You can use all the tactics we’ve talked about before:
- Mass mailers. Start sending them out in late summer, and follow up once school starts.
- Door hangers. Same as mass mailers: Be smart about the timing!
- Signage. It’s an oldie, but a goodie!
You might also consider writing an article about fall clean-up for the local paper. For example, you might write something like:
- Five tips to prep your lawn for the winter.
- Five things you didn’t know about autumn lawn care.
- Is your grass ready for a rough winter?
Here’s a little tip: Make it sound onerous, so people want to hire you rather than doing it themselves! People don’t hire lawn care professionals because they don’t know how to mow and trim. They hire you because they’d rather spend that time doing something else. So don’t be afraid to be honest about how much work it is!
Remember your most important marketing avenue…
Your existing and past customers.
Make sure each and every one of these folks know you offer fall clean-ups as a service. They already know and trust you, so your odds of closing a deal there are higher than average. And use them to recruit new folks as well. Check out this post for a fun idea to incentivize referrals.
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Don’t forget: You can use CLIP to schedule all those clean-ups! CLIP is a lawn care business software with top notch scheduling and routing tools. No need to stress over the most efficient route from job to job. CLIP will do it for you! See it in action >
Keep clipping!
Dave