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Clients paying in advance

5K views 24 replies 13 participants last post by  topsites 
#1 ·
I was wondering how many people think billing customers in advance is a good idea. I know a lot of landscapers that get their clients to pay for the year in full. So that if they don't cut the lawn due to rain, they still get paid anyway. What about billing before the month starts?
 
#2 ·
Wow, getting money upfront and sometimes not even doing the work because of rain! Thats outrageous to have things setup that way. I have offered some of my customers who travel alot some money off cutting if they pay upfront in cash for a certain number of cuts. If I get paid for 10 cuts I will cut 10 times, no paid rain days. Thats unethical if you ask me.
 
#3 ·
Why is it unethical though? If the lawn doesn't get cut due to an "act of god" then we are the ones doing twice as much work next week. Cutting twice as much grass, paying twice as much labor to cut the lawn, paying twice as much in gas, hauling away twice as much grass and putting a hell of a lot more strain on the equipment. If say, for example, the garbage man never came cause of a snow storm. They would tell you "we'll do a double pick next time." You would still pay for the garbage to be picked up even though it wasn't pick up the day it was suppose to. Because it's still getting picked up along with your next pick up!
 
#4 ·
noone around here would pay for someone to not cut grass because of rain...i do have one customer that pays me a month at a time before i cut her grass but if it rains or something i just cut it on another day...it still gets 4-5 cuts a month regardless depending on how many weeks are in the month.
 
#5 ·
Why is it unethical though? If the lawn doesn't get cut due to an "act of god" then we are the ones doing twice as much work next week. Cutting twice as much grass, paying twice as much labor to cut the lawn, paying twice as much in gas, hauling away twice as much grass and putting a hell of a lot more strain on the equipment. If say, for example, the garbage man never came cause of a snow storm. They would tell you "we'll do a double pick next time." You would still pay for the garbage to be picked up even though it wasn't pick up the day it was suppose to. Because it's still getting picked up along with your next pick up!
Ok, maybe I got a little serious there. I understand what your saying and how that could work. I've never seen it in this business though.
 
#6 ·
I have a weekly schedule and keep to it. We cut in the rain, we still go to the property when the lawn is dormant due to drought. You can find some-thng to do for a few minutes...blow the gardens, or pull a few weeds. We get paid for all nine months of
service to the property. Even if it snows one week!

My residential clients pay at the beginning of the month only. Cheque, Cash.
Some even pay with visa Mastercard Amex. No fooling around here.

If you get burned on a hundred bucks, it's hard to put a lien on the property or
go to small claims court for such a little amount. I used to play hide and seek at the end of the month trying to get paid from residential. I'm tired of the games.
If they want the quality service, then they have to pay in advance for my insurance.
Just because of an act of God, we don't stop trying to earn a living.

It blows my mind that you guys won't cut when it rains. Blows my Westcoast mind.
Sharpen your blades, raise your back wheels and get to it.

GO CANUCKS GO
 
#7 ·
Dr.NewEarth, cutting in the rain can be difficult some times but I will cut in the rain if I have to. What do you do when it's raining so hard and so much that the ground turns to a sponge? And your mowers start getting stuck in the ground and tearing up the lawn? I have some lawns that, parts of it, actually turn into mini lakes. (usually have this problem in May only)

I like how you mentioned billing before the month. That's exactly what I want to start doing myself. The way I see it, customers aren't just paying to have their lawns cut because they can't do it themselves. They just don't want to. There is no reason why a customer shouldn't have to pay up front for the month. If for whatever reason we can't cut the lawn, like you said, there is always something else to do. Month of service is a month of service.
 
#9 ·
we do up fronts on most of everything we actually do if its not up front services then it is the day of or they dont get serviced ....... mulching, prunning, shaping, fertilize and spraying is all up front or it dont happen .


If it gets that wet here we would pull out the string trimmers
 
#11 ·
We bill a flat rate every month, 12 months a year, even though we don't cut the grass 52 times. We charge, say $150/month in the summertime when the grass grows less than half an inch, $150 when there is 8 inches of leaves on the ground that we have to pick up, and $150 when I cant even get to the shed to get the mower because of the snow. This also includes fert/weed control, pruning, hedging, weed control, edging, blah blah blah...

Its just a lot easier that way...

