some people crack me up!!!!!

[General Grounds]

:blob3: Lady calls today and says i know this is kinda last minute but can you do a full clean-up, (trim, edge, mulch,etc.). i said i'll be out monday and leave you a quote and terms. she says if all looks good i need it done by next weekend, sorry lady were booked till july 4th. she tells me i need more help and hangs up, what the hell is goin on. anybody else out there dealing with people who seem to think your sittin around with your thumb in your A^%. tony

[1MajorTom]

I agree. Some people do think that when they call, they should be put on top of the list.

But I do think July is a little late to expect that lady to wait around for mulch. At least in our area, most people like to have their mulch refreshed by Memorial Day.

It's good for you though that you are so busy. :)

[Kelly Landscaping]

A customer calls yesterday at 2pm and leaves a message that he needs his shrubs pruned by 3. Someone is coming over to look at the place to buy it.

YEA I'LL BE RIGHT THERE:rolleyes:

[Commander]

Customer calls at 3:30 on July 4 saying she needs 10 stumps dug out and disposed of by the following morning. :alien:

[KirbysLawn]

General, I agree with her, if you are booked full for the next 3 months you do need more help.

[Brickman]

Those are the ones that you can get away with seriously high balling.
I have a motto on my cork board right now that says.

SAVINGS CERTIFICATE

WE OFFER THREE TYPES OF WORK

fast, good, and cheap

SELECT ANY TWO.

FAST AND GOOD WILL NOT BE CHEAP.

GOOD AND CHEAP WILL NOT BE FAST.

FAST AND CHEAP WILL NOT BE GOOD.

YOUR FAVORITE SELECTION WILL BE HONORED.


I had a person call me late sat night could I come mow right now. I had just finished raining was wet and dark wasn't far away. I told them no. They said they had an open house sunday and had to have the lawn mowed. Any way I went over and did it, and charged them about twice what it would have any other time of the week.
They paid with out complaining, in cash.
Said that they had called a ton of guys and nobody would come out.

This JUST happened tonight (friday). A guy calls me on the phone. Wanted me to come look at his yard tomorrow or the next day. I told him that I am busy and wouldn't be able to make it until Tuesday morning. "OK, I will call you later" and hangs up. No patience, besides the grass isn't growing enough yet to even start mowing. WHATEVER.

[ohiolawnguy]

we have a customer who does that sort of thing every year. they have an "open house" party sometime every spring, and want us to "spruce the place up and make it look nice"

it usually around april may each year, but never the same week each year she usually gives us about 24 hours notice for this GEE THANKS! well this year she gave us 48 hours notice. we were absolutely shocked. who knows maybe next year we will get 72 hours notice. i won't count on it though.

it is too bad she still hasn't caught the hint that if she gave us a week notice, the job would be 1/3 of the price we always charge her. oh well always smile when we send out the bill for that job.

[General Grounds]

:blob3: kirby, i've been booking work since last dec. i cant help it if people request their work to be done in june and july, my regular customers come first, they have 1st crack at my calender and usually do the same work around thesame time each year. i know in feb. whose getting what and when. tony

P.S., 12 guys on payroll is enough for now thanks, also people should'nt wait until a week before a special event, also many of tthe LCO's around here are booked further than me.

[smburgess]

Tony...

Have to go with KirbysLawn,
It doesn't matter how many employees you have, if your booked full for April, May, and June you need to hire some more employees!
You obviously are letting a great deal of business go.

And if alot of other LCO are booked further down the road than you, it's nice to see a area with not much competition!

What do you do if one of your regular customers requests a service, say 15 yards of mulch on April 15th with a ornamental pruning ( they're going to have a party), do you really tell them you won't be able to get to them until after July 4th?

[Brickman]

I can't find ONE good helper. Let alone 12.
It must be nice to have that much work.

[BRIAN GALLO]

How about these types - I get at least one or two every year. They call and leave a message on my answering machine at 1:30 pm and say the need a service or estimate. I get home and check the messages at 2:30, call them back, and they say they already got someone! Talk about ants in the pants - why even leave a message if you aren't going to let anyone respond to it? :blob2:

[KirbysLawn]

General, not sure why that little blue guy is bouncing and sorry if you don't agree but that's the way it is.

What would you say if you called a mechanic, painter, carpenter, or anyone else and they said sure I'll be out Monday to give you a quote and then they tell you it will be three months before they fix your car, paint your house, or whatever? I know I would say the same thing she said.

Glad to hear business is doing so good.

Brian, I've had several of those...:angry:

[mikey]

i have an add in the paper that goes to 10 different communities
so this bit@!@ calls me up and says if i do her city and i said "ya i can come up and take a look?she says "no forget it your to far away"i use my cell phone # as my business and then she hangs up!!!.....what the helll would i be advertising in your city if i dont
go there you bit!@...

