Mowing when leaves have fallen

[AkersLawn]

Obviously there are two sides to this issue. One being, it is best business practice to charge for every service, and the other being to charge for a service, and go above and beyond that service for the same pay. What I wonder, is when you charge for every service, do you have any sort of agreement with your customer that when the trees or bushes need trimmed, you will either bid on it, or get paid more for it? Or are the extra services taboo until the customer asks about it? And when you just do a little extra here and there, what happens when you trim the 3 small trees, and when the big one comes around for half a days work, do you just take that too or risk your client being upset because you've just 'always done it' ? I have this all planned out the best way i thought up this fall. Simply ask your client. Find out if they are looking for 100% ground maintenance from you, or if they just want a weekly mowing. Work it out before hand. If not, you will end up with more work than you can handle, or not enough work to keep you busy all year. not to mention unsteady pay.

[Hedgemaster]

Lawn care business tips

I think you really need to SEE the lawn in question before laying out an opinion as to what is the right thing to do. Everyone's situation is different - different lawns, equipment, rates, etc. One man can blow through the extra work without it making a dent in his schedule, or income, while another will be definitely feel the hit of taking on the extra work.

[dpld]

Originally Posted by LawnBoy0311

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.

nobody ever said anything about nickle and dimeing people to death but depending where you live the fall leaf season can be a couple hard months with a ton of leaves, as is the case in my region.

if i were to " throw that in " or " go the extra mile " as you say i would we doing everyones clean ups and removing a seasons worth of leaves for lawn mowing prices and working for free.

if it is so minimal then the subject would not need discussing and if it is a lot then it needs to be addressed.

so you say i am the perfect guy to take clients away from and you don't know squat about who i am and how i operate and you think based on a post about charging someone extra for a substantial amount of work that you think i am some arrogant @sswipe that can not hold onto customers.
you also say that as if you have any clue and would even be capable of the task of taking anything away from my operation.

[SECTLANDSCAPING]

This is why I said it matters on your area. In my parts leaf clean ups run $300-$800. Theres no way I'm going to do that for mowing prices. Not to mention it would be close to impossible to mow a foot deep pile of leaves.

I will mow the leaves till the end of october and commercial clients till nov 15th. Now the reason I keep mowing the commercial clients is to make the clean up easier because the clean up is part of the contract. Then Ill show up and clean the rest out.

For the residential clients if theres a pile of leaves like that I will work around it and explain why. Clean ups are a big part of the year for me. I will not do it for next to free. Charging double the mowing price will not even be close to covering cost.

[LawnBoy0311]

Down here where I am, leaves aren't that big of a deal. But when I lived in MA, they were a HUGE deal. So I see what you mean about extra time. I know both worlds.


DPLD-your right, I don't know you. But heres my best guess...

Mid 50's, still behind a mower, complaining about "the good old days" or "when I was younger, I could...". Probably a smoker too.

I don't mean to rag on you, but sometimes your attitude brings out the true you. you can't be right at everything. This forum is full of opinions, and just like @$$holes, everyone's got one!

[dpld]

Originally Posted by LawnBoy0311

Down here where I am, leaves aren't that big of a deal. But when I lived in MA, they were a HUGE deal. So I see what you mean about extra time. I know both worlds.


DPLD-your right, I don't know you. But heres my best guess...

Mid 50's, still behind a mower, complaining about "the good old days" or "when I was younger, I could...". Probably a smoker too.

I don't mean to rag on you, but sometimes your attitude brings out the true you. you can't be right at everything. This forum is full of opinions, and just like @$$holes, everyone's got one!

wrong on all accounts, age 46, no i am not still behind a mower and why would i want the old days back when back then i was starting out and struggling and today we make a half a mil?

no , you can have the old days.

let me take a crack at the guessing game,
mid twenties to early thirties using a glorified home owner machine in the back of a pick up blaming the larger companies for making it so hard to make a living and thinks this forum is a club just for you.

i don't know what got up your @ss about what i said and i really could care less but you are the one who started hurling insults and if you don't like what i post then don't read it, but you don't have to be a @zzhat about it.

i never proclaimed to be the end all, i just stated my opinion and i am sorry you don't like my opinion but any response i give can only be that, i can not give him your opinion.

truth be told i give breaks to people but i choose who gets them and who earned them as loyal customers and i already go the extra mile for my customers and i never have to deal with these issues because everything is spelled out in great detail from day one with all my written contracts.

all my accounts are inclusive and already include shrub trimming, mulching, mowing, clean ups and chemicals and they pay for each and every part and it all gets added up into one lump sum and divided by the payment schedule.
and because of that i don't have to sit here and scratch my wondering if i should or should not throw something in as well as i never got to break any "bad news" to the customers.

[wat5150]

HHMMM....I dont now DPLD from a hole in the ground but I think he knows a fair amount about this business. His posts are usually always informative and tell the side of the bigger lawn guy and how he got there.

[Lopes Lawn Care]

I agree Dpld definitely has a good handle on his business and always gives good advice on here. I too don't know him personally nor have I dealt with his company. So I can't sit here and make character judgements on the guy.

I like what he has to say, hes very to the point and honest about that way things are. If you want things sugar coated or whatever just don't read his posts. If you hear a song you don't like on a radio station don't you just change the station or turn it off. Very simple to do.

[shadrach]

Charge for your time. If a customer does not want to pay you for your time then replace them with another one the first chance you get.

[Von Bobbeh]

If my mower goes Brrrrvvvztt right through it's included! if it clogs up, I'm not going to mow untill I get paid to clean it up, or they clean it up.