THEgr8ONE is back

first of all this is not an english test so i dont have to be all punctual. and second i did not call any of you a scrub i said there is prob only 20 percent that are not scrubs and what di we come up with .......41 people out of 1051 said they are not scrubs ..........well the numbers are all realy low so i have to asume that there are even more than i thought. that is realy to bad i know alot of you guys work very hard and might have thought my post was against you but it wasnt i am just trying to make you guys see how many people in this bis are scrubs and if we get them out of this industry that will be much better for us . i have nothing against someone who has his goals set . but alot of the guys are just suplimenting there income by cutting for 10 or 15 dollars a yard and there usuarly around until july or until the heat comes and we have to give that same costomer an estimate for 3 times that and it makes us look like thieves because we have alot of overhead they dont . and as far as someone helping there kids out by startung a bis for them great i see no better way of teaching a kid good work ethics. so let me say if you have an outher job and still do LAWN MAINTENANCE not (grass cutting)as long as you are in it for the long haul not just anouther 30 bucks drinking money great . and yes everyone starts somewere and like i said if you try your best and give it 100% your not a scrub i realy look up to you for that. to come from the ground up and succeed sorry if i got people mad but i didnt call anyone in particular a scrub and until these numbers come up what else should i think

 

At least this time around you added some punctuation, and, yes, you now make some sense. I agree. We have discussed this here in the past, the people who come in, underbid, drop out of sight, then leave the bad taste in the customers mouth for the next bidder to deal with.<p>Unfortunately theres no real cut and dry answer to the problem.<p>Bill

 

Agreed! Makes much more sense this time without making BROAD statements about police, fire, and EMS personel. Please understand, most of us in these fields work only 2 days a week, have full paid insurance, and make good money. Last year my EMS income was $48,650 working 2 days a week, that's why most of us do not quit these jobs. Thanks for the post.<p>----------<br>Ray Kirby - Kirby's Cuttin' Edge Lawn Maintenance<br>Home Page, My Truck, Lawn Photos

 

Wow, post #2 sure beats the hell out of #1 !!! See how people can misinterpuret things when you don't use your punctuation. You make a lot of sense this time, and its kind of what we've been saying in some other posts. Check out a post called the next level. I think you can get into it.<p>----------<br>&lt;a href=&quot;http://communities.msn.com/guidosequipmentpics/&quot;&gt;&quot;Guido&quot;&lt;/a&gt;<br>David M. Famiglietti

 

Glad to see you read all the posts and have a little feeling for many of the good folks that frequent this site. I as well as many of these people have full time jobs in the public sector (i.e. means in example - fire, police, EMS) as well as 100% full time lawn maintenance PROFESSIONALS. Most people that post here have a desire to be a Professional in everything they do and do not take kindly to broad sweeping judgemental statements by somebody that is new to this site.<br>I appreciate your opinion and respect it and do like your reply to all of this but you have to realize that the way you write a post has a major influence on the way it is responded to. We don't have the luxury of voice inflection and pauses here to qualify your thoughts so in the future - just my advise to you - is write carefully and think of others feelings before you hit the SUBMIT button. <br>I'm not trying to censor your thoughts- your post got lots of hairs up. But obviously you didn't mean what you said at first - I think. <br>There are many good people here and some scrubs and leeches but it is an open forum. I believe you are basically a good person who wants this business to do good. We are on the same team. Keep Writing but read it to someone before you shoot it to us. Good Luck.<br><p><font size="1">Edited by: MOW ED

 

Still have some typos...still need work on the grammar. But thanks for writing again.<br> I have to tell you, after reading the first post, you really took the wind out of my sail. I take what I am doing in the green industry very seriously (even though it is not my primary income). I have taken several courses in turfgrass science and have my pesticide license, which is more than I can say for many full timers. I do it because I enjoy it. Yeah, the money is great, but none of us would be working so hard if we didn't have some fondness for the work. I respect the heck out of the full timers for all the hard work they do and when I was starting out, consulted others in my area for pricing information. There is no point in ruining it for anyone.<br> I guess there are many people out there that are scrubs...some even do it full time.

 

hmmm...please hold this discussion thread open for a couple of days. I'm gonna have to print this and look at it when I have time. I bought the 19 inch monitor but a whole screen of this stuff is still tough on my eyes.<p>I'll get back to you all.<p>GEO

 

O.K., you can come back and play now, blah,blah,blah! In respose to your 1st and worst post and even this one I guess, the &quot;scrubs&quot; as we have come to know, can be looked at two ways. One side of the coin is the guy that says&quot; I ain't got a lot of money tied up in my stuff so I can charge a lot less, may take me longer but I'll get the job&quot;. Thats the guy who works out of the trunk of his Escort! <br>My 2nd version of a scrub is the guy who has 3 trucks running all over town and 10 employees and says, &quot;well our equipment is much faster than the guy in the escort so we're able to do it much cheaper than say.......the guy with 1 truck or an escort&quot;. <p>Either way you go there are people out there lowballing their competition, from a trunk mounted operation to a multi-truck operation........they need to count the grass blades and charge accordingly, that way we could all get a fair shake, sure the guy with 3 trucks can make a few dollars in a days time and in the same time frame the trunk boy could make the same, profit wise, but we can all make more if we raise the bar to an acceptable level.<p>Homer

 

Homer just to expand for a second on raising the bar as you say, check this out. ( I don't think this will work though, just by viewing the lack of organization here, never mind every lawn contractor in the states) but, did you ever see the signs in a body shop or garage that have the hours posted. A lot of associations have all their memebrs charging x dollars for x dollars, all on the same level. Your pretty much stuck, your gonna pay. If we had a price per sq. ft. by region, or something of the sort, and everyone stayed with it, the customers still need their yard cut right? And everybody will be on the same level. It would be great if I only had to worry about when doing jobs was my customer service and quality of work, price would already be a known given.<p>----------<br>&lt;a href=&quot;http://communities.msn.com/guidosequipmentpics/&quot;&gt;&quot;Guido&quot;&lt;/a&gt;<br>David M. Famiglietti

 

I would agree with you on that but for a minimum price only! There are a few good payers out there that don't mind spending extra to get a good job. It sounds to me like, across the board, $35.00 is the average for a typical lawn, if that were to go up to $38-40.00 that would help compensate for the drastic increase in gas prices and equipment costs, labor and all the other expenses that go along with it. I have reached a point, and I know others have or will eventually, that I'm not starving for work and my new prices reflect that. I'm gonna make money at it or get out, simple as that. If I have another month like the last one I will most definately be dropping some of the lower paying, or seasonal accounts and go with the higher dollar annuals, I like relaxing in the winter and making a lot of money. <p>Raise the price to the maximum allowable, be fair and consistent, enjoy your life. If the customer wants to price shop then they will find someone who will do it for nothing, there will always be that guy around, but how long will he be there?<br>Sooner or later they will have to come around to my way of thinking!<br>Homer