A Disturbing Trend in the Green Industry

[yardguy28]

Originally Posted by Smallaxe

I've always considered that "Lawnsite", was a professional site in which professionals hang out and talk about excellence in the profession...

It would be the kind of site that the public at large could also dip into and get some insight as to what would be good or bad, to have happen in the lawn and gardens...

The trend that we see happening,,, instead of excellence in the industry, we are seeing the dis-honesty that can make you the most money in the industry...

Does anyone else have a problem with this trend or is it the way America does business now???

well if I understand you right the kind of dishonesty I think you are referring to is things like getting everyone (LCO's) together and raising the market price as high as you can. things like charging extremely high amounts just because you can. payment methods that involve clients paying x amount each year no matter how little work is done.

and yes I do have a problem with this way of doing business and that's why I don't do business that way.

when I set my prices I did 2 things. called a few friends in the business to see what they charge for the different sizes of properties and I made a budget to see what my cost of living was and decided just how much profit I needed for that cost of living. then I made my prices.

I don't charge this amount or that amount because that's what the market is baring. I charge what I charge because that's what I need to turn the profit I need for my budget.

for example my min is $25. that's what I need to turn a profit for my budget. my friends min is $40. could I raise my rate clearly I could. but I don't need to for my budget and there'd be a lot of smaller yards I'd loose because that's extremely high for those size of yards.

I also invoice at the end of the month for work actually performed. no contracts or payment plans where the client may end up paying for 34 mows and only receive 28 because of a drought.

[jrs.landscaping]

@ Yardguy, I agree with some of your points. We shouldn't push our prices beyond what our area can handle, but we should get decent rates for our services. On contracts it depends on the customer, some just want to know things will be taken care of and they don't have to babysit their property. I also agree with some of the larger companies and the "quality" they say they provide on installs. Then when we take over the maintenance we are left with a mess.

[yardguy28]

Originally Posted by jrs.landscaping

@ Yardguy, I agree with some of your points. We shouldn't push our prices beyond what our area can handle, but we should get decent rates for our services. On contracts it depends on the customer, some just want to know things will be taken care of and they don't have to babysit their property. I also agree with some of the larger companies and the "quality" they say they provide on installs. Then when we take over the maintenance we are left with a mess.

oh I agree we should get decent rates. but a lot of guys push and push and push beyond what there area can handle.

I do sort of see where guys using contracts are coming from its just for me. I prefer to do the work and invoice for what work I actually did. I'd have a hard time adding up all my services for a year and charging the client 12 monthly payments because a large part of that price is mowings. but in the long run if they were willing to do it I would agree.

[Sean Adams]

I think it is a combination of several things....

1.) There will always be people operating dishonestly - in every business, in every industry.

2.) There are people that just don't know any better.

3.) There is not much barrier to entry into this industry.

4.) The focus on money versus a quality service at a fair price is in large part because consumers are different now than they were 5, 10, 15, 20 years ago. People are connected, they have access to more information, they are more price concious than ever before, and a struggling economy doesn't help either.

Certainly doesn't excuse people intentionally being dishonest.

As service providers in the industry, we have to take a different approach.