Mistakes Lawn Care Owners Make: Pt. 2

This is part 2 of 2 in a series that explores the common mistakes of lawn care owners.

Mistakes.

We all make them… and it’s hurting the growth of your lawn care business.

Whether you’re just getting started or you’ve been in the business for years - I can almost guarantee, you’re making at least one (if not, more) of these mistakes.

In this article, you’ll discover:

• The most common mistakes lawn care owners make
• How you can fix these mistakes
• Outside resources that can help you

While these mistakes don’t necessarily mean the end of your lawn care business, it’s important to correct them now. By quickly correcting these mistakes, you can get back on track to growing your lawn care business in no time!

Now let’s get started…

7. Continuing Accepting Cash & Checks

This might seem like a “no-brainer” to some of you… and to others, it still plays a major role in your lawn care business.

By accepting cash and checks, you’re opening your business up for:

• Habitual missed and/or late payments
• Problem clients
• Consistent loss of revenue
• And trust issues between you and your clients.

How would you like to get your payments same-day?

The benefits of automatically invoicing your lawn care clients are endless:

• Clients are more likely to pay on time
• You don’t have to waste time and money asking them to pay
• Your loss of revenue will decrease
• There will be less issues between your lawn care business and your clients
• You’re more likely to get your money on time… every time
• You’re less likely to get non-paying, “scammer” clients

Here’s a quick tip about credit card processing from Jonathan:

You may pay a small processing fee to automatically invoice your clients… but the security of knowing you’ll be paid on time, every time is well worth it.

You’ll save more time and money using a credit card processor than if you’d chased after those “forgetful” clients.

6. Charging Too Little

Here’s the deal. There are low-ballers out there - and they’re trying to steal your leads and clients… so let them!

This might sound strange, but hear what I have to say for a minute.

If your leads are going to choose that low-baller you’ve been fighting against for lawn care clients - you don’t want those leads.

If your clients are going to leave you for that low-baller, because the prices are cheaper - you don’t want those clients.

You charge more, because your services are WORTH IT. Don’t let these low-ballers drive your prices down.

They can charge less, because they:

• Aren’t bonded with insurance
• Don’t care about their quality of work
• Don’t have good, reliable equipment
• Don’t care about making a successful business that’ll grow

They’re only in this business for a quick buck. So if you drive your prices down, you’re not going to make a profit… As it is, these guys are barely making a profit themselves.

You have a family. You have mouths to feed. You have a team who relies on you for their families. You have a lawn care business to build. Your low-ballers don’t - or at the very least, don’t understand what they’re doing.

You know what your services are worth, so don’t get bullied into lowering your prices.

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When you have a lead or client mention the low-baller prices, tell them why you charge more. If they’re a good lead or client, they’ll understand. If not, stand firm - and if necessary, turn them away.

Justify your prices by telling them:

• You're insured (so they won’t get sued for property liabilities)
• You’re bonded (so if anything is stolen or damaged, they’ll be paid)
• You care about your quality of work
• You want your team to get paid what they’ve earned
• You have good, reliable equipment that makes their yard look as beautiful as possible (which is the main reason they’re hiring a lawn care company anyways)
• Your team is experienced and can skillfully make their yard look amazing - every time
• You guarantee customer satisfaction (if they’re not satisfied - you’ll make it right)

If these reasons aren’t enough to convince your leads to convert or clients to stay, simply tell them you charge what you charge. Don’t beg for them to stay, because you want loyal lawn care clients. You don’t want someone who only sees your services one dimensionally.

Here’s how to price your lawn care services:

Bottom Line: It’s important to ignore the low-ballers and do what you KNOW is right.

5. Not Hiring Enough Lawn Care Employees

This is a big one.

In fact, it’s the main reason many lawn care businesses fail.

When you don’t hire enough employees:

• You have to turn down more jobs
• Your team is overworked
• You have employee retention issues (because no one wants to work for you)
• Your quality of work suffers
• You lose clients (because you’re unreliable and your work quality is suffering)
• You create a bad reputation for your lawn care company

The irony here is this: you’re scared to hire new employees, because you’re afraid you won’t be able to pay them… but in reality you’re losing more money by not hiring more team members. Additionally, you’re not going to have anyone to pay, because your employee retention is going to suffer… massively.

