BUYING & SELLING Lawn Accounts! ► The HOW & WHY We Had To Do It

Earlier this summer we had a tough decision to make. I wanted to refocus and double down on the areas we did most of our work in, but a portion of our business was holding us back. We had a route that was way outside of our service area, and I had to make the tough decision to sell some of our lawn accounts.

Now this wasn't an easy task, because these were some of my very first customers from the beginning of my business. Some of these customers we had for over a decade, if you can believe that. The short of it was we ended up realizing that to move on, we had to let go of this part of our business if we were to double down where the rest of our route is.

I tried to give as practical and relevant examples of how we sold our lawn accounts, why we sold them, and just some helpful tips along the way. The process wasn't exactly hard or complicated. It just required being strategic and thoughtful, and making sure my friend "Max" and I had a good game plan to make this transition as smooth as possible for every party involved.

Shoutout and thank you to Yardbook for sponsoring this video! Yardbook is software that helps me run my lawn and landscaping business. They have been an advertising partner with us for almost a year now, and they are what we use for our personal business to run the day to day operations.

Yardbook is always adding new features and updates, and recently they came out with things like Chemical Tracking 2.0, Inventory Management, and something I thought was pretty cool: their new Selling Suite.

You're now able to provide customers through invoice, email, or text, a store front for customers to purchase additional services and products from your company. The store is pretty slick, with customizable descriptions, thumbnails, pricing, and much more.

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[BriansLawnMaintenance]

Do you guys have any good stories about buying or selling accounts? Any helpful tips I missed? If so, leave a comment down below and maybe they can help the next guy.

[ericakrupin]

I watched your video this morning . Around 5 pm today I was contacted by a competitor company. She is closing down the Pet Waste Removal section of her company and wanted to sell me her customers in my service area. She had no idea how much to charge me. I used your formula and she excepted it..$1000 for 20 accounts. Thank you so much for the tips. I’ve been learning so much.

[lawnenforcement]

Lucky for y’all. My business doesn’t start till 25 minutes away.

[Dale.Nienow]

Nice video Brian, those are some nice tips! I bought accounts from the 15 year old who doesn't want to do lawn care anymore but it didn't ever sell accounts before but now I know how to sell accounts!

[damonbyrd]

I've never been into buying accounts, because everyone does business there own way. It's no guarantee if the customer is going to like you no matter what you done.

[jeffpratt]

2018 was 1st year I used yard books for my software loved it was so easy and professional.

[markschmaus]

Awesome Plan ! Very professional ! I picked up 20 clients in My Territory a few years ago. The former guy just up and quit on his 72 hours Everyone of his clients called Me because I was already servicing his clients neighbor. Service never stopped. Just continued the flow.

[DB-rvuw]

I don’t know if you see this comment but Brian you have helped me a ton ! I started two years ago pulling a push mower out of my dad’s Santa Fe . now I have my own set up, someone working for me, and 85 clients all through connections . Only thing is I need to watch a lot more of your videos as it’s so so important to have guidance . A ton of love from south jersey

[daveallen]

Good vid Brian. I have purchased lawn clients twice in my 10 years in biz. Price was 20% of the calculated income for regular weekly mowing for one season. (Our mowing season here in MN runs about 24 cuttings. We did a payment plan, something like yours but spread out longer, and monthy. (I learned of both of these guys going out of lawn care biz through my local lawn equipment shop, called them up, and things when from there.) We transitioned with a "good news/bad news letter first, written by the guys going out of biz, wherein they recommended me and my company.) It was mailed out, and then I followed up a few days later with my first phone contact to the various customers.

[hanssolo]

I bought maybe 15 lawns and snow customers from a guy for like 2500, im only doing a couple lawns from the 15 i bought, this was over 10 years ago so it worked out well and made decent money from them.
I ended up selling about 20 customers to a friend about 8 years ago... but i never got paid, i ended up letting it go. Lesson learned, u find out who your true friends are over the years.

[ericf.]

Thank you for the response today! This is so helpful.

[yamaharider]

I worked for a company that serviced large commercial properties all over the country I serviced 60 properties a month & ironically for 3 years my route was the eastern portion of Michigan. Everything from Indiana border north to Bad Axe Mi, and everything west to i69 and everything east to the shore of Lake Erie.
I very much understand where your coming from with your focus on route density because it works so perfectly in Michigan and in particular the Detroit Suburbs.
BUT my point being is I’m from Rural Indiana about an hour north of Indianapolis. My town has a population of 11k and is a suburb of Muncie which has a population of roughly 80k which is greatly dependent on the university. Now Muncie has 4 or 5 rural school districts all within 10-15mins of Muncie that directly feed off of Muncie stores and food and entertainment etc.
and maybe this is just my travel for work mentality I have in me now. But if I had 20 properties in a town that’s 30minutes away on the other side of one of our rural Suberbs I sure as heck wouldn’t be shying away from that. If anything that gives me motive to expand and maybe even add another crew, my point being with all this is a route of 20 could turn into a route of 50 and that temporary money you have from selling those routes would be meaningless compared to what that city could provide long term for you.
I’ll never be on a massive scale with my company but landscape companies thrive as the biggest midget and if I had 3 full time crews going out and servicing different areas 8 months a year there’s a killing worth of money to be made.
Just giving my two cents

[brookspatriciaoutdoors]

Awesome awesome info Brian. I’ve been watching for last couple months and I feel like I’ve got such an advantage going into this brand new year with my brand new lawn service. Can’t imagine how or where I would have found all this info if I hadn’t been watching my daughters play YouTube videos and wondered what kind of info is out there for lawn care. Thanks again and my wife and I may try to attend the GIE this year.

[kelbale]

Let me save potential viewers some time and maybe some cash (Remember Brian, you asked for opinions and comments) ... Customers have FREE WILL that can't be bought or sold by third parties. Therefore, anyone who buys clients would be taking a huge risk that the customer retains your service. Therefore, lawn accounts are not to be bought or sold. Then there is the customer who benefits ZERO from their account being pawned off. Anyone who buys lawn accounts as a growth strategy could be going backwards very easily. You CAN ASK for and/or pay a small FINDERS FEE for customers, but that should not exceed $20 per lead. That's how it really works folks!

[thebeansartpodcast]

It’s awesome to see how you’ve grown over these last 8-9 years. You’re definitely an inspiration. Your videos and editing have came a long way as well.

[josephfiori]

I'm 19 I've had my lawn care and tree service for 2 years and we're crushing it!! Thank you for your info brain its greatly appreciated I watch you and lawn crack for all my info and ryan actually made a whole video about me and my business

[D.Stephenson]

Look at Yard Book stepping their game up! Power moves! Good video bud!

[CodyPoloway]

Our longest commute was an hour and a half one way and when the one day the highway was insanely backed up it took us 3 hours to get there.

[Coop]

I already posted a comment. But I can’t wait for 2019 because I’m gonna start using yardbook and it’s going to help take my business to a whole new level!

[cwiedner]

I occasionally buy accounts, usually after picking up a new account and the property owner tells me their last guy is quitting the business. I’ll get his contact info and reach out. My standard offer is 20% of whatever I am able to bill for, for 12 months. In exchange, I ask the previous guy to make a list of all his accounts, and for him to reach out to them, let them know he’s got someone to take care of them, and tell them to expect my call. You can’t force the customer to switch, so I feel that a percentage of what I am able to sell is fair to both of us, vs $X.xx per account.

I am in the same boat as you BTW. When we started I took on anything and everything, and am now really focusing on density. I’ve got a couple days worth of work I’d love to pass on to someone reliable, in certain areas. I’m just trying to be patient and sell them vs letting them go.