MOW4FREE.COM was started by a lawn service owner just like you.  As his company grew by word of mouth and conventional advertising, he decided that he wanted a website to further advertise his services.  He spent several days looking over one lawn & landscaping website after the next, trying to find one or two that really stood out.  He never found it.  Every lawn & landscape website he saw promised professional service, a “higher level of satisfaction” for the consumer, top-notch equipment, punctuality, caring management, etc one yard at a time.  Furthermore, they all had names like smithlawncare.com, atlantalawnsvc.net or joneslandscaping.us.  None of the online advertising he saw really separated one company over the others.

He decided he wasn’t going to waste his money just to become another fish in the sea of lawn care services accessible online.  So rather than naming the site after his company or his name, he wanted to be as creative as he could in order to draw traffic to the site AND he wanted it to be easy to remember.  Using a domain search, he eventually found that MOW4FREE.COM was available.  He purchased it, along with all the variances he and his wife could dream up.

Now he needed to figure out the question that’s probably on your mind, “How do I mow for free & make any money?”  The answer he came up with was brilliant:

The 6th mowing is free for NEW, WEEKLY-SERVICED customers.  This encouraged his new customers to get on his weekly schedule instead of bi-weekly or otherwise.  He knew this would make his scheduling easier.
The 12th mowing is free for those customers that advertise his service for those 12 weeks by placing a “MOW4FREE.COM was here” sign in their yard and keeping it there for 12 weeks.  This would get him more lawns in the same neighborhoods, reducing both drive time and fuel costs.
The 18th mowing is free for any customer who refers 3 new, weekly-serviced customers to him during that 18 week timeframe.  He was putting his customers to work for him as his sales force.  (Most people don’t make it this far, but those that do are certainly appreciated for bringing in the extra business).  Referrals are the easiest accounts to gain, and usually the easiest to please.
The 24th mowing is free for any customer who has completed all of the requirements mentioned above, and agrees to place a MOW4FREE.COM bumper sticker on their primary vehicle to further promote his business locally.  Furthermore, a requirement for any of these free services is that the customer is current, which lessens the headache of collections.

So, while these services are “free” in the sense cash payment is not required for them, the customer is required to make concessions which benefit his business.  These concessions have proven to be far more valuable than cash in the way his business has prospered and grown.

Next, he had his trucks lettered up with MOW4FREE.COM decals, including his personal vehicles.  His business started booming.  He noticed that other nearby businesses began to emulate his program in order to try to stay competitive.  But what they didn’t have (and couldn’t get) was the name.  He was picking up business from people who normally mowed their own grass, from people who used inferior lawn services, and from people who were using companies much larger than his.  The name is too enticing for people to ignore, and too simple for people to forget.

One day he took one of his daughters to a zoo in the big city.  While he was there over a period of about 5 hours, his phone received 4 emails requesting free estimates in that part of the city.  When he got home that afternoon, he sat down and began to send emails to these would-be prospects to notify them that he regretfully doesn’t service their area, nor did he know of a reputable service in their area to refer them to.

That’s when the light bulb came on.  He decided that he could turn his website into a hub for other excellent lawn services across the U.S.A., and potentially beyond provided that they demonstrate excellent customer satisfaction, know-how and professional standards.  That’s how you got the invitation.  He called me to share his ideas with me because I’ve been in marketing for 19 years.  It was one of the best ideas I had ever heard.  I guided him through the trademark process as we met with attorneys and web designers.  We got as many bugs worked out of the program as we could, we had the contracts drawn up and a business plan set in place.

The trademark process took the better part of a year, and the website took quite awhile to get just right as well since the webmaster we originally chose was out of state.  Finally, we were ready.  He still gets free estimate requests from out of his area any time he leaves it, and some from the bumper stickers on his customers’ cars.  Some of those zip codes are sold now, but there are still plenty to be had.  MOW4FREE.COM is experiencing incredible growth and we anticipate being nation wide and possibly international by the end of 2010.

With growth comes growing pains, and we’ve learned that you can’t let just anyone use your name.  That’s why we developed the list of requirements for MOW4FREE.COM franchise owners.  We hope that if you have any questions about these requirements, you’ll contact us for clarification.  But please know that these rules are set up to protect our good name -- and yours should you decide to join our family.  We can’t be associated with inferior personnel, equipment, service standards or professionalism.

Despite our rapid growth, his youngest daughter still thinks he should’ve named it MOW4MONEY.COM.  Here she is next to one of their trucks.  Everyone’s a critic, right?  Please let us know how YOU feel about our program, and how we may be of service to you.

Best wishes,

Matt Bender
VP – MOW4FREE.COM
matt.bender@charter.net