The summer heat and no rain in TX has slowed my small landscaping business waaaaay down. We’ll come to mow our biweekly yards and still see the lines from last time.
As a homeowner, I wouldn’t want to pay for a mow if it didn’t really need it.
But as a business owner, work is slow. Every dollar counts.
I texted a biweekly customer recently whose yard really didn’t need it and told her we’d come back in a week. She ended up posting a great review about our honesty on Facebook which brought in an influx of new jobs, so it worked out well in this instance.
I just don’t want to turn away money when things are tight as is.
We are venturing into more commercial jobs for a steadier income, and we do a lot of other stuff too (trees, flowerbeds, yard cleanups, land clearing, etc). Winter is coming, so we’re planning to do Christmas lights, firewood, driveway salting, etc. but this is the first year that my husband and I both will be working for our company full time.
by Accomplished_Edge477
8 Comments
Different climate here in Chicago. If my customers need to skip, I require a min 24hr notice. I rarely get skips, I usually weed those customers out.
My landscaper texts me to ask if it needs cutting in a drought.
I bill monthly for an averaged out price of 42 services for the year. If it doesn’t need it I’ll do sticks pick up debris. I’m not trying to text or email a number of 100 clients this often.
Speaking as a groundskeeper with a cushy government job I would try to find something else that needed doing and bill the customer for that. I’ve never encountered a landscape that couldn’t stand an hour or two of work. Although I suppose that depends on the nature of your service contract and what tools you have on the truck.
As a homeowner I do my own work but if I had a landscaper I liked, I would probably ask him not to mow dry grass and pay him just for showing up Just to make sure he is available when the lawn does need to be mowed. One of the worst things you can do to your lawn is mow it when it doesn’t need it.
I really appreciated when my yard guy would text and ask if we needed it. He was pretty flaky otherwise, but him treating me like a real person made me recommend him where otherwise I wouldn’t have.
Fall is a great planting time, especially for trees. I’d definitely try to boost that part of your business – we did a bunch in the spring and I would rather pay someone than ever do that again, it was a nightmare.
If it’s real bad we do other stuff but we got like 400 lawns a month we do on our route if you don’t want it mowed it’s up to you to call us I’m afraid
I’d recommend adding services beyond just mowing. Can you do light brush pickup; de-weeding; trimming; edging? Try to add a couple that are super marginal on time and labor but are appreciated. Then, you have more reason to continue the service no matter what. Also, adding SMS reminders that their service is coming up is good. You could state at time of signup that if they ever want a skip to just reply to the service reminder. There are platforms that help easily manage all this for you. If it sounds too much to do, just wait until you’re bigger then. Eventually you’ll want it.
Our lawn team does this and it’s made us clients for as long as they exist.