-------- Original Message --------
Subject: TLC - Final Mistake...BIG #7
From: "Larry Brown, CLP"
Date: Sat, February 06, 2010 11:08 pm
To: "TLC Lawn Care"

Hi TLC

Welcome back!

It's time for Mistake #7 of the mini-course...
'7 HUGE Mistakes Most Green Industry Contractors
Make - and How To Avoid Them'.

This is your last lesson on the marketing mistakes
(but not the last time you hear from me - I'll tell
you all the details at the end of this message).

Now, on to the final huge mistake...

==============================

Marketing Mistake #7 -

Failure to Make Marketing the Top Priority

By: Larry Brown, CLP

larry@greenindustrysuccess.com

=============================

I've rarely seen this subject mentioned at seminars
or conferences or even in books for Green Industry
professionals. But I can tell you for certain that
if you don't get a handle on your marketing, you
can forget about creating and maintaining a large
consistent income.

Without marketing systems, you can expect to be
a slave to your business for the rest of your
life.

Being good at landscape contracting or lawn care,
or whatever it is that you do is not good enough!

I cannot be gentle about this, even though you
will not like hearing it. This is the fundamental
truth that can liberate you from laboring for your
dollars and settling for an average income.

It can empower you to totally transform your
business into a high-income profit generating
machine that your competitors will absolutely
envy.

Here it is:

In the Green Industry today, it's not how much you
know about running your business, nor is it the
product choices or equipment purchases that you
make nor the employees that you hire that determine
your income -

It is how effective you are at marketing yourself,
your company and your services, that creates the
balance in your bank account.

You may feel that this is unfair or not the way
that it should be. You can fight it (and maybe
even go broke). Or you can embrace this as an
opportunity, and take the necessary steps to
become as good at marketing your business as you
are at getting the work done.

The unhappy fact is that you can be the VERY best
at what you do, provide the very best equipment,
the cleanest trucks and have the best customer
service in the industry, AND STILL STARVE TO DEATH
if you cannot affordably and efficiently attract a
steady stream of good new business, and keep the
customers that you already have.

You need great marketing to protect your customers
from poachers. And, you must have great marketing
to affordably keep new work coming in.

Truth is, marketing is the single most important
function in your business. And, as a successful
business owner, your best chance to succeed is to
become your own "Master Marketing Director".

Why would you leave the most critical function of
your business up to someone else?

If you truly believed that your number one duty as
a business owner is to "market your business", would
your daily agenda change?

You may even be saying right now, "but Larry, I do
handle all the marketing for my company and it is a
priority".

My response to you in return would be "How much of
your time are you truly devoting to "high value"
marketing activities'?

Now I'm not talking about taking a half hour to
meet with an advertising rep or making time to drop
your latest flyer off at the print shop. I'm talking
about the kind of activities that go into becoming a
true marketing oriented company.

Here are some activities that you should consider
high priority:

- Studying the marketing and strategies used by
your competitors

- Networking with other business owners who
service the same clients as you do.

- Creating programs to stimulate referrals from your
existing clients.

- Writing sales letters or advertising to promote
new and different services to your client base.

- Creating new promotional strategies to acquire
new clients.

- Testing your ads and marketing campaigns to try
and improve the response rates.

- Finding new and low cost ways to get new accounts.

- Developing new ways to differentiate your company
from your competitors.

- Writing articles for newspapers and magazines or
your company newsletter.

- Attending mastermind or networking meetings.

- Attending marketing conferences or seminars

One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a
landscape or lawn care business owner is to be
fooled into thinking that you are in the business
installing plants and shrubs, or mowing and blowing,
whatever the service you provide.

That is not the case.

YOU are in the business of MARKETING your services.

The quicker this realization hits you, the quicker
you can start to build the business of your dreams.
Great marketing can make up for a whole lot of
operational flaws in your business...but not visa-
versa.

Marketing IS your business, not simply one aspect
of it. You should be eager to invest in your own
direct response marketing education.

What I've shared with you is a whole new way of
thinking for most contractors. However, you must
change your thinking if you are not currently
managing your business with marketing at the
fore-front.

If you really grasp this information that I've
shared with you today, you will be leaps and bounds
ahead of your competition.

There's no doubt,if you will take control and
become your own marketing expert, your business
will certainly boom!

That wraps up your 'mini-course'; I hope you've
enjoyed it. Should you have any questions or
comments, I'd love to hear from you!

To your marketing success,

Larry

Larry L. Brown, CLP
http://www.greenindustrysuccess.com
larry@greenindustrysuccess.com

P.S. You will begin recieving my 'Green Industry
Success" Ezine. If you don't want to receive it
or any other follow up messages there are simple
instructions for unsubscribing at the end of this
email. Just a little warning: Should you unsubscribe
you'll be missing some of the Green Industry's
most original and profitable articles and information
available on the internet.

P.S.S. - To learn all of the most effective strategies
for growing your business at lighting speed and without
competing on price, check out my new marketing system:


http://www.greenindustrysuccess.com/system


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
GreenIndustrySuccess.com
106 S. Canal St.
PO Box 1587
Natchez, MS 39121

P 800-905-6941
F 601-442-9464

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

------
Copyright - All rights reserved
GreenIndustrySuccess.com
------


================================
Please note: You are only receiving this e-mail
because you visited GreenIndustrySuccess.com
and requested this multi-part mini-course.
This e-mail is intended *only* for subscribers.
================================



Centerex Inc.

PO Box 1587
Natchez, MS
39121
US


If you no longer wish to receive communication from us:
http://autocontactor.com/app/r.asp?ID=1084166384&ARID=172579&D=10

To update your contact information:
http://autocontactor.com/app/r.asp?c=1&ID=1084166384&D=10