Is it legal for a lawn company to operate w/o proper licensing?

[Clays Landscape]

There is a man and his sister who go around and lowball all over companies prices. I have lost several customers over the past few weeks with his practices. I can't blame the customer because with the economy we are in, people are forgetting about loyalty. He is only lowballing by like $5 to $10. This guy is on disability, is it legal for him to make a full time wage while drawing in government money? Doesn't pay sales taxes, business licenses, etc. What do I do? The customers he has are ones that I "would" have.

[mark123]

Lawn care business tips

Call your state's department of revenue and ask them why you have to pay taxes when this other guy doesn't.

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

[bruces]

get a camera,start taking clear pictures of him working ,his truck,licence plates etc ,then go to the disability people ,the tax man ,and anybody else that will listen .Somone will help you .

[cruzgardening]

i agree with mark the state would deal with this guy ASAP btw in california you do not have to report unless you make more then 10k a year anything below they don't have to report try to find out how many homes he has he might be between that gap.

[Steve]

Is there anything you can do to put yourself on a higher level than him? Offering services he can't or quality he can't?

The concern I have is, say you turn him in and he gets busted and he is taken out of the competitive arena, how will the next one or next ones be handled?

Is it possible these price conscious customers aren't the ones you want anyway and there are better customers for you out there? Or would it just be better at the end of the day to get him out of business?

[Blade Runner]

1st. Provide a better service make your lawns better looking than his when next to a compeditor spend more time and attention in making your lawn look better. You want loyalty from your customers not the a hole that drops you at the blink of a $1 make you a referal coupon on a sheet and offer 1 free cut to customer that refers you and one to the one that signs up for the year and move on you will get more and sure he will see that you get what you pay for

[Steve]

I think that is a very good point.

You will only have so much energy in your day and you gotta wonder, is it better to work on you to make you better and make your service quality better or spend time figuring out ways to get other illegal companies caught.

Sure you can do something about them, but for every one you kill, isn't it possible that two will pop up the next day? Then what?

[JLH Pro Lawn Care]

There are always gonna be people out there lowballing you and taking customers from you, you have to suck it up and move forward, what if I as a licensed business came in and undercut you (volume over price) then you would have nothing to say but damn how does he do it, my personal practice is I have fewer yards but I spend time getting to know my customer, I do more for less and I make it a point to communicate with them, I am small and not making a fortune but my time will come and so will yours if you just realize you need to actually give your customers something more than a good looking lawn for them to be loyal to you.