Guys it is getting bad in this industry

[stephen424]

If you knew she was struggling every since her husband died, you could have offered her that $5 price break a long time ago, until things became stable for her. You'd still be making decent money. It shouldn't take you and your dad no more than 15 minutes to do 1/4 acre.

I've given price breaks several times when needed. It goes a long way sometimes
Posted via Mobile Device

[ProStreetCamaro]

Originally Posted by baileylawnservice

its people like you that are low balling 25$? really i remember mowing for that price in the late 1990s

Reality is hard for you to understand isn't it? You will understand it one day when it slaps you in the face and it eventually will. Please come here and start quoting prices higher than $25 for anything smaller than a 25,000 sq/ft lawn. I dare you! Let me know if you do because i will bring the camcorder to get your reaction when people start laughing at you and telling you to get off of there property. You are simply kidding yourself if you think it will never happen in your area.

Just an FYI years ago we never quoted that low. The customers that we have had for many years are at a higher rate than our newer customers. A few of them have even come out to talk and they mentioned they get $20 a cut fliers multiple times a week every spring but they like and trust us so they stay with us.

[stephen424]

Originally Posted by ProStreetCamaro

Negative on that one. This customer lost her husband 3 years ago and has been struggling to pay her bills. She is in her 60's and almosot every year she gets 1, 2, 3 months behind and one day she will come out and pay us. Been like that with her ever since her husband passed. We never said a word because she always did eventually pay and she told us up front about her situation and thanked us for understanding and not cutting her off. Now she found a way to save a few bucks so we are out. This is a 10,000 sq/ft lawn. She even cut back on how often she had it treated so I know she is making all of her decisions based on price. BTW her lawn was always one of the better looking lawns in the neighborhood. Always cut clean and striped in different directions and always trimmed and edged crisp. Nobody is going to be able to come in and do a better job. We have had her neighbor for over 20 years. They did quit a few years ago and went with a bigger outfit. After 2 years they came back. They said they felt we did a better job and it helped that we still had the neighbor that just quit yesterday so both lawns were side by side and in direct comparison every week.

Here is something else she would do once her husband passed. Every year she would get a price from us to trim the bush's, clean the beds out and edge them and mulch. 4 yards of mulch required. Every year we told her it would be the same as previous years. 4 yards of mulch at $60 a yard installed and that also included trimming the bush's, weeding and edging. So that quote was always $240. A couple weeks later we would show up to cut and it would be done. Now who the hell is going to come in and do all of that for less than $240?

You do 4 yards of mulch, bed cleanup and trim the shrubs for $240!! No harm man, but do you realize that you're a lowballer too?!
Posted via Mobile Device

[ProStreetCamaro]

Originally Posted by stephen424

If you knew she was struggling every since her husband died, you could have offered her that $5 price break a long time ago, until things became stable for her. You'd still be making decent money. It shouldn't take you and your dad no more than 15 minutes to do 1/4 acre.

I've given price breaks several times when needed. It goes a long way sometimes
Posted via Mobile Device

You are right it takes about 15 minutes. Our favor to her was not cutting her off when she got behind and never nagging her about it. In the fall we would charge her an extra $40 at the end of the season for cleaning the leaves and boy does she have a ton of them! At the back of her yard is woods so we would cut and clean the yard every week and only charged her an extra $40 at the end of the year. I bet she did not think of that when she decided to switch. I bet these guys are going to want more than $40 to keep the leaves cleaned up. Then again if they are cutting for $20 they may do it for free............

[ProStreetCamaro]

Originally Posted by stephen424

You do 4 yards of mulch, bed cleanup and trim the shrubs for $240!! No harm man, but do you realize that you're a lowballer too?!
Posted via Mobile Device

Did you not read what I wrote? Prices are dictated by the market you are in or else you go out of business because you have no business. It is not lowballing if that is the going rate in that given market.

[soloscaperman]

Originally Posted by ProStreetCamaro

Did you not read what I wrote? Prices are dictated by the market you are in or else you go out of business because you have no business. It is not lowballing if that is the going rate in that given market.

To me the market doesn't factor from state or town but by each customer. I have some rich customer's that live in the valley and I make more then some that have more expensive homes. Each customer has their little economy that you base it on.

[ProStreetCamaro]

Originally Posted by soloscaperman

To me the market doesn't factor from state or town but by each customer. I have some rich customer's that live in the valley and I make more then some that have more expensive homes. Each customer has their little economy that you base it on.

In theory that makes sense. What has happened here is all of these companies hand out fliers every spring and they contain a line at the bottom of the flier where they hand write a price before they stick it on the mailbox. People around here have seen this for the last 5+ years and they are conditioned to "think" anything higher and they are getting ripped off. And the guys doing these lawns for $20 are actually doing a good job. So if you were Joe Blow looking at get your lawn taken care of what would you do? If you witness the guys across the street for a couple years doing a nice reliable job and you ask them for a price and they tell you $20 would you say no? What if you also got a couple other quotes and 2 of them were for $20 and one for $25 and another for $35. Who would you choose considering you already know the guys that quoted $20 do a good job on your neighbors lawn?

[cgaengineer]

Originally Posted by stephen424

You do 4 yards of mulch, bed cleanup and trim the shrubs for $240!! No harm man, but do you realize that you're a lowballer too?!
Posted via Mobile Device

Doesn't much matter since he said he never got the work and that someone did it for less before he showed up now does it?

Guess he's not a low baller now is he?
Posted via Mobile Device

[yardguy28]

Originally Posted by soloscaperman

To me the market doesn't factor from state or town but by each customer. I have some rich customer's that live in the valley and I make more then some that have more expensive homes. Each customer has their little economy that you base it on.

unless I'm misunderstanding you, not really.

my prices are the same for everyone. doesn't matter how much money you make. if a 1/4 goes for $32 a cut thats what you pay whether your a heart doc or lawyer or whether your a garbage man or walmart greeter.

[soloscaperman]

Originally Posted by ProStreetCamaro

In theory that makes sense. What has happened here is all of these companies hand out fliers every spring and they contain a line at the bottom of the flier where they hand write a price before they stick it on the mailbox. People around here have seen this for the last 5+ years and they are conditioned to "think" anything higher and they are getting ripped off. And the guys doing these lawns for $20 are actually doing a good job. So if you were Joe Blow looking at get your lawn taken care of what would you do? If you witness the guys across the street for a couple years doing a nice reliable job and you ask them for a price and they tell you $20 would you say no? What if you also got a couple other quotes and 2 of them were for $20 and one for $25 and another for $35. Who would you choose considering you already know the guys that quoted $20 do a good job on your neighbors lawn?

Well over $5 it would be from poor customer relationship or there broke. I get a lot of guys that try and take my customers and they laugh rip up the fliers because not only do you get what you pay for but sometimes it's not the price but what you offer that the customer knows NO ONE ELSE WILL MATCH what you give. I told one customer that sure they are $10 a cut cheaper but they will jack up the rate in no time. Each customer varies that you have some may go but most will stay. When it comes to our field seems like the only way to get new customer's is to pray the competition does a poor job or cut prices to get them.