Just delt with the worst customer I’ve ever had. Wrote out an estimate for 2 men 16 hours. We were pulling honey suckle vines that had been left on a boxwood row about 200 ft for over 5 years. Then had to prune a lot of dead out of a fig tree. After me and my helper worked for 4.5 hours client came out and was telling me I wasn’t going to finsh today I could come back and I said ma’am we are already done with the box wood we are headed to the fig tree now there’s no way I don’t finish today. Well she then tells me that we agreed to weed another Shrub that was about 15ft high and 30ft in width. I said No ma’am I have the estimate you clicked Agree on right here this wasn’t quoted. I would have to raise the price $200 for that. Well she said she wasn’t going to pay that to stop what I was doing and she would pay me $300 for 4 hours of work when the job was for $1,200 I said that’s 75 and Hr for me not $75 per man like we agreed. So I packed up my Tools and left. Moral of this post is Always get a signed Contract on Top of the accepted Estimate. Some “Karen’s” will expect us to give them a premium service for little to nothing.

What do you do when equipment fails in the middle of the season? Do you keep backup mowers, trimmers, blowers, or other equipment ready to go? Or do you repair it and adjust your schedule? And here’s another question… What happens if you can’t make it to a customer’s property on their scheduled day? Do you have a backup crew, work late to catch up, reschedule for the next day, or have another system in place? I’m curious how everyone handles those unexpected situations. Share your strategy—someone new to the industry might learn something valuable from your experience! 👇

I am developing an Iphone app. Looking for lawnmowing contractors to test it. Beta testers will get the first 3 months free in exchange for reporting bugs and feedback. MowMeter helps you: - Track the time spent at each customer. - Record your mowing history. - Generate professional reports that can help document and present your mowing rounds or entire business for sale. - Exports data to spreadsheets so you don't have track anymore manually. Just message me if you want to be a Beta tester. App website is www.mowmeter.com

A few years back I had five vans on the road, ride-on mowers, self-propelled machines, and the works. I thought I was building something big. Turns out I was mostly building headaches. The machines broke down constantly. The ride-on died on a job once, and I had to push it onto the trailer by hand. You only do that once. Workers were using my gear for cash jobs after hours. Margins were thin even on the good weeks. And I needed over 1,000 lawns before I could step away from the business. I was just under halfway there, and the thought of doubling it made me sick. So we sold everything except our best 100 lawns. Went back to small lawns with push mowers. My wife and two vans. Turnover dropped by half. The workweek dropped to under 20 hours each. Take-home pay? About the same. Why small lawns pay better You're in and out in 20 minutes. The hourly rate ends up higher than it ever was on the big properties. You use less fuel because you are running smaller engines and do not need a trailer that burns gas behind you. Parking is easier. And when it rains or a client cancels, your whole day doesn't fall apart because each job is a small piece of the schedule. The gear is cheaper too. Push mowers and small self-propelled mowers have fewer things that can go wrong. When something does break, you can still finish the job. I know this model isn't for everyone. If you've got a crew and you want to scale up, go for it. But if you're solo or running with your partner and you feel like you're working too many hours for what you're bringing home, have a look at which lawns are actually making you money. You might be surprised.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately because the gap between operators in this industry is wild. One guy has a tight route, recurring clients, solid margins, and a crew that shows up. Another is mowing six days a week and still wondering where the money went. Same industry. Completely different results. From what I've seen, the difference usually comes down to three things: 1. Route density — are your jobs close together, or are you burning half the day in the truck? 2. Pricing discipline — are you pricing for profit, or just trying to win the job? 3. Customer quality—are you keeping good accounts or constantly replacing canceled ones? The trap a lot of people fall into is confusing being busy with being profitable. You can work yourself into the ground and still run a weak business if the fundamentals aren't right. The most successful operators I've come across are honestly kind of boring; they know their numbers, they know their service area, and they say no to work that doesn't fit. That discipline is what separates them. I wrote a full article on this if you want to go deeper 👉 https://lawnmowing101.com/how-successful-are-lawn-care-businesses/ But I'm more curious what you lot think. What's been the biggest thing that moved the needle for your business? Or if you're just starting out, what feels like the biggest obstacle right now? Drop it below. 👇