I am sick of New Customers...

[Charles]

Calling me on the weekends to do work like they dont know the main working days. Also I have had more than usual call me wanting work done the SAME day they call like you are some kinda of fast food joint. I have had some good calls lately but no way could i jump right on them or do them on sat or sunday. Its like their are so many lawn care cos out there that when nobody else is answering their phone(weekends) you then get the call

[lawrence stone]

What kind of work?

[Charles]

Grass cutting. Not super big jobs.

[MATTHEW]

Doing it the first time may well earn you a customer for life.
Just make sure they know after that, that the work days are m-f and sat work is time and a half! Not only that, but sunday is doubletime!!
The only problem with new customers is that a lot of the time, they are the problem customers anyway. The other guys may have cancelled them or the customer is just never satisfied with anything. Do your best to find good solid clients and NEVER miss a beat. Good luck.

[Charles]

I know from experience alot of times they are just BSing when they say " I am looking for someone to do my yard regularly..." They say that just to get you out there on the weekend. Usually there mower is just broke or there regular man is behind or sick or they just dont feel like cutting it. But you are right some times it could be a good call. But they had all week to call and I need my 2 days to recoup especially during a straight five day 8-6 workweek...

[captdevo]

maybe get a seperate company phone...

you're in the service business, "if ya can't handle the heat get outta the fire!"

most people go through life reacting instead of acting and planning ahead, if you are on a personal basis with your customers, suck it up and charge accordingly.

i have people come by my shop on nites or sundays, i don't turn them down and get angry, i double my rate on their services!!!

of course this does not include my steady customers or buyers, my services and fees allow for me to "be at their service" they treat me good, so i do the same.

if your equipment needed service thursday nite and you needed parts, would you call on your dealer at nite? (or wish you could?)

It's all based on relationships.

people "cold calling" on estimates is a different story, that is why i have an advertised company phone number.

[Charles]

I should have said potential customers. my regular cutomers know better than to call me on the weekends. You work to live not live to work IMHO.. I run my business I try not to let it run me and over 10 years it has worked well that way. Now the weather can change my schedule but inconsiderate stupid people cant.

[captdevo]

that's the key to enjoying life, don't sweat the small stuff.

i work to live comfortably and enjoy...

i don't wake to work and let the good things past me by.

i have a full time job 243 12hr. days a year, plus over 40 maintenance accounts, tool truck route and equipment sales, and i still try to live

[dhicks]

Money is Money to me and I don't care when they call. If I can accomodate the request so be it. If not, perhaps tomorrow or the next day.

[Charles]

Dhicks, obviously you dont have a family or a girlfriend or a wife. They all want to make plans on your time off and can
n be pretty pissed if you change those plans
at the last minute. I like a life of consistency unless the weather changes that of course

[Premo Services]

I have been getting requests for bids from homeoweners, and I know it is because it is so hot. You can see where they run their mowers in circles all year. The first couple that I got, I started getting excited, but they say that we will try this out and see what happens next year. :angry: Well we will see what happens next year, I am talking about now! I can give them names of my customers who will tell them what to expect. I give them a higher price and if they agree to have me do them to the end of season, then I am making very good money for the job. I also tell them that the price will be higher, because they are not regular customers, and will do them on a day when I am in the area. Also this will most likely not be a saturday, unless we get rain all week. :cool:

[crazygator]

I agree with dhicks, if I can accomodate I do. This has nothing to do with no wife, girlfriend or family. if you read the post, "IF I can accomodate". And yes money is money. Maybe you need a break from the work to get your focus again. Also if you charge much more for these rush jobs then either they will stop calling or you will get more cash. Also, if you are getting these calls then someone has seen your work and they like it, so take it as a compliment. I hope things get better for you.

[Charles]

When they call your just going to give an "estimate". There is no guarrentee that you will even get the job. So you have loaded up you equipment on the hope that you might get the job. These people are calling around and if you try to stick it to them for a weekend charge you may not get the job. Lots of newbies in our town willing to work for nuttin and poeple will keep on calling until they get their price. So its the weekdays for me or nothing

[crazygator]

With that in mind I do understand!

[gusbuster]

Originally posted by Charles
Dhicks, obviously you dont have a family or a girlfriend or a wife. They all want to make plans on your time off and can
n be pretty pissed if you change those plans
at the last minute. I like a life of consistency unless the weather changes that of course

Next month, celebrating 5 years of a strong & wonderful marriage. One thing that I made clear to my wife\then girlfriend, go ahead and make plans, but don't stick to it unless it's a wedding or something that important.

