Affordable Lawn Care Owners: Matiias Denmon Faisal Al Hadabi Blake Conner Lacy Fleming Contact: Mgdtk4@mail.umkc.edu 816-783-7934 “Affordable Lawn Care” is a door to door lawn service offering affordable and quality lawn work. Affordable Lawn Care will serve various Kansas City neighborhoods as well as nearby cities including Overland Park, Kansas City, KS, and other surrounding suburbs. Affordable Lawn Care will offer competitive pricing on services while upholding a gold quality service standard. Affordable Lawn Care focuses on upholding a gold standard when it comes to efficiency, effectiveness, and professionalism. Affordable Lawn Care is a locally owned business and prides itself in taking care of Kansas City’s neighborhoods. Residents from all over the metropolitan can be assured that if they hire Affordable Lawn Care to maintain their yards, they will get the best prices, best customer relations and best lawn service available in the city. Executive summary The Affordable Lawn Care business model is driven towards minimizing the cost of running the business while striking to maximize the business revenues. There are primarily nine aspects that form the sole of the business model and these include: Key Partners, Key Activities, Value Propositions, Key Resources, Customer Relationships, Channels, Customer Segments, Cost Structure, and Revenue Streams. This model is very effective for running the lawn business as the expenses involved in running the business are minimal compared to the vast range of revenue streams. Thus, the model guarantees business growth over the course of time since the business expenses remain at bay. The expenses involved in running a business determine the growth or failure of a business. When business expenses outweigh the revenues, the business will eventually accrue more debts resulting in bankruptcy. Since customer relations are vital especially in the lawn industry, the core of the business model is focus on consumer needs. The business will meet all consumer lawn needs including: mowing, planting, landscaping, as well as maintenance. Strong customer relations are created through providing services at a relatively affordable prices compared to competitors and ensuring 24/7 availability to meet customer needs. Additionally, provisions of promotions will also help establish strong relations with the customer that are vital in business growth. Therefore, the incorporation of the nine aspects of the Affordable Lawn Care business model while focusing on customer relations will ensure the rapid growth of the business. Unfilled Needs in the Market In the marketplace, customers have always been complaining about unreliable, costly, irresponsive services, inefficient, lack of effective payment methods after service has been delivered, and ineffective mode of interaction between lawn service providers and the customers. For many years, customers in the marketplace have always yearned for quality service provision. According to many customers, many lawn and landscaping service providers have always enjoyed monopoly that has result in poor quality of services in the market (Guffey & Loewy, 2015). In order to satisfy the needs of the customers, the business will collaborate with PayPal, the Cash App, and Square Trade services to improve the systems of payment. How the Service will provide a Benefit? The service offered by the company will be of benefit to the customers because it will be offered at affordable prices and most cost-effective. Offering service at affordable prices will not only enable the customers to minimize the cost of operation but also realize realistic profits. It is important to appreciate the fact every customer not only want to access affordable services but they are yearning for responsive services (Harvard Business Review, 2014). In order to offer responsive service, the business will mainly concentrate on offering timely services with huge consideration of the time limits. The business will also benefit the customers because the services will be delivered on time. To ensure that customers are getting services in time, the business will rely on a fleet of vehicles. When services are ordered by the customers, the company will deliver it promptly. Since the business has invested in PayPal, the Cash App, and Square Trade services, the customers will incur less cost while paying for services they have ordered. The new payment systems allow the customers to safeguard the financial information from malicious thefts from unscrupulous employees. In addition, the services offered by the business are friendlier, quality workmanship, and reliable. As a result, customers in the market will be in a position to access quality services with a little cost attached to it. Quality workmanship enables the customers to access services at acceptable standards in the industry with no compromise with the quality of the product (Guffey & Loewy, 2015). Since the company has invested in social media and emails services to improve communication with customers, customers will enjoy easy communication with the company thus improving their level of satisfaction. Why the Services is Unique The services offered by our business are unique because it pays huge considerations to the quality aspects of the customers. Offering quality services is intended to boost service credibility. Before services are being offered to the customers, the company will first ensure that the employees are properly trained on how to deliver quality services to the customers (Guffey & Loewy, 2015). Unlike rifle our rifle competitors that still rely on a traditional mode of payments, our services are unique because all payments are done in the online platforms. With e-payment services, customers will be in a position to make payment for the services in the comfort of their homes or business. The services are also unique because the business allows customers to order for services via an online platform as well as via PayPal, the Cash App, and Square Trade services. Customers at their comfort can just visit the