Q. for those who use contracts

[RB]

I'm going to use contracts this year and I have a couple of qestions for those who have been using contracts in the past -- What does your invoices say if you just do lawn maintenance (mowing, edging, and trimming/pruning)? Do they say Monthly Installment, or Installment for the Month of (month), or do you itemize each service for the month then include the monthly price?

I'm leaning toward saying "Installment for the Month of (month)". I would like to use that because I want to avoid customer adding up every service and doing their own calculations throughout the year. Then when it's time to renew the contract they will say "well you only mowed 23 times last year, why are you charging for 26?" Most of my $ will be from mowing and I used 26 as the number of mowings in a 32 week season. If weather is similar as last year I could probably get away with 23 or 24 mowings. I will be there weekly regardless and at the very least blow and maybe weed a little and edge, but I don't want customers doing their own math.

What has been your experiences with this situation?

Also, does anyone give their customer a complete "history" of their account at the end of each season?

Thanx.
Ron

[smburgess]

My invoice states "Monthly Maintenance - FEB" or for whatever month it's for, with the amount.
Any charges for "extra" work is broken down by date, time, etc. under that.

[AztlanLC]

I usually send'em at the end of the month and put

Lawn maintenance Service Payment 1 out of 10
Lawn maintenance Service Payment 2 out of 10

and so on...

[Premo Services]

I have a question on these lines.

On my contracts I put the season as april 1st to october 31st. This would be 31 weeks or cuts. The customer cals and asked me what am I going to do about the fact that they do not water lawn, sumer gets hot and dry, and in september they aerate and seed lawn, so cuttings would be skipped. she asked am I going to give a credit for the mowings not done at the end of the season or what am I going to do, because there is no way that I will be able to get 31 cuts in the months stated.. This is the first year I am doing contracts and I am a little confused, I didn`t expect anything like this. What would you do in this situation.

[gogetter]

Premo, I'm far from an expert, but from what I've seen in other posts over the last year, most guys will still make the stop each week. And if they can't mow 'cause it's too dry, they will pull weeds in beds, or edge and blow. Maybe touch up some hedges, etc.
Ron touched on this in his post.

[AztlanLC]

I don't really know abut your area but down here grass grows a lot couple of months and then gets dry too, all those months I have to double cut and sometimes even bag it, tha's one of the reason I went with contracts only.

My customer like the way I mow (zero clippings laying around)
so even if I skip it couple of times they know I'll make it up in the fast growing months.

[jjfehr]

explain that this method of billing doesn't really reflect the # of cuts but rather, what it will take to keep their lawn in tip-top shape throughout the mowing season. (I'm not talking fert) example If it's spring, you will prob. edge with a trimmer. When in the slower growing season when you don't cut every week, you can run your stick and re-define those edges. I hope this makes sense, I read it and it does to me, but I don't know if it will to anyone else. I'm to tired to change what I wrote already.

[KirbysLawn]

Ask them if you have to double mow in the spring or mow more often due to rapid spring growth are they willing to pay extra? The above post explains it good, I charge per month, not absolutly based on the number of mowings per month. If I mow alot in April due to rapid growth, no extra charge, if I mow less in July, the bill stays the same. They are paying for your services each month, not for each lawn mowing. If you ran a business that stopped when people didn't water not sure how good that would be for your bottom line.

[gogetter]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by KirbysLawn
[B]Ask them if you have to double mow in the spring or mow more often due to rapid spring growth are they willing to pay extra?


Hi Ray. I've read posts from guys that talk about this before. But I'm not sure I understand how this is carried out. If you have an essentially full route Mon thru Fri, and the Smith's are every Mon. How do you cut them more frequently during a rapid growth period? Where do you fit them in? Ya following me?

I suppose in my scenario (mon-fri), some guys would just say longer days, or Saturdays. But then there are plenty of guys that do already work 12 hr days and Saturdays once they include side jobs, etc.. So what would they do to fit in more frequent cuts?

[smithf36]

In the spring you have to plan on being able to mow some of those lawns every 4 days or so. Or if the grass doesn't grow that much, you can mow it twice on the same visit, or bag to reduce clippings. I try not to take on a complete 5-6 days of mowings/week. I like to stick with 4 solid days and if you have problems, it grows a lot, or it thunderstorms, you have one day to make it up before the weekend. If that doesn't work for some reason or another, we mow on Saturdays.

Joe

[gogetter]

Hey Joe, my plan for this season (first full time season) was to plan mowing for Mon thru Thurs, leaving Fri (and Sat if need be)for side jobs and rain catch up day.
So I still don't see how I could schedule in mowing every 4 or 5 days.
Guess I'll be double cutting on thier regular scheduled day :cry:
Thanks for the input.

[GroundKprs]

If you think this one out, there is no problem in presenting to a client. I will never give a flat rate until the 3rd or 4th year of service. By then, you know how much work the site takes, and the client knows what you are providing. Then the flat rate is just even cash flow to you and a budget type payment to the client.

After 2 years on any small to meduim sized property, with proper record keeping, you should be able to tell within 15 minutes exactly how much time you will spend on that site providing regular maintenance for the year. Then you can give an appropriate price for a flat rate service. Of course the contract should specify exactly which services are covered.

If you try to sell a new client on a flat rate service, without definite specification of services, you are asking for trouble. "I assumed that you would do that, my last lawn guy did!", and so on. CYA is true in any business, and especially in ours.

