Lawn Mowing Contract

I picked up a rather nice account today however the customer wants a contract. I told him I have never used a contract and a man’s word is good enough for me. Unfortunately, he would not explain further as to the need for formalities. I can only guess that his last mower gang burned him. <p>Anyway, I need a copy of a contract A.S.A.P. or a template to draft my own. I guess that I could visit a lawyer but I’m too busy and I’m sure the minimum charge would be $300.00 plus research costs. If you care to share a sanitized mowing contract with me, I’ll name my new Hustler Hydro or Toro Proline after you. That’s a Promise and I’ll send pictures, too! 8)<p>Please send to david@go-emerald.com<p>Thanks in advance.<br><p>----------<br>--Disneyland on the Potomac - ICQ [icq]31223414[/icq]<br>www.go-emerald.com

 

Look at lawnmonkey.com they have a 30 day free trial I have the program ,I got it for the same reason you need for. hope I could help

 

Ask Lazer.

 

Are You COMFORTABLE working with a contract. Remember that if you miss or get sick and can't do the job - Mr Law Smart customer has a piece of paper that you signed stating that YOU have to do his work. Also what if Mr Customer turns out to be a - how do I say- a prick to work for. Do you want to have to continue to work for him.<p>My advice is if you really need the work and the job seems right then consider a contract but talk to a lawyer to protect yourself. It seems like the customer is letting you do this. If the price is right and you feel it is a good long term job then the lawyer is worth it. If it dont feel right then forget it. Good Luck.

 

Hello DHicks:<p>I have a couple on line just go to my home page & in the upper left, you will see a link to my V.I.R. Page when you get there go to last table on page titled Resources to help you & your Business! the very last link it says &quot;Looking for a few simple &quot;Lawn Maintenance Contracts.&quot; go to that link & you should find what you are looking for?<p>There is a great deal of info there for people in the Green Industry. In fact there is not one single page on the net that has that much info on it. It would take you a week in your spare time to read all that valuable information!<p><br>----------<br>GrassMaster - Home: www.lawnservicing.com<br>My Start Up Page www.lawnservicing.com/startup/<br><p><font size="1">Edited by: GrassMaster

 

to: dhicks....................you want to be very careful when putting together a contract to protect yourself. My book &quot;How to write an agreement that protects YOU&quot; discusses what should be included as well as excluded. Includes maintenance and landscape caveats and legal verbage. Check it out on www.greenindconsulting.com All contracts should vary based on the customer....specs, pricing, exclusions, termination of agreement. etc. Don't trap yourself into a standard contract. Done that! It's very costly.

 

Dhicks<br>Listen to Bill and buy his book. His books are very good resources to have. The man has been there and done it. I will not write a contract agreements without using his books as a guide. I attended one of Bills siminars and I was surely setting myself up for a good screwing doing the business the way I was. Now I write different agreements for each customer depending on what there needs are. The misunderstanding that I use to have been has just about been eliminated thanks to Bill and his pass experiences. The thing with standard agreements is that every customer is different, so how can they fit all the customers. Now that I have become really good at writing agreements, I offer this service to local business in town in my fliers and have had request to write some specs for different business in town. The main reason I started doing this is that I was doing a proposal for a large apartment complex and there was nothing to base my bid on except for what I was told. Well it turned out I didn’t get the job. After a couple of weeks I went by this place to see what kind of job these guys where getting. Well I will say they weren’t getting what I had purposed. Hell I bid it like they wanted the whole nine yards. I decided to talk to the Lady in charge of the property and ask her out right what kind of bid they actually went with. She didn’t want to, but she did $11,250.00/ yr. My price $32,400.00/yr. I kindly ask at that point, What was the other LMC basing their bid on? She said she same thing I told you, mow, edge, and line trim and blow. Nothing about hedeges, fert. and how many times? I ask. NO, she said. Now how can you get a competitive bid like that? She said nothing. At that point I ask, How would like me to write you up spec sheet for all your bidders to bid on?<br>Of course you can guess her first question, HOW MUCH? $ 75.00. She said she would get back with me. I said ok. A few days had passed and I get a message about what I talked to her about. It seemed the Assoc. of the apartment wanted to talk to me about the spec sheet. I call and set up a time and place. When we got together and talked over the details for the spec sheet I ended up knocking down a cool $50.00 for my time and $75.00 for the spec sheet. In the end I only made about $ 6.50/hr for my time and effort, but now I am making up for it. On average I make somewhere in the neighborhood of $125.00/ per spec.<br> This is one way to make sure the prices are competitive between the Pros out there. I will not bid a job unless they have a spec sheet. If they don’t have one I will ask if they would like to have one prepared for them. 2 out 3 will turn me down, well I didn’t need their business anyway. <br>

 

To dhicks only ....<br>email me your postal mailing address, I'll send you a contract format that's simple, easy to adapt, for residential, covers everything, customers like it.<br>Nilsson.Assoc@Snet.Net

 

Once again, thanks for all of the replies. <br>I spoke with the customer again today and as he claims, his last gang mowers would cut the grass trim this and that and do work that was not authorized in advance. <p>Next thing he knew he had an invoice to pay that simply put &quot;exceeded his budget.&quot; Basically, the fellow wants to budget his money and can not when unauthorized work is being performed. <p>The customer appears to be very passive and I seriously doubt he wanted a conflict with his last mower, so he just paid the invoice. Therefore, I'll give him a contract. <p>As for the Nilsson Books, I'm going to order three.<p>Thanks!!!!!!!!!!<p>----------<br>--Disneyland on the Potomac - ICQ [icq]31223414[/icq]<br>www.go-emerald.com