Just was thinking a little about demogrphics this morning. My residential customers seem to be divided into two types, those that are physcally capible of cutting their lawns, and those that are not. Of the first type,(those that are physcally able) some seem to have different reasons for hirihg a lawn service. Too much money, not enough time, too lazy, keeping up with the Jones... I have figured that about 20% of my residential clients are having the lawns done because they cannot physcally do it themselves. That leaves my with 80% that chose not to do it. Are others statistics similar? If so, this scares me a little. It seems that most people just don't want to take care of their lawns, it is not that they can't.
Hey Jaclawn Most of my office boy customers make good money doing whatever they do. It's cheaper for them to work an extra hour a week and pay me for what would take them a half a day to do.
Most of my customers are more than able to do it themselves. I think my oldest cutomer is 50, all the others are in there early 30's with large homes and both working. This leaves no time for the kids. I see it all the time, the kids are dropped off at daycare at 6:00 a.m. and picked up around 6:00 to 7:00 p.m.. I guess they want to spend sometime with their kids on the weekend so the pay me to cut thier lawns. Most of my customers are pobably government workers, in DC and they buy houses too big for their incomes and they are so burnt from working they don't have the energy to cut it themselves.
Brians, I see the same thing here. They are slaves to the system. To bad for the kids, who will in turn, be taught the same value system.
jacklawn--what do your lawn look like when you have given them your professional servicing? I would assume that some of your customers hire you because you do a better job than they are capable of. I have a few of this type of customer. otherwise, lots of elderly, several in buisness for themselves and little time, and lots of others in the general category. I even have one old couple that's in bad shape...I mean every time I go there I am so happy that I can just walk around. this is the fourth year I've cut their grass for free. GEO
I only have one who could mow his own but he is on the road and has a nice house in a nice subdivision. The rest are too old,.... well, and considering I mow some low income apartments way too lazy.
Most of my clients are doctors or engineers. They work about 60-70 hours every week and don't have time to do it themselves. And they have lots of money. I think about things the same way. My dealer charges $35/hr labor to repair mowers. Their mechanic can fix things in half the time I can, and every hour I spend NOT making money costs me $55. I understand if you haven't built thing up to a point where you can pay, but it's worth it to me.
Of the people able to cut lawns, how may just don't want to get their hands dirty??? My route is something like 30% who can but don't want to deal with getting dirty or can't handle the noise of machines. Most of these people are at work so the noise isn't any issue. Another 30% who can mow just don't want to deal with disposal of the debris. On the listed, they know I do good work, so not worth the hassle. The remaining 40% are retired and not that mobil. John
The vast majority of my customers don't own any equipment and never have. Those that did have equipment said thier machines breakdown, or they don't have time to mow but every two or three weeks. By then, the grass is so high and thick they cannot cut it. Other reasons include it's too dangerous for them to cut on a slope. Some of the folks in townhouses really amaze me; their lawns can be cut with a weedeater yet I'm out there every week at $45.00 a pop. Go figure!
I don't consider them lazy. Hell, I wouldn't take care of my landscape either if I worked at another job all day. Why would they want to waste hours of free time doing what we do in a few minutes. They could cook their own steak at the house or they can go to Outback This is why the economy is so good right now...people making good money and dumping it back in. Don't think of them as lazy.
