A few Question

[Supremellc]

New to the business (In Ohio) Do you guys mow weekly every 2 weeks? and do you give a discount you mow weekly? Allso do you get paid in Advance? Thanks for you help...

[LawnBoy0311]

Lawn care business tips

Some guys here will only mow weekly, others mostly mow biweekly. Some get paid in advance, some paid that day, end of month billing....theres a lot of different answers. Each guy on here is different. What does everyone else do? For me, it depends on grass growth. I have some weekly and some biweekly customers. Last year I billed out at the end of the month, this year its pay in advance.

[jford1995]

I typically mow biweekly but have a couple that are weekly and yes weekly customers get a 10% discount. All of my work is paid at end of the service that day.

How did the month end billing work for you?

[dpld]

Originally Posted by jford1995

I typically mow biweekly but have a couple that are weekly and yes weekly customers get a 10% discount. All of my work is paid at end of the service that day.

How did the month end billing work for you?

i never heard of discounting weekly services just because they are weekly and most charge more for bi-weekly.

it is not worth putting someone in your schedule for two visits per month unless they pay for it.

you need to sell a seasonal package that includes the mowing, blowing, edging, spring & fall clean ups and shrub trimming.

add up all those services and divide by the amount of service months and viola, you have steady monthly income and work to do every week.
when the grass slows down and you don't need to mow you can trim some shrubs that need it or edge some beds or something because there is always something to do.
plus you will be Keeping up with things better and never having to ever do too much of any one thing.
shrubs grow a different paces and don't all need to be trimmed at the same time unless they are all let go and over grown.

all these people you work for have to have shrubs and flower beds to some degree and if they will pay you to cut their lawn i am sure if you put together a nice package deal for it all it would ensure they never have to come up with too much money because it is all spread out and you will have more income as well as your monthly bottom line will be more consistent.

[BelleCityLawn1]

I use QuickBooks and it works wonderfully. It is relatively cheap and looks very professional. I bill at the end of each month so I have a steady flow of money coming in the first two weeks of every month. I only advertise weekly mowing, bi-weekly mowing means you will need twice as many accounts to full your schedule. If customers ask for bi-weekly I always service their lawn bi-weekly but I do not advertise it very much. I do have some larger commercial accounts that I mow bi-weekly from my recommendation. They are suburban neighborhoods and I mow the areas around the ponds, city streets, and anything not owned by the individuals who live in the communities but owned by the communities themselves. I do charge more for bi-weekly. Hope this helps!

Thank you,
Tim Oezer
Belle City Lawn Care, LLC

[Supremellc]

Do you have them sign a contract or just mow?

[BelleCityLawn1]

Supremellc,

I have all my customers sign a written agreement. I didn't have this mandatory until this year but it seems that without contracts customers feel the need to pay months late or try not to pay ever. Plus they always seem to call or email on the scheduled mowing day to make sure you are coming. With a contract they know I will be there unless it is raining or extremely wet. Hope this helps!

Thank you,
Tim Oezer
Belle City Lawn Care, LLC

[Steve]

I have all my customers sign a written agreement. I didn't have this mandatory until this year but it seems that without contracts customers feel the need to pay months late or try not to pay ever.

Tim, was there a straw that broke the camel's back story on this? What made you decide to enact contracts this year? How have your current customers taken to that new requirement?

[BelleCityLawn1]

Steve,

There really wasnt any huge problems, however, I still am trying to get a company in my area to pay for some subcontracted work I did last fall for them. My old customers were more than willing to sign them. They know what kind of service I am going to give them and they know it is just for safety purposes. I even had some customers ask why I did not need them so sign anything before I made it a requirement.

Thank you,
Tim Oezer
Belle City Lawn Care, LLC

[LawnBoy0311]

I do it a little different than Tim. I don't have contracts. But I do save emails.

After taking advice from some other guys here, I decided to bill in advance this coming year. I sent a letter out a few weeks ago and everyone is fine with it. I also picked up 2 new customers so far and they are fine with it too. Go figure the ones who were late payers I never heard back from.

Last year I spent too much time and energy shaking people down for money.