Done with chasing customers!

[CHEESE2009]

So customers still haven't paid me for this month. I've chased them every day so far & now I'm just gonna say f-it. I wish they had the balls to call & just say, "Well the grass isn't growing, & I'd like to cancel your services. " It's not a big deal to call & cancel, but avoiding me & burning their bridges just gets on my nerves. 5 customers are lost. I wish there was some miracle for their lawns to grow like crazy, so they could call me & I could tell them SORRY NOT INTERESTED! None of them will be accepted for my service next year unless I get every penny up front. I'm going to write up a letter for next year. Miss a payment 1 week, service is stopped Miss a payment 2 weeks, service is canceled & will start up for a fee Miss a payment 3 weeks, service is permanently canceled

[mark123]

Lawn care business tips

Sometimes they just forget. A friendly reminder in the mail usually works for me. I'm considering running late fees next year for the stragglers.

[Steve]

Is there any chance you can set it up to have them pay you in advance next year? Or no?

[CHEESE2009]

I really really hate checks.

Though most companies ask for 3 post-dated checks.

If they bounce, I'm screwed.


May & June
July & August
September & October

I'll have to deposit the checks some time in April, to ensure the checks don't bounce.

Then I should deposit the next one the END of June, to make sure the pay went through for July/August.

Then the next payment should be deposited the END of August, bla bla...


Checks are hard to keep track of, & if customers forget to pay cash, I'm worried they'll forget to keep money in the bank for me to take!



I need some sort of way to make sure I get my money.

I don't think people will trust me enough to write me out 3 checks. That's also the problem.

anyone have a solution for this?

Getting paid is brutal.


it's going to be tough to get paid for October. No one wants to pay full for a month that only gets 2 cuts.

How do you all do it?

[justin_time]

What do you mean cheques are hard to track ?

What I do, is get a deposit book from the bank. And I enter all my cheques and cash on there.

Here is what i put.

I put the 1st letter of the person's name and the last name like this then the check number. If they payed by cash, just write the amount they gave me

J. Pitre #9999999 - 100$

And when I go to the bank, i give the teller my deposit book and enters the checks and cash in my account.

Simple

[Little's]

Wow, sorry to hear you have such a hard time getting paid. I never have trouble. All my customers pay me on time, or early, I never have to ask twice, and some pay me up to 2 weeks early. 2 of them pay me a month in advance. I guess I have just been lucky lately.

Wish I new the trick to landing good paying customers.

[Steve]

Though most companies ask for 3 post-dated checks.

I never heard of this. Do you mean most lawn care companies ask the customers to write 3 post dated checks?

Tell me more about this.

[CHEESE2009]

Well, companies here usually ask for 3 post dated checks immediately when hired.

1 check is payment for 2 months.

3 checks cover 6 months of service.

I'm not clear as to how it's beneficial though. Customers still might avoid putting money in their checking accounts, making US lose more money if they were to bounce.

[Steve]

I'm not clear as to how it's beneficial though. Customers still might avoid putting money in their checking accounts, making US lose more money if they were to bounce.

That's kinda what I was thinking too. If you are in a situation where you are looking for posted checks from a customer, there is a good probability there are going to be issues collecting from that customer.

Just because you have a post dated check doesnt mean it's worth anything.

[jasonw]

I have never had an issue taking checks. I have one property investor that pays late all the time but he dose always pay, I figured hes got a lot on his mind what with loosing millions when the housing bubble poped lol. I thought I had problems when he got 6 invoices behind and I was just about to send a letter informing him service would stop but then BANG I got a check paying the account in full. So long as you are within the law there are many methods such as sending them to collections if they don't pay. Within the law meaning for example here in California if you do work requiring a license but don't have said license then you have no legal means to collect from a non paying client.