I can’t seem to get ahead.
As a business owners, you need to wear a lot of hats and juggle a lot of responsibilities. Performing the work, is but one small task within a larger picture of jobs that need to be done. As we will see in this discussion, from the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum, you really need to make sure your infrastructure is running smoothly before you take on further customers and look for further growth. If you are not careful, everything can collapse around you.
One lawn care business owner wrote “today I had 22 lawn care customers to mow. It rained all week. I didn’t get far considering I have more customers tomorrow. In total I need to mow another 15 more lawns tomorrow in 7 hours. I HATE RAIN!
On top of all that, I had a rough day. I toppled over a customer’s stone ’statue’. Took 4 new customer calls for estimates. Got maybe 20 percent of my invoices out, with the payment due date tomorrow. Had a bottle of wine with a customer and stayed for dinner and a movie lol.
THE HEAT IS AWFUL. I feel like fainting every day now, this sucks. I need some backup man!!! So far there have been nothing but idiots to hire. The people out there who say ‘I can cut grass, hire me’ who end up being completely useless. One employee only lasted 2 days until the next one was hired who only lasted a day. There is just no one decent enough to keep around.”
Secondly, INVOICES are your top priority! Along with completing the work, these two go hand and hand. Get your invoices out and on time! Take the time to do this, skip dinner with the customer, do the job, this is a business, not a dating show. Priorities have to be in line if you want to succeed.
Thirdly, if you cannot keep up with the current customers you have, STOP ACCEPTING NEW CLIENTS! If you continue to take on new clients when you cannot handle the load you already have. Well, no one will be happy. Your work load is increased, you get further and further behind, customers are unhappy, you lose customers you already had, you cannot get to the new customers, they go with someone else…. etc, etc, etc….
Basic overview:
- CHARGE a fair amount to be profitable.
- PAY someone a fair wage to help you (NO KIDS! I’m serious on this one. It just doesn’t work. Some people just aren’t going to have the mentality, strength, or stamina to really get the job done.
- INVOICE: Send them out ON TIME, EVERY TIME. Need I go into this again? You could be preparing your invoices for this or next week RIGHT NOW!
- CLIENTS: If you can not handle your current load with time to spare…. DON’T ACCEPT NEW CLIENTS.
A last case resort would be to take out someone offering this service. I have a fellow at the moment who wants me to buy him and his lawn care company out. He said if I do, he will sign a three year employment contract. It’s interesting as he has a nice truck and enclosed trailer, his equipment is not commercial grade, though he has about 60 lawn mowing accounts and one helper, he only does lawn care.”
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