What are some of the most painful parts of your business

[Landrus2]

Ok ok ok. You work for this guy for a few months with out pay and from week to the next the house is empty guy moved no where to be fond

[jaec]

Other than the dog poop. I hate it when I'm on a roll and the string trimmer runs out... Man!
Or when a customer wants to talk and talk about nothing.
Other than that...I love what I do.

[THORNTON SERVICES LLC]

After thinking more about this question honestly i would say there are some things in the field that are a pain in the rear , but the biggest pain of all is office stuff , licenses , service tax , insurance , keeping all your trucks inspected , keeping all your trailers inspected , dot # crap , pritty much all that time that the state and gov requires of you but feels that they should not have to pay you for , i mean i charge a normal person by the hour for my time , but the govt and state can waste as much of it as they like and then charge me for it. If i could get back my time for this my hourly cost of business would be so much less. This is by far the biggest pain in my rear! Sorry for the vent, tax time lol

[JimMarshall]

Same as the worst part of my daily life. Dealing with idiots on a daily basis.

[Armsden&Son]

So it's about 7:15 and you are pulling up to your first job.. Beautiful house, lot's of land, lot's of landscaping. They have irrigation and you also have them on a fert program.. Hasn't been hit in two weeks because even though the dude has the $$ to own this home, he claims he doesn't have the $$ to pay me for weekly(see cheap) Now, obviously this house is getting bagged, it's higher end and the owner had requested this from the begining. But here is the twist, this particular morning........ It's soaked!!!! It had rained all night and didn't warm up that much either so all that condensation is just hanging out... Sun's not out so scratch that.... Oh well, gotta get going... Pull out the Walker's... Now, it's kind of like a car crash. You see it coming, you know how it works, you know exactly what is going to happen but you think "No, not me, this can't be happening to me!" That is how I feel when I mow wet... Don't get me wrong, the Walker does an amazing job dry, and actually it's capabilities wet are not bad either.... BUT, no matter what you are going to clog, and if you are doing a large property/home/business/fields....... you are going to clog, a lot. I am just too damn stubborn to wait till it dries to cut it, I hate deviating from my schedule. Therefore I am always tilting up the deck, cleaning out the deck(i keep one of those little 7 in. ice scrapers on the top of the deck) cleaning out the shoot, cleaning out the blower housing, cleaning out the shoot into the hopper. Man, absolute #1 for me.... MOWING WET/UNCLOGGING MOWER

[Misterbluesky]

Second the dog piles and wet grass. Dull blades and the time to sharpen them!

[tonygreek]

Originally Posted by LawnDeveloper

Hey All,

I'm going to make this short and sweet because nobody wants to read a long drawn out forum post. Time is money and I fully respect that.

I have a question for you lawn guys, because I'm curious about the lawn care industry.

What is the single thing you hate doing everyday but must be done in order for your business to run daily?

If you don't know anything about the lawn business, you really might want to find one you can do some part time work with, or even shadow in return for your services. What you seem to be wanting to do is no different than any other consulting work. To effectively improve something, you need to observe the day to day processes. Blanket questions, such as yours, are fine but, by and large, you'd be surprised by the number of [insert any field/industry] that don't know what they don't know. Observing processes in order to make process improvements is Consulting 101. Picking a niche and taking stabs over the internet isn't the best way to go about it.

[LawnDeveloper]

Originally Posted by tonygreek

If you don't know anything about the lawn business, you really might want to find one you can do some part time work with, or even shadow in return for your services. What you seem to be wanting to do is no different than any other consulting work. To effectively improve something, you need to observe the day to day processes. Blanket questions, such as yours, are fine but, by and large, you'd be surprised by the number of [insert any field/industry] that don't know what they don't know. Observing processes in order to make process improvements is Consulting 101. Picking a niche and taking stabs over the internet isn't the best way to go about it.

Hey tonygreek,

No consulting services being offered here. I don't like dealing with the clients so no worries there. Agreed you can't just pick a niche and try to make a blanket solution it won't work not everybody or industry has the same needs. And quite often many people don't recognize inefficiencies in their industry or business until someone from the outside takes a look with a different set of eyes. It's called muscle memory once you do something for so long you develop habits be they good, bad, or inefficient.

But it's cool I'm here to learn, observe and help where I can.

Take care

[tonygreek]

Originally Posted by LawnDeveloper

Hey tonygreek,

No consulting services being offered here. I don't like dealing with the clients so no worries there. Agreed you can't just pick a niche and try to make a blanket solution it won't work not everybody or industry has the same needs. And quite often many people don't recognize inefficiencies in their industry or business until someone from the outside takes a look with a different set of eyes. It's called muscle memory once you do something for so long you develop habits be they good, bad, or inefficient.

But it's cool I'm here to learn, observe and help where I can.

Take care

Re: the miscommunication surrounding my point on consulting services... I wasn't inferring that you were offering services, or even interested in traditional consulting. By "consultant", I'm referring to someone who takes a look at a business and sees what needs improving (whether by a roadmap of suggested improvements or a product that can be developed to facilitate some aspect of the business), which is the question and path you seem to be asking and on. "Consulting" is a nebulous term, but I mean it in the most general sense of observing and examining to provide a better outcome, which is ultimately what you're attempting to do.

[LawnDeveloper]

Thanks for the clarification tonygreek, communication can even be misinterpreted on the internet.