[lamblawnscaping]

Some of you have mentioned that you may mow more often or double mow in the spring and it all evens out. What I am wondering is what if they cancel after May. They have been paying a flat rate that would balance out in the latter half of the season so if they cancel early, you end up losing out. I am doing contracts for the first time also this year, and this is the only thing I can't quite figure out. I would love to know how you guys handle this.

[Premo Services]

Kirby:
I have a question for you and others.

RB said he uses 26 as the number of cuts in a 32 week season. Do you also do your season like this?

I have thought about this and will tell her that if the lawn does not need cutting, I have to drive there, I will clean front and back areas, trim areas needed, I will also double cut or bag when needed at no extra charge.

Or I am thinking about making the number of cuts 26 instead of 31.

This is a real cheepo person. I do her small lawn for 22.00 per cut(we are talking 110.00):mad:

Groundkeepers- This is not a new customer that I am giving a contract to, this will be the 3rd year that I am doing her maintenance. I figured the length of season(Aprir to October)= 31 weeks. Took that amount and multiplied it by the charge per cut.
How do you figure your monthly fee????

[KirbysLawn]

Originally posted by gogetter
[QUOTE]Originally posted by KirbysLawn
[B]Hi Ray. I've read posts from guys that talk about this before. But I'm not sure I understand how this is carried out. If you have an essentially full route Mon thru Fri, and the Smith's are every Mon. How do you cut them more frequently during a rapid growth period? Where do you fit them in? Ya following me?

I don't have my schedule so full. If you have your schedule full everyday of the week you will not have time for this, I would never allow my schedule to be that full. I would go up on prices & weed out the cheappies and allow myself a little time for the unexpected.

Jim, I do have definited specifications of my services, they know just what they are getting and not getting.

Premo, I base my season on 34 cuts per year. I think success of a program such as this really depends on how you sale it and how the customer understands it. I have received my normal checks all thru the winter, not one person has questioned me not mowing over the last 3 months. I picked 3 new customers at the end of December, they also statred paying and I have not mowed the lawns until this week.

Lamb, all my new customers so far have paid thru the winter, I may take on one or two this spring. What you describe could happen, has not happened to me in 5 years, might this year, who knows? Not much you can do if it does.

[KirbysLawn]

Originally posted by gogetter
[QUOTE]Originally posted by KirbysLawn
[B]Hi Ray. I've read posts from guys that talk about this before. But I'm not sure I understand how this is carried out. If you have an essentially full route Mon thru Fri, and the Smith's are every Mon. How do you cut them more frequently during a rapid growth period? Where do you fit them in? Ya following me?

I don't have my schedule so full. If you have your schedule full everyday of the week you will not have time for this, I would never allow my schedule to be that full. I would go up on prices & weed out the cheappies and allow myself a little time for the unexpected.

Jim, I do have definited specifications of my services, they know just what they are getting and not getting.

Premo, I base my season on 34 cuts per year. I think success of a program such as this really depends on how you sale it and how the customer understands it. I have received my normal checks all thru the winter, not one person has questioned me not mowing over the last 3 months. I picked 3 new customers at the end of December, they also statred paying and I have not mowed the lawns until this week.

Lamb, all my new customers so far have paid thru the winter, I may take on one or two this spring. What you describe could happen, has not happened to me in 5 years, might this year, who knows? Not much you can do if it does.

[GroundKprs]

I just wanted to caution you to the expectation of a client not equalling your offerings. If you are just cutting, you have a simple way to calculate, as you did. With more services, just expand on that idea. Example, Mrs B gets full service maintenance, let's use simple basic labor rate of $50/hr for extras:

28 mowings @ $30 each = $840.00
4.75 hr shrub work @ 50/hr = 237.50
4.5 hr of spring/fall cleanups @50 = 225.00
crack & crevice weed control, 6mo @ $9/mo = 54.00
lawn fert/weed control, 3 apps @ 35/app = 105.00

So if you want to charge over 9 months, your flat rate offering would be 1461.50/9 = $162.50/mo.

Substitute your own services and rates. Problem is to sell this to a new client, who has had Joe Blow with his Craftsman tractor doing it in the past, the new client will not understand readily why he/she paid $20 a cut ($80 a month), and you are charging twice as much, even though you are doing a lot more. I prefer to have a good relationship with a client before offering special billing. That is why I will not give flat rates 'til 3rd year.

I even have 3 that are billed quarterly (they all hate paperwork as much as I do). And they pay double the first quarter billing, to more than cover the second quarter costs, so they only have to write checks twice a year; second check is to close out the year on 3rd quarter billing. These are all itemized, I just am carrying a credit balance for them for 3-4 months.

On my flat rate billings, if there is some unusual weather circumstance (one year spring was so late, I couldn't do two Apr mowings), I will credit the client for this work I did not do. I never had to refund money, because people consider that money is already spent, and just ask me to do some extra work for them; and extra work uses up the credit and gets me more to bill. Anyone thinking he should be paid for just being available (except for snow removal) is asking for a lot. Most people will want to pay you for what you actually do, and will question why you should get paid for doing nothing. That concept is mostly handled by your people skills. I always like to do extra, a few little things that show, that are not being billed for. Best way to gain trust of a customer, do something for nothing, and don't ask for thanks. We owe them the thanks for providing our income.