[MuskTurfKing]

Well, General, sounds like your doing SOMETHING right if your booked up that far back, I wish I was.....

Hank

[65hoss]

If your wanting to grow more then yes you need more employees. If your happy with were your business is right now then no you don't need anymore.

But, if your customers are having to wait until July to get normal work done, then yes you need more help. If its other type of work thats booked that far out then way to go. You've done many things right to have that much business.

[jeffex]

Emergency jobs get Emergency Prices!! People call us in Jan. hoping to be first on the list for having thier decks pressure washed. That fills up april. When I get the calls now I can fit them in for a price. I do the same for lawn emergencies. Yesterday we were mowing a regular cust. and a neighbor wants us to do thier first cut because her husband is hurt. Very high grass so we gave her a very high price. I love emergencies. $50 for a $25 yard. I'm thinking of specializing in EMERGENCIES. 23 1/2 hr service. I get calls from deck customers saying they are having a big party in 2wks and need thier deck cleaned and stained. We are usually booked a month in advance. I add an additional fee to move someone else back in the schedule. THE ART OF PRICING

[GroundKprs]

How much of your revenues are from contracted services, and how much are from add ons? Within 3 years of starting to track these, I found that 15% of revenues were add ons, and these only used 8-9% of year's time. So I keep the time reserved for the easy money. Only sell 90% of time for the coming season.

Contracted services are 5 to 15% off of list price, depending on services, because planning allows efficiency. Add ons are list price, rush add ons are list + appropriate differential (how tired am I? LOL).

Anyone ever call a plumber for a plugged main on Sunday morning? Not too many plumbers will say to wait for Wednesday, or even Monday. They know where the gravy is! Someday lawn guys might wise up, too.

[slingshot]

Most contractors in Nj are booked up 1 year in advance. Look up lawn maintenance in NJ on the web and call and you will see this guy is not pulling your leg

[General Grounds]

:blob3: thank you slingshot, if people request to be done in late may or june than why would i need more employees? i dont advertise and all work is word of mouth and 99% of my cutomers do the same job year after year. if mrs. jones calls in feb and says tony please schedule me for the same job you did last year and i'd like it around june 1, how is that my fault. im not booked till june because we can not keep up, its by request. i would love to be playing golf on sat. than working. ran into a lco at lunch today and said he's done booking for the year. oh well

[creative concepts]

General grounds and Slingshot,

You both are absolutely correct on the booked up thing. I started scheduling work in late September of last year for this year. As of right now I am booked until late October for design/build work and until August for mulch and misc. jobs. I don't feel that you need to hire more people if you do not want to. I feel it is more a showing of how well your company is doing. I do plan on hiring more employees if I can find good ones.

kirbyslawn, 1majortom, smburgess

What do you do with the employees when the spring time rush is over, fire them? I don't see how hiring more employees to get the jobs of the procrastinaters(sp?) is going to help any business. I could be wrong, but this is just my opinion. All of our advertising is just like general grounds, word of mouth. I have no problem telling potential clients that I can not get there until x months later rather than telling them "sure, I can be here in two weeks" just to fit their time schedule. Again, just my 2cents

[BGRANT]

Originally posted by KirbysLawn
General, I agree with her, if you are booked full for the next 3 months you do need more help.

I will have to ditto reply.I think I would have said I wasn't able to do the job.A 3 month wait sounds ridiculous
Just my opinion
Brian Grant.

[General Grounds]

:blob3: Chris, when we start are mowing season, i split up four ways. 2-4mancrews do the lawns, except on thursday all 12 guys cut. otherwise i send out a 3-man crew to do the small misc. stuff plant a tree here, weed beds,minor trimming, etc, and one guy to do my fert. so i can keep them all buzy, i hate bringing in people for a month or two get them trained and then let them goin june. great to see your doin well, i booked 2 paver jobs for october today, unbelievable. talk to ya soon t.

[KirbysLawn]

Look fellows, I'm not saying anyone is or is not busy...I have no way of knowing. What I am saying is if you are booked for 3 months or a year stop taking new bids.

I don't undersatnd why she is thought to be crazy for not being happy about having to wait half way thru the summer to have a spring clean up. Good greif...

[Nebraska]

I agree with Kirby.

Yet there are those weird ones that want something immediately like the lady who called today and wanted a price for aeration, mowing, and edging over the phone. Said that it had to be done by 9:00am on Sunday; this is 4:00pm Saturday she called.

Yeah right! Told her that we would be out on Monday if she would like to measure and evaluate the property.... Did not go for it... Those are the ones that I do not mind passing up.

[smburgess]

creative concepts...

