$ 15 a yard

[boog]

I got tired of seeing this aholes add so i called him asked a few questions 1. how do you charge by the foot , the hour , ect.? 2. how many years have you been doing this ? 3. Are you licensed ? 4. Do you have insurance ? Answers : 1. $15 for for all 2. 10 years 3. NO 4. NO so the next week in the paper he is now posting he is licensed and insured well to add to the bull s#it i open the paper there is now atleast 20 new adds for people trying to cut grass cheap so now my bread and butter has turned to crackers and rain water i cant afford to cut a 1/2 acre lot for $20

[Steve]

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[mattb7771]

Originally Posted by shadrach

Use it to your advantage. Put a line in your ad that says

" We fix $15 cuts"

lol i like this one

[boog]

Originally Posted by Steve

Are there ways you feel you can differentiate yourself?

Yea im a professional and businessman i go the extra mile for my customers you get what you pay for

for instance today it was cold around 50 degrees i still went out and mowed it even snowed for a while i stayed and got the job done i didn't see no $15 Joe out mowing

[stevef1201]

It's really funny but that 15 dollar a cut guys are erally doing a ot of business, in the poor parts of town!

I charge what I need to make money, and work inthe wealthy parts of town, and make good money.

Let the lowballers go, they will go broke when thier walmart mowers breakdown, and they cannot get them fixed, I laugh at them to thier face.

[dpld]

i think the most obvious thing that gets overlooked is it takes years and years to build a good money making business in this industry.

sure you can put out some flyers and a couple newspaper ads or whatever and get some results and be making some money in a short while and that is all well and good.
the problem is most of these people that you get responding to the new jaunty ads are the bottom feeders who are quick to hire based on price.

any high end property owner that is not a poser and is trully worthy of the home they live in go by word of mouth from their other rich freinds or choose to entertain offers from businesses that target market them.

the point i am trying to make is when you start a business in the landscaping field it is a decision you make for the long haul, it is not a get rich quick scheme and anyone who thinks they are gonna revolutionize the business will get slapped back down faster then side car susie.

in my opinion when you start a landscape business you have to veiw it as something that is gonna pay offs many years from now and you will have many a days where you break even or struggle to get by.
joe $15.00 cuts is not gonna be around long enough to realize that and if he does last he is gonna have to change his tune.
you will never be able to do anything about the low ballers and all you have to do is stay away from the neihborhoods that hire these guys.

it's real easy because the properties the low ballers take care of look like crap and do the bare minimum and the people who have a landscape that looks like disneyland don't hire low ballers.

it takes a lot of experience and know how to make properties look pristine and any guy who does not have the smarts to charge accordingly probably has no clue about anything else.
we are not the only ones who can see this, the true indescriminate lawn care consumer can see it as well because they compare their yard to everyone elses.

[Leon]

WOW I don't know what to think because as some of you on here know I do charge $15 for lawn service. I Have about 60 home I cut for $15per week, however if you don't want weekly service the I charge $20-$25. Now these prices are only for townhomes and the yard are small takes about 15-20 mins. Does that make me a lowballer? I like these kinds of homes because they are small I can do about 4-5 per hour and not move my truck. I do a great job these clients refer me to everyone moms,co-workers, friends, etc and they sometimes have nice high$$ homes, I don't charge the referd client $15-$20. The smaller homes will buy add-ons before the larger homes

Leon
Can You Envision the Possibilities...We Can!
www.Envisionlawn.com
1-888-412-LAWN

[willshome]

Originally Posted by boog

weekly trading post

Sounds like a place to get cheap customers. I ask myself where would my mother look for lawn care, she would never open a "Trading post" and she would never hire a $15 mower. I have her and her friends look at all my ads before printing to see if they would call.

[dpld]

Originally Posted by Leon

WOW I don't know what to think because as some of you on here know I do charge $15 for lawn service. I Have about 60 home I cut for $15per week, however if you don't want weekly service the I charge $20-$25. Now these prices are only for townhomes and the yard are small takes about 15-20 mins. Does that make me a lowballer? I like these kinds of homes because they are small I can do about 4-5 per hour and not move my truck. I do a great job these clients refer me to everyone moms,co-workers, friends, etc and they sometimes have nice high$$ homes, I don't charge the referd client $15-$20. The smaller homes will buy add-ons before the larger homes

Leon
Can You Envision the Possibilities...We Can!
www.Envisionlawn.com
1-888-412-LAWN

you are pricing to some degree what your market will bare and allthough you choose to work a little cheaper you seem to have everything bulked up so it helps.

the dollar amount being refferred is more of a token number and the low ballers that i am talking about are guys that do 50 to 60 dollar homes for $20.00. that is a low baller.

from what you have described in previous threads and this one you don't come off as a low baller at all and from the size properties you are doing you are probably on the low side of average for pricing.

[element009]

Originally Posted by Leon

WOW I don't know what to think because as some of you on here know I do charge $15 for lawn service. I Have about 60 home I cut for $15per week, however if you don't want weekly service the I charge $20-$25. Now these prices are only for townhomes and the yard are small takes about 15-20 mins. Does that make me a lowballer? I like these kinds of homes because they are small I can do about 4-5 per hour and not move my truck. I do a great job these clients refer me to everyone moms,co-workers, friends, etc and they sometimes have nice high$$ homes, I don't charge the referd client $15-$20. The smaller homes will buy add-ons before the larger homes

Based on the situation you describe, your pricing system seems to make sense. However, the potential issue I see is that you are depending on having multiple clients in close proximity in order to maintain that low price. The only question is if you lose, say, half of those clients for some reason, does the $15/lawn earn you any profit? Assuming it doesn't, and you now have to decide to raise the price in order to retain the remaining clients at a profit, would they go along with the raise in price?

It begs the wider question, which is: Should the price offered to a client reflect your expectation that other clients are in close proximity, therefore allowing you to charge less and still draw profit? Or should each price offered to each client be considered as an individual profit stream, independent of the existence of other clients for the price to remain profitable?