This question came in from a former continuing education student that was having problems keeping his mainline pipe at one inch.   This is a short (4 minutes) screencast using Pro Contractor Studio.  

In case you haven't been to our CAD Class for Irrigation Design, the icon to the left is the mnemonic we us for step 11 that reminds us to size the pipe.  (The Pan Pipe's pitch is controlled by the size of the pipe.)

Here's the video. 

Respectfully,

Doug Saylor

P.S. If you have a question about RainCAD's Pro Contractor Studio, email me and I'll try to answer it via this blog medium. 

So, what can communication technology do for the irrigator and irrigation contractor?  You will be able to take your business where ever you go, and put some of the pressure back on your competition… where it belongs.

On-the-go Scheduling

Most smartphones, whether Apple or Android based, have calendars and event schedulers already built in.  This allows you, while in the middle of an irrigation job, to quickly schedule a meeting or appointment on your phone and get right back to work.  You can set the appointment up with a reminder to let you know the appointment is coming up.  Most calendar programs allow you to set your own preference on reminders: a day before the event, a week, an hour, whatever you want to help you remember those important dates and times.  Most calendar applications also allow you to share the appointment with others, making it super easy to let co-workers know there is something coming up.

Pictures
All smartphones these days come with an on-board camera.  Cameras can be extremely helpful when on a job.  You can take before and after pictures of the actual irrigation work for your customer files, as proof of what you did on the job, or simply some nice before and after shots for your portfolio.  Pictures can be stored and attached to customer files later, or can be attached to your mobile customer files if you have a customer tracking application.

There's an App for that
There truly is an 'app' for just about everything.  A search of the Android Market shows applications that are convenient and cost effective for an irrigator to use.  Some of the apps listed are: measuring distances, job estimating, time tracking, customer records, job site trackers, etc.

Some applications are pretty robust.  They include maintaining irrigation customer files, measuring distances for irrigation on site, preparing quotes that you can e-mail from your phone, and more.  Some apps even allow you to connect with vendors so you can check available stock!  Talk about convenience!

With today's technology, there is no reason an irrigation contractor has to struggle to do it all by himself.  Mobile apps and smartphones make it easy to be a one (or three) man show!

According to Open by American Express, an information service for small businesses, one of the three smartest investments for greater productivity is getting help with personal productivity

Darby, our hypothetical über-irrigator is bad with paper.  The one piece of paper he’s dealing with multiplies to thousands–all clogging up his pipeline of productivity.  If he could just handle paper…

Because he’s so bad with paper, he’s learned to be “good” with paper.  He knows it’s a weakness, so he’s developed some hard and fast rules and methods that have helped him a lot.
 

1. Hold the paper only once.  Deal with it now or file it or trash it.  Don’t wait ‘till later.
2. Don’t create paper.  Use your laptop or iPad to do what paper used to do.
3. Stop, drop and de-clutter.  Once a week stop and catch up on getting paper dealt with.
4. Arrange for easy filing.  Your office may be your truck.  Fine, treat your truck like it is the command center of the great organization it is!
5. Automate everything.  Get the electric company to draft for their payment (unless you’re not quite sure you’re going to pay it this month).  Darby did that to all his bills.  They’re paid on time and he doesn’t have to do it.  Darby uses Mint or PageOnce to keep track of his spending spending. (Google Mint and or PageOnce)  Note: The bank can’t read who your check is payable to.  It only posts check number 1233 for $345.45 posted on August 30th.  That’s gets in the way of online services like Mint.  Consider using your bank’s BillPay service or use a credit or debit card.  Mint can read all these payees–giving you better information.

You can probably think of other areas.  The point is to take control.

Want more ideas on promoting your irrigation business?  Click the button to get a Free Report on Nurturing Word-of-Mouth. 

Most of the reasons are just rationalizations for existing behavior.  But, there are a few reasons that are actually very good.

I’d like to share 5 really good reasons why an effective, working website may not be relevant for your business.

Note: Just because you fit one or two doesn’t necessarily take you off the hook.  But, if you actually fit several (especially 2 and 3), you probably can get by with a flat web site that doesn’t do very much.
 

1. You depend on “word of mouth” advertising:  Word of mouth happens because you’re doing a great job. If that’s working for you, keep it up.  Your prospects are increasingly looking to the Internet to search for or confirm companies for irrigation services.  Word of mouth is the best, but it depends on the right two people to come into contact–and sometimes that just doesn’t happen.   If you’re not looking to grow your company significantly, there’s probably no reason to try to nurture word of mouth so the right satisfied customer can talk to prospects she (or you) don’t know about.
2. You’re not looking to grow:  I used to think web sites needed to be pretty brochures.  Now, I realize effective web sites attract new business.  If you don’t need to grow, you don’t need an effective web site.
3. You don’t have competition:  Bless you. If you have the luxury of being the only irrigator in your area, a web site might impress your mom or spouse, but it will probably do you no good.
4. You expect to walk away from your company:  You’re not looking to sell your business eventually.  An effective web site would create an asset the business could use now, which makes it valuable to someone interested in buying your business. You’re making enough money now so you don’t need to go through the mess of selling a profitable business when you get ready to retire.  Your payback is the income you make from working.
5. The old ways of marketing are working just fine:  

• Yellow Pages
• Post cards
• Home shows
• Door hangers
• Radio ads
• TV ads . . .

