Craigslist talk

[WeekendWarriorLawn]

In my area, craigslist is pretty weak for buying/selling/trading. I haven't had a call from my old CL ad for work, but I changed it up tonight - A LOT.

Tell me what you guys think, and post your own CL do's, don'ts & whatever's!

http://porthuron.craigslist.org/fgs/3029429668.html

[CHEESE2009]

I love it!

I think you should remove the pics of your shirts and just put work pictures!

[krzys666]

make sure you put in work pictures.
i made this add perrty fast and have had good response.
https://post.craigslist.org/manage/3056302755

[CHEESE2009]

To be even more precise.

Always use "and" in replace of "&".

You can also write 'mom and pop' in quotations every time, or do the phrase in italics!

[WeekendWarriorLawn]

Thanks for the tips, bros!

Well, my ad as-is paid off today! It's great that my area is just full of jokers who write things like, "I DO GOOD WORK CALL ANYTIME FOR LAWN CUTS I AM THE MAN"

Anyway, I woke up to a call today! My first from CL ever! Goin to knock a gal's yard out before her hubby gets home! *wink-wink* *nudge-nudge*

[Steve]

I really like the ad and this picture!



It projects this feel that you are a can do guy and the job will get done right.

[WeekendWarriorLawn]

Just got home a little while ago from the CL job.

I actually flew flyers out in the neighborhood previously, and am sure I hit the customers house.


So we showed up. The yard is pretty big, she said medium, but betwene the front & back, it was a good, big yard.


Very overgrown. Neglected. I wanted to up bid her higher, but I bid at 55.00

Honestly, I know the job was worth more due to the nature of strain it put on our mower, but I also knew she was going to be turned off from hearing a firm 60.00, so I told her 55. off the bat.


She didn't want to pay it! She told us to just do the front, whihc I told her would run 25 (realizing at the time that many of you guys won't even unload for under 30!)

In haste she told us to do it all. We picked up the original bid.




She wanted us to get the yard done before her hubby came home from work. Ma took the mower and I started detailing with the whacker. Started with some nice definition edging along the driveway, cleaned out all the cracks in it, made it look super. Moved along the porchway, they had some nice stonework installed which was disastrous (we come back to this at the end). Cleaned that up real nice. Moved to an area that was landscaped at one time, has a dying bush in it, and some old stones buried under years of neglect; made the rocks visible.


Trees in the yard had large roots, cut a nice defining edge around the tree and whacked out all the weeds. Edged the root structure of the tree to make him look nice and sharp.


Moved to the backyard - NIGHTMARE!

Out of control weeds under the deck, neglected grass taking over anywhere it could - trees in dire need of pruning, bushes begging for trimming - but that'snot in the bid! So maybe next time. Meantime, I had to weedwhack out the back yard in sections to thin it out. I am having a bad time with a "reel-esy" bump feed wee-whacker - maybe someone can give me tips because I have to keep rewinding the spool every time and the bump feed doesnt do anything except wear down the underside of my weed whacker.


Ma comes out back, starts mowing. The grass blades were so tall they retained sooo much moisture that the yard was getting wet from me clearing it out. This bogged the mower A LOT. Used the blower to speed cool it from time to time when it was getting too hot. Do any of you guys ever do that? Speed cool the engine fins with your leaf blower?


OBSTACLES!! picnic table, lawn chairs, a hammock frame! Huge aluminum ladder along the fence of the house - I decided we were going to leave it. Said I'd charge them an extra 15 to move it and clean the lawn under it, like it or not. Cx never asked, but that was my plan.

A nice stone patio that's over grown. Edged it a little bit, but the best way would be to move the stones and just mow/whack the area and replace them, they weren't that big a deal. We left them at mowed and edged.

She needed this huge yard done by 5:30, we had it done around 5:40. Shge said hubby was coming home just as we were packing up. Here comes LAST MINUTE REQUEST!!

"It looks a little long along the area here" (the stoneway I edged earlier) "thats going to be the first thing my husband notices, can you fix that up? (but hurry mind you, he can be home now at any minute)

No, the first thing he would notice is how great his yard looks.


Anyway, clean it up with the whacker - however I had it all nicely blown off. I decided not to go back and blow it again as we were supposedly low on time and I had already packed up the blower. It also made it a little uneven which I was not too happy about, but got over it because the check was in hand. I don't want to get too jaded but yeah, don't spring requests or tips on us at the last minute.


So anyway, the job went off without a hitch. We got it done in just over 2:40 minutes. This was our first emergency service/short notice call. I don't have the best pictures because she rushed us and we stayed busy at all times, but feel free to check them out in our FB page. They have descriptions in there as well.



https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...4328686&type=1

[WeekendWarriorLawn]

EDIT:

more last minute crap - now they wont let us share pictures of their yard because it shows their house. so the album looks like junk, I might as well take it down.

