In my last post, I posted a short video I did talking about the importance and power of creating a 12 month marketing calendar.  I wanted to spend one more day talking about this powerful tool for growing your lawn care or landscaping business.

One of the reasons a 12 month marketing calendar is such a powerful tool is because of the vision it gives you.  Just as you would never set off on a cross country journey without first consulting a road atlas, it would be as equally foolish to think you could grow your business by any amount without a clear cut plan to make it happen.

By carefully outlining a step-by-step plan, complete with scheduled action items, you give yourself the direction you need to carry out your plan.  Without these action items, it’s easy for life to ‘get in the way’.  

As I mentioned in the video, there are 3 key ideas you keep in mind as you go through this process:

1.      Do something each and every month.  Doing this helps you get in a marketing mindset and it helps create name recognition with your chosen market.

2.      Create a theme for each month.  One of the biggest sins in marketing is being boring and you can avoid this blunder by picking a theme for each month’s campaign.

3.      Target your efforts at prospects, customers, and joint venture partners.  If you’ll do something each month for each of these groups, you’ll soon have a pipeline absolutely loaded with new business and your business will be on the up and up.

So, if you want a full proof tool for taking your business to the next level and beyond, take a few minutes over the next day or so to create your own 12 month marketing calendar.  If you’ll do this, I can almost guarantee your business will make significant strides in 2008.

My sister sent this to me yesterday. It’s definitely a very entertaining performance!

Straight No Chaser - 12 Days

I hope you enjoy as well.

Before I head off to finish the last minute preparations for our Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas celebration tomorrow, I wanted to make a quick post to wish you a very Merry Christmas.  I love the Christmas holiday for lots of reasons, but mostly because of the opportunity to spend time with family and friends, and give gifts of love.

There is so much negativity and things to get depressed about in the news these days, but these next few days are a perfect opportunity to appreciate all the good in life.  While there are many things I appreciate in my own life, one of them is my Lawn Care Marketing Magic customers.  Without each one of you, I wouldn’t be able to do something I’m so passionate about.

So, over these next few days, enjoy your time with family and friends.  Give thanks for all the many blessings you have.  And be ready to rock and roll in 2008 because I have lots of good things planned for this next year.

Merry Christmas!

I was out driving around today trying to finish up some last minute Christmas shopping, one thing really struck me.  Aside from the fact I’m a horrible procrastinator, the thing that really hit me was just how busy the malls and restaurants are.  

You see, I absolutely HATE being in huge crowds, standing in long lines, and fighting my way through traffic.  Unfortunately, that’s exactly what I ended up doing today.

Now, I’m not bringing this up simply to gripe and complain but to mention the fact that in spite of what the talking heads on the news are saying about a slowing economy, a mortgage meltdown, or a credit crunch, there’s still plenty of money going around these days.

That’s not to say all the news won’t have some impact.  It will, but not to the point the mainstream media would have you believe.

So, what does this have to do with your business?

Flat out, it means now’s as good a time as any to either get into business or grow your business by leaps and bounds.  Now, you may need to examine your target closely to determine if it’s being impacted by the economic slowdown, but overall, there are PLENTY of opportunities.

To take advantage of these opportunities you need to keep one very important fact in mind, lawn care or landscaping is NOT a necessity.  These services are a discretionary expense, which means you’re competing against the 50” flat screen tv, the new Apple iPhone, the Nintendo Wii, the new car, and every other discretionary item available in any shopping mall or on any internet site. 

And to compete successfully against these things, you need to offer your customers and prospects some pretty compelling reasons why they should give you their money instead of spending it elsewhere.

So as 2008 begins, think about what you need to do from a marketing perspective in order to make sure you’re getting your customer’s money before they spend it elsewhere.

And maybe, just maybe, the mall won’t be as crowded next year when I rush out at the last minute to make up for my Christmas shopping procrastination!

Dan Kennedy is ‘the man’ when it comes to super-effective marketing for small businesses. I was reading his blog today and came across this post that I thought was EXTREMELY good advice for any small business struggling to add new customers.

clipped from www.dankennedy.com “A business without a mailing list isn’t a business.” - Dan Kennedy Consider a “normal” ad for any business, let’s say something as simple as a restaurant. Maybe from its Yellow Pages ad, coupon mailers, etc. 30 people a month - one a day - calls in to ask a question - when are you open? Do you take reservations? Etc. If these 30 people had their names and addresses captured, there are 30 “hot prospects” a month, 360 a year, who can get sent a “thank you for calling” letter and offer, then put on a list to get periodic mailings. EVERY business should be super-sensitive to capturing names.