Newbie Questions (yes I SEARCHED!)

[GRASSCUTS LAWN CARE]

Hi everyone, new on here and also new to this industry.
(actually, havent started yet, but planning for a SPRING TIME 2004 jump!)

Have a couple questions that I need help answering (yes, I did a search with minimal results).

How are you guys getting paid for your services? Do you get payment at the time service is rendered? Do you bill on a weekly or monthly level?


Here's another one.......

Here in the Northeast, we get 26-30 weeks of lawn care in per season, in the "off" months, most of us rely on snow removal.....well, I have NO EXPERIENCE at all with snow plowing, and was wondering if enough money can be made in the "LAWNCARE" season to carry you thru the winter months if there was no snow to plow?

One more for the road......

Maybe some of you have this problem as well.....
I 'm concerned about VACATIONS. I have a child in school, and as we all know, summertime is their time off. Most familys take off for a week or so during the summer months for a vacation with their family. How does this work in this industry? Remember I'm initially going to be a SOLO operator, so when I'm sick, or away...nothing gets done!!! Let me know what you guy's (SOLO's) do for vacations and "Sick" days!

REMEMBER:
I'm a solo operator that will use occasional "DAY LABOR" as needed.

Thanks!!!!

[Scott]

I started out collectin as the job was done, some customers still insists to "pay as I go" but I prefer to bill monthly. It allows me to get in/out w/o talking to them for an extra 10+ mins.

can you make enough to float you through the winter? Dunno. I don't know your bills, cost of operation, and other factors.

Vacations: for solo guys I can't see how you can take a vacation right in the middle of the busy season and keep customers unless you sub it out to somebody that week. why don't you take your family vacation over Christmas? or New Years?

[mikeslawnservice]

Grasscuts,

Why don't you try and schedule your vacations in mid-August when the grass is growing at it's slowest. I'm pretty sure that you could skip a week if all your clients are on a weekly schedule. That is what most of the solo's do around here. Of course if we have another year like this one, then you might not be able to take off.

As far as getting you through the winter, I'm with Scott on that one. Why don't you do some add on services like fall clean-up, gutter cleaning, power washing etc...

If you can work with someone this winter doing snowplowing and learn a few things you could do it next year by yourself.

You could get a few COMMERCIAL accounts and have them sign a contract including plowing. Of course you charge them accordingly. But, here's the beauty, if it doesn't snow you still get paid. It's kind of like insurance on their part. "In case it snows".

You charge them for the first 2 inches in the contract and a certain price PER INCH after that.

If you have your clients, be it commercial or residential, pay you monthly on a 12 month cycle, then you will have income all year. From April to March.

This is what I'm going to do next year:

Set my customers up on a 28 cut AGREEMENT.
This way I can cut them when I see fit. If it needs to be cut every 5 days during the rainy season then I just cut them and don't worry about them complaining that it hasn't been a week. If it's slow in August because of heat, then I'll cut them every 2 weeks or 10 days.
I will also bill them monthly instead of putting in their door an envelope with a "Your lawn was cut with extreme care today by Mike's Lawn Service" flyer inside. Some still like to pay cash when they see me though. Can't help that unless you want to lose the customer.

Get some good software to make invoices and bills and keep track of all of your customers. Groundskeeper Pro works great. If you go in the Business section of this forum, you can do a search and find the website in there. I just tried out the free version of the PRO edition. You can do up to 4 customers on the free trial version to see if you like it. I love it.

Sorry for the long post. Most of my posts lately have been extremely long. Whatever.

Thanks,
Mike

[GRASSCUTS LAWN CARE]

Thanks for the INFO so far!!!!

On MONTHLY BILLINGS...........Do you just invoice all your customers on the 1st of the month, or do you split them up....some on the first, some on the 15th for a more "EVEN" cash flow?

[Scott]

I'm pretty flexible with my residential customers with their due dates but I send them all out on the first and I'm generally paid by the 15th. My commerical customers have always paid W/I 5 days of receiving invoices.

[Maddog]

I bill the same as Scott does. When I started out I billed when I was done now it is every month. I bill around the 1st of the month.

Like everyone else, some want to pay when you mow each time.

[mikeslawnservice]

Keep all billings simple. Do them all on the same day if possible. It will make all of your paperwork much easier and your life less stressful.