What recession?

[Steve]

Oh yes, I remember that discussion now. Thanks! As you are now expanding further, have you thought of more ways to keep your employees motivated to doing a good job and to help sell more services? Have you thought of employee incentives ideas that might help this?

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[musician/lawnman]

Lawn care business tips

yeah Steve I have, though I won't roll out any programs till next spring. I was thinking about setting up a bonus structure based on a crews collective production. If they are hitting my targets & I check to verify that their quality of work is good, I'll probably have an available spiff or bonus. If they don't they don't. But if they don't perform at the levels they should then I'll have to find out why or "who" is causing the slower pace & fix the problem. I plan to make the goals within reach but high enough that they need to perform at optimum levels regularly. If equipment troubles slow them down or the get a mower stuck & it slows them down then they may not hit for that day. but that's the way it is for me now! So they can live by the same rules. If something breaks & costs me an hour or 2 down time I don't do very well per hour that day & it hit's me in the pocket. So they need to help me keep the gear well maintained & inform me of any problems or unusual sounds to stay "on target" or it could hit them in the pocket too. Not sure if I'll do it weekly or monthly yet. We'll see.

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[Steve]

Do you think there could be some simple incentives a newer lawn care business could institute?

If so, what should they institute? Should it be some kind of percentage?

What about an end of the year bonus to get the employees to stick with you all year and then have money for the holidays when they need it?

[barry]

Hi Chuck

Well if you are have a proable with to many clients .them you can sent me sum to. be like sent to you
Barry's Lawns N More

Barry

[legendlawn]

Chuck-
Are both of your employees full time? I have always looked down on having part time employees in this business for several reasons. However I ended last season with 2 part timers after running Me and 1 full timer employee for the first half of the season. Both guys are in college and plan on coming back this summer. One day in particular we are really going to need a 3rd guy this year, but are only going to need me and 1 guy the rest of the week. (starting out). Having part timers allows me to bring in a 3rd guy on certain days, but stay as lean as possible on others.

[musician/lawnman]

Well last year I had one on full time working 10 hr days mon-thursday (if all went well) & the other worked the same hours but usually mon-wed. Fridays were used to either catch up if we got rained out, or something broke down, or somebody didn't show up. If all went well then fridays were used for trimming, pruning, & landscaping jobs. The 2nd guy was told at the time of hire that it was seasonal & that hours may vary a bit from week to week. I layed him off in mid October. The 1st guy was really good & I planned to work him as many hours as I could posibly justify to keep him on & hopefully make him a crew chief next year. However the dip**** got himself arrested has since made things worse for himself & I don't think he'll be coming back anytime soon. So right now It's back to just me. I can handle thing for the off season along (though I really didn't want to) So for the last couple weeks & probably the next couple months I'm running my *** off solo. I'll start to ramp things back up with hiring in march I suppose.

[legendlawn]

aahhh the joys of reliable green industry labor! All of us who have employees know exactly what your going through.

[figtree]

Seeing how this is a seasonal business do the employees collect umemployment during the down season?

[musician/lawnman]

Great Question.....
I technically hire my guys through a day labor service so they are employees of the service not mine, so I don't need to carry unemployment insurance. Yeah you could get hit with that.
I hire my guys on at my choice though, send in their application & the company gets them on the books in about 5 minutes. I've never just called & gotten a "day labor guy" to come work for me.

[figtree]

Wow! I never thought of that. What's the average charge for a day labor? What about workmans comp? Do you have to provide it or does the day labor service provide it?