Anyone mow in texas? Also Have a few general questions.

[cmpenn67]

I am almost through my first year of mowing and what an exciting one it has been... Now that everything is slowing down and I started a little bit late this year, I wanted to ask a few questions specific to the area. I mow east of houston on the coast...so here are my questions. If you offer a contract for the mowing season how many mowings do you offer if you do that type of thing? Do you give a start date and a stop date? And after the stop date what do you do if the grass is still mowing? How do you charge for that? Any info on this would greatly be appreciated. Thanks! Also I just got some natures lawn products and some of my customers are really excited about this....but anyone of you that offers this product to your customers, how do you advertise for it? Do you have a flyer that I could take a look at to get some ideas on creating something for advertising?

[B-2 Lawncare]

Lawn care business tips

Originally Posted by cmpenn67 I am almost through my first year of mowing and what an exciting one it has been... Now that everything is slowing down and I started a little bit late this year, I wanted to ask a few questions specific to the area. I mow east of houston on the coast...so here are my questions. If you offer a contract for the mowing season how many mowings do you offer if you do that type of thing? Do you give a start date and a stop date? And after the stop date what do you do if the grass is still mowing? How do you charge for that? Any info on this would greatly be appreciated. Thanks! Also I just got some natures lawn products and some of my customers are really excited about this....but anyone of you that offers this product to your customers, how do you advertise for it? Do you have a flyer that I could take a look at to get some ideas on creating something for advertising? Here in WY we have a very short mowing season. I start in may and shut down about the first of OCT, Yes i do give a a start date and and end date. We stop mowing in OCT, because we have to start looking at fall clean ups and start picking up leafs . If i have a client who want a mow after the end of season, they get moved to the bottom of my to do list for that week. If we can get to them then we will. If they have been a good client i might throw in the that last mow for free If they haven't been a good client then i will tack on 15%. I am not sure what natures lawn products are? If they are organic I haven't had very good luck. I have a yearly contract with the U.S Forest Service and they want all organic.

[Steve]

If you offer a contract for the mowing season how many mowings do you offer if you do that type of thing? Do you give a start date and a stop date? And after the stop date what do you do if the grass is still mowing? How do you charge for that?

One of the things you could do is have a contract where they pay a fee every month throughout the year.

As an example:

Say normally the customer pays $100 for (4 mowings per month) for 8 months a year. That comes to a total of $800.

But if you took that $800 and split it out over 12 months, the monthly fee drops to $66 a month. That is a big difference, especially for someone on a fixed income.

If the grass needs an extra cut in the slow months, you would drive by once in a while to check the property and take care of it. You could also build this into your contract fee.

What's your view on something like this?

[cmpenn67]

That sounds good....How do you deal with drought and things like that where the grass doesn't grow for a weeks time to where the customer thinks it dosen't need to be mowed? How would you handle a situation like that?

[StartALawnCareBusiness]

Some yearly contracts don't specify actual number of cuts. "As-needed" contracts allow you and your customers the flexibility of maneuvering your schedule around droughts or excessive rain.

If you specify a specific number of cuts and you're faced with a drought (like we have had this year over the entire southeast) you can often fulfill your side of the contract by offering your customer equivalent time doing alternative projects.

Shrub trimming, bed maintenance, and small landscaping project have kept a lot of guys afloat this year due to the excessively dry weather.

Keith

[mcscapes]

I agree with keith The way we handle the contracts are year round as needed all inclusive. pruning is done when beneficial to the individual plant and same works for turf in the southeast we have a lot of varieties of turf I enclose a property management statement with each contract so the cust knows what they have and when it will be addressed it also showes the cust that you know what you are doing.