"No Sales" Way To Run Lawn Service

"No Sales" Way To Run Lawn Service 27-5-8 Wayne Dorsett of Kirkland, Washington came home one day to find a small notice with an elastic band stapled to it hanging from his door. The notice was from a company called "Golden Rule Lawn Care," and they offered to aerate his lawn the next day, suggesting that if he wanted the service, he should sign his name and phone number on the bottom of the notice and replace it on the doorknob before 9 a.m. the next morning. It stated that an invoice would be left behind if no one was home after the work was complete. The note also addressed the advantages of aeration and the comparatively high cost and inconvenience of aerator rentals. Dorsett liked the offer and the price, so he followed its instructions. Sure enough, the next night he came home from work to find that his lawn had been satisfactorily aerated. He mailed off his payment, happy with the deal. The whole business transaction was completed without either party ever meeting face to face. Dorsett thought, "Hey, this is something anyone could do," and then contacted FARM SHOW to share what he thought was a good business idea. We did some research and found that Golden Rule Lawn Care is a company created by college students Charity and Spencer Arnold, who are married, and Golden Lund. During the summer they hire a youth to pound the pavement, distributing about 300 flyers a day throughout suburbs on the east side of Seattle. It takes about 3 1/2 hours per day. They don't knock on doors at all; they just leave the flyers behind. "From the 300 flyers, we average eight or nine jobs per day, and only a quarter of them actually phone us to set up appointments. The rest just sign the flyer and we never meet," says Charity. Golden Rule Lawn Care also offers lawn mowing contracts and free estimates on lawn thatching (moss removal). They say their marketing system works well and could be applied to many other types of businesses. Of the 650 aeration, thatching and mowing jobs they have done so far this summer, they've only had to call about 40 people to remind them to pay. Only one person has given them trouble collecting. Arnold says their net income averages $200 per day, and the busiest times are in May and early June. They've found that their success rate is higher when they give people two days to replace the signed flyer on their door to place a service order. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Golden Rule Lawn Care, 460 E. 200 S., #14, Provo, Utah, 84606 (cell ph 801-836-1417, summer ph. # in Seattle: 425 557-0636, email: sa67@email.byu.edu).

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