Here’s how Jonathan knows it’s time to hire new lawn care employees:

These are the basic signs you can watch for in your business:

• You and your team are working more exhaustive hours than ever before.
• You feel as though your employees just aren’t loyal to you.
• You’ve turned jobs down, because you don’t have enough employees to help.
• Your team’s morale is plummeting.
• An employee has quit.
• Your crews are overextended and burning out… FAST.
• You do small tasks instead of focusing on growing your business.
• You’re missing calls, because you’re too busy and it’s costing you money.
• You’re working on the low-profit projects, because you need your crews on the bigger projects.
• You’re about to sell a ton of new work and will need additional employees to cover the jobs.

If you’re experiencing ANY ONE of these signs - you NEED to hire more employees. Your lawn care business’ success depends on this.

4. Working on Low-Value Tasks

This is a direct byproduct of mistake 5.

When you don’t hire enough employees, you (the business owner) are stuck doing the low-value tasks.

Here’s what I mean: you’re working in your business rather than on it.

This decision is slowing the growth of your business down… drastically. You’re pushing aside the high-value tasks for the low ones. All because you haven’t hired enough employees - so you now have to help them.

Think of it as working for $15 an hour versus $100 an hour.

While these low-value tasks still hold value… YOU are the most valuable asset to your business. It only makes sense that you work on the highest value tasks no one else can do - that’s actually going to grow your business.

Here’s how to hire those new employees:

3. Getting Gas in the Morning

Okay, so this might sound strange this is on here, but this single task is costing your lawn care business hundreds… even thousands of dollars.

Picture this…

Every morning, your team goes to get gas. You might think this is the first thing they do, but you’re wrong. It’s the 2nd thing they do.

The first thing they do is grab snacks… and drinks… and talk. When all the while, they’re getting paid! You’re throwing your money away - and LOTS of it.

They’re not in a hurry to start their day. They’re tired. They want their coffee they didn’t have time to grab before work.

Every morning your team “grabs gas,” they’re wasting AT LEAST 45 minutes - every. single. morning.

So here’s the one question, you’ll wish you’d asked yourself from the very beginning… the simple solution you’d wished you’d thought of when you 1st started your business:

Why not grab gas in the evening?

When you fill up in the evening, your team:

• Is in a hurry to get home to their families
• Doesn’t have morning traffic waiting on pumps
• Is tired and moving faster than in the morning
• Isn’t going to go inside to grab snacks - they’re ready for dinner!

So what does this mean for YOU?

They’re not going to waste your money.

Now, I’m not saying your employees are necessarily doing anything wrong. They’re doing things the way most lawn care companies operate… but you’re not like most lawn care companies. You don’t just want to survive. You want to grow.

Here are a few EXTRA money-saving tips:

2. Forgetting to Follow Up

If you’re looking to really grow your lawn care business - this mistake alone will stop you dead in the tracks.

When you forget to follow up:

• You lose leads that never got their estimate
• You lose clients that never got their invoice
• Your customer service suffers
• Mistakes happen
• Clients never upgrade their services
• No one reviews your business (unless they’re mad and go out of their way to do so)
• Your team never knows how to improve their services

Automations is the #1 way to follow up with clients. If you’re not using it, your business might still be successful - but it won’t grow.

In Service Autopilot, our automations send emails and texts to:

• Every lead after an estimate is completed
• Clients after their property has been serviced
• Remind leads and clients to send you customer feedback
• Update outdated or declined payment information
• Inform them when a service can’t be completed due to unforeseen circumstances (i.e. weather)
• Remind them of maintenance tips (i.e. putting a cover on the outdoor faucet before the winter)

In automations, you can even automatically charge clients!

Although, please keep in mind you’ll have to choose a credit card processor to take advantage of auto-charging.

The opportunities for automations are absolutely endless.

The best part?

Automations are totally customizable. You just create it - and then forget about it! You don’t even have to use your assistant for these tasks anymore.

This allows your assistant to focus on those high-value tasks we talked about earlier. They’ll be able to focus on answering calls and nurturing client relationships.

1. Using Excel, Google Sheet or Pen & Paper

Your time is money, and excel takes time. So stop wasting your time and money with this…

… when there’s a solution out there that has the potential to save you hundreds… even thousands of dollars every year.

By becoming a Service Autopilot member, you’ll get a software that:

• