CLIP's Tips

In our last post, we discussed how to create contracts from CLIP using Estimates in Jobs.  I thought it would be helpful to share some of CLIP Lawn Care’s contracts.

Feel free to use the contracts verbatim or to take some inspiration for your own contracts.

2010 – This year, we are focusing on “packages.”  Research has shown that fewer choices mean more sales.  Customers may become indecisive if they have too many options.  Rather than make a choice, they often will opt out of purchasing anything (think about the last time you were trying to choose toilet paper at the grocery store!).  In light of this we simplified our maintenance offerings to three packages:

• Just Mow It
• Make It Green
• Mow It and Make It Green

Instead of overwhelming the customer with the details of an a la carte service menu, we chose to make it simple and to put it in their terms.  The results so far have been positive.

2010 Lawn Maintenance Agreement

2009 – If you are looking for our previous contracts, check out the links below.

2009 Lawn Maintenance Agreement

2009 Lawn Treatments Estimate

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If this has ever happened to you, lifehacker.com has An Exhaustive Guide to Saving Your Smartphone’s Battery.

This would also be something to share with any of your crews who are using CLIP2GO to extend the battery life of their PDA’s or Smart Phones.

Here are the first two tips:

Keep it cool and out of pocket: If you’re outside, don’t leave your phone facing the direct sunlight. If you can pull it off without looking like a hyper-aggressive real estate agent, belt-clip your phone, or generally keep it out of your pocket and away from close quarters with your body heat.

Switch off 3G when it’s unnecessary: It’s faster than EDGE or GRPS and can deliver both voice and data in a continuous stream to your phone. It also uses up quite a bit more power. When you’ve got good coverage and plan to mostly talk, or just get occasional email updates, you don’t need such wide wireless pipes. Switch to EDGE/2G usage in your settings, preferably with a widget or shortcut.*

Check out the whole article.

*If you don’t know how to do this, check out your phone manual.

Photo credit: bossco

This morning, while lamenting about my poor handwriting on some H-2B applications I was filling out, I decided to search for a tool that would allow me to fill out PDF forms on my computer.  After a quick search, I discovered www.pdfescape.com.

PDF Escape is a free service which will allow you to upload any PDF File to their website, where you can then add text, checkboxes, arrows, images, etc.  You can also save the file on their website for later use and/or download the file to be saved, emailed or printed.

So if readers’ eyes suffer because of your handwriting or if you just prefer typing, head on over to www.pdfescape.com and try it out.

If you are anything like me, chances are that you find yourself using multiple computers in the course of any given week and it can be a challenge to keep track of all of your files between your office pc, your laptop, your home computer, and your mobile device.

Dropbox is the best little computer tool that I have found in years.  Check out the short video below to see how it works:

Set up Dropbox for yourself:

1.  Go to www.dropbox.com and create a free account.

2.  Download a copy of the Dropbox program for your computer here.

3.  After the file has downloaded, run the program to install Dropbox on your computer.

4.  During the install process, the program will ask you for your login information.  Enter it.

5.  After the installation has completed, look in your My Documents folder and you will see that a new folder entitled “Dropbox” has been created.

6.  Cut & paste (or drag & drop) any files on your computer that you want to have access to anywhere.  Dropbox will then put a copy of these files on their servers.

7.  Download and install Dropbox on any other computers you use regularly.  Log in using the same information.  Now, whenever you add, change, or remove a file in the Dropbox folder, it will be reflected on all of the computers that you have Dropbox installed on.  The files will also be available at dropbox.com so you can access them from anywhere.

8.  Optional:  download the Dropbox app for your iPhone or bookmark http://m.dropbox.com on any other mobile phone to access files there.

Additional Uses:

- Share files between office and field: Since I can access the files on my phone or internet-connected laptop, I will often have our administrative assistant drop a file that I need into the dropbox folder for me to reference out in the field immediately.

- Working on a document with multiple people:  If you have any collaborative document that that needs to go back and forth for editing, putting that file in dropbox for all users to access is much easier than sending emails back and forth every time there is a change.

- Access your files when you don’t have your laptop or mobile phone:  Just get to any computer connected to the internet, go to dropbox.com, log in, and view or download the file.  (This has saved my hide a few times…)

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Hopefully, you are already on your way to a paperless office with the help of CLIP, KnowItAll,  and CLIP2GO.  Recently, I found another tool for moving in this direction—EchoSign.

EchoSign’s online service allows you to send contracts or other signature requiring documents to your clients over the internet.  Then your client will have the ability to sign or initial the document right on his computer and send it back to you right away. (See video below for demonstration)

My first question was: Is that legal?  Their answer from their FAQ:

The Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (“E-Signature Act”) became effective in the US on October 1, 2000 deeming online electronic signatures on commercial transactions and most other agreements have a legal status equivalent to a written signature.

Additional helpful features include:

• Archive – hundreds of contracts on their website for later viewing (although I recommend downloading and attaching to the customer record in CLIP).
• Mobile Sign – customer can sign on any mobile phone with an internet browser.
• Embed into your website – don’t simply link to a document for a customer to print and send back.  You can know have the customer sign right there.

A free trial is available and pricing for an unlimited signatures package costs $14.99/month.

Visit Echosign’s website.

Watch the video below for a demonstration:

Application Action:  Give the demo a spin by clicking here.

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Photo credit: gregoryjameswalsh

People on the industry forum Lawnsite.com are discussing laptops in their vehicles and what other mobile technologies they use (i.e. wireless data plan, printer, etc.).

For those of you who spend time in the field:

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Some of the common applications for this mobile technology are: looking up client information, printing contracts, accepting credit card payments, and calculating property areas.

Do you have any creative uses for mobile technology?  Please share in the comments.

I will post the results of the poll in the near future.

Postscript:  If you, like me, use a laptop on the go but don’t want to pay for an expensive laptop mount, check out this do-it-yourself mount for a Toyota truck.

DIY Laptop Truck Mount

Photo: Q4RadioGuy

Do you have an effective way to share a presentation with a customer you cannot meet with? We needed one recently to share our Realtor Sales Presentation with someone who preferred not to meet in person.

The solution – slideshare.  Slideshare will allow you to upload your PowerPoint or other slideshow program files to be watched online.  This way, you can simply send a link to your client rather than sending the whole Presentation file.  Another option is to embed the slideshow into your website.

Here’s how to do it:

1.  Sign up for Read more…

Four reasons why you should not be emailing contracts, proposals, etc. as Microsoft Word documents:

1. The customer can change the document (on purpose or by accident).
2. Some people not own Microsoft Word and will have trouble opening the file.
3. Word Documents will be larger in file size than PDF, thereby requiring more storage and sometimes preventing you from emailing them.
4. It is viewed as unprofessional.

The best alternative is to use the universally accepted PDF file format.  This will allow you to create an exact copy of any document.  PDF’s are locked for editing, smaller in size, and readable by almost any computer (with the free Adobe Reader).  The problem is that Word does not come installed with an option to save as PDF.

The solution is simple:  If you have not already shelled out the cash for Adobe Acrobat (est. retail $260) I recommend

Read more…

Here is what CLIP Lawn Care is using this year for marketing aeration and overseeding.

Feel free to edit it to suit your needs and use it as you wish.

Aeration and Overseeding Marketing Document – CLC.doc

As promised in the webinar today, here are the instructions for how to set up everything to track your marketing using Google Maps:

How to Track Your Marketing Using Google Maps

Thanks again for everyone’s input today!

If you have any questions feel free to email me.

Watch the webinar.