CHANGED MY MIND on LAWN CARE SERVICE AGREEMENTS
Вставка
- Опубліковано 10 бер 2024
- LAWN BUSINESS RESOURCES:
📬 postcard resource: www.turfprosacademy.com/post-...
👨💼 full lawn business startup course: www.turfprosacademy.com
⬆️ rate increase letter: www.turfprosacademy.com/rate-...
MY FAVORITE TOOLS:
⚡️ Yardbook powers my business: www.yardbook.com
🔨 For pruning: amzn.to/3hCWYPJ
🧰 Every day carry: amzn.to/34n8YlV
🥾 My boots: amzn.to/3sXaCoo
MY STORY:
In 2016 I had been in law enforcement for 7 years.
I was not in control of my schedule, I was hardly making any money, and I was away from my family working nights and holidays. I was capable of more, and I was silently suffering. I knew I was selling myself and my family short.
I started Florida Turf Pros as a side hustle in 2016 before going full time in 2017.
My lawn business changed my life.
I control my own schedule, control my own income, and I am proud of what I have built; a business that supports me, my family, and some employees.
If you are a lawn care business owner, this channel will be a valuable resource for you.
This really is a great industry to be in, and I hope that by documenting my journey it will help you.
-Jonathan C. Christian
Here in Williamsburg VA! I do annual contracts for my customers. Weekly service for spring and summer, December January February bi-weekly service. The price gets cut in half for those winter months. My customers love it and there are always things to do in the winter like trimming limbs that get in the way of mowing, and other things. I do quarterly shrub trimming and leaf removal when I do the shrub trimmings in the fall and winter. The “contracts” I do are not actually legally binding them but the customers like have a plan for the year. They could theoretically cancel anytime, but that hasn’t happened in three years since I’ve implemented. Also for me it’s much easier to plan while being able to know how much revenue is coming in the future. The customers prepay for the month on the 1st of the month. Many of the customers have a card on file which makes the experience really hands off for them. I do most of my work in higher end gated communities. Love your content always brother learning a lot!
I have a "Service Agreement" that basically just lays out what we expect and what the customer can expect. We do not lock anyone into service though because if they don't like us, they should be free to go. As for year round income, we offer 12 month payment plans for people with 3 or more services such as mowing, leaf clean ups and snow removal. We also offer 8 month payment option for those with 2 services such as mowing and leaf clean up. We did offer a 6 month equal payment option that would trade mowing services for another equal valued service if mowing wasn't able to be done, but we switched those people to bill as you go people and just keep trying to upsell them.
Good idea, I like it.
Nice to see things coming along. I think making the center a drive thru would be awesome for rain days. The sides I would make individual roll up doors. Just to protect your stuff from weather deterioration. I'm glad you're giving into service agreements. Its a game changer, for sure. I'm in central Florida, and it works great. I get just being responsible and putting your money away, but having a consistent year-round income helps with being organized year round. I understand things fluctuate throughout the year, but we can account for that starting the year and with landscaping and commercial contracts. I like the idea of collecting everything on the first and paying all my bills for the month. As far as rain days go and other setbacks you can set hard boundaries in your contracts/ lawn service agreements that state there is no change in price due to weather and whatnot. I have a contract if you're interested and want to take a look at it. Awesome content as always. Thank you, sir 🫡
I actually really enjoy this twist of voice over while watching normal everyday check list jobs. Keep it up the great work Florida Turf Pros? Did you end up selling the Red Ford and buying the white Chevy in the backyard?
Yes, sir. Good eye. 😊 I am doing a video on that soon.
Nice barn! I would enclose both sides and leave the center open. Roll up doors toward the center. The center could then double as an entertainment pavilion/hang out area and be awesome for short term storage, repairs, staging of materials.
One side I would make a dedicated shop/repair bay, the other one for equipment and material storage.
Many ways you could go but thats definitely what I would do....no question
We switched our rules of engagement for new mowing clients this year.
If they don’t have an irrigation system we aren’t taking them on for mowing. As we start to fill up we will start trimming things back. We don’t have to take on every yard anymore but it took a while to get there!
