Weekly vs. Bi-weekly

[rhodesx6]

How do you experienced guys handle the weekly vs. bi-weekly customer. I am adding ~50% to the weekly price if they want to wait for bi-weekly mowings. Last summer with all the rain we had, the bi-weekly cust. made it hard to get thru the lawns pretty quick. I am quite sure it is sustantially harder on the equip as well.

[Bulldog26]

I don't know how many properties your running but we will not do bi-weekly... period. It's to hard on the schedual.

bt

[steve-o]

i'm with you.

I don't know how many properties your running but we will not do bi-weekly... period. It's to hard on the schedual.

bt

i took that every other week stuff out of my vocabulary last season.

steve

[Bulldog26]

Steve,
Same here. Two years of it was bad enough. But I understand doing what you have to, to get started. But if your running more than 25 accounts solo or with a helper it's time to go only weekly only.

bt

[scagguy]

We do bi-weekly in November, February, and March only. December and January are once a month. April through October it's weekly only. No exceptions unless we experience the "D" word.

[spotremix]

i increase bi-weekly prices by $10 depending on the property and what all is done. the only real issue for me is the length of grass and whether they want it bagged or mulched.

[safari lawn]

I cut it at my discression, I have a few that are weekly, but others I give a break too to do as needed Bi Weekly, no additional pricing. if its hot and dry the grass wont grown, if it rains alot and is cool it needs it weekly.

[spotremix]

I cut it at my discression, I have a few that are weekly, but others I give a break too to do as needed Bi Weekly, no additional pricing. if its hot and dry the grass wont grown, if it rains alot and is cool it needs it weekly.

just how big of a business are you? am i understanding you correctly you only literally a few that are weekly?

no brakes on my end for the weather. i come on the scheduled weekly/bi weekly schedule unless the client informs me otherwise. i think this day in age you have people that fertilize and water there lawns i'm not going to play guessing games each week as to whether it needs it or not.

and with these people that do fert and water it's not like you can look outside at the yards and go by that. hell in my own neighborhood you can have one person who's lawn needs cut at least once a week and the property right next door only cuts there's once a month in the hot season.

the way i run my business, i use my own property as a gauge for everyone i service. just my 2 cents

[safari lawn]

just how big of a business are you? am i understanding you correctly you only literally a few that are weekly?

no brakes on my end for the weather. i come on the scheduled weekly/bi weekly schedule unless the client informs me otherwise. i think this day in age you have people that fertilize and water there lawns i'm not going to play guessing games each week as to whether it needs it or not.

and with these people that do fert and water it's not like you can look outside at the yards and go by that. hell in my own neighborhood you can have one person who's lawn needs cut at least once a week and the property right next door only cuts there's once a month in the hot season.

the way i run my business, i use my own property as a gauge for everyone i service. just my 2 cents

I have 34 customers, I will find out tomorrow if I pick up the 7 new ones. A majority are elderly and are on fixed incomes so they are happy that I watch out for them and their Money, they also allow me to make the call on how often I go do their lawns so in essance I have 34 yards that are mine and I mow them as I would my own but get paid for them. But also remember I am a Firefighter with a 54k a year salary so the 20k I made mowing last year is just extra money that does help us get by, and allows me to get the extra things I want, true its a business and I have costs associated with it that I need to cover and I have been trying to figure my own worth but I do not need to be cut throat at this point since it is secondary and I can just decide to quit if I chose to do so, and I dont need to worry about the other incidentals that someone self employed has to deal with i.e. Medical Insurance or Quarterly Taxes.

As for weather I will not cut when the grass is wet its not good for the yard or the equipment and since I change my schedule to suit my shift with the firehouse its not a major deal if I skip some, yes I dont make as much money as I could but I also see a need for some downtime with the kids, its all a balancing act. I fear if I exceed 40 yards I will be working too much to hard and too long, last summer it was 8 or 9 am until 2 pm M - F, I will rarely work on a Sat or Sun.

I have a few that get Chemlawn or another application company (here there are people who only do App's and dont mow at all), I do not do applications. as an after thought most of my Friday customers are my weekly customers with a few Tuesday and Thursday's.

[Sammy]

Weekly or at my discression.

[A&J]

I have 34 customers, I will find out tomorrow if I pick up the 7 new ones. A majority are elderly and are on fixed incomes so they are happy that I watch out for them and their Money, they also allow me to make the call on how often I go do their lawns so in essance I have 34 yards that are mine and I mow them as I would my own but get paid for them.