I guess I kind of understand? No, not really. Kind of uppity people. I wont work for them again for less. I don't need the money that bad, I need some people to let me reference them more than anything.

[SECTLANDSCAPING]

$55 for 6 man hours? Your working for less then minimum wage. You shouldve charged a couple c-notes. The only reason to drop the price is if it was going to be a weekly gig. That way you make it back in the end.

[WeekendWarriorLawn]

6 hours? where did you get that, man? just under 3 hours on our part guy. almost 20 an hour.

This area's busted when it comes to that kind of money, 20 per man per hour. ideally i reckon id like to move to your state/area, but out here, it's brutal.

[SECTLANDSCAPING]

6 hours? where did you get that, man? just under 3 hours on our part guy. almost 20 an hour.

you obviously dont live in our area. this area's busted when it comes to that kind of money, 20 per man per hour. ideally i reckon id like to move to your state/area, but out here, it's brutal.

2 people x's 3 hours = 6.

Some people charge next to nothing here too. They just dont last.

[PineHillLawn]

SectLandscaping is right! Even if its more than they want to pay you still need to bid it at least at $1 per minute per person. If it took you 3 hours and there were two of you, I would have bid it for around $250-300.

I went to a bid today in a lower end area, the guy asked me to bid his yard (overgrown and outta control) plus cutting honeysuckle out of 400-500 feet of chainlink fence. I told him $800 just for the fence. He about choked. I figure Im the one taking the time, risking my equipment to either wear out faster or get stolen, yeah $800 and that was a little light if you ask me.

[Hedgemaster]

The ad? Not bad. At least it's creative and not just a line ad.

The pay? Meh, we all learn from our mistakes.

[WeekendWarriorLawn]

i can't see who is honestly paying 800 dollars to have their yard work done.

i mean i know it happens, but i think you guys might be dealing with well-off people, more often than not.

if you are bidding some regular joe 800.00, and you know he's not going to pay it, why don't you just tell him you don't want the job? is it a pride/arrogance thing? to show up and tell some guy you need 800 for the job, just to see how he reacts? i guess i don't get why you would throw away work/money like that is all.



i can't throw away work by over bidding it in an area where people aren't used to hearing astronomical costs. foolish, especially when this is my only income now.


however, i am starting to think about jobs in terms of man hours now. sixty dollars for the gig would have paid us out at 10 per man hour. 55 flat put us at just under this. not exactly where i want to be in terms of wages. i do need to be able to get better bids. still, 300 would be wayy too high to bid the job.

so if it were 300, thats 100 an hour... that's 50 per man hour!


it would be nice to deal with people who think like that, but i'm not, not in Port Huron, MI. look into the city if you get bored, this place is broke.

i also think that far over bidding looks desperate. i think it tells the cx, "i cant make my own bills off of my career choice, so i need you to foot my phone & gas bill for me this month,"

yes, people WILL think like that when they send you home on an overbid, and word like that gets around just as fast as a $hitty job!

[PineHillLawn]

i can't see who is honestly paying 800 dollars to have their yard work done.

i mean i know it happens, but i think you guys might be dealing with well-off people, more often than not.

if you are bidding some regular joe 800.00, and you know he's not going to pay it, why don't you just tell him you don't want the job? is it a pride/arrogance thing? to show up and tell some guy you need 800 for the job, just to see how he reacts? i guess i don't get why you would throw away work/money like that is all.



i can't throw away work by over bidding it in an area where people aren't used to hearing astronomical costs. foolish, especially when this is my only income now.


however, i am starting to think about jobs in terms of man hours now. sixty dollars for the gig would have paid us out at 10 per man hour. 55 flat put us at just under this. not exactly where i want to be in terms of wages. i do need to be able to get better bids. still, 300 would be wayy too high to bid the job.

so if it were 300, thats 100 an hour... that's 50 per man hour!


it would be nice to deal with people who think like that, but i'm not, not in Port Huron, MI. look into the city if you get bored, this place is broke.

i also think that far over bidding looks desperate. i think it tells the cx, "i cant make my own bills off of my career choice, so i need you to foot my phone & gas bill for me this month,"

yes, people WILL think like that when they send you home on an overbid, and word like that gets around just as fast as a $hitty job!

Everyone has there opinions I guess! If you figure in your gas and drive time to get to the job, you wouldn't even be making minimum wage at $55 for 3 hrs.
You have to figure in all your expences and that comes off the top. If I'm paying someone to help me clean out honeysukle out of chain link, and it takes 2 days to clear, by the time I've paid my help, my gas, equipment costs, any fees for disposal, and should I break a tool and have to replace it plus pay the company and myself if theres any left over, yeah $800 is low. Just how I operate. And this is my only form of income too I might add!!!!