Many of my residential accounts are only wanting bi weekly mows(twice a month).
I'm really wanting 3 times a month or even weekly mows.
How about you guys? What kind of schedule do you guys run on most your residential? Any pointers?
Start charging more for bi-weekly service. It's usually more work and takes longer than weekly. Then offer your regular price for weekly if they will change.
Some lawns are that poor that they can be cut EOW.
Have a weekly price and a EOW price that is 50% more then that weekly price due to the extra load placed on the mower and the extra time edging and trimming from the over grown grass.
At 50% more per mow EOW still costs less per month then every week.
Funny, for many years I fought with my customers over this very issue.
They all wanted more time between cuts, I always wanted less.
Unfortunately I found they were right, too many cuts in the heat kills the grass.
Because rain or not when the temps hit 90 to 100 you have to be very careful how short or how often you cut.
There is little argument with a customer when their lawn is dead, they come out and tell you how it is and you're not cutting and that is that.
Some Lco's might think that's great for September to "refurbish" the lawn but I can tell you when customers see that kind of thinking it doesn't work out so good.
I'd get my money in April, May and June, then I'd sit around most of the summer hoping anything would grow at all.
A very few of them would get me to aerate and seed, most were like, you can still cut it and be glad we're letting you.
One day it hit me, I raised my cut height to 4 inches.
Now I mow lawns as they need it, which is when the grass gets to a healthy height.
The only argument I get into today is that I'm not coming out often enough.
Works for me, now the money comes steady.
My schedule offering:
The crappy lawns and centipede are usually every 2 weeks, some are weekly
Irrigated and/or fertilized bermuda or zoysia every week.
Commercial = every 7 days and every 14 days during the winter or I'm not interested.
90% of our accounts are weekly. Not hard to sell. Give a better rate to do weekly may be a way for you to encourage them--its faster to do every week...faster mow, faster edge, faster bed detail, etc. I have a higher rate for every 2 week service than for weekly.
I don't offer 10 days--You can't build a tight route with 7 days 10 days and 14 days. If someone calls and asks for service every 10 days, I ask them if the lawn is irrigated or fertilized and what type of grass. If the answers include yes and bermuda or zoysia, then I bid for weekly service.
Funny, for many years I fought with my customers over this very issue.
They all wanted more time between cuts, I always wanted less.
Unfortunately I found they were right, too many cuts in the heat kills the grass.
Because rain or not when the temps hit 90 to 100 you have to be very careful how short or how often you cut.
There is little argument with a customer when their lawn is dead, they come out and tell you how it is and you're not cutting and that is that.
Some Lco's might think that's great for September to "refurbish" the lawn but I can tell you when customers see that kind of thinking it doesn't work out so good.
I'd get my money in April, May and June, then I'd sit around most of the summer hoping anything would grow at all.
A very few of them would get me to aerate and seed, most were like, you can still cut it and be glad we're letting you.
One day it hit me, I raised my cut height to 4 inches.
Now I mow lawns as they need it, which is when the grass gets to a healthy height.
The only argument I get into today is that I'm not coming out often enough.
Works for me, now the money comes steady.
7, 10, and 14. those that want every 2 weeks I charge more and explain to them the benefits of weekly in spring, but that when it gets hot if it doesn't need mowed i don't mow it. some yards i'll go 3-4 weeks without mowing if we get a really dry spell. most are good with it when you tell them that. this spring saw extremely fast growth, i had several switch from 10 days down to 7 even because it was getting too tall, and even the 7 day lawns were almost out of control
10 really isn't that bad to schedule, i do mine on a 9 and 11 day rotation. say i mow on monday, i mow again the following thursday, skip the next week, then monday again. keeps my weekends open. i'm a part timer though and fortunately only a couple yards are 10 days. with a full schedule and lots of them i could see it being a pain.
As mother nature dictates. Raining with mild temps? 5-7days. Hot and dry? back off a bit. Every season is a bit different-normal years see 4-5 cuts, maybe 6, (monthly) through the early months, with a gradual decrease in mid-summer. This last week of June is on it's fifth cut for most clients.
April, May and June most lawns around here need mowing every 3-6 days. As it heats up and dries out in late July and August anyone w/o a sprinkler needs it every 10-14 days. Which is fine with me because when it's that hot out (like it is now) I don't want to be outside that much. I use a WB and am solo so I can do two lawns an hour in the spring. When it's this hot my pace drops to around 40-50 minutes per lawn. I'm working harder for a lot less $.
All the threads about "how much do I charge?"... It seems like we're all priced too high when the temperature is 70, but trust me, no one is offering to up our rate when we're getting beat up in the heat and humidity on 100 degree days.
Mixture of both. I bought some yards form One of my friends that is a LCO and there're already set up as biweeklies but the ones I have got on my own are weeklies
every 4-7 days, then some are 12-16 days. I doing mowing wednesday, thursday, friday, saturday, and sunday are rain days, and monday and tuesday are days for other jobs. so i could cut a lawn on saturday one week, then hit on thursday the next week or hit one saturday and skip it the next week then do it on thursday. If we get a dry week i try to hit them a day early so they are easier to cut, but lately we have been getting rain every day in the afternoon. so everything is still green and growing like crazy even without fert....so i guess i can't complain, hopefully nothing burns out in july and august. i've been cutting everything high this year so i should be good for a full 4 weeks of mowing in july and august but time will tell.
10 really isn't that bad to schedule, i do mine on a 9 and 11 day rotation. say i mow on monday, i mow again the following thursday, skip the next week, then monday again. keeps my weekends open. i'm a part timer though and fortunately only a couple yards are 10 days. with a full schedule and lots of them i could see it being a pain.
I used to have a couple of commercial accounts that insisted on 10 day, and this how I did it, except I did them on Tuesday and Friday, which was a 10 and 11 day rotation. In a whole season, you might lose one cutting doing them this way over actually doing them every 10 days.
Some are weekly and some are 10 and 12 days but I can tell you I'm glad with the present temperatures most are bi-weeklies and going into 2.5 and 3 weeks too (and 3 or 4 are once a month), that's not counting all the other work so without that I would never get everything done.
I mostly do bermuda, and mostly every 14 day mows. If i only did weekly i wouldn't work. I mow at 2 inches for my bermuda lawns and not to sure how long my mower will last doing it this way. I've been raising up to 2.5 inches to see how that helps, but i'm sure i'll just have people calling me saying i'm not cutting short enough. I will dance in the streets when the day comes that i can sell off all my mowers and just do lawn apps.
Some are weekly and some are 10 and 12 days but I can tell you I'm glad with the present temperatures most are bi-weeklies and going into 2.5 and 3 weeks too (and 3 or 4 are once a month), that's not counting all the other work so without that I would never get everything done.
For some strange reason I don't believe you. Sorry.
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