I can understand this. I'm a pushover when it comes to a LOT of my elderly clients (at least the ones that aren't PITAs), and I kind of do the same... and you know what? YES, it really screws with our schedules sometimes... and YES, it can be a pain judging when it needs mowed (i.e., driving out of the scheduled route to check on it), but I'll tell you this too - Those folks are my BEST word of mouth. My first clients were the elderly (and one disabled), and I cut em breaks.... and, off the top of my head, I want to those first 4 generated 3 new customers each over the course of that first year.

So, yah of course in one hand I won't take "as needed" BS and do my best not to mess with bi-weekly either, but having the customer service to treat your customers as human beings by showing them the kindness and respect they deserve pays off.

As a side note, don't count on sweet old ladys paying off though. I mentioned the first 4 really paid off, that 5th one was a Royal Pain In the ACE. Man, come to remember her, I should reeeeaaallly start a thread on that story... anyone else have an 80 year old woman tell them they love you in a seductive way??

[spotremix]

I have 34 customers, I will find out tomorrow if I pick up the 7 new ones. A majority are elderly and are on fixed incomes so they are happy that I watch out for them and their Money, they also allow me to make the call on how often I go do their lawns so in essance I have 34 yards that are mine and I mow them as I would my own but get paid for them. But also remember I am a Firefighter with a 54k a year salary so the 20k I made mowing last year is just extra money that does help us get by, and allows me to get the extra things I want, true its a business and I have costs associated with it that I need to cover and I have been trying to figure my own worth but I do not need to be cut throat at this point since it is secondary and I can just decide to quit if I chose to do so, and I dont need to worry about the other incidentals that someone self employed has to deal with i.e. Medical Insurance or Quarterly Taxes.

As for weather I will not cut when the grass is wet its not good for the yard or the equipment and since I change my schedule to suit my shift with the firehouse its not a major deal if I skip some, yes I dont make as much money as I could but I also see a need for some downtime with the kids, its all a balancing act. I fear if I exceed 40 yards I will be working too much to hard and too long, last summer it was 8 or 9 am until 2 pm M - F, I will rarely work on a Sat or Sun.

I have a few that get Chemlawn or another application company (here there are people who only do App's and dont mow at all), I do not do applications. as an after thought most of my Friday customers are my weekly customers with a few Tuesday and Thursday's.

i don't cut when the grass is extremely wet, but i won't wait until it's bone dry either. the only thing that keeps me from cutting is the same things that keep all the other full time businesses from cutting. minus the fact that in a dought situation it's the clients job to call me and either switch there schedule or call me week to week as to whether it needs cut or not.

i don't do applications either but i have plenty of clients that get them from chemlawn or another application company.

[Bulldog26]

just how big of a business are you? am i understanding you correctly you only literally a few that are weekly?

no brakes on my end for the weather. i come on the scheduled weekly/bi weekly schedule unless the client informs me otherwise. i think this day in age you have people that fertilize and water there lawns i'm not going to play guessing games each week as to whether it needs it or not.

and with these people that do fert and water it's not like you can look outside at the yards and go by that. hell in my own neighborhood you can have one person who's lawn needs cut at least once a week and the property right next door only cuts there's once a month in the hot season.

the way i run my business, i use my own property as a gauge for everyone i service. just my 2 cents

??????????? WHAT

[Number 10]

Sporty - Nice to have you back again.

I'm with AJ and Safari on this. I try not to do "every others" but if they are next door to a weekly or it falls into the "Widows & Orphans" category I'll do it. Therefor I have a few of them and they are a pain to keep up with but hey,........ unlike Steve, it's not all gravy.

[spotremix]

[/COLOR]


??????????? WHAT

very simple bulldog here are a few examples

snow removal - i wake up to see if we got the inches we were suppose to, if my drive way needs it so will everyone elses, i go to work. if my drive way doesn't need it no one elses will either.

mowing - if my grass needs cuts once a week so will everyone elses.

i'm not going to play guessing games with each client as to whether there grass will grow enough each week to need cut. around my neck of the woods strange stuff can happen. like i said in an earlier post. you have can 2 properties right next to each other and one will have lucious green healthy grass that needs cut once a week. the property next to it can be all yellow and dried out and only need cut once a month if that.

so i sorta use my own lawn as a gauge for all my clients. not really though because i come on my scheduled basis unless the client calls ahead and says hey my grass doesn't need cut. although last year i did offer to put my clients on a bi-weekly schedule until the drought ended.

i didn't mean it to the point that i use my whole lawn (as in shrubs, mulch and all) as a gauge for all my clients.

as far as cutting goes i basically come once a week minus rain days. even in last years drought i came and cut my clients lawns once a week unless they called and either cancelled or switched to a bi-weekly schedule. i prefer to put that decision into there hands so i don't get beotched at for coming to much or not enough.