It's the last full week of September and with one more turn of the calendar page you will officially have the end in site.  For many of us in the lawn and landscape industry it has been a very productive, albeit challenging year.  In the vast majority of the country the weather conditions have consistently been working against us while we push forward trying to make sure that we stay on schedule even as mother nature tries again and again to create havoc.  The end of the year is in site and you really need to finish strong to make sure you make it through the winter.

What's the biggest mistake lawn and landscape firms make during the fourth quarter of the year?
The fourth quarter of the year is your most profitable.  Plain and simple!  You've gotten through the most difficult times of the year in regards to scheduling and work to be completed and you absolutely MUST be on the top of your game as a business owner during October, November and December.  It's when your business operates in the black and your making money.

Whats the one thing that can cause your entire year to crumble before your very eyes?  

Running out of work.  

As soon as your employees are having less than fully productive days towards the end of the year they become a complete drain on the profitability of your entire year!  You have to acknowledge this right now and do something about it.  The solution is relatively simple right?  Just sell more work.  Well, oftentimes that's much easier said than done but if you plan in advance you can make it happen with ease by booking your entire fall now using MyLawnQuote and your existing customer base.  Your existing customer base is your number one ally in making sure that you finish the year strong and your employees don't become a drain on your profitability.  After all your existing customers trust you, (rightfully so because you've worked hard for them all year) their needs don't just go away because it's fall and finally they are literally depending on you to perform services that they need.
If you follow these very very easy to implement steps using your MyLawnQuote account you can have your best fourth quarter every, finish off your best year ever and have enough cash flow to bring you through your off season.

1.  Identify what your "Fall Services" are going to be. 
Don't get too carried away here because having too much going on can be worse than not having enough.  Identify what your best equipped to do and what your customers are most likely to want to have done.  For example, if you focus on property maintenance don't start offering seal coating. Some of the most commonly sold services on MyLawnQuote.com during the fall are aeration, lime applications, fall cleanups and irrigation winterization.

2.  Make sure those services are set up in your MyLawnQuote.com account and your pricing is appropriate.  
If you have plenty of time and your schedule is far from booked you may want to reduce your pricing while if your almost booked for the year you should increase your pricing.  (Or even go as far as only accepting prepayments)

3.  Set up some production goals.  Know what you can do with the time you have allotted to do it.
Once you know what you can do you know how much you can sell.  Set those as goals and MAKE SURE YOU HIT EVERY GOAL.  Don't stop selling until you are at 125% of goal. Remember this is about NOT RUNNING OUT OF WORK.

4.  Sell, Sell, Sell.  Really that means "Automate, Automate and Automate" with MLQ.
Remember these very important factors;  your customers trust you, they have needs that your services can fulfill and they would rather hire you than any other company.  Simply send outbound quotes using your MyLawnQuote account and watch the sales add up and the prepayments get put in your bank account. 

If you would like to check out our programs and packages or if you'd like to schedule a demo click here.