Wierd attitudes

[southside]

A friend of mine here services a lot of residential jobs.
A few of them insist that we use his 21" mower (most common
residential mower) instead of his rider,even though the rider gives a cleaner finish.
My guess is that they want him to "work for his money" rather than use the rider. I would tell these people to
get someone else. How would you guys deal with this?

[kutnkru]

dictating equipment
I would figure an average of $5-7/msf.
This would depend on if the property has a lot of ornamental beds, and if there are numerous other obstacles. If you would normally get $30-35 for a 10m/sf property, plan on $50-70 for cutting them with a 21 inch unit. This service must be more because you will be spending quite a bit more time for you to do it correctly.

If clients are not willing to compensate your company for the difference in time that it will take you to bring their lawn to the appearance they are requesting, then you should refer them to another contractor who can waste his time for pennies on the dollar.

Good Luck this season!
Kris

[lakegastonla]

kutnkru, would you briefly explain your terms you are using for estimating payment. you said $5-7/msf.
Also you used $30-35 for a 10m/sf property.

Iknow you are referring to square ft but not sure where the"m" comes in. I think it may be in the place of "thousand" but I ahd always seen that represented as "k".
Don't worry, I am easy to lose, sometimes :)

[Guido]

Not sure if the customer really has the attitude that he wants the contractor to work for his money, or they are scared of the equipment.

Many people that aren't educated about something tend to be scared of it and stick to what they know. They may be scared that the rider will damage their turf.

I would try to educate the customer on the equipment you'd be using, and if that still doesn't change their mind, than don't bother. ( My Humble Opinion)

I would not let a customer dictate the type of equipment I use on a job. Look at it like this, your the expert, not them!! Thats why they hire you. The only way I'd give in to a request like that is to charge a ridiculously large amount to make sure it is worth the extra time I spend there, especially if you can be making easier money on another account.

Hope this helps!

[1stclasslawns]

In all of my contracts it says "methods and means are to be determind by Natural Lawn" that way they dont tell me what to mow with.
Jim

[Pauls Mowing]

While I would respect the owners requests, since it is his property, I would suggest to him that he find someone else to service his lawn. Its been several years since I had to cut my lawn with a 21, and Im not willing to cut someone elses lawn with one. My smallest mower is a 46". I have had no call to use a 21".

Paul

[HOMER]

Heck ,I dont even take on yards that have to be cut with a 21 inch anymore, I pass them off to somebody that is willing to wear their selves out that day. I have one little commercial property that I have to use one on and it only takes 10 cutting minutes, thats about all I want!

[dmk395]

Hey if the price is right, I would cut a lawn with scissors.
All I can say is that by using the 21" you should make it well worth your time.

[kutnkru]

I was trying to infer that if you would normally be charging $30-35 for a 10/m sf property we would be charging approximately $3.50/m sf of turf area.

By drastically reducing mower production I would then have to charge them anywhere from $5 to $7/m sf of turf area to be maintain, thus a fee of $50-70 per cut.

Yes it is true that people refer to a thousand as K, but when referring to lawn care the M is used instead.

Hope this helps.
Kris

[Guido]

How come no one told me about that!!

I never heard of that before. Guess I'm smarter now!

Learn something new everyday! :0

[guntruck]

So um what exactly is the "M" is it still 1000?

[Runner]

Well, we know in metrics, kilo is a thousand, thus the k, but what IS m? :) Also, Kris said. If you would normally get $30-35 for a 10m/sf property, plan on $50-70 for cutting them with a 21 inch unit. The way I see it, is you go down to 1/3 the size cutting width, that would take 3 times longer, thus $30-35 would now be $90-105. Now, you put cutting speed on top of that. Lets say we even round down generously to only 1/5 the ground speed. This brings us to $450-525. per cut. Now, there is a labor factor there, because now we are walking instead of ridind. We'll on double this, so this brings us to about $900-1050. Yep! That sounds about right! Bottom line is, if I have a ten thousan d dollar machine sitting up on the trailer, I will be DARNED if I am going to spend all that time pushing for 50-75 bucks! Leave it for the market of those who are inthe caliber of push mowing. Chances are, they will not go for 50-75 bucks a cut anyway. Call someone with a backhoe to put in your water hookup or something, and tell him. "I'd rather you dig it by hand." See what they say. :)

[Garry]

M = 1000 in the Roman numeral system.

[Skookum]

I think most homeowners think that our big commercial mowers, either walk behinds or riders, are TOO BIG for their lawns. I have been told this by several in my past years. They think the mowers will hurt their lawn.

