Just can't do any more

[mark123]

Man, I keep getting more and more jobs and I can't fit them in anywhere. I know this is a good problem to have but I'm wearing myself out. I've got to get a bigger mower and a trailer. I've been avoiding getting a trailer for the past two years because many of my lawns have close driveways to their neighbors and I'd have to block one or the other. Just trying to remain conscientious and respect my customer's neighbors. Maybe I'm going to have to make a big mower route and a small mower route. Any advice?

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Boughter's Lawn Care Services Mowing and Fertilizing in New Castle, PA

[Dragger]

Lawn care business tips

Originally Posted by mark123 Man, I keep getting more and more jobs and I can't fit them in anywhere. I know this is a good problem to have but I'm wearing myself out. I've got to get a bigger mower and a trailer. I've been avoiding getting a trailer for the past two years because many of my lawns have close driveways to their neighbors and I'd have to block one or the other. Just trying to remain conscientious and respect my customer's neighbors. Maybe I'm going to have to make a big mower route and a small mower route. Any advice? That's a problem many of us wish we had, I would be lost with out a trailer it just makes the job much easier loading and unloading .

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C&S Lawn Service

[mark123]

Originally Posted by Dragger

... I would be lost with out a trailer it just makes the job much easier loading and unloading .

I wouldn't be able to take about 25% of these jobs if I only had a trailer though. There's just nowhere to park it.

So far, I've been using a 36" walk-behind mower and putting it on the pickup with ramps. Since about 50% of my jobs are in the city this works because some of the roads would be really hard to get a trailer into and then turned around and other jobs the driveways are too close and pulling up a full-size truck with a trailer would block either the customer's driveway or their neighbors. Then add in those that park in the street and there's no way to get into some of these spots. The truck and ramps works flawlessly.

If I make two routes I lose efficiency in the routes (more driving to get to certain lawns instead of going to one side of town each day).

I'm also looking at either a stand-on mower or a zero-turn. The zero-turn is slightly more useful in the collection system area (easier to collect leaves in the autumn due to the stand-on only having one 3 bushel collection bag) and a slight bit faster but the cost is just crazy high. I can get a Grandstand for $7700.

I may look into Dixie Chopper but everyone around here scoffs at them for some reason. There is only one guy that uses them. I don't know, I'm going to have to try one out.

[Hedgemaster]

This is my first "true" season at this and I'm pretty busy too. I don't know at what point I'll stop taking regular clients, but I'm shocked at how well things are moving along for me.

The trailer dilemma is a tough one. It seems like most people who work alone tend to stick to one or the other - a truck with a mower in the bed, or a truck/trailer combo, and work the jobs that "fit" that setup.

I find myself using the cargo carrier to haul my mower more often than not.
Unless I'm bagging clippings, there's little benefit to dragging around a trailer just to carry a push mower - everything else I need fits in the bed, and there's no problem parking or getting stuck in some dead-end street.

[Steve]

What about a truck like these two with a gate on the back of it?

[mark123]

Originally Posted by Steve

What about a truck like these two with a gate on the back of it?

If the gates were on the passenger side that would be much better.

[calebmoss]

im pretty sure they arent doing these in mass production so they could make them how ever you wanted or needed.

These people will build it however you want that works best.

http://www.wil-ro.com/content/landsc...scpae_truc.asp

[Robc]

Originally Posted by mark123

Man, I keep getting more and more jobs and I can't fit them in anywhere. I know this is a good problem to have but I'm wearing myself out.

I've got to get a bigger mower and a trailer. I've been avoiding getting a trailer for the past two years because many of my lawns have close driveways to their neighbors and I'd have to block one or the other. Just trying to remain conscientious and respect my customer's neighbors. Maybe I'm going to have to make a big mower route and a small mower route.

Any advice?

If you are that booked why not start bidding higher? thats what I used to do when I got that busy. Pull the ads and raise my prices so that the jobs I was doing were a little more profitable.
Then you realize you can always charge more than you think you can to. Just a thought

[Shark1611]

Here is the one I use. Seems to work nice.

[mark123]

Originally Posted by Robc

If you are that booked why not start bidding higher? thats what I used to do when I got that busy. Pull the ads and raise my prices so that the jobs I was doing were a little more profitable.
Then you realize you can always charge more than you think you can to. Just a thought

Yes, I have started bidding higher and losing more than ever. This is good because I'm weeding out the cheap jerks that always turn out to be the worst customers. They want twice the work for half the price.

I only advertised one time last year and it was a waste of money, I got two calls from way outside of my area. I can get that from my web site at a much lower cost. 80% of the estimates I've done came from my web site the other 20% from word of mouth. Of the web site estimates I've probably only sold 20% of them due to my higher prices. Of the word of mouth estimates I've sold 100% this year.