website of our business and order for the services without having to present themselves physically in the business. Embracing the online ordering services is relatively important to the customers because it minimizes the time needed for them to receive the services. In addition, online ordering services enable the customers to minimize the cost they incur while ordering for services. It also enables the customers to maintain their daily operation or proper business operation since our services is a third-party service. In addition, the services of our business are unique because Affordable Lawn Care offers a guarantee for services. To ensure a guarantee of services, the business ensures that the logistic processes are working properly in order to minimize faults (Scarborough, 2016). The Affordable Lawn Care has invested heavily in the marketing of the services. Aggressive marketing is designed to ensure that the customers are getting reliable information about business changes as well as new services offered by the business. The business also fosters proper communication with the customers. To improve communication, the company communicates with customers via the social media platform, email services, and video chats. The use of social media and emails services enable customers to forward their grievances or complaints to the company and even make an order for services (Arvanitis & Estevez, 2018). With proper communication with the customers, the company will be in a position to understand the changing needs and preferences of the customers. The business also offers rewards for loyal customers who continue to consume the service for a long period of time. The rewards come in terms of discounts, after-sale services, and free delivery. Using these rewards systems is important because it not only wins the attention and loyalty of the customers but also enables the business to attract new customers to subscribe to the services (Scarborough, 2016). In addition, the services rely heavily on differentiation. Service differentiation is intended to allow customers to access services with unique quality aspects. Primary Competitors and the Specific Gap The primary competitors of the business include Lenard's Lawn Care, LawnStarter, and Turf Tek USA. These companies are putting huge pressure on our business because they have nearly invested in similar services as compared to Affordable Lawn Care. For example, LawnStarter allows customers to make inquiries and order for services online using LawnStarter mobile App. Turf Tek also enables customers to pay for services online. These three primary competitors have huge capital portfolios. Hence, all have invested in product differentiation. The competitive edge of LawnStarter emanates from quality staff, responsive services, and cheap services. Despite the huge competitive pressure posed by Lenard's Lawn Care, LawnStarter, and Turf Tek USA, our business still stands unique in the market because it offers reliable and cheaper services as compared to them. For instance, heavy investment in technology by Affordable Lawn enables it to win the attention of the customers to subscribe to services (Scarborough, 2016). Furthermore, the business has a quality workforce as compared to its rifle competitors. As a result, it offers quality services to the customers. In addition, the business solicits the inputs of the employees during the decision-making process. This makes employees feel that they are regarded and recognized for their presence in the organization. In the Lawn care marketplace, the market gap emanates from high demand for services but few providers, the need for quality online services by the majority of the customers, and desires for customers to pay for services online. To leverage on the untapped market gap, the business offers customers with payment systems such as PayPal, the Cash App, and Square Trade services to reinforce the e-commerce services. Customer Segments, Channels, and Relationships For our lawn care business, our primary customer segment is going to be individuals that meet a certain criterion. The criterion is going to be based on several attributes: location, income, age, interests, and where the customers decide to spend their money. First, I would like to start a marketing approach in neighborhoods where the houses are worth $250,000 or more. I want to do this for two reasons, one our business promotes quality of work first and foremost. And two, individuals in these neighborhoods are more likely to want to take care of their lawn more which means there is more likely to be landscaping involved. These two circumstances will provide more business potential. Furthermore, a common need these individuals share would be the frequency of their lawn being mowed. Customers in high scale neighborhoods are going to want to keep their lawn in great shape and I’ve even heard of neighbors competing to have a better lawn than the others. This will help support our quality attribute for our marketing approach by backing quality as one of our most important standards. Also, by customers getting their lawn mowed more frequently we will be able to make more money. Money that we can use to invest back into the company. Now, when it comes to channel phases, there are 5 different channel phases to consider. For our business I believe that we should use all 5 of these channel phases to help us become as successful as possible and to have the best possible outcome for as much business as possible. I look at these five different channels as tools for the business. First let me discuss the awareness channel phase. There are several ways we can raise awareness about our lawn services. First, I would create a sales pitch that would touch on our services and our business model of being affordable and having high quality of work. I would go door to door using the sales pitch to get those first important clients. This would be the cheapest way for others to become aware of our services, it wouldn’t cost us anything but time. Another way would be through social media once we’ve