Little Odd Jobs

It is kind of funny. For the last two days I have been doing my regular lawn maintenance accounts, but yesterday and today I have been doing additional work. It has been a bunch of little odd jobs here and there for customers. I am finding out that with these little odd jobs I am making more money doing those, compared to any other of the regular scheduled services. Go figure!

[Steve]

Lawn care business tips

What kind of little odd jobs and what would you say is the profit % on such jobs? How should an lco go about promoting these?

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A lot of the jobs I am getting from current customers or just one time customers calling up for something simple. The last two days this is what I have done and the profit margin

1. pruned a vine 82% profit margin
2. pruned an ornamental tree away from a homeowners roof 74% profit margin
3. patched up and seeded a lawn where another lco spilled gas 87% profit margin
4. replaced sprinkler heads 82% profit margin
5. adjusted a sprinkler system 79% profit margin

I don't market for these either, they just call up and ask. Most of these jobs only take me 15 to 20 mins to do, with a $54 minimum price for most of them. The longest job took me 1 1/4 hrs and that was adjusting the sprinkler system.

[Steve]

It kinda makes you wonder when you advertise if somewhere on it you should say, if you need extra jobs done around the yard, please ask.

Who knows, maybe more customers would ask for such services?

Have you done these in the past or are you just recently offering to do this?

I have always done these in the past. But I totally changed around my pricing structure and pricing policy this year. No matter what there is a minimum charge and of course the rates have increased as well

[Steve]

For those new lcos reading this post, do you have any suggestions to them as far as what you did to change around your pricing structure? What suggestions do you have for them when they change their pricing structure?

Make sure to always have a minimum charge set in place for each particular service. For example, most of my services, which do not include a power tool or equipment, are $54 per hour with a minimum $54 charge no matter what.

Start to really break down your pricing through on where you have to use equipment, any special kind of equipment, whether traveling is involved for the customer or for picking up material, whether the service itself is special, and also how dangerous the service is.

In regards to how dangerous a service is, whether you prune branches on a tree when you are on the ground, or if you have to get up on a ladder to prune some. Of course you are offering the same service, but it changes once you add a ladder to the equation.

What about your turn around time? How fast can you get the product installed or service the property. If you are quicker than another company, then charge away. An example of this is the seeding that I did for one customer. The lady had been waiting for over a month from her current lco to seed some patches in here lawn. She finally gave up and called me. I told her that I could take care of the problem within the next two days and I did. Even though it only took me about 20 minutes to do the job, I deliveried a quality service with a fast response. Charge appropriately for it.

But like I said, really go through all of you services that you offer, and break down everything. How far away the property is, any tools involved, etc.

Great advice!

I hope that it helps out