My maintenance crew is small and lean and they want to learn. We are doing 4 days max this year with one day for enhancements. (Landscaping lighting is an extremely simple service with extremely high profit margins)
We are going to switch our mowing side to a full service landscaping maintenance company for high end homes and smaller commercial properties. It will drive up revenue per hour and the more skilled work will raise our profit margins and make things easy for our target clients. With that we will be putting contracts into place. One other huge bonus of that is we can afford to pay our guys way better than anyone else in town.
You will be fighting hard to use contracts if you are doing mowing only for residential clients. But once you realize people will sign with a full service landscape maintenance company who solves their problems before they even knew they had one it’s a no brainer.
For the shop I’d encourage leaving it open in the middle, having a driveway wrap around with on-site fuel. Goodbye gas station trips!
Can't wait to see the finished product.
I mowed 2 lawns the last few days of February and my first official day was last Monday on the 4th and went lawn to lawn on my daily routes and mowed the ones that needed it or my client told me to mow it though I thought it looked okay. This week lot more grass growth and lots of green onions and what I call the wild. Grass is still patchy on untreated lawns and my treated lawns are green. Was warm last week in the 70s, high 50s low 60s this week, high 50s next week. Just tell everyone it's March in Kentucky haha!!
Got a couple commercial bids I think I will get.
Capping my list at 80. Gives me room for random 1 and 2 time mow clients and room to trim shrubs etc. Always enjoy your videos.
You, Brian's Lawn Maintenance, Blades of Grass are my favorite lawn channels.
I now officially want a barn and yes inclose with roll-up doors leave one side open like a carport.
The garage/shed/man cave is looking great! 😂
I'd at least enclose half to three quarters of it. Only real worry is the occasional tropical storm or hurricane rolling through. Its so nice to have a dedicated equipment and work space. Year round clients are the best. I worked myself into having about 90% of last years customers year round. During the winter I wouldn't stop by every week like I did in the growing season but would make service visits usually 2X a month and a minimum of once a month. I would pick up sticks, limb up trees, treat winter weeds in the landscape beds, blow and remove leaves and mow down and mulch the bermuda grass to get it ready for the spring green up. I was lucky to do this all without contracts. Going forward I'm not opposed to offering contracts for the same reasons you stated. As usual great info! Thanks Johnathan. You are a great asset to the lawncare community!
Thanks for the kind words!
Nice building. I have seen others like this one and if it was mine I would enclose the center and leave the two outsides open. Congrats. I also think your going about it the right way with the contracts. Never hurts to try new things.
We started service subscription packages last season, and it's billed by the month. We only worked April to Roughly December, which was essentially mowing maintenance and leaf clean up weekly. This year, we're staying with those, but moving to year-round, so instead of stopping around, Christmas will work through March. At which time they can terminate if they wish.
nice setup. I would enlose at least the middle. You'll appreciare it during bad weather.
I agree. For Residential clients no contracts but commercial I have contracts. For all 4 of my commercial properties. I do I atleast a year contract. That was my thing here in northern part of South Carolina. In the winter there was no income except leaf clean ups hear and there. So this really kept my busy as a mostly solo guy and gave me some income. GOD bless. Your doing great things man And you gotta be covered on commercial sites. I would enclose the whole thing but have tall wide roll up doors. You could creat a porch type area but I would still have all of it enclosed for security purposes.
Love the barn
Depends where your going to store ur tools maybe side of the wind blows , but ur in a good climate
Maybe the two lean to sides keep the middle open for light
Hv a blessed day man
This year all customers who agreed to a verbal 12 month service and decided to either not pay over the winter or flat out ghost my business will be given a contract agreement when they call back with knee high lawns. A verbal 12 month agreement works great with honest customers but come winter there's always those customers who play games. Weekly in grow season bi weekly winter. Contract legally will hold up in small claims and let the players know not to play games. Small claims demand letters go out after 2 months of non payment.