established some regular customers. Once we’ve gained some awareness from customers and potential clients then we could help more potential customers evaluate our service. By already having customers, we could use social media and pictures of customer’s homes that we currently have. We could use these two tools to prove/show potential clients the work that we do. By doing that, potential customers could evaluate our service and then decide for themselves whether or not they would want us to provide lawn care service for them. By doing high quality work in upper scale neighborhoods the odds would be in our favor. After sales are going to be an important part in running a successful lawn care business. Providing post-purchase customer support is going to be crucial for us to continue to provide a service to a customer. In other words, we want to do a good job, so the customer keeps having us provide their lawn care. One way for us to evaluate our service and customer satisfaction is to do an automated phone call to the customer after our work has been done. The automated phone call would be in survey form and would ask questions such as: How satisfied are you with our service provided for you today on a scale of one to five, one being the lowest and five being the best. How likely are you to recommend Affordable Lawn Care to a friend or family member? Is there anything that we could improve on? Questions like these can fine tune our marketing approach and keep the company in good working order. The relationships we plan to establish, based on our survey, and the market we choose to cater towards, are going to be a personable yet professional relationships. We want to keep it business like, however at the same time relate to our customers on a personal level to show gratitude and appreciation for their business. At first meeting a client, it will be important to build that personal relationship. We should do this by asking the customer questions and getting to know them. This will make the interaction personal but at the same time business like when we start going over exactly what the customer wants done to his or her lawn. This strategy can be applied to all customer segments for our marketing approach. There could be other customer segments we decide to do business with in the future that are beyond our primary segment. This could be lawn care on a commercial level incorporating more on our part such as sprinkler and irrigation systems. When it comes to lawn care for large corporations, there would be many more aspects to consider. Some of these would include: a larger lawn care business with more employees, sprinkler systems, irrigation systems, industrial equipment, and more equipment. Being a lawn care service at a commercial level would require a lot more revenue and to get there we would have to start at our planned market at the residential level. There could also be more rules and regulations to go by since corporations are a lot more complex at running their businesses than a simple start up is. So far, we have gathered some evidence that customers would be willing to purchase our service. After using Qualtrics, the marketing research website, we came up with six questions that we hope would provide the right insight and information we would need to go about running a successful lawn care company. The first question in our survey was to figure out what was most important to a customer when hiring a lawn care business. The survey results suggested that this was affordability and quality of work would be most important to customers. Now that we know this we can hire qualifying candidates with lawn care background as well as compete with the pricing of other lawn care businesses, so we come in at a cheaper rate. We won’t know for sure if customers are willing to purchase our service, but we can use the research we’ve obtained to make valid arguments as to why customers would choose our service verses the competitions. We learned that a lot of lawn care services provide snow removal as well. When a potential client hires a lawn care service, it would be ideal for them to hire a company that does both lawn care and snow removal, this could especially apply to corporations. By hiring a company that does both, this prevents the customer from having to hire two different companies as well as everything else that goes into it; more customer relations, payments, etc. By offering both services we can only assume that we would have a better chance of gaining more clientele. This is a very minor proposition since most lawn care businesses do snow removal as well, but it will help. Now, when it comes to what a customer is willing to spend for a typical mow, this is going to be a very important thing to consider. It turns our most people are willing to spend a lot or a moderate amount for a typical mow. By knowing this we can make the price right with the client by backing our argument of high quality work but keeping it affordable. We may be able to come in at the same price as our competition or slightly above. Were also going to provide landscaping which many lawn services do not offer. This helps us become scarcer in the lawn care industry. Other evidence that we may have for customers to go with our company versus another company is that we know how important building that personal relationship is. Our research suggests that personal relations is high on the scale of our service to a customer. Since we know this we can use this information when finding clientele and win our customer over. Revenue Streams The revenue streams for the affordable lawn care business will generate from mowing lawns, lawn maintenance such a raking leaves and trimming, landscaping services which involve planting hedges, flowers, and other shrubbery, and plowing and shoveling snow in the winter. The initial unit cost for services is dependent on the equipment needed to complete each service. Lawn mowing would require a lawn mower which can range from fifty to over three hundred for a push mower, and approximately one thousand