Annual Lawn Care Contracts

[Steve]

Have you checked in the lawn care contract template section? Will you be charging them per month only for the mowing months or do you want it spread out over 12 months so the monthly price is cheaper for the customer but you get paid all year long?

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[CHEESE2009]

Lawn care business tips

I didn't read anything on here but the title. Basically, long term contracts where clients are paying longer term for multiple services, can backfire. Think of when they cancel, or want a refund. Complicated man, especially if you're giving a 'discount' for them signing up for everything all at once, you can lose big time and have a lot of trouble getting balances paid on services.

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Security Officer Cheese2009
Gopher Security Central (G.S.C)
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[grass guru]

Agree w/cheese. I prefer 6 month agreements for lawn service only. Upsells prefered due at completion, and snow removal is its own contract. However, proven clients I will do longer agreements, or include snow removal in agreement. All agreements are paid in full by end of calender year. New customers pay up front at least 1 month.

[SNethercutt]

Just remember when you do this that you bard financing your work out to get a paycheck 12 months.

I just did a new one yesterday for one of my customers.

34 mowings x $40 each
5fertilizations x $40 each
$768 to mulch
$120 a month to maintain beds
There were a few other things in there as well but you basically figure what you would charge for something, how many times will you do that service is a year. Add it all up and divide by twelve. This customers came our to 322 a month.

If the place is in rough shape I charge extra for the first month.just be sure you double check and male sure you covered everything that customer wants. If you sign the contract for 200 a month, and forgot to add in mulch, your screwed. So just double and triple check.

Every new customer I get is given a paper that says what services might you be interested in this year? And that can read through the list of services and check some off. But what you do is give a slight discount on what services you can, to maks the contract seem like a better deal.

[tk4454]

thanks for your input, i was only planning on 7 months from april 1st to oct 30, no snow for me. , but i see your point about things getting tricky. i am also leaning towards having them pay per service or monthly because my initial idea was to give them a discount for paying in advance, but really id be making less money. so im kinda undecided now and will just do whatever the customer wants

[SNethercutt]

The way I set mine up I get the same amount for 12 months. So in November December January and fedruary when I only mow once a month, I'm still making good money. Plus I doubled my income from that one yard. They were paying 160 a month just for mowing. Its all how you want to do it. But for me winter is a killer without these kinds of accounts.

[kslawn]

I do a 7 month plan in summer & a 5 month plan in winter, but in the U.P. of MI. so summer is shorter & winter longer than most.. I do # of weeks cutting + clean ups, & anything else they may want done & total it all up & then subtract discount if your offering one then divide by # of months...example: 25 per cut x 20 weeks=500 +100/clean up=600 divided by 7 months =85.71 rounded up to 86.00 per month, if you offer discount take that off the total then divide x 7 months..a 2% disc. would be 84.00 per mo at 7 mo's