they are out there

[MacLawnCo]

Guys, with all the whining about low-balling, i though i would share an interesting and refreshing experince that i had this afternoon.

I had placed a door hanger on my newest clients house 3 weeks ago. The following saturday, i went back in person and talked with the husband and left him my tri-fold. He said his wife is in charge of the contracting and if they needed me, they would call. Low and behold, they called me and we met this afternoon.

I already have 8 other clients down the street from these guys, so at our meeting, i quoted them $25(my min) for their 8K sqft lawn. Once he heard my quote, he told me "truthfully, you are almost too low. How about we give you $30?" His wife went on to tell me that if i wanted to, i could cut it twice a week in the spring. Last thing they said to me was "If you take care of us, we'll take care of you." I was like...whoa? Did these guys really just fall into my lap? I am beging to realize that things are shaping up beautifully for the years to come.

I wish you all luck in finding these 1 in 100 type of clients. Work on your public immage and great things will come to you too.

[walker-talker]

Yeah, those are nice to have. I picked up some scalping accounts for a guy that went out of business. I wrote all his clients a letter that I would scalp at the same price as the previous LCO did. I went and did the first one today. Took me 2 hours and got $300. I have picked up 2 other of his clients. I can only hope that they pay as well, but I have my doubts. Oh yeah, after the guy wrote me the check, he asked is that was enough....hehe....I told him that was fair. Glad to hear some of us are getting the breaks. I love thread of this nature. Always seems to give me extra motivation and hopes of going full time soon.

Good luck
MATT

[JimLewis]

Hey, I hate to rain on your parade here but $25 per cut is not all that great for 8K s.f. We get more than that for our little postage stamp 2K s.f. lawns we do. And we've got 8 in a row on some streets too.

Even your customer is trying to tell you something - YOU'RE CHARGING TOO LITTLE!

[fblandscape]

I've had customers offer me more money than what I asked only once or twice in the past. HOWEVER! I have recieved some VERY nice tips in the past couple years.

[Bob Minney]

MacLawn
Buddy, reread your post. You bring up guys whining about lowballers then you point it out as a positive story when your customer saves you from lowballing? Instead of being happy that the customer gives you an extra $5 on a $25 quote, price it $55 and let them know why you are worth it. (And be sure you are)

If I'm missing something explain it to me

[LawnMowerMan2003]

What is scalping? I've never heard of this term before.

[TaussigLawnCare]

25$ for a 8 k is a good price around here to many lowballers. I got a 50$ tip for christmas from this doctor guy made me feel great and I was only mowing his rental.

[sheppard]

I've had two customers do that for me last year. They though I was a tad low so they offered me more with the admonishemnt "Just take care of me!"

Life is goooooood.

S.

[walker-talker]

Originally posted by LawnMowerMan2003
What is scalping? I've never heard of this term before.

Cutting bermuda or zoysia at a cutting depth of 1". It's a messy and dirty job and hard on your mowers, but there is a demand for it and it pays well.

MATT

[Gravely_Man]

Glad that things are working out for you. Your price is more then reasonable but if you can make a profit at that price and are fully licensed and insured then go for it.


Gravely_Man

[Meier]

My price on 8k sq ft is $36.00. Weekly only.

Later,
DFW, TX

[MacLawnCo]

As i said, my min is $25. I can mow, edge, trim and clean up that 8K sqft in 25 mins easy. I have no drive time since i already spend a half day in that hood anyway. I dont know what to tell you all, excet that i can easily pay my expenses, tax, insurance, and a hefty profit with $60 per hour.

[Miller]

Ok. So let me explain it to you this way; post a picture of your home (that you bought), pickup, trailer, shop, equipment, and copy of your liability insurance and THEN I'll explain to you why you STILL aren't making enough money. (In fact, I won't have to. I bet the pictures will speak for themselves.)

Now if you've got a really nice truck, all the best equipment, the home you want, a nice shop, nice trailer, are always able to pay all of your bills on time every month, and have commercial liability insurance, I'll eat my words. And I'll agree that you are doing WONDERFUL, and don't need to charge any more than $25 for that account. But can you honestly say that all of the above is true and you have enough money to pay for everything you need to run a nice professional outfit and live a comfortable lifestyle??? If not, you need to charge more!!!

