HIGH END, HIGH END!!

[HOMER]

I felt I needed to share this with some of the new guys out there who are trying to establish theirselves in the market place. I see where a lot of folks are saying that they work only &quot;high end&quot; residentials. In your area that might be the norm, but I don't think so. Most of the country is made up of middle class, so are they not getting serviced? Somebody is doing them. If you resign yourself to only working the &quot;high end&quot; areas you might miss out on some of the most profitable work out there.<p>My point is I would much rather get in and get out, make my few dollars and never get a complaint, before I would want some high and mighty socialite telling me I missed a weed in her &quot;gaaaaarden&quot; and keeping me from moving on to the next one! I do a whole lot more of the common folk than I do &quot;high end&quot; and for a reason. If you really get down to the nuts and bolts of it and figure your time and money, thats where the money is.<p>I'm gearing this post towards the new guys and hopeing that they don't get hung up on the richer is better thing. I have a lawyer that owes me for my last 2 cuts right now, they were in Oct. and Nov. He paid me the most money I made on any residential, when he pays! I made a special trip the day before Thanksgiving to ensure his place would look good for the family! After 4 invoices and 2 trips to get my money it still ain't showed up. Its been a struggle getting my money from this guy ever since I started cutting him, it won't be anymore because he'll find somebody else after last year! I don't have those problems with the &quot;common folks&quot;.<p>The market is going to be tight anywhere you go, the key to making at this is to be very efficient at what you do and how you do it. There is a lot of money to be made away from the high end residentials and sometimes a lot less headaches.<p>Just my 1/2 cents worth of an opinion.<p>Homer

[jrblawncare]

Homer has made some points here,I haved moved my business to a new market and I don't have alot of &quot;high end&quot; homes in my area.Yes,I will do my best to pick-up some of these clients but I will take the &quot;common&quot; folks any day of the week,that money is good too!!!<p>----------<br>John <br>

[lbmd1]

Homer,<br> I'm one of those guys who services &quot;high end&quot; accounts. But you can't judge a book by it's cover. With the exception of maybe 2-3 clients, all the rest treat us like family. Sometimes when these people find someone who services them in the manner that is pleasing to them, they stick with them for quite a long time. They never ask how much, or complain about their bills. At least that's what we can say from our standpoint. Most of them are MORE understanding about timing and demands on that we are under certain times of the year. We feel it is the &quot;wanna bees&quot; that are the most demanding. We are lucky for the fact that we never have to estimate any jobs. They just pick up the phone and they tell us what they want. No questions asked. Sure you have your few, but it's the same few that you might have in your area and income class. We are known in our area for providing exceptional services. We do not cut and slash. But because of this, we are able to charge accordingly for this service and do not feel the need to rush to the next job. Just wanted to let you and others know that all rich folk aren't so bad.<p>Mike

[HOMER]

Thats great, I have no problem with that. I feel quite certain you have been around for a while also. My point was to say to the newcomers that &quot;all&quot; the money is not in the upper class in this business, and they certainly don't need to bypass the common areas trying to get to the top. Like you said, you are already there and your customers are happy. If Joe Blow Lawn Service pulls up to take your business and gets rejected, is he gonna give up because he doesn't think he can prosper anywhere else? <p>Most of the clientel you service have propbably been through several Companies in the past until you came along and gave them everything they were looking for. A new guy pulling up without an established name and reputation will have a real struggle trying to take your business, he would stand a better chance across the tracks so to speak.<p>Simply put, you have to crawl before you walk or run. If you get rejected enough along the climb to the top you might give up. This would be a bad thing for someone to believe that the only way they could make it is to be doing business in the Country Club, its not, and that is what I was trying to say. I wasn't trying to slam anybody that has the Club crowd, your right, if you got them and they like you, you made it, but you have to start somewhere right.<p>Homer

[lbmd1]

Homer,<br> I didn't take your post as a slam at all. I agree with your analogy about crawling before you can walk. I did not start out with all these high end residentials either. It took me a few years to be recognized as far as service goes. I agree that sometimes I miss those little 1000 sq ft lawns that take 5 minutes to do for $25! Thanks for you input.<p>MIke

[lawrence stone]

An infamous gangster was asked once <br>“Why do you rob banks?”<p>The gangster replied <br>“Because that it where the money is at”.<br>

[HOMER]

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOK!