They’re all working and they don’t cost all that much.  That’s called “push” or “interruption” marketing.  If your market hasn’t found ways to filter out your ads, you probably don’t need a means of attracting potential customers when they are looking for you.  An effective web site is a way to give information prospects want.  For instance, if you’re so well known and respected, your prospects aren’t interested in what others say about you, you just don’t need a web site.

Maybe I have left out your reason for not needing a web site.  Use the comments section below to tell me your reason and I’ll let everyone know about it in a future post.

Kemp is just 50 miles southeast of Dallas and just north of the Cedar Creek Reservoir, a lake owned by the Tarrant Regional Water District, and supplies water to Fort Worth and other cities and water districts in Tarrant and Johnson counties.  Even though lakes in water-starved Texas are running at all-time lows, the availability and proximity to water is not the problem.

A pipe broke.

Kemp's pipe infrastructure is getting some age on it and the dry soil has caused shifting.  These two conditions worked together to rupture a main that drained over 2 millions gallons of treated, potable water and emptied their two water towers. 

So, irrigation is DEAD in Kemp, Texas, but so is washing clothes, taking baths and enjoying some clean tap water. 

And the decision was easy to make.

Who, you may say, would be so heartless to not allow a young mother to keep her baby's clean?  Or to take needed water from an elderly person that needs water to take meds? 

It's simple.  Kemp doesn't have any water to give.

Water availabliity comes up anytime there is a drouth that goes on long enough to create a water shortage.  But, again, water is near. 

Irrigation Contractor, are you listening?

YOU'RE livelihood will be the absolute first thing to go.  When the choice is either water the yard and impress the neighbors or stay alive (or, at least, comfortable) choices become pretty clear.

Look at the real problem–a problem irrigation professionals can help aleviate.  We depend on utilities and governments for water and it is relatively easy to shift that responsibility and provision to ourselves.  How? Rainwater catchment.  If you're not preparing for this add-on to your current irrigation business, I may be time to add to your skillset.

Here's a good super-simple overview of how to harvest rain.

But don't fall in the trap of solving one problem and creating another one.  Ensure your system doesn't require grid-produced electricity to move the water. 

The two weak links in the water delivery chain are piping and electricity.  Without both, the public supply is useless.  Ask anyone from Kemp, Texas.

As you can see, this is not a realistic treatment of a valve "repair" but it does show that even an unskilled videographer can produce a very credible video.

You probably have all the video equipment you need if you use an iPhone or one of the newer knockoffs.  If not, you can still get a very inexpensive HD video camera that will fit in your shirt pocket.  

Don't expect to produce a polished video–at least not at first.  Just let the camera run and talk to your customer. 

Give away your expertise. 

Most of your prospects are not going to try to compete with you, they just want to know that you know what you're talking about.

At the time of this writing, you could spend less than $200 at BestBuy and get a pocket video camera that would have rivaled a $4,000 video camera just a few years ago.

You have nothing to loose and everything to gain.  Think about your prospects' questions.  Then, answer them using video. 

Question:  How are you using your web site? If it's just a brochure, you're missing its real value.  Stay tuned to learn how to convert your web site into a customer attracting powerhouse.

Ketchup.

Catch Up.

Get it?

Dear Irrigator,

In teaching irrigation CEU classes for the past decade, I have found that we are falling behind with today's tools.  Marketing, for instance, has fundimentally and radically changed.  We've gone from a "push" model of getting in front of prospects to a "pull" model.

Do you read your junk mail?  Do you have a way of avoiding ads when you watch TV?  Did you sign up for the National Do Not Call Registry?  Do you maintain two favorite radio stations so you can switch to the other one when an ad comes on?  Or, do you have an iPod so you can listen to what you want, when you want?  We've all become pretty good at avoiding ads that are "pushed" on us.

The perfect "ad" is your satisfied customer.  If your prospect could just run into her, she would tell them how great your are.  Her words would be welcomed, believed and acted on.  But getting your prospect and your satisfied customer together can get tricky.

Most of the time, your satisfied customer is willing but doesn't know anyone who needs a sprinkler system.  And your prospect doesn't know your satisfied customer and has learned to be cynical when it comes to believing you (or anyone who claims to be "the best").

So, this blog is committed to helping the irrigation and green industry contractor attract more customers with "pull" marketing. 

A good start would be in downloading our free eBook and subscribing to this blog.

Thanks,

Did it cost something? Sure. It could have even cost "too much?"  That's a risk you take.  Was it worth it?  Or, maybe more importantly, does it fit within YOUR company's culture?  Perhaps it should.  (BTW, Jerry's customers and employees love him.  Their business skills aren't too shabby, either–they're doing 40,000 lawns a year and are up 20% in 2011.)

Cultures change slowly, but they do change. This country was build on the industrial model.  Do what you're told.  Exactly.  That model moved to China some time ago and the New Model of relationship helped kill it.  RIP.

That doesn't mean we don't still have patterns and ways of doing irrigation but, our patterns must have flexibility when it comes to serving in a way that warrants a positive remark. 

In a sea of mediocrity where everyone is racing to the bottom, it's refreshing to hear from a Texas irrigator that is busy being remarkable. 

Thanks for sharing with all of us, Jerry.