How to collect payment

[ben_and_deja]

AndI see most guys/gals charge in average, like $75/month for the standard "mow & blow" which is the average cost of mowing each week during season and twice a month off season, so supposing a customer paid either for a season or an off season then ended the relationship, someone would get screwed no? I'm considering charging per cut to avoid this. How do you guys avoid this issue, if it even is one?

Also, if I'm not mistaken most charge after the work. I'm thinking about charging before, allowing maybe a job to go by without payment, but charge a penalty for late payment, like $5 to encourage customers to keep funds in their account like prepaid cell phone plans. Is that doable?

How do you do "auto-payments" anyway? Are there CC payment systems that automate that or should I just leave it to an assistant in the beginning? And what DO you do when you charge a customer the average price during season (where you're doing more work per what you're collecting)and they then stop using you? This must be every newbie's 1st question.

And how about an auto check collecting system, like what you can do with a standard bank these days with "bill pay" where your bank will send a check on schedule to your bill collector, whoever that may be.

I know, big question, sorry, but these are important. Maybe there is a comprehensive thread on this someone can refer me to? Thanks in advance for your input.

[8307c4]

I normally get paid after the work, and I like to get paid before I come out again.

Lets get one thing straight, a contract is an agreement, nothing more, nothing less.
It can be verbal or written, neither will prevent you or the customer from being taken advantage of, ultimately it's how you chose to play the game. Personally I would suggest being honest and upfront but that's just me.

Some of it has to do with contractor's licenses as well, where I live you need a class-C license to enter into contracts over a thousand dollars... Not a big problem for me, most of my jobs come in under a few hundred but for "seasonal" customers if you want to get paid for the season you will most likely need to draw up a contract and for that I would suggest getting with an attorney, in most of these cases customers will make monthly payments. Generally speaking these types of contracts are usually for bigger companies with deeper pockets (and employees such as secretaries who field the calls and so on). Don't think I'd want to get into these as an owner/operator but it's not unheard of either.