Lawn Care Forum banner
41 - 60 of 76 Posts
I'm with you DA......when I think lowball I think scrub and when I think scrub it's not necessarily about prices. could be no insurance, no license or using home owner grade equipment.
So someone who is starting out with home owner grade equipment but does the same or better quality of work as you would still be considered a scrub?
 
I don't agree. Mowing is a service, not a commodity and there usually is a difference between what a lowballer provides and what a true professional does. Denpendability, cutting at the proper height, quality of the cut, trim, edging and cleanup can all vary greatly. I'm sure we've all seen guys cutting a lawn too short, scalping edges with the trimmer, leaving a lawn looking like Clumpville, blasting houses and filling beds with clippings and leaving the hard surfaces a mess.

There are some people who just want the grass cut and don't care about that stuff, but there are others who are picky about the appearance of their lawns and the lowballers will not be able to satisfy them regardless of their price. Those are the types of customers I seek out...they're willing to pay for quality and dependability. Yeah, I have some crappy lawns for customers with low expectations, and honestly it's sometimes a relief to work on them, but I get much more personal satisfaction manicuring a nice property and looking over my shoulder as I drive off and saying to myself "damn that looks nice."
I see your point. Sure you are going to have a few lowball hackers out there, but there are also going to be a few hackers charging the going rate.

Mow and go is simple stuff so I don't see every lowballer making a mess.
 
Again, I think it's the higher end lawns where the differences really show up. It's hard to tell if somone hacks a crappy weed invested lawn that hasn't been fertilzed since the 80 year old widow's husband died 10 years ago, and those tend to be the customers that tend to be looking for cheap anyway.
 
So someone who is starting out with home owner grade equipment but does the same or better quality of work as you would still be considered a scrub?
in my PERSONAL OPINION, yes.

the very first day I started servicing properties I had an exmark 36" metro, a stihl fs55 trimmer and a stihl br 400 blower. insurance company had been called and was in the process of being set up.

but since you don't know me or my quality you can't really say the same or better quality work as me. that would never happen.
 
Huh interesting...sounds like you feel really proud of yourself for starting with commercial equipment.

I never said I knew you. I was saying I don't think you should be prejudice towards people who you don't even know and their circumstances.
 
In my opinion most of us have been a low baller at one time or another when starting our business , as you grow your business get insurance , start paying uncle sam his money , costs go up and so does your price. Along the spectrum every one has a place and the entire system could not operate without everyone , yea it sucks when someone takes your business , but i don't know how many time i have had someone cancel for a better price just to have them come running back to us , and you know when customers do that they usually don't fall for the low price thing again. The low ballers have a important role they care for lawns that would normally not be able to have a lawn service and these are customers that most legit company's would not want anyhow , and the bottom line is they make the legit company's look good. People will pay for quality and low ballers do not affect this , let them do there thing not worth stressing over , and most people get there start doing this , heck i remember when i was 14 push mowing lawns in the trailer hood for 5 or 10 bucks each , but i wasn't trimming or anything like that , i wasn't taking anyone elses business , no one wanted those lawns , low ballers actually make the legit company's look good. Just my opinion . I meant no offense to any one who disagrees.
 
In my opinion most of us have been a low baller at one time or another when starting our business , as you grow your business get insurance , start paying uncle sam his money , costs go up and so does your price. Along the spectrum every one has a place and the entire system could not operate without everyone , yea it sucks when someone takes your business , but i don't know how many time i have had someone cancel for a better price just to have them come running back to us , and you know when customers do that they usually don't fall for the low price thing again. The low ballers have a important role they care for lawns that would normally not be able to have a lawn service and these are customers that most legit company's would not want anyhow , and the bottom line is they make the legit company's look good. People will pay for quality and low ballers do not affect this , let them do there thing not worth stressing over , and most people get there start doing this , heck i remember when i was 14 push mowing lawns in the trailer hood for 5 or 10 bucks each , but i wasn't trimming or anything like that , i wasn't taking anyone elses business , no one wanted those lawns , low ballers actually make the legit company's look good. Just my opinion . I meant no offense to any one who disagrees.
This forum needs a "like button."
 
