Working in bad areas?

[Steve]

Do you ever find yourself working in bad areas or do you try and avoid them? Blood feud - The latest shooting occurred Aug. 15 when gang members emptied 15 to 30 rounds on a man outside a house in the 1700 block of Northeast First Street in Boynton Beach. Franck Joseph, 50, a landscaper who had gone to the house to collect money for yardwork, was slain. Investigators say he was merely at the wrong place at the wrong time. Described by co-workers as quiet and hardworking, Joseph left three daughters, ages 22, 21 and 15. His widow, Vilcenise Cenelus, is trying to get here from Haiti for his Sept. 9 funeral at Emmanuel Funeral Home in Lake Worth.

__________________
- Subscribe to my Lawn Care Marketing Blog Feed and get daily tips sent to you. Free!
Download your Free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Software.

[JimAdams]

Lawn care business tips

When we first started, we mowed anything we could get, and that meant working in rough neighborhoods. Later we abandoned most of those jobs because 60-inch ZTR tractors don't fit inner city lawns. But we had (and still have) subsidized apartment complexes in the inner city. These are very lucrative jobs. If you do them early in the day, hardly anybody is out and about. Jim

__________________
www.promower.net

I live in a town where everybody knows you name, and they wave to you when you drive by. And if somebody gets beat up at the local bar...everyone talks about it the next day.

To give you an idea where I live linkie

[Steve]

Oh Richard, what a beautiful area! Do you ski at all up there?

[JimAdams]

Here are two thoughts to follow up on my earlier post on this topic.

First, in rough neighborhoods, the later at night you stay up, the cooler you are. *But even the gangsters usually crash by 5:30 or 6 AM. *They're kind of like vampires ** when the sun comes up they disappear. *So you have an AM time slot in which to work.

Second ** and this is very, very important ** treat people with respect, even deference. *Low-income folks are very sensitive to disrespect. *This applies even to six year olds. *These are tough kids; many mommas toss them out the door and let them fend for themselves when they are still in diapers. *You are on their turf, and if you order them about, they're going to throw rocks at you. *Literally. *The proper approach is to shut down that big roaring tractor, and get off, and say, "Hey, kids, I need a favor. *Could you please move the ball game over there, so I can mow here?" *They'll do it with a smile ** and they'll like you and help you. *

But if you ORDER them to move ... watch your ***.

Finally, if any of this sounds racist, be advised that it is not. *We've worked in inner city areas for the better part of 30 years, and have no problems of any kind.

Jim

[Steve]

Jim,

I can tell from your post you know what you are talking about and I totally agree with what you are saying.

I especially like your idea of getting out there and mowing the lawns early. I would figure a lot of those who would be causing trouble for an lco wouldn't be getting up early.

Did you find the competition to work in such areas was as rough as more suburban areas? Was it worth your time and energy to be working more inner city jobs?

[JimAdams]

Competition for these big jobs (up to 17 acres; $300 to $600 a week) is fierce. Half a dozen big lco's around here bid them every year. But we always win because we are extremely efficient, and therefore underbid others by 20 or 30 percent (I've seen their bids).

Jim

[Billz]

I have a street where I mow 8 buildings, but I never go there after noon. Once I mowed there about 5 pm and lost a spool of trimmer string, and a 2 gallon gas can.

[JimAdams]

You got off cheap. I lost a trimmer and a blower. They were inside of a lockable box, but it wasn't locked.

Jim

[Billz]

every time I go there, I lock every piece of equipment up, for some reason I didn't think they would take the trimmer string...$50 shot there. I now lock the gas cans up too.