Contractor Profile: BestYard.Com – On Lawns And Online

Lane started his Aurora, Colo.-based business as Colorado Turf Care, but this year he developed an Internet presence and decided to create a new company name to reflect this technological advancement. Lane decided on the name BestYard.Com based on the listings in his local Yellow Pages. He wanted to come up with a name that would stand out and also be easily located and remembered. "I was initially going to call it ABestYard.Com," he said. "That would have put me at the very top of the listing. But then I thought no one’s going to remember the ‘A.’"

From the web site, which was launched in March this year, users can view Lane’s services, including aeration, fertilization, weed and insect control, disease control and a seasonal lawn care program. Potential customers also get a chance to "meet" Lane before ever contacting him because his picture is on the site and his personality is articulated in its design and language. "I think customers get a feel or a sense of what the company is about," said Lane. "That’s what I’m trying to communicate – here’s a guy out there that will work hard for you. He’s going to be honest in his dealings with you, and you can trust him with your yard."

That credibility is reflected on the web site through Lane’s posting of prices for specific services. He says a homeowner can get a price quote from him onsite and then go to the web site and see the same price posted there. Set advertised pricing is an advantage to Lane and potential customers. "It takes the ambiguity out of it for the customer," he explained. "It’s just a fair way to do business, and I want everyone to pay the same rate." The web site currently features pricing for aeration and BestYard.Com’s BestCare Program, which is a season-long program. Lane plans to add all of his prices to the site in the future.

Perhaps the most unique item about Lane’s web site is that he developed it himself. Despite his initial apprehension to creating a web site, Lane spent close to 130 hours putting the site together between learning the programming and deciding what to communicate about his business. "My feeling at first was there’s just no way I can design a web site. And the more I thought about it, I said I just need to do this," he said. Lane also cited not wanting to pay someone else to develop and update the site as another motivating factor to design the site himself.

The web site development also helped Lane learn more about his business by outlining exactly what he offers and how much it costs. "It was a great exercise in helping me define what my business was and see it clearer in my own mind," he said. "It was one of the better things I’ve done from helping me understand my business. If you don’t understand it, you certainly can’t communicate it to someone else."

IT’S ALL IN A NAME. The name is the major marketing device for BestYard.Com – any phrase with a "dot com" at the end means it is online – but Lane needs to get that name known and recognized for it to be effective. He is doing this through Yellow Page advertising in his local phone book, ValPak coupons with special deals and signs on his landscaping vehicles. Because the Yellow Page ad will not appear until later in May, Lane has only been able to track the effectiveness of the other two devices.

The coupon advertisement, which is sent out in ValPak’s direct mail coupon packets, features a $59 aeration, fertilizer and weed control application or a $29 aeration for a 3,000 square foot lawn. The advertisement includes the company’s name, which naturally includes the company’s Internet address. Lane said people are going to the web site after seeing these coupons and either calling or responding via the site. These one-time applications can often turn into additional business. "My idea is to hopefully convert them to a seasonal program customer. And that’s working," explained Lane.

The signs on Lane’s truck almost make his vehicle an interactive device – barring, of course, the physical limitations of connecting a vehicle to the Internet. "I’ll tell you a good story," said Lane. "I was at a house in a neighborhood working and a couple came driving by – I didn’t know this at the time, but they saw the name on the truck – then went home, got on the Internet immediately, and they set up an appointment. I get home, and here’s a request for service. They already know exactly what they’re going to pay – everything. She said to me when she called, ‘Oh we saw your truck with the name on it.’ And that happens repeatedly."

The current marketing is working, and Lane is also looking into opening up one more target market in a listing that comes out in December. Although, now Lane says he is turning away more business than he is taking. He explained that this growth is allowing him to be more selective in the customers he takes. That is a blessing for him as he tried a telemarketing campaign last year that was mildly effective but resulted in some undesirable customers. "This system I’ve got now seems to be bringing in a good quality customer and a sufficient amount," he said.

FROM THE BOTTOM UP. Lane is new to the landscaping business, having started from scratch in March 1998. That year Lane went from zero to about 50 customers. He explained that he was not trying to grow very much his first year because he was concentrating on trying to learn the business. However, in 1999 he increased his regular customer base to 150 residential clients plus several one-time customers. He is poised to grow that number this year with the marketing he has in place. "I think I have a pretty clear definition of my marketing plan, and I think I have a pretty clear target market," he said.

Lane’s decision to get into the landscaping business started years ago in a hot tub in Hawaii. "I was sitting there and I’m listening to this guy," Lane explained. "He says ‘I have a landscaping business, and I get three months off.’ That was a number of years ago, but it always stuck in the back of my head. I would love to have a job where I could concentrate my income in a shorter period of time and then have some time off. Plus I really enjoyed being outside, and I love physical work."

Although his initial motivation was to have three months off, Lane plans to use that off time wisely by developing new features on his web site. He is buying a digital camera to add more images to his site and plans to expand it to include educational information for his customers to learn more about proper lawn care. "I want to make it a place where people will have a reason to go back to it," he said.

The educational factor is important to Lane, as the Internet is where his education is rooted. "I’m probably one of the only guys out there who’s totally Internet trained," Lane said. "I had to take state exams for pesticide licensing, and I got all of the information off the Internet." Among the web sites he has used as resources are Lawn & Landscape Online the University of Nebraska’s horticultural department’s web site.

Lane currently has two mowers, two aerators, one truck, some spraying equipment and a fertilizer spreader to serve his customer base which is located within 8 miles of his home. Although he currently does all of the work himself at BestYard.Com, Lane is planning on adding another member next year to make a two-man crew. The year after that, he plans to add a second crew, second truck and another set of equipment. "One day I can see it being five to 10 trucks, but I just take it one step at a time, trying to learn as I go," he said. "At least I’ll know what it is from the bottom up. Believe me I know what it is."

For more information, please visit BestYard.Com’s web site at www.BestYard.Com or e-mail John Lane at John@BestYard.Com.

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