That's the problem with lowballers - they are never thinking in the long term. What it will cost to live on their own, have a shop, have and maintain nice respectable equipment, vehicles, trailers, etc. etc. etc........

[BRIAN GALLO]

Mac,

The neighborhood is going to dictate the price most of all, I think. If that's a good price for that neighborhood, plus you got some extra, sounds good to me. A lot of guys get on here and say "I get $75 per cut for a 3k lawn" for example. Maybe that lawn is attached to a 1 millon dollar home! Maybe your lawn is attached to an 80k home - big difference I feel. I wish folks would be a bit more specific about that, otherwise you could feel like you're too low.

[BRIAN GALLO]

Miller,

I'm with you 100% on that aspect and how you presented it. However, what do you do if your market just won't bear the prices that some others get? I have to deal with that all the time. I think maybe a good definition of a lowballer would be someone who is satisfied and content with taking less when there is more avalible. I do ok personnally, but would like way more (like you described), but I can't get blood out of a rock if you know what I mean.

[Remsen1]

"I'll throw in an extra $5 if you take care of me."

TRANSLATION:

"For $5 you are my personal slave. I will ask for lots of extras and expect them for free. If you hesitate I will lay on the heaviest guilt trip that you have ever felt. If you decline I will dump you, and spread the word that you are a terrible LCO."

[nelbuts]

Does any one here think that what might be a good price in one state may not be a good price in another? Give the guy a break. I am sure the cost of living is not as much in Ohio as it is in New York. Here in Florida we still have guys doing 5,000 sq. ft. lawns for $15.00 and that was the going rate 18 years ago! I do them for $20 by the week and get yearly prices for pruning, weed control, cutting, and fert. two times per year run around $125.00 per month. I only do about 10 weekly cut customers.

I am working two deals now for over 25K per year and another that is over 6K per year. If I get those two then I won't take on any other work for the rest of the year.

[KDJ]

Originally posted by Miller
Ok. So let me explain it to you this way; post a picture of your home (that you bought), pickup, trailer, shop, equipment, and copy of your liability insurance and THEN I'll explain to you why you STILL aren't making enough money. (In fact, I won't have to. I bet the pictures will speak for themselves.)

Now if you've got a really nice truck, all the best equipment, the home you want, a nice shop, nice trailer, are always able to pay all of your bills on time every month, and have commercial liability insurance, I'll eat my words. And I'll agree that you are doing WONDERFUL, and don't need to charge any more than $25 for that account. But can you honestly say that all of the above is true and you have enough money to pay for everything you need to run a nice professional outfit and live a comfortable lifestyle??? If not, you need to charge more!!!

That's the problem with lowballers - they are never thinking in the long term. What it will cost to live on their own, have a shop, have and maintain nice respectable equipment, vehicles, trailers, etc. etc. etc........





AH..... The painful truth.

[Randy Scott]

Originally posted by Remsen1
"I'll throw in an extra $5 if you take care of me."

TRANSLATION:

"For $5 you are my personal slave. I will ask for lots of extras and expect them for free. If you hesitate I will lay on the heaviest guilt trip that you have ever felt. If you decline I will dump you, and spread the word that you are a terrible LCO."

This is what I was thinking also. Now they own you. People DON'T offer to pay more for something without a reason.

[LawnMowerMan2003]

I understand what you are saying about not really charging enough, but sometimes I've felt that I had to lowball, at least to get started. I used to advertise for $25 lawn care, even though I did not do all yards for $25, I did quite a few of them for that price. I never measured them, but some of my competition has told me I was charging too much, and they wouldn't mow anything for $25. It's difficult when you're first getting started, because people don't know about you yet, so I figured I could work for less to get my foot in the door. Then, when I decided to raise my prices a little, and advertise for $30 lawn care, one of my competitors started a new service and put up signs everywhere for $20 lawn care. So, what do you do? I was almost forced to go back down to $25, because I didn't want my competition to be getting all the calls, even though I know he wasn't doing that much for $20, people would probably call him first, because he advertised $10 cheaper. And the ironic thing is that now that I have made signs for $25 lawn care, I don't even don't even think he's putting up his signs now. What would you have done in my postion? And another quick question: How much an hour is enough?

[TaussigLawnCare]

I try to make at least 40-50 an hour