Why would I fire employees after the "Spring Rush"? Summer will be here right along with work! The only time I really slow down is January!
The BIG reason for getting those jobs from "procrastinators" is the same I get any business, TO MAKE MONEY. And usually I can count on picking up even more business from NEW clients after I do some mulching, or pruning, or landscaping, or irrigation repair, etc. - that's how you grow. And telling "potential" clients you can get to them in three months? I think you can DROP "potential" and say you passed on an opportunity to pick up a NEW client.

General Grounds...

If you're presently booked thru July 4th and turning away business, why would you have to let someone go after a MONTH (in June?)? That makes NO SENSE.

[General Grounds]

:blob3: sm, if you read my response it was to someone else ?, and i said i WOULD'NT hire extra help just to get rid of them 2 months later. T

[GroundKprs]

Another regional difference that will never be resolved!

As an ex-NJ resident, now living in the lovely backward state of IN, I can understand GG's viewpoint. Not gonna try to start any arguements, but in the NJ area, you usually play hell trying to find someone to do work for you - good work, that is (well, even bad work. Right, GG? LOL).

If you made Ray live and work in NJ for two years, he would be in a nut house in two months. And if you made GG live and work in NC for two years, he'd be in a nut house there real quick. Look at the locations of the above authors, and you can easily see an where the division in this thread comes from.

I still like the idea of not selling all my time in advance. If doctors did that (well, maybe they do in NJ, LOL), how would you get in to see your doctor for an emergency? And if I have free time that isn't taken up today by extra work, there's always the smallmouth in the river. But I don't think you can find too many places to catch smallmouth in NJ?

[KirbysLawn]

I'm not sure reigion has anything at all to do with trying to continue to sell your services even though you know you are booked solid and can't do the job.

Your idea about keeping 10% of your time open for add-on's and last minute shoper is the best posted in this thread.

[creative concepts]

I am not trying to start an argument or get anyone upset with my replys but I am a little confused. Why is it a bad thing to know that your quality of work is in such demand that people are willing to wait for you? It may be different when your company becomes larger (this will be my third year as owner, 14 years total experience) to keep up with the demand. As I book more work for the season, I then hire more people knowing that i can afford them and need them. This now allows me the time to train new hires and start booking more work for the season. I would be a little nervous if I was only booked until 3 months down the road and not knowing if anymore work will be available. Like I said before, everyone is different and we do what is comfortable to us. I do want to grow into a larger company but I do not want to grow so rapidly that my quality begins to falter. Most of the people that I know in the industry in NJ are booked throughout the year already and are starting to book for next season.

[KirbysLawn]

Why is it a bad thing to know that your quality of work is in such demand that people are willing to wait for you?

Chris, it seems that people are not willing to wait, that's why this post was started.

[mountain man]

I agree with Kirby. Why bid work you can't get to in the next 3 months. From past experience, we know what a lot of our regular customers want on an annual basis. Therefore, we call them instead of waiting on them to call us. By doing this we can be proactive and schedule jobs like mulch installs before the busy planting season and while the incoming calls are slower. This helps balance out the work load throughout the entire year as well as gives us more time for new work when the weather warms up and the new calls start coming in.

[creative concepts]

I think that I might be slightly confused. Are we talking about existing clients wanting work done or potential clients?

[JimLewis]

I have to agree with Kirby, Hoss, and a couple of other guys. You need to hire more workers if you are that far booked out. It's normal to be booked out a few weeks. But that far out is a little rediculous.

If I was booked that far out I'd hire one or two more crews. Once things slowed down (if they did), I'd lay them off. But they'd be better off having worked for a few months than not having worked at all. And I'd have taken on a lot more jobs and made a lot more money.

[BRL]

Yep, things are busy here in NJ. Figure I might as well jump in here too. Someone posted about getting doctor's appointments. I rarely go to the doctor. On the 3 occasions I have tried to get an emergency appointment with my primary doctor because I finally felt so bad that I couldn't function & wanted to get checked out, the earliest offered appointment I was 4 days from the request. One time while suffering from severe bronchitis that was so bad my wife had to make the call, the earliest appointment offered was 2 weeks from the request. LOL She told them maybe she could have the coffin sent over 2 weeks from then for a quick look see before they threw me into the ground. That's NJ for ya.

When I talk to "potential" new clients, they are usually thrilled that they actually got an LCO to call them back, and will practically drop to their knees & kiss your feet if you actually show up for an appointment to discuss their landscaping needs. I keep March April & May open for existing customers and their add ons and any work scheduled from the Fall before, & tell any new customers I'll meet with them in May or June to schedule for the summer or fall based on how things go. Most wait with no complaints, just because I actually called them back. I saw a survey a few years ago for the bordering county here that showed 63,000 people hired a landscape or lawn contractor in the previous year. This study lumped fertilizing, tree work, installation, lawns & etc. services into one. If you look in the yellow pages for that area you will find about 250 different companies covering those services. If you figure 3 or 4 times that many companies (?) not in the yellow pages, you realize there is a whole lot of work needed around here, and probably not enough people to get it done.