My kids always will take precedence over work. That's the way it should be, but my wife needs to understand what it means to be self-employed.

As to idiots calling on the weekend, this may been their only opportunity to call?? That's what an answering machine is for if you don't have a separate business line. Anyways, my family and friends knows how to get a hold of me if I don't answer my phone, they call me on the cell.
John

[dhicks]

Charles I do mowing, mulching and more for fun. I do have a wife, 17 year old daughter and 4 dogs. I went into this business because I love it and I make a profit. I'm semi retired and and I am blessed with more family time than most folks. I just enjoy helping a customer or a prospective customer. No big deal to me.

[Charles]

NO wonder we have a divorce rate of over 60% in the US LOL. Go ahead neglect your wife and see where that gets you in the long run. That may work with some women but not with all. The divorce rate speaks for itself.

[lee b]

My wife understands and would be helping me if she could [ she's pregant and I won't allow her until after the baby is born]. Just awhile back, I thought Charles was complaining about "scrubs" taking all his business, must not have been too bad. Now he's got too much business. This is a service business, if you don't want to perform the service, somebody else will. I also try to accomodate customers, whenever possible, you may need their business later on down the road. Nothing personal.......

[GreenQuest Lawn]

I will be on your side charles,

I get my contracts in Feb- April for the mowing season. I may take on a few extra if they are referred to me by existing customers.

I do not advertise.

I am full and do not take anymore (if I can help it).

I usually wait till Mon and call them back and tell them I am full.

Of course people do not seem to understand this concept.

If I have plans with the wife or kid I would NOT cancel them to go look at a potential customers yard. Or to mow a one-timer.

[Charles]

At this point with all this rain I have as much work as I can handle-- thank you. I was just wondering with 24 hours in a day five days a week that people couldnt call during the weekdays or nites. Other businesses have business hours and let you know them. I guess its because we get no respect as yard men and are expected to be available 24-7

[Lawn-Scapes]

I have a full schedule but would like some better accounts so I can do some weeding out...

There's not too many businesses that close down on the weekends nowadays...

[SLS]

I have been experiencing the same thing as Mow Money lately.

I see the tell-tale circles, un-even deck and bent blade 'stripes', and huge clumps too. Usually they make a couple of passes before they or their mower conks out. The rest of the yard is a mile high.

It's been rather hot and humid here for a while and with the (practically) daily shower or two the old Murrey just can't keep up.

Inevitably the caller says:

1) My mower is broken and I just need you to cut it once or twice while I'm fixing it....

2) I'm 75 years old and it's just too hot for me right now...I'll be able to do it again in September...

3) The grass has gotten too high for my push mower and I see you've got a big machine...could you knock it down just this once?

and lastly...

4) I only need it cut once every 2 or 3 weeks......

Fortunately I have enough to keep me busy so I don't hesitate to tell them I wouldn't be able to get to them for another week or so or that I'm only taking on new weekly accounts. They usually freak when I tell them that because the grass is so high that I'll have to run it twice and therefore the first cut will be DOUBLE anyway. :)

No more 'one timers' (unless I get caught up and they accept my outragous bid) or 10 day/2 weekers for me.

These are the kind of people that God created scrubs for, heheheh :D

[Lawn-Scapes]

God created man... man became scrub!

[SLS]

If God created man and that man happens to be a scrub then how did God not create scrubs? :confused:


It's the 'man crawled from primodorial ooze and became a scrub' theory that I really question though. :D

[skipwatson]

A man isn't born a scrub, doesn't "happen" to be a scrub, but becomes one through free will. :)

[65hoss]

I understand what you mean Charles. I get those calls some also. I usually tell them I can't. I enjoy doing other things on the weekends. I only work saturdays when the weather gets me behind. Usually that means on about 2 hours. Money isn't everything. I got in this biz for freedom. Freedom to make my own decisions.

I have had those few people call saying they need it cut today and if you do a good job I might not get my mower fixed. BS!!! I'm not stupid enough to believe that.

[Mike (MLC)]

I usually get lawn calls on Sunday. But, most of the time they are people I that I wouldn't want to have anyway. They want you to give them and est. over the phone and get pissed off when you ask them where they live so you can give them a proper est. They can't wait that long they want an est. over the phone right now. So then after trying to explain why you don't give est over the phone, they want to know if you fit their yard in asap ahead of all your regular cutomers. It's nothing but a pain. Most of the time if they call on Sunday, I blow them off till Monday then call them back. Usually by then they have already found someone else, which most of the time is some friend of theirs or a relative. Oh well, who needs the headache!!!:rolleyes:

[Guido]

"Lack of planning on your part should not constitute an emergency on mine!"

