No more bi-weekly accounts!

[cruzgardening]

i was in the same boat when i bought this little route the previous owner had half of his 25 accounts biweekly and the other half weekly and he undercharged most of them... to make the story short i have 75 accounts as of today Wednesdays is when i have all my biweekly in one side of town and the other side out town is on thursdays now some Weds i do more then others i charge all my biweekly between 37-45 per service depending on the size they know that i service them either the 1st and 3rd week or the 2nd and 4th week so if it rains they know i wont come until the next schedule appointment i have a small agreement that tells them that they can schedule with me before there next appointment at a 20% higher rate or wait for their appointment and pay the regular 37-45 most people dont complain about me not showing up since they know it rain, only bad thing is that grass is longer but with help i only take about 30-60 minutes in their property depending on the size so its fast and they know that the first week we only mow and blow and the second week we weed planters mow blow edge and some we trim. for me the biweekly clients are the ones that keep my schedule full between 10-15 homes a day all manicured unless the client really doesnt give a crap about their own yard only problem i have is what do you do on a 5th week? so far i asked them to schedule me if they want me to come since i charge per service not per month what do you guys do?

[Hedgemaster]

Lawn care business tips

I do every other week, not "twice a month". It doesn't matter to me if there are 7 weeks in a month, I mow every other week.

[mark123]

Yes, bi-weekly is every other week why would you skip week 5?

[element009]

Yea there are several months with 5 weeks. I don't get into 1st and 3rd week or 2nd and 4th week stuff. It's just every other week.

[mark123]

Originally Posted by element009

Yea there are several months with 5 weeks. ...

Actually, all months span 5 weeks except a February that starts on a Sunday when it isn't a leap year. Next one is 2015.

[element009]

all months span 5 weeks except a February

True...although you will obviously not be doing 5 services per month every month for every customer....depends which days actually occur 5 times during said month

[cruzgardening]

i think my costumers are worried about having to pay more i use to mow every other week but thing get complicated when it rains, its hard for me to make up a mow date when i have 15 accounts i missed becuase it rained so most my clients wanted me to show up during the week so it simplified things by making it twice a month and charging them a set ammount instead of charging them by how many times i came.

it might be a bit hard to understand but once you have about 15 accounts a day you need to figure out ways of set them up where there is a a few days out of the month where you can do additional jobs or catch up with what you missed.

[mark123]

Originally Posted by cruzgardening

... it might be a bit hard to understand but once you have about 15 accounts a day you need to figure out ways of set them up where there is a a few days out of the month where you can do additional jobs or catch up with what you missed.

It's a good idea. I don't schedule mowing on Saturday or Monday.

[mark123]

Originally Posted by element009

Well early this season I was of the mindset that I would take whatever I can get in order to grow and then, as you said, weed out the ones I didn't want. But for me, halfway through the season I had already begun to want to weed out clients. ...

If I may interject, I get this feeling, too but I've never gone through with it. It is better to raise prices until they let you go. It makes them the bad guy.

I do have some customers on my drop list though. They'll be the first to go.

[element009]

Originally Posted by mark123

If I may interject, I get this feeling, too but I've never gone through with it. It is better to raise prices until they let you go. It makes them the bad guy.

I do have some customers on my drop list though. They'll be the first to go.

Yea I agree that's a good way to weed out customers....just put it out of their price range. I'd rather tell someone I have to raise the price higher in order to continue service as opposed to just telling them I can't keep them as a client.