To the naysayers of GG, why should he expand his company more than where he wants it to be right now? Sounds like he is at the size he wants to be for now, and that's great. The potential clients that can't wait for him can call one of his competitors just as easy. I think NJ is still a part of America these days and that everyone is free to do what they want.

[KirbysLawn]

Bill,

I guess the point has not been realized yet. As being a naysayers I assume I will make this one last comment.

I and most here have not disagreed with GG, we are happy for his success. The point I have been trying to make is why post a thread here making fun of a customer that thinks 3 months is too long to wait for service? See my point?

I would assume from what the NJ guys are saying we should never hear any complaints about lowballing in NJ...true? Since business is booming you guys should be able to get top price for your services and live very well.

...why should he expand his company more than where he wants it to be right now?

He does not have too, but why keep taking calls and scheduling estimates if you have no desire to expand further and have make no room for add on? Makes no since.

[1MajorTom]

Quote: I and most here have not disagreed with GG, we are happy for his success. The point I have been trying to make is why post a thread here making fun of a customer that thinks 3 months is too long to wait for service? See my point?

Yep, I agree. That's what I was saying too.

[BRL]

"The point I have been trying to make is why post a thread here making fun of a customer that thinks 3 months is too long to wait for service? See my point? "

I am sorry I must have mis read the post, because I didn't see it as "making fun of". I saw it more as our usual venting with our peers here in the LS community. If he was making fun of the customer, then I see your point. Otherwise, it just seemed to me to be another "venting" post about experiences we all go through in this biz (plenty of those threads here at LS).

"I would assume from what the NJ guys are saying we should never hear any complaints about lowballing in NJ...true? Since business is booming you guys should be able to get top price for your services and live very well."

There are parts of the state that are much less populated where that can be a problem. Around here & many other parts, there is plenty of room for lowballers. I was going to say in my post that I am able to pick & choose work that I want to do. I have learned which kinds of jobs I don't like to do for various reasons, & I tell those potential clients to call someone else.

"He does not have too, but why keep taking calls and scheduling estimates if you have no desire to expand further and have make no room for add on? Makes no since."

Makes sense if you experience this area. You keep answering the phone because there are plenty of people willing to wait until you can fit them in. If they can't wait, they call someone else, and that's fine too.

[RoyaleRcr]

Last Thanksgiving I got a call from a guy about two hours before sundown on Wed. He asks me about aerating his yard. I tell him my price and he says "sounds great can you do it yet today?" Well, I still had a little energy left and I thought "I gota meet a guy that would do this to someone." It turns out that he worked for the Govt. and was going "Overseas" and he did not know when he was getting back. (if ever) GET THE PICTURE!. Remember 9/11. Well, I did the job. He was happy as Heck and he just called me for the "FULL MEAL DEAL" for this year.
MORAL OF THE STORY.....MAKE LEMONAIDE AND YOU MIGHT MAKE SOME $$$$$ I just don't get it! The harder I work, the more money I make!!!

[CTLGM]

If I could pipe in for a moment.... :D
I understand the NJ guys delima (if you want to call it that). I stay booked a consistent 2-3, sometimes 4-5 mos. out year round. When my annuals are done in October, I am still booked til Feb. and in January, when everyone here lays off, I am still booked till Spring!! I can hire more help, and have done so before, but I am not one to bring someone on and train them for 90 days or more and then if for some reason, I hit a lull -have to let them go. It's hard enough to get decent help as it is already in my area. BUT.... there are several of my customers that request projects certain times of the year every year! Some of these projects are 3-4 days and even week long projects.
You can see where things add up very quickly when you already have requests for August when you may still be in April. However, I have a Jack of all trades on my payroll. He is the one man show, that does the "specialty" items. He is more self-reliant and more productive than most of my 2-3 man crews! He is the one that when an urgent call comes in and I can sqeeze it in, to go do it!

[General Grounds]

:blob3: if i may chime in again, if people REQUEST, on having work done in july and august they why would any of us need more employees, i agree if a person calls for a simple bed weeding and we tell them 3 months, than thats a little hurtin. anyone on that calls now i let them know that i can help them as long as they are willing to wait there turn, i also think its crap we a customer or potential calls out of the blue and needs a job done within a week and has put off callin for weeks.

[AK Lawn]

Will you guys put your other customers on hold if one of these customers calls and wants service in two days and you are booked but they offer you x-amount over the top to be, will you do it?
AK Lawn

[General Grounds]

:blob3: i probably would'nt take it, because all my cutomers are full service and would'nt risk my relationship with them to do another job before them. t