We bill at the end of the month. We usually try to hand-deliver the invoices so we can talk to people about their yards, upsell, or listen to their concerns/questions. We NEVER go more than two months back-to-back without speaking to the homeowner

Thoughts?
 
#12 ·
Well I don't know how you get away with 12 months of the year but I do like the fact that you charge a flat rate. That's what I'm trying to say though. Sure we may be doing less work in August, but it all works out when in May the grass is growing a mile a minute.

Hey bigslick, I'm curious to know what you do when it rains. So if it rains and you can't cut the lawn, you go back the next week and spend twice as much on the lawn? And get paid the same money? So not only do you lose money by not cutting the lawn that week, but you lose even more money by spending twice as much time on it the next?
 
#13 ·
12 months payment is the only way you can do this as a business ........if i am wrong then how do you get the gas man and the utility company to hold your bills untill your season starts back up .......that is the real question. I guess this is why so many people have those high price per service just to pay their bills come winter
 
#14 ·
12 months payment is the only way you can do this as a business ........if i am wrong then how do you get the gas man and the utility company to hold your bills untill your season starts back up .......that is the real question. I guess this is why so many people have those high price per service just to pay their bills come winter
Exactly!

No one wants to pay $500 in November for leaf cleanup or $400 in Spring for double cutting.

We write "May Landscape Maintenance" on the invoice... That's all the customer sees, except, of course, when we do pine straw or flowers, or other upsells.
 
#15 ·
spit fire it is easy to do 12 months think about it ....... ok miss jones i will figure what it will cost you for services ..... ok
mulching $ 400.00 4 Cu yards completed in march
Fert $ 475.00 8 visits between late feb. throught november
Seeding $ 350.00 in late september
mowing $2300.00 between 28-40
Fall serv $ 560.00 4 services from november1-december 31
$ 4085.00 for a minimum of 30 visits and a maximum of 40 visits
There is 12 months in the year and it starts on the sign date and ends in 1 year not from dec. 31-dec.31 And that totals 340.50 per month for full service or 191.00 per month for basic services ..... compaired to 136.00 per week for the 30 visits of full service (just an example) we sell the 12 month on the fact it dont hit their pockets as hard as the 8 month payments.......becasue it will cost the same either way this helps you out.
 
#16 ·
spit fire it is easy to do 12 months think about it ....... ok miss jones i will figure what it will cost you for services ..... ok
mulching $ 400.00 4 Cu yards completed in march
Fert $ 475.00 8 visits between late feb. throught november
Seeding $ 350.00 in late september
mowing $2300.00 between 28-40
Fall serv $ 560.00 4 services from november1-december 31
$ 4085.00 for a minimum of 30 visits and a maximum of 40 visits
There is 12 months in the year and it starts on the sign date and ends in 1 year not from dec. 31-dec.31 And that totals 340.50 per month for full service or 191.00 per month for basic services ..... compaired to 136.00 per week for the 30 visits of full service (just an example) we sell the 12 month on the fact it dont hit their pockets as hard as the 8 month payments.......becasue it will cost the same either way this helps you out.
/\ Smart guy:clapping:
 
#17 ·
i love how so many on here are afraid to be the boss and they let the homeowner be the boss....... if i do that i would have business type of people..... I would fire any one of the clients we manage if they suggested some of the silly things that i guess keeps so many others worried about money for christmas but busy all summer ..... 2 week mowing ,maam your fired ....... can you wait untill next week for payment ....sir your fired ....

We, as business owners have to make the rules of our business , If we dont we are simply the hardest working amaricans in the country for HALF OF THE YEAR
 
#19 ·
I get paid and so does my employees to sit around and be on vacation i guess is how it would be described ......put another way we dont do jack

if it snows it blesses us with about 3-5 days of snow to shovel a year ....and the snow is so light they use blowers on sidewalks or walker mowers to bag snow on driveways .
which we dont include in our regular pricing becasue it may go 3 years between snows
 
#21 ·
Or same day of service. Very few pay at the end or send emails checks from their bank. i collect first mow for the entire month...works like a charm for most customers. Easy for me to schedule during rainouts or holidays. You'll never have 100% concurance, but if the majority do it, you're accountant will love it. So will your cash flow manager (wife)
 
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