I love these people that need stuff done 2 weeks ago and they wait till dinner time on Sunday to tell you they want it, for the right price of course, and like MLC said they want first on your list over your loyal customers.


I'd stay away from that crap!

[taz72373]

Originally posted by Charles
When they call your just going to give an "estimate". There is no guarrentee that you will even get the job. So you have loaded up you equipment on the hope that you might get the job. These people are calling around and if you try to stick it to them for a weekend charge you may not get the job.

Ya when they call your just going to give an "estimate" don't bother with loading up to go mow because you may not get the job and if you do load up and they think your going to mow and you don't want to mow on the weekend tell them you'll work them in some time monday you only mow on weekends if you get behind. I normally don't mow on weekends I use that time for repairs like sharping blades fine tunning etc. etc. But if I'm behind try to make it up by working an extra 1 hour every day m-f and use sat. for the left overs.

[HBFOXJr]

You guys are talking like your not the business owner. This is contracting not retailing. You don't have to be on call 7 days a week. We're not doing anything so important that it needs to be dealt with now. Is the business running you or are you running the business???

Don't answer the phone at odd hours, Sat or Sun. Call them back promptly on Monday and deal with them professionally. You have to train the customer.

My tape machine has a weekend message that I turn on Fri afternoon around 2-4 pm and off on Monday morning. Tells them the office is closed for the weekend, leave a number where they can routinely be reached from 8am to 5pm mon to Fri as well as their home number and we'll call back next week.

If they can't wait or plan better, they are not my kind of customer.

[TGCummings]

Hey Charles,

I'm with you on this one, my friend. On the last work day of the week I unload my trailer and disconnect it from the truck. No way on Earth or in Heaven I'm going to reconnect and load up to run out and mow a 'potential' customer. In fact, I have been known to tell a cold call that my business hours are 8 to 5, M-F, and that if they give me their number I'll call them back on Monday. If that ill-suits them, fair enough. Next.

This weekend, an older gentleman I've been cutting for had a broken sprinkler in his front yard and wanted to know if I could repair it. It was Saturday morning and I was sitting in front of the computer working on my book, feeling burnt and needing a break. I grabbed a spare half-head and stalk and ran over to his house right then. He was back in business in less than 5 minutes, my head was cleared to get back to work, and we both felt good about it but that's clearly the exception not the rule!

Of course, in that instance, I didn't have to load the trailer or anything. ;)

No, Charles, I'm with you here. The best part about this business is the freedom it affords us to work our intended schedule. A little over a year ago I just about gave up the whole thing because I was working 6-7 days a week, 10-12 hours/day in the field. I thought what I needed to do was find an 8-5 job with benefits and a retirement plan to give myself relief. After briefly looking around, it seemed folks working those jobs didn't have any less headaches than did I. After some thought I realized that if I couldn't find the perfect job I was describing, I could certainly make one. The long and short of it is I decided then and there that this business would be what I dreamt of. I set my schedule (M-F, 8-5), purchased health insurance for myself and my wife, and started working up a retirement plan (which I have not implemented yet since the money that will be going into it is currently working to pay off my high-interest debts first!).

The only question was, could I make enough money to make this work? After searching the web I found a community of like-minded individuals toiling the turf and found my answer was yes. (That community, of course, was LawnSite :) ).

Of course, I realized at that point that I had been doing everything wrong for six good years, but better to learn late than never.

Now I'm happy as a lark, to coin a phrase. The freedom to set my schedule, the ability to be my own boss, and the money equivalent to what others are making with their combined experience and benefits in other fields. With the potential to make a lot more on the same schedule. And, like Frankie said, I did it "My Way".

Hang tough, Charles, you've got a friend out here in me. ;)

-TgC

[AltaLawnCare]

Don't use your home number and use an answering service.
Monday morning check messages.;)

[HBFOXJr]

Originally posted by AltaLawnCare
Don't use your home number and use an answering service.
Monday morning check messages.;)

Yes, yes I forgot. You must have a separate business phone number that only rings in your office space. You never know when you'll be gettin' busy with the Mrs under the sheets and being cheap will surely mess up the mood.