to two thousand from a riding lawn mower. A riding lawn mower may be a wise investment for contracts with larger lawns. A cordless leaf blower costs an average of one hundred and fifty dollars. A weed-wacker for trimming lawns typically costs thirty dollars for a basic model. Rakes, leaf bags, shovels for planting and landscaping could all be acquired for less than two hundred dollars if buying in bulk. Gas would need to be purchased to power the machines, and cost would be subject to whatever the gas prices are at that given time of the service. However, an estimated cost of an average of 2.50 per gallon could be assumed. A Craftsman riding lawn mower has a fuel capacity of 1.5 gallons and goes 2.3 miles per hour at maximum speed. Depending on the size of the lawn, a mowing job may take up to sixty dollars an hour. An average suburban lawn takes around thirty minutes to mow, so average jobs for mowing would be thirty dollars per lawn. This cost per lawn factors in the mowers time and energy to the service and to also compensate towards the cost of the resources needed per mow. This would include gas for the lawn mower, and any bags for clippings or trim work that is done. For planting of new grass would average at forty dollars an hour to lay the sod. Landscaping services would require a higher rate per hour for planting flowers, bushes and shrubs, trees etc., as well as for drafting design plans, and the price of soil and foliage. The cost per hour for a landscaping job is fifty dollars an hour. Any additional lawn maintenance such as trimming, weed prevention and removal, and raking will be twenty dollars an hour. This wage will also compensate the workers time and resources for the job. Each services’ hourly rate is determined by how much product will be needed to accomplish the service and still earn enough to accumulate a profit. Assuming that the workers hired for the business already had their own lawn mowers, the company need only to invest in rakes and other cheaper items for the employee to use in order to accomplish his or her task. This type of business heavily relies on repeat customers. Once a customer begins having their lawn cared for, follow up maintenance and mows will be used on a rotated basis. Many customers desire their lawn to be mowed, at the longest, once every two weeks, but occasionally once a week in the spring and summer. Quality service to customers will be beneficial in order to spread good word of mouth to gain new customers. Many organizations and companies have landscaping done frequently in order to maintain a desirable appearance for their business. Lawn mowing and Landscaping will be the largest areas in the revenue streams to contribute to the overall revenue. Next to mowing and landscaping, snow plowing and removal will be the next highest in the winter season. Lawn maintenance can be viewed as an additional service that will typically accompany mowing and landscaping. The most important costs involved with the business model for the lawn care business would be the equipment, employee salary and benefits, and any office space required for headquarters for business operations. Equipment is a purchase that will only be made once every several years, only routine maintenance and repairs will be required as a continuing cost. Employee salary will be a continuous cost shown on the income statement, and if the business grows large enough, insurance expense for employees as well as building and equipment may be a considerable cost. Due to the cost listed above for the resource needed to complete each activity involved in the revenue stream, the amount of capital needed to compensate the cost would be close to three thousand. Rent for an office space needs to be factored in as well, therefore the amount of capital required to substantially cover various needs could be safely estimated at five thousand dollars. According to QuickBooks by Intuit, over forty percent of small businesses are able to start up with less than five thousand dollars. Capital can be gained from the savings of primary investors, and in this case most likely owners, as well as previous clout from side jobs of mowing, raking, and shoveling that were plausibly being done before a formal business was created. Many companies like a lawn care service started from self employed jobs of mowing neighbor or family member’s lawns before they turn into a commercial business once there are enough customers. At the cost of five thousand to start up the business, the company would need to mow at least one hundred and sixty-seven lawns to break-even. However, with the additional streams of revenue and fluctuating costs per hour depending on the service, break-even could be achieved sooner. Depending on the frequency of jobs, mowing, landscaping, etc. it could take up to a year to break-even. However, with several jobs and multiple types of services, this could be achieved sooner. The more efficient and professional the business is regarding each service, building clientele will result in a faster break-even. Key Resources, Activities, and Partnerships There are several key resources necessary to efficiently and effectively run a lawn service business. Physical resources include equipment required to perform the services offered. Affordable Lawn Care’s list of services includes lawn mowing/maintenance, snow removal in the winter and leaf bagging in the fall. Affordable Lawn Care is a mobile business, so transportation will be necessary. A pickup truck large enough to carry all the equipment will need to be purchased. A hitch may also be necessary if extra storage is required. A trailer can be attached to the hitch and carry even more supplies. Lawn mowers will be the equipment that undergoes the most usage so there must be thorough research done before deciding which type of mower to purchase as well as which brand and other specifications. At least three mowers will be necessary to make for more efficient mowing especially on larger properties. Affordable Lawn Care promises efficient services which means that work