whadja do today?

[treeman75]

There are alot of ash trees here. Im thinking almost half of the trees around here are ash. I notice there are alot of oaks in Des Moines and over by Davenport. We have some oaks along the loess hills that follow the Missouri river but there arent too many in town.

 

[treeman75]

Phone book did good for us when we had one. I droped it 4 years ago when we got a big City contract for mowing. Dont have that contract any longer so i might have to go back to the fone book. Pic Of truck full from the summer before i painted it.View attachment 278448

The phone books dont work like they used to. I track most of the calls I get and the calls I get that arent referrals or repeats are coming from the internet. I droped one of the books last year and did not notice any less calls, if anything I got more.

 

[Blakesmaster]

The phone books dont work like they used to. I track most of the calls I get and the calls I get that arent referrals or repeats are coming from the internet. I droped one of the books last year and did not notice any less calls, if anything I got more.

I guess it depends on your area. I come up first in many online searches in my area, nice website, good Angies List ratings, Facebook page, etc. but the majority of my calls are from the phone book. Lot of retirees from IBM, Lockheed, and BAE around here which is where most of the upper middle class money is, and people that age still tend to use the phonebook for everything. I hate giving those guys my money every month but it pans out.

Shot from two of last years books and a business card.

 

[OLD OAK]

Around here you have to pay for add 100% up front. At first the guy set me up for monthly payments and then came back and told me the main office said Lawn and Tree busines were High risk for going under and i had to pay for the year up front. I called their main office and through a fit. Then paid for the add.

 

[Blakesmaster]

Around here you have to pay for add 100% up front. At first the guy set me up for monthly payments and then came back and told me the main office said Lawn and Tree busines were High risk for going under and i had to pay for the year up front. I called their main office and through a fit. Then paid for the add.

I've paid up front before to save money but writing a $15K check in the middle of the winter can't happen every year for me, especially when financing over the year is only a few hundred more.

 

[Blakesmaster]

On second thought that would be a good way to weed out the hack companies that show up and disappear from the pages every year. Now I'm wishing the books here would do that.

 

[2treeornot2tree]

I got top placement on yb.com plus a banner that comes up above the ads, and a banner that comes up on the yb mobile app.

 

[treeclimber101]

Here Blake's

 

[Toddppm]

Pretty good deal besides it being a Ford:jester:

 

[deevo]

Went on a good 2 hour ski-doo ride with my youngest daughter this morning, than went geocaching in the afternoon. Nice sunny day! Supposed to be getting some nasty weather coming our way tonight, freezing rain/ice pellets!

 

[treeman75]

Hey Blakes, whats the population of your service area? Most of my work is in Sioux City and the pop is around 100k. I do get calls from the book but most of the new calls seem to be coming from the internet.

 

[Blakesmaster]

That truck looks nice Eddie, but that's too many miles for what I'm looking at now. Want to keep it under 100K. Pretty sure I'm going with a half ton anyways unless a smoking deal manifests itself on something else. But I'm doubting a smoking deal on a plow truck will be anything I come across for a few months!

tm75, my service area is about 250K if the internet is right. Binghamton metropolitan area - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[MarquisTree]

http://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=a.10151470328500446.543437.277283385445&type=1

8 hrs of work last night, just getting trucks out of the yard and the tops off the chip trucks so they can haul snow...

 

[formationrx]

...

when i started i gave out about 10 business cards.... never had to advertise after that... do a kick ass job, know your ####, and go the extra mile and word gets around...

 

[Blakesmaster]

when i started i gave out about 10 business cards.... never had to advertise after that... do a kick ass job, know your ####, and go the extra mile and word gets around...

I'm guessing you don't have a lot of equipment? Word of mouth is great but once those trucks start lining up in your lot chewing through jobs in less and less time screaming "I'm still hungry!" from their fuel tanks you'll soon realize you need to start drumming up more work.

 

[imagineero]

Here Blake's

Wow... You could add an extra '0' to that price for that truck in aus.

Shaun

 

[imagineero]

I spoke too soon... '01 f350's only get $40k~$50k here in aus, with 180,000kms

2001 Ford F350 2WD XLT Turbo Diesel White 8sp A Trayback | eBay

2000 Ford F350 RM White 4sp A Crewcab | eBay

Without a plow or anything though. Mind you, if it had duallies, you could get $80k~$90k for it!

Ford F350 Dual Cab Dually , 7.3L Turbo Desiel | eBay

A used F650 can get upwards of $200k.

Shaun

 

[treeclimber101]

I spoke too soon... '01 f350's only get $40k~$50k here in aus, with 180,000kms

2001 Ford F350 2WD XLT Turbo Diesel White 8sp A Trayback | eBay

2000 Ford F350 RM White 4sp A Crewcab | eBay

Without a plow or anything though. Mind you, if it had duallies, you could get $80k~$90k for it!

Ford F350 Dual Cab Dually , 7.3L Turbo Desiel | eBay

A used F650 can get upwards of $200k.

Shaun

So a pack of ciggies are roughly 30 bucks ? That dually cost doubled what I paid for my house 13 years ago

 

[treeman75]

So a pack of ciggies are roughly 30 bucks ? That dually cost doubled what I paid for my house 13 years ago

Sounds like you got a smoking deal on your house.

 

[imagineero]

So a pack of ciggies are roughly 30 bucks ? That dually cost doubled what I paid for my house 13 years ago

About 20 if I remember the whining smokers carrying on recently ;-)