I had another LCO, (that specialized in using 21" Toros) tell one of my clients that she had a dead area of lawn due to me using a bigger walk behind. They were there to fix a drainage problem (which she did not ask me to fix, they charged her $500 for five foot of drainage pipe from her down spout to a ditch and about a pound of grass seed). When they were done she told me the next week that I must use a 21" mower since I was killing her grass! I said NO, it was the standing water in that area that had killed her grass, I never mowed that area, I trimmed it with a trimmer when it got high enough to need it. The other LCO fixed the drainage, she hired a guy to mow with a 21". To this day she thinks I killed her grass in that area by using a BIG commercial mower.

I have given prices on several yards where they wanted to know if "I planned on using ONE of those BIG mowers" I always say "I use professional turf management equipment that was designed to give the best possible cut". Some customers you will not change their attitudes, EVER!

[joshua]

personaly i tell the people to get lost. then when they call back because no one will do it, i charge them more than what i normaly would charge just because pi$$ed me off before.

[Runner]

There s a logical link! Man, I am glad SOME one is with it this morning! :) Thanks!

[Fantasy Lawns]

We have had this issue from older clients ...(they think it tears em up) .....when I can't use my walker or mid mount ...I use my 36 and thats it ...I don't even have a push mower

[LJ lawn]

if the people don't tell you what kind of mower they want you using, they'll tell you that they want all the grass collected. i've had my share of customers freak over the "big" mower thing.they also get quite annoyed when you get the job done in under 15 minutes (they feel cheated). if i can't ride ,i don't cut.sorry i didn't spend thousands of dollars to walk behind a machine all day!i use the biggest mower i can comfortably fit on the lawn.

[Stinger]

All these guys have touched on very critical points. Some clients freak out if you cut the lawn with the blue mower instead of the red one that you allways use. Others seem bothered if you finish in a new record time other than what they think it should have taken you. Guido is right when he talks about people aren't educated about some aspects of lawn & landscape. It is our duty as professional contractors to better educate our clinets on the why's and wherefores of what we do. But allways kiss (keep it simple stupid) when explaining things. You'll be suprised what a smile and simple response will achive. As for cutting with a 21" mower thats fine as long as they remember I charge $60.00 per hr for my crew. Now how many hours of my time did you wish to reserve?

[MJ]

Stinger, so if you buy equipment that lets you do the job in half the time, do you now charge 1/2 what you did before?

Mick

[HOMER]

You oughta see the looks I get when I put the MONSTER on some lawns!!!!!!!!!!! The customer wnats his yard cut, we cut it. The end result is whats important, if they are happy with the quality then what it got mowed with shouldnt even be an issue.

[Bassman]

I put in a fair amount of work time last season with a 21" mower doing small gated back yards. I needed the business. I am going into this year's season not taking on new business where I have to burn too much valuable time walking behind a small push mower. If I can't get in & out with my large mower and keep on truckin, I don't want em no mo.

[awm]

Im glad yaw cleared up the m issue.I thought some poor fella was mowin 10 milion square ft for 35 dollars.
Assumed he was using a thousand goats.

[joshua]

about what ljlawn said.. about if it takes us 15minutes to cut a yard. i know what it was like useing 2 push mowers and it wasn't fun. i used them my 1st year, then i moved up like all of you. now i have a lazer and wb. and when i cut the grass in how ever much time and they say something about how fast i go. i simply say does your neighbor have strips in your yard? he has clumps do you? and then i say i best the best equipment for my yards because they deserve the best and if it cuts the time in half the quality is still the same if not better. so does it really matter. only happens with someone new afterwards they love me. ohyea, i am very nice when i say it and explain something if they don't understand what i mean

[Bob Shoaff]

I look at using the bigger mowers as increasing productivity.I was always big on the 21" mower and this year have added some ridiers and commercial walk behinds. I have had a couple of customers say how much faster i get done. And then when i explain how I am now mowing with a 5 or 8 thousand dollar mower vs. a 1,000 mower and that I truly feel the quality with the larger deck mowers is superior not to mention the wider tires seem easier on the turf, they are a bit more understanding. I am just glad i made the switch. I can do 2 times the lawns in a day now. Thats what it is all about as long as the quality stays there. Another way i have put it nicely was that they are paying for the service and the quality we provide, not how long we are there.

[Stinger]

Mick: I have different sizes of equipment for different
properties. No I am not about to charge someone the same for a 21" push mowing job as something I would do with my 62" machine. But I will charge for my time and special requests such as mowing with a 21" machine shouldn't matter as long as your getting what you need to operate on an hourly basis. Bigger equipment costs more and productivity is the reward but a customer that is not willing to allow me to profit on production will pay for my time reguardless of how the job gets done.

[LScom Addict]

I will agree that if you have an hourly figure to be met and the customer is willing to pay that figure, that it should not matter how many lawns you cut. The bottom line should be making your figures whether pushing, deck mowing, z-riders whatever.