For some reason I started think this same thing the other day. I'm sure some people would think I'm a lowballer but, I have no overhead and I'm solo. Our profit margins could be the same and I'm charging less. Not my fault your in debt or greedy.
It is called leaving money on the table.

If every one else is getting $50 a lawn and you want to do it $35 because you think you have no overhead.

You have just ruined the market for your area.

You are now losing $15 on that job. Yes losing $15 dollars because you chose to leave money on the table.

You think you have no overhead. Until you have an accident, get sued and not have business liab. insurance.

No overhead because you are not setting aside money to buy replacement equipment, or new equipment trucks to expand.
 
Okay I just finished reading all the posts...anyways, remember justmowing.com?

He starts his lawns at $23, granted they're probably 5k sq ft of grass, however, this guy would probably be deemed by many on LawnSite as a lowballer.

Yes he charges low prices, generally speaking; but I'm not sure he could be called a low baller. In 2005, he had over 2K properties. He's probably doubled or tripled since then.

The point all of this is...are there low ballers? Sure, but even if your price for a lawn is below that 20% market differential, doesn't mean you're a low baller, etc. Again, justmowing.com was called a low baller, etc. and yet he probably kicks everyone's butt on LawnSite...

My 2 cents.
 
In my opinion most of us have been a low baller at one time or another when starting our business , as you grow your business get insurance , start paying uncle sam his money , costs go up and so does your price. Along the spectrum every one has a place and the entire system could not operate without everyone , yea it sucks when someone takes your business , but i don't know how many time i have had someone cancel for a better price just to have them come running back to us , and you know when customers do that they usually don't fall for the low price thing again. The low ballers have a important role they care for lawns that would normally not be able to have a lawn service and these are customers that most legit company's would not want anyhow , and the bottom line is they make the legit company's look good. People will pay for quality and low ballers do not affect this , let them do there thing not worth stressing over , and most people get there start doing this , heck i remember when i was 14 push mowing lawns in the trailer hood for 5 or 10 bucks each , but i wasn't trimming or anything like that , i wasn't taking anyone elses business , no one wanted those lawns , low ballers actually make the legit company's look good. Just my opinion . I meant no offense to any one who disagrees.
This is an important point. Any company that cries about lowballers has very little understanding of a free market economy. Lowballers fill a void. Lets say you would never drop the gate for less than $45. There are people who will flat out say they will never pay more than $25 for their lawn to be cut. If you won't cut for less than $45 these people would never be your customers. You have disqualified them and created a void in the market. Smart business people see voids in the market and fill them. I am not saying all owners that you would consider a lowballer are smart business people. I am saying free markets are driven by the consumer not the owners of business.

Consumers dictate the cost of materials and services by controlling demand. If you are in high demand, your price goes up. Eventually people just stop purchasing at the high price. This creates a low price void that is primed for someone to come in and charge a lower price and take all customers that want service at the lower price. As the market gets flooded with people who charge a low price demand lessens. You can get anybody to do something for cheap. So businesses dissolve due to lack of revenue. After enough dissolve, demand rises and the cycle repeats itself.
 
Okay I just finished reading all the posts...anyways, remember justmowing.com?

He starts his lawns at $23, granted they're probably 5k sq ft of grass, however, this guy would probably be deemed by many on LawnSite as a lowballer.

Yes he charges low prices, generally speaking; but I'm not sure he could be called a low baller. In 2005, he had over 2K properties. He's probably doubled or tripled since then.

The point all of this is...are there low ballers? Sure, but even if your price for a lawn is below that 20% market differential, doesn't mean you're a low baller, etc. Again, justmowing.com was called a low baller, etc. and yet he probably kicks everyone's butt on LawnSite...

My 2 cents.
Yeah, $23 to mow a lawn that meets about 100 conditions with a max growth of 2 inches. That's called a lure.
 
Yeah...maybe. But with over 5K weekly mowing customers it works.
with 2wd s10s, 21" push mowers, it kinda works.

The majority of us use big mowers, big trailers and big trucks. So we can do big work. This leads to big bills, big repairs, and big money.
 
Yeah...he did state that his employees were very well paid. They were paid on piece work, but the guy driving averaged $16/hr and the helpers $12/hr or more. That's a lot more than a lot of companies in my area pay their employees.
Did you talk to the workers? I mean do you speak spanish.
 
41 - 60 of 76 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top