[GrassMaster]

Homer<p>Your right, but I always tried to get both. In all honesty the middle class was the best to work for.<p>The secret when giving a bid is spend as much time as possible with customer. The longer your there the more you learn after a while in most cases they will tell you a lot & that is how you base your price.<p>I've actually got enough info out of them that I would bid it at double normal price because they would get to gripping so much & that throws up a red flag with me.<p>When they are so busy they don't have time to talk long & they say just leave a price, well in most cases it tells me that they will probably be OK.<p>I take what I could get but they all paid for it & if I had problems, I would just give 30 days notice that there would be a price increase take it OK & drop me OK.<br><p>----------<br>GrassMaster - Have a nice day!!!!! Home: http://www.lawnservicing.com<br>Visit my browser Start Up Page http://www.lawnservicing.com/startup/

[GroundKprs]

What most startup businesses fail to assess is the overall market. In our segment of the service industry, who just wants the service and who must have it?<p>Remember that there is a significant number of seniors, 75 to 100, who are still healthy and want to continue to live in their lifetime homes. Many of these are living in the city, with small lots that they maintained themselves for dozens of years. There is no question of payment, no matter what the economy, because this generation has saved enough for that.<p>The only problem for a new operator is to contact this clientelle. They can be somewhat demanding, because you are taking over a job that they have done for years. But if you care to do a detail job, and listen a little, you can easily establish a dependable income in this area.<p>----------<br>Jim<br>North central Indiana

[AB Lawn Care]

I think high-end is the great work.I too have had hard to deal with snobby people who think they are better than you.The more of pain they are the more their price is and it just keeps going up until 1.they pull out what ever flew up their butt and act like a reasonable person or 2.they can't handle the price an quit.Once you have enough work you can start to get rid of those nasty costumers and concentrate on doing a good job for you happy good paying costumers.I think even if half the high-end jobs in your area are snobs,don't let that stop you from cutting those types of lawns.Just rid yourself of the snobs and bring on the nice jobs!<p>from:Adam<br>AB Lawn Care

[thelawnguy]

Everybody needs to find their own niche in which they are most comfortable. I started out with the shotgun approach but soon found myself in over my head. I now specialize in the smaller (10-20,000 sq ft) city lots since I work solo and I can get a lot of customers in a relatively small geographic area, and they pay the same as larger lots, I dont need to stay all day at a lot, the smaller areas are more suited to one-man operation esp during spring/fall cleanup time, and there isnt much PROFESSIONAL competition since either other companies are scared to venture into the city or they think its &quot;beneath&quot; them not to be kissing rich hiney in the burbs.<p>On another note, I had every intention of converting all my customers to a seasonal-type contract but had last-minute second thoughts and decided to keep them all on a pay-as-you-go system. Its worked well for me in the past. Im good at budgeting so it doesnt matter if I get my money in spurts or evenly distributed. And I dont have to worry about customers micro-managing whether they are getting their moneys worth-they pay for exactly what they get. Snow will be a different story, Im still planning to change next seasons res, snow accts to either seasonal flat-rate or some sort of minimum retainer.<p>Anyone interested in my spring letter go to profile and e-mail me Ill send it to you its in a 27kb .doc file.<p>Bill<p>----------<br>&quot;...half my brain tied behind my back, just to make it fair.&quot; R.L.<br>

[lawrence stone]

Lawnguy make your snow removal account pay<br>your for four &quot;pushes&quot; up front then charge a set rate for any pushes after the forth.

[thelawnguy]

Mr Stone thats exactly what I have in mind.<p>Let me know what you thought of my letter.<p>Bill<p>----------<br>&quot;...half my brain tied behind my back, just to make it fair.&quot; R.L.<br>

[kountryscape]

hey guys what i was thinking while i was reading your post was. what are there more of rich people, middle class, or poor people ok your answer could be poor ones but how many of those have their lawns cared for? my idea is that the middle class has more people in it , and there the ones with more $ than time. after all they have to work to pay for the house all week long and go on their boat on the weekends when do they have time to mow the yard? they flat out don't want to. rich or high end customers are few and far between and if you don't have that big name that is known in the upper class kingdom your out of there. i compare this to when i was in school any grade. the smart kids got the attention, the middle kids were just there doing what kids do , and the slow or kids that get into trouble alot were rewarded with field trips , for once look to the middle kids ,now the baby boomers (the middle class) for the jobs. and also there are alot more seniors out there now than ever i have found if you treat older people like everyone else they will like you much more than if you treat them like a little kid. i hate it when people try to talk to seniors just as they do a three year old . those older people were your age once and know alot of interesting things pay attention. just what i was thinking hope it helps jarrett