Customer offering inside connect on contract

[Fresh Cut]

Ok, so this guy calls me and asks me to do his neighbors yard. Tells me that the neighbor is abroad and asked him to take care of it for him. I get out there and give an estimate, he gives go ahead, I do the a great job on it. Before I can finish he calls me and asks me to do his yard too. Well, it was dark when my buddy and I were finishing up so I tell him I'll get to him the next day. I do it for same price as his neighbor. Mind you, I still haven't met this guy, we keep missing each other, but I did meet his wife. She said I was such a gentleman.


Well, a few days later the guy calls me and asks if I'm licensed and bonded.

I'm honest with him and tell him, "not yet". With no excuses or stories to tell him. I'm just still growing and hustling up on my business.

I say, "why do you ask?"

Him - well, I wanna offer you something. The contract for doing the entrances to the subdivision is coming to an end and the HOA is no longer making the decision on who gets the contract. Since the community is established now, we have a board of directors that will choose. The HOA is just gonna accept bids and pass them to the board of directors. Now, there are three people on the board of directors and you've already cut 2 of our yards.

Me - I have?

Him - Yes. Mine..... and the Mr. McNealy across the street.

Me - Oh.

Him - Now this is one hand washes the other, you understand?

Me - Yeah, I gotcha.

Him - You get licensed and bonded and we'll get you this contract. It'll be some guaranteed work for you for 12 months.

Me - Ok. What's the criteria?

Him - Just keep the entrances cut and trimmed, plant some flowers, keep it looking pretty. It pays about $5k for the year, and they cut every 10 days.

*main entrance is about the size of 1.5 of his yard. Other entrance is less than the size of his yard. Just to give you guys an idea I charge him $55.*

Him - When can you come by to go over it?

I went and chopped it up with him and he seems cool, but here's the catch.

He wants me to throw in the three board of directors yards as well. So both entrances and 3 yards for the same price that they are paying the current people with the contract??


What do y'all think? How should I work this? I was thinking try to edge 'em up to about $6k and do it! Besides, I still got my other yards including 3 others on his same street.

[Steve]

He wants me to throw in the three board of directors yards as well. So both entrances and 3 yards for the same price that they are paying the current people with the contract??

Here are a few of my questions.

Right now you are operating without insurance so you don't have to include that in your overhead and can operate at a cheaper cost per hour. When you add that in along with the bonding fee that might be involved, how much will that increase your hourly operating costs?

Also, how many hours per week would you have to spend maintaining the entrances? How many weeks per year? In total how many man hours would be spent doing this?

Now how many many weeks and man hours per week would be spent maintaining the three board of director properties?

[Fresh Cut]

Hmm..



Thinkin...

[Steve]

Sometimes these deals sound good at first and stay good but sometimes they don't end up being too good.

What did you come up with so far?

[Fresh Cut]

Haven't talked back to the guy. The contract isn't up until December so I got a couple months to get everything in order and to sort out details.

What I'm thinking is that I'll try to edge up the bid considering I'll be doing more work and essentially not getting the revenue from it that I was getting before. Also, their 3 yards together are more than the entrances so I would be doing double the work for the same amount as the guys that have the contract now... I don't want to shoot myself in the foot.


I'm also afraid that once I'm in bed w/ these guys that they'll start to ask for more extra stuff like fertilization, aerating, etc. These are things that I charge extra for and I need the revenue that it generates. I don't want them holding them getting me the contract over my head in order to get more free work.


What y'all think?

[Steve]

What do you feel you would need to charge the Home Owners Association per week to maintain the entrance?

What would you have to charge each of the three property owners to maintain their lawns?

[majoe7]

I'm also afraid that once I'm in bed w/ these guys that they'll start to ask for more extra stuff like fertilization, aerating, etc. These are things that I charge extra for and I need the revenue that it generates. I don't want them holding them getting me the contract over my head in order to get more free work.

Make sure that your contract is specific. Make sure that you are very detailed and specific to each job that you are going to be performing. Attach a price to each job, be it a monthly price or a yearly price. You could add the extras that you offer and at what cost they would be mthly/yrly. Make sure that if you are to do an extra job that you do up a work order and have all the directors agree and sign said document. Then it is binding and legal. There will be No waving a piece of paper over your head.

As for doing the 3 houses, that is your call, but if it was to take me just as much as time to do the entrance as their houses without any extra money, then I don’t think so. You have 3 extra lawns there and you could build on them and add more to your list of clients. Maybe you would lose the one but make out better in the long run.

BTW where are you located? You said that he would like it cut every ten days and you are cutting year round? At a yearly price of 5k and you cut every 10 days that equates to 37 cuts per year. That is about $135.00 a cut for about 1.5 the size. I’m thinking not bad. But if you do the 3 lawns also every 10 days than you would make $34 per cut for the entrance and 3 extra lawns plus he stated some flowers? HUMM I plant flowers about 4 times a year and it is always an extra charge.

Just food for thought...

John