I’ve been watching your videos for awhile. Was waiting for the day you opened up to service agreements lol. I understand why some guys don’t. I have about 90% of my maintenance clients on service agreements. Three main things that I like about using them:
1. Consistent income throughout the year
2. A client that wants a service agreement typically values long term relationships and is less likely to drop you for any reason. They have a different mindset. They want to partner with a company who can help them in all aspects of their yard
3. I don’t credit missed visits due to inclement weather. My service agreement clients know this. If you charge by the cut… when it rains, you lose twice. You lose the cut you didn’t get when it rained and you lose when you do finally cut it and it’s overgrown and takes longer. I credit missed visits for any other reasons. But I tell them when they can expect us to stay longer and take our time after a missed visit to make sure the property looks perfect.
By the way, that barn looks great. Keep up the good work.
You are 100% correct. It also guarantees people won’t skip services and you can plan your entire year out in advance. Nothing is worse than when people request a service and expect it done right away when you’re already booked out.
@@jamiepippin3892 exactly!
This is a great comment. Thanks for sharing.
Barn looks great. In my opinion I would close in the main part and leave the sides open.
I would stop using air up tires.
So i am getting my first lawn this week. I don’t want contracts. But do i give them any paperwork or sign anything at all or just say i am coming on Wednesdays and that is it?
I would close in the left or right side. Of maybe even 1/2 of one side
Barn progress looking great. I would enclose both sides and keep middle section open initially. As far as contracts, we like either 12 month (yearly) or 6 month (seasonal) prepaid contracts. I look at it as a salary job but nice to have enough income coming in over the winter months.
Thanks for the tips!
Like you I don't do residential contracts but for clients that have roses, pampas grass, hollies, crape myrtles we do winter service and for those that ask for it. I make recommendations and many follow my advice. Commercial would need a contract and more insurance which is why we don't do it.
DUDE! That pole barn looks sweet!! Weekend bonfires just got an upgrade! 🔥🔥 I would definitely enclosed the front and back of the main pole barn and leave the south and north side open for any trailers and equipment. The inside would be nice for materials like mulch, pinestraw, etc.
That's the plan!
Yeah I would enclose it! What’s your material cost so far?
Looks good a rolling tool bench check harbor freight there on sale n come in a variety of colors
Thanks for the tip!
my mom and her partner helped her partners son build a structure similar to that but also fully enclosed and they did it all except concrete also. took them like a week and was same thing with pricing from companies. Thought you wasnt using the barn for business? i would enclose it somewhat. maybe the middle closed in and more of a out of the bad weather and maybe split ac to it. i have always felt contracts should be used for commercial work mostly. for residential work we dont do them. but i feel some clients or potential clients make you want to push a contract on them. We started doing annual pricing and we had some just flat out stop service come our typical winter months. What would you do in that situation knowing you gave them a price based on that and there changing that plan? this being its verbal and not writen contract
Large middle section for business the two side sections for family and personal.
That's kinda the plan
I would think in florida with an open metal roof enclosing it would create an oven
It has ridge vents, but I would definitely have to have air movement to consider enclosing
Congrats on the beautiful property, you worked hard for it.. How many acres?
4 1/2
I'd consider leaving one side open and enclosing the rest. Roll up gate in the front middle.
I'm looking for ideas to build one similar pole barn. Where you get the rafters?
Local supply yard
Aayyyeee from Houston
In regards to contracts, do you do a contract/agreement for what work will be performed or not performed and for what price?
This isn’t an annual service agreement, it might just be in their bill/quote etc.
Typically just include hedges and flowerbed maintenance in a service agreement.
Got a Chevy in the back I see! 🧐 When are we going to see the video on that!?!
Video coming soon 😊
I do once a month services Dec, Jan, Feb. with 75% of my clients
Middle ga
We're going to change to once a month this year in the winter
Hey sir! I’m retired law enforcement, and I’m starting a lawn care business this year in Maryland. I appreciate all of the tips in your videos. I do have to be honest, I’m extremely nervous right now about starting the business and being able to make enough to pay the bills. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated. I will continue to watch your videos to learn as much as I can. Also, the barn looks great! Thanks for your time and channel brother!
You have your pension…..what you worried about?
@@rickhelm2244
If you think a police pension is enough to live off of I have news for you. Especially when your ex got half of it 🤷♂️😂
What app do you use for an estimate over the phone. Google map???
Yardbook
I would enclose it. I would be worried of thieves.
👍