getting undercut

[mariner]

Next time you see him, take a picture of him working and send it in where needed.

[ahlgrenlandscaping]

There are times and places for low pricing I have an entire neighborhood of 1/8 acre homes they are one bedroom with a kitchen/dining/living room kind of thing going. I'm getting 20 bucks a shot for them and I have 20 in a row. All together it takes me about 3 hours.

[ahlgrenlandscaping]

By the way I am not a lowballer, scrub, or any other term you could think of. I have a brand 14' Tandem axle Trailer, 2005 Scag WB 1998 Gravely WB, 1998 Dodge Ram 1500, 2002 Ford F350 Diesel. And I'm still making plenty of money to live comfortably and have plenty of time for the girlfriend.

[GrassMaster]

Make them want you to work for them!

Yesterday I bid a scalp job, a real thick job, not been scalp in years, big yard. I put a bid in for 250.00 dollars. Called the client back today and he said found someone to do it for 40.00!!!!!!!! I just can't belive it, undercutting like this has happened time and time again. 30.00 dollar yards are getting done for 15.00 and less. This keeps up and I'll have to give it up.

As time goes on it will get worse & worse, nothing much you can do about low ballers

Evidently the customer didn't know what the job involved & the price shopping customer is probably just going to get the grass scalped about 1 notch lower on the mower than normal. He will have a few extra bags of grass & the price shopper will think the job was done at a reasonable price!

Try to really work over your existing customers for referrals.

I know I'm going off topic concerning your post but try to bare with me on it.

Try to find some High Dollar add ons you can do, because the price to cut grass is still dropping... The Malaysians will come in a few years & under bid everybody by 50%. The average household income in Malaysia is $800 a year! Go figure on that one!

Don't get me wrong but I could go to a town of say 500,000 pop with a empty van & less than $50 in my pocket & probably be grossing at least $300,000 in 2 years or less in the Lawn Service business. I've written several post on how to do it with no money & how to do it with $50.

You can make a little money cutting grass to pay the Help but you must find add-ons that generates money. Here where I'm at very few people offer aeration, I would jump on that with both feet & make good money aerating & fertilizing. It's should be easy to make close to a 100 bucks an hour doing that! You can't make that much cutting grass can you?

Very few lawn guys here go after Pressure Washing or Roof & Gutter Cleaning. There's good money in both & if you do a good job they will call you next time, I wouldn't give them a chance to call me... I would be mailing them something every few months.

Be a one stop shop for the Rich & Famous. LOL I've fixed gates, fences, Dog Houses, Pens & anything else I could do to keep the competition off my customers property!

There's very good money is scalping lawns but you have to explain the difference in you doing it than the other guy. Make it so tough that Johnny homeowner will use you no matter what.

Go in with reel mowers mowers & skin it to the dirt if they got the right type of grass, tell them you can do it to the dirt thus removing all thatch so their lawn can breath, then you go in & Vacuum up all clippings, you might even offer to fill in all low spots to level lawn then you fertilize with proper fertilizer giving them a nice New Carpet of Green Grass in a months time if watered properly & weather conditions are right... Sell Nice New Carpet of Grass that can Breath! That's what they want, now do it!

Make it Rocket Science so when Bubba's lawn service comes over & bids a 1/5 your price then the home owner says Bubba are you going to use Reel mowers & Scalp it to the Dirt, then are you going to Vac up all clippings then put down Fertilizer. Bubba can you promise me a Nice New Carpet of Grass that can Breath! GrassMaster said he could? Bubba says Who's GrassMaster? The Customer says he's your Competition. The Customer is right, GrassMaster is the Competition!

Really go in to detail on how you are going to do it, maybe show dated pics of Before & After, with Equipment & Employees actually doing the work. Slap addresses on there... Show them what they want, Educate them & before they can break wind say, would you like for me to schedule you for Thursday after Lunch. Don't wait for them to say OK, I reckon I'll let you do it! Take over & Conquer, ask for the job!

Educate the Customer, because that's one of our many jobs we must do today to make the "Customer Want Us" then when Bubba comes along all but the Price Shoppers will know you can do a better job and Bubba will be standing there thinking "What in the Hell does this Customer want for 40 Bucks"? Bubba will not even know what hit him?

I always loved taking jobs from Rednecks for more money! YEEEEEEEEHA!

[highlander316]

I was at the court house filling out my PP Tax March 1st, when a guy in another cubical was raiseing H@ll about them sending tax papers to his house and that he was on disability and had been for 4 years and that he didn't mow anymore. ...... He had a lawn tractor and a push mower in the back of the truck and two trimmers on a rack. I rembered this guy from last summer he was mowing a yard in one of the subdivisions I work in.

I didn't say anything at the time I was busy. The more I think about it I should have turned him in.

if he's dumb enough to bring his equipment to the court house while complaining about taxes and that he is not a business, he probably should be turned it, lol. Imagine if the person he was talkin to looked out the window and saw his truck, lol.

[highlander316]

There are times and places for low pricing I have an entire neighborhood of 1/8 acre homes they are one bedroom with a kitchen/dining/living room kind of thing going. I'm getting 20 bucks a shot for them and I have 20 in a row. All together it takes me about 3 hours.

yea I also have a set of lawns like that, 4 of them at $20/pop in a row and I'm outta there in under 1hr 15mins. I agree that if you have an area like town homes, or a whole subdivision, then yea, of course the price will be lower because you don't have to worry about drive/loading/unloading time, and the mowers will be constantly running so it will be faster. I was talkin about when people are pricing single lots at low/low prices.