Who could JV with a landscape gardener

Builders would work. Think of what businesses serve that same type of customer.
Window washers, cleaning companies, roofing companies, driveway companies, realtors, appraisers, pest removal companies, pool companies, fence companies etc.... Anyone that would serve the same type of customer.

Think about what their landscaping customer would buy before, during, and after working with them.

I'd think people hiring landscapers are interested in primarily one or two things: beautifying their homes and/or not having to do the task themselves. So for the first group (beautify their homes):

Home remodelers. Architects. Interior designers. House painters. Vinyl siding.

For the second group (can't, won't or too busy to do the errands): go down to the local train station that commuters take to work and leave flyers on the cars.

Why not think outside the box?

Why not find anyone who has a list in the area and see if you can rent their list? Basically you need a company who does business in your general area. Landscaper time is valuable and you want mowers running not trucks driving. So find businesses with limited geographical area.

You could rent a list from a doctor/dentist in your area. You will have to come in and be pretty confident and with your ducks in a row. But if you can give them $5k for doing an endorsed mailing, and they don't have to do anything. And you assure them that nothing bad will ever happen to their clients. We did that with similar type businesses.

You could put coupons on a local pizza delivery place. Or a chinese take out or something like that. Those are pretty easy to get done. Pay for menus with a coupon for your business on the back of the takeout menu. Doesn't Don Alm have a lot of his little ideas with this idea. Basically you're lowering their costs while also getting free marketing out of it.

What about an auto repair place. Many of them have TV's in their waiting rooms. What if you built a 15 minute infomercial for your landscaping service, and you paid the auto repair place a commission off of each client you get from their shop. Now you've turned what was an expense into an asset for them(Butts in the seat in the waiting area). Go find 5 other businesses in the area, and make them infomercials as well. Keep them short 3-5 minutes a piece. They pay for the video obviously. And now you are in the middle and get paid when any of them get business. You could do that anyplace where people are sitting for 10-30 minutes: auto repair, quick lubes, yogurt shops, waiting rooms of doctors, chiros, dentists, the possibilities are endless. Then you rank the videos on youtube, make money that way, etc, etc.

Why not JV with local realtors? Offer a coupon and a booklet that the realtors can bring on a listing appointment. Where they get this as a value add at the appointment. Your book can talk about how a home with good landscaping sells this many days faster, and with a higher price, etc.

You can easily joint venture with other trades. Offer 20% of any customer that you acquire through them, and then set the stage of how they get you business. You only want to get introduced to the big jobs that the trade has gotten rapport with as this makes your job easier. And they introduce you to the homeowner when the job is around the 80-90% mark.

You can JV with small engine repair shops. Why not offer to JV with the small engine repair shop and do a discounted service as a value add to the service. Ok, so Bob comes in with his mower not working. Chances are bob was halfway through the work. The repair shop says, It normally takes us about a week to finish these types of repairs, but I don't want you to have to suffer from a bad yard. I can get Chip at ABC landscaping out there in the next few days to do a quick front yard maintenance for $20. What do you think? And then you split the $20. The small engine repair shop looks like a hero, with this awesome service, and the landscaper has their foot in the door to get repeat business.

Get great referral systems in place. Offer discounts if they get their neighbors to sign up. So that each get 10% off, and if another one comes in you get 15% off etc. We did exactly that with a landscaper back in 2009, and he booked up his practice in about 2 months. He'd rather spend $100 getting the next door neighbor to do business with him than trying to find a new client 5 miles down the road. The business becomes super profitable when you can stop the truck once, and service 5-10 homes at the same time.

Honestly though your best would be to have someone out there on Saturday mornings and talking to homeowners directly. Drive around and talk to people who are cutting their own lawns.

A pretty big business and one that I helped build a few years back is in the lock up business. We did yard work and winterization of homes that were owned by banks. You could make $200-300 to winterize a home, change out the locks. And then you have a pretty set schedule of lawns to take care of while the bank finishes foreclosures, and markets the property. Some of these homes get long term contracts of years of work while the bank figures out what to do.

Don't bother with real estate investors, they are cheap, cheap, cheap. I know I am one.

You can also specialize in certain types of commercial clients. I recently talked to a landscaper who his niche was doing work only for Banks. He had three local banks with around 25 branches if I remember correctly and made really good money just in that little niche.

Ok, that should be enough ideas to get you going.

HTH,

thinking in the box.... Lawn care guys, really don't want that work. They want to cut and trim the grass and go. Each and every one of their customers would be pre qualified, they are already paying for lawn service.

Power Washing compnaies

hi,
I don't have much knowledge about landscaping but if you want to get leads then make pamphlet or visiting card or banner go to any shop which is selling things about gardening and ask them for give your visiting or whatever you provide them to there customers for landscape gardening or distribute the pamphlet every where.Hope this Helps!

Guys

Thanks VERY much for all your replies, thanks MRomeo also for such a detailed post. There were some there I haven't thought of such as interior designer, patio power washer and more.

By the way, the one about JV with garden maintenance guys is a good one, but the problem is this client also offers his own maintence service, so do you think other garden maintenance guys wouldn't want to JV with him as there would be a conflict of interest?

Cheers
Phil