must be completed in a timely manner. Ride on mowers will require less manual labor and allow workers to perform work in longer durations. Weed wackers or trimmers will also be necessary to trim smaller harder to access areas. At least two weed trimmers will be required to perform this service efficiently. A hedge trimmer will be another crucial tool to perform lawn maintenance. A hedge trimmer will be used to trim and cut bushes, shrubs and hedges. A broom and dust pan as well as bags will be required for cleanup. Customers will expect their sidewalks and surrounding areas to be clean and free of grass. Efficient cleanup is crucial so at least 4-5 durable dust pans and brooms will be necessary. Sprayers will be required to distribute chemicals on the lawn such as pesticides. A leaf blower will come in handy during cleanup of grass clippings as well as leaves. A leaf blower will make cleaning grass clippings faster and bagging up leaves easier. Rakes will be necessary to clean up leaves in the Fall as well. Shovels will be used in the winter during snow removal. Salt will be put down after shoveling to help melt any snow or ice left behind or coming later. Protective equipment including gloves and eye protection will be necessary to make sure no one gets hurt by anything flying out of a mower or trimmer. Other necessary equipment includes fuel cans, oil and a tool kit as well as extra trimming wire, mower blades, spark plugs, and air filters. Intellectual resources include customer databases that aid the “Affordable Lawn Care” in building a customer base as well as pick the best segments to focus business on. Human resources are crucial in a lawn service business. Loyal and hard-working employees will be necessary to effectively perform lawn services. Financial resources will mostly consist of cash that will be required to purchase supplies. Key activities required to successfully run a lawn service business vary. The services performed are the main activities that must be implemented. Mowing and maintenance tasks must be performed routinely to run the business. Snow removal, leaf blowing, and bagging are also tasks that will be routine during seasonal operations. Other key activities include door to door service and interacting with customers. Customer relations will be a key factor in the success of the business. If customers don’t feel comfortable interacting with employees, then they will not continue to use our services or recommend us to other potential customers. The Affordable Lawn Care services will also receive a bad reputation for poor customer service. Flyer distribution is also a very important marketing tasks that will be necessary to promote the business. Fee collection is another activity that will be routine in business operations. Writing and retaining customers receipts, collecting different payment methods and scheduling follow up visits ae all very crucial to the professionalism and organization of the business. Purchasing and ordering supplies will also be a key activity. Making sure to order the correct supplies as well as the correct amounts in a timely manner will keep the business running smooth. Employees should never not have the necessary supplies to perform their jobs or else this will be bad for business. The Affordable Lawn Care service will partner with a few organizations to benefit both parties. Affordable Lawn Care will partner with Lowes to purchase supplies necessary to run the business. Lowes has a department that specializes in lawn care supplies. Finding the right supplies will be an easy task at Lowes. Ordering in bulk may help save money and creating a strong relationship with the organization will help the process go smoother. Supplies will be delivered in a timely manner and both parties will benefit from the interaction. There may even be an automatic ordering process that will allow Lowes to charge a linked account and ship supplies in monthly intervals without an actual order being placed every time. This will help the Affordable Lawn care service in avoiding product shortages. By having supplies ordered and delivered automatically there will be less room for error. Other partners to the Affordable Lawn Care business include UPS. UPS offers printing services on all types of materials. UPS can aid the Affordable Lawn Care service by printing different promotional material for advertisement. Affordable Lawn Care will also partner with payment providers such as square trade. Square Trade offers business a way to perform credit card transactions through a small device that is plugged into a mobile phone and works with a downloadable phone app. The device is free and Square Trade charges a small fee for every transaction. This will help the Affordable Lawn Care service have the option of accepting different forms of payment as not all customers will have cash readily available. Instead of requiring customers to remember to have cash when paying for services, square trade allows us to accept credit or debit card payments. All these partnerships will benefit both parties and allow the Affordable Lawn Care service to flourish and run efficiently and smoothly as possible. Business Model Canvass Works Cited Arvanitis, S., & Estevez, L. (2018). Feasibility Analysis and Study. In The Emerald Handbook of Entrepreneurship in Tourism, Travel and Hospitality: Skills for Successful Ventures (pp. 109-129). Emerald Publishing Limited. Guffey, M. E., & Loewy, D. (2015). Essentials of business communication. Nelson Education. Harvard Business Review. (2014). Harvard Business Essentials, Decision Making: 5 Steps to Better Results. Harvard Business Review Press. McCamy, Laura. “Figure 2f from: Irimia R, Gottschling M (2016) Taxonomic Revision of Rochefortia Sw. (Ehretiaceae, Boraginales). Biodiversity Data Journal 4: e7720. Https://Doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.4.e7720.” doi:10.3897/bdj.4.e7720.figure2f. Scarborough, N. M. (2016). Essentials of entrepreneurship and small business management. Pearson.
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