Mowing when leaves have fallen

[phouse65]

Yes, I do bag all of the grass and leaves. The leaves are falling earlier this year and it is making a normal mowing job double in time.

[phouse65]

Lawn care business tips

Originally Posted by phouse65 I was wondering how to deal with the customers that do not want fall cleanup or leaf removal, but you end up mowing their leaves up every week? Do you add a leaf removal fee anyway? Just looking for some suggestions on how to deal with this issue. I do bag when I mow.

[dpld]

Originally Posted by phouse65

Yes, I do bag all of the grass and leaves. The leaves are falling earlier this year and it is making a normal mowing job double in time.

well if you already bagging anyway but you are finding that you are collecting more debris tell the customers that you will need to charge a modest dump fee in addition to the standard costs to help offset the cost of disposal.

if you are leaving debris on property in a compost pile then you are only adding time.

it would also be a good opportunity to sell them on a fall clean up.


being in the fall you are using your mower to pick up most of the leaves as they drop i usually charge a extra 1/3 of the weekly service to compensate the leaf disposal and the little extra time to dust the beds onto the lawn for the machine to pick the leaves up each week.

and then the final time we are on each property they get a once over the entire property and beds and lots and get billed a final clean up.

we incur many expenses through out the year and with fuel bieng at or near 4 bucks a gallon everything in our business cost more.
dumping fees go up fuel cost goes up materials costs go up nursery stock goe up fertilizer goes up.

every thing we do and buy in this business is in accordance to fuel prices and you need to charge according or these hidden costs add up and put you in the poor house.
when you are eeking by the quality of your service is the first thing to falter.

[Early Bird Lawn Service]

Go The Extra Mile- Always do more than you're paid to do in a positive mental attitude. Then the law on compensation will take care of you. True Fact

[Hedgemaster]

I trimmed some overgrown shrubs the other day since they were unsightly and the owner didn't have the extra money to pay to have them done.
The utility company reduced my bill by $30 this month for doing so. (not)


It's one thing to do good and to put in a little extra effort from time to time, but charity will never, ever, ever pay your bills.

[phouse65]

Thank you for all the replies to our issue. For those who don't want leaf removal.... we will take off the bags. Easy enough. Thanks again.

[Martywdx]

Originally Posted by Early Bird Lawn Service

Go The Extra Mile- Always do more than you're paid to do in a positive mental attitude. Then the law on compensation will take care of you. True Fact

I agree. Just the other day I was paid 200.00 for 2 hrs work of helping one of my clients son move some boxes and some light furniture.
I get many jobs like that because my clients know I go the extra mile. without making an issue.

[SECTLANDSCAPING]

Originally Posted by Martywdx

I agree. Just the other day I was paid 200.00 for 2 hrs work of helping one of my clients son move some boxes and some light furniture.
I get many jobs like that because my clients know I go the extra mile. without making an issue.

I have a customer that hires me without a bid everytime. I just name my price and they pay it. They needed help moving. Just 2 guys to move the boxes, no truck. I told them it would be about $70 a hour for reference. We did it in 2 1/2 hours. I charged them $210. They gave me and my guy $60 tips each. Then gave us these german petal cars that sell for $250 a piece. We sold them both for $150. Then they tell me to bill them to get the beds in shape, mow, and remove a bush. That was another $350.

Charge for the work you do. Youll get paid for it. If you dont you wont. Its that simple.

[LawnBoy0311]

Originally Posted by dpld

thanks you so much master jenkinson for giving me yous 25 dollaz to mow your lawn.
i am in debt to you for giving me such a opportunity, don'ts worry about those leaves i will takes care of it cause lordy knows i hits the lottery when i found you.


that is a bunch of poppycack, you do a great service for a reasonable price but you don't do squat for free.
if they don't want a clean up and they are not paying for bagging and disposal then you throw on some gator blades and let it fly.

like a deli is gonna throw some extra crap on your sandwich because you are already spending 5 bucks on it or a pizza place is gonna give you a free topping because you are paying 10 bucks for a plain pie, yeah right.

that is how you make money and if you play paddy cake with your customers and throw in free service because you fear they are gonna whip you to the curb then you got a crappy customer or you are a crappy businessman or both.

too many landscapers own jobs and not businesses and the thing that cracks me up is they would rather own a job and take crap from all the people they work for then just show up and take crap from one person by getting a job.

spare me the you got to start somewhere line because with that attitude thats the way it will always be.

sorry, i am not trying to be a deek just telling it like it is and is and it angers me to see hard working people get crapped on from their clients.
you own a business in hopes of making more money then you could possibly ever imagine and you own a business so you don't have to work in fear of losing your job.
customers come and go and it is not like the old days where you may have 60 of the same clients for 10 years.

You are the PERFECT guy to take clients from. Unfortunatly, your attitude runs off on your clients. When your out there nickle and diming your customers to death, you never ask yourself why your still out there doing the back breaking work??? When I finish my part on the lawn, and my guy has the blower, FIND SOMETHING TO DO! There's nothing wrong with pulling a few weeds while your guy finishes up. Don't sit in the truck and say "I won't touch that because Mr. Customer won't give me an extra $2.50!" Now adays its all about SERVICE.

The guy posting made it sound like, to me, that he was bagging. Sorry OH MIGHTY DPLD if I don't read things the same as you.

[willshome]

Originally Posted by LawnBoy0311

When I finish my part on the lawn, and my guy has the blower, FIND SOMETHING TO DO!

I think dpld has more than one blower and would help his guy, I mean "GUYS"

For me it's all about how long they have been getting weekly mows. If they have been getting mowed since early spring non stop then we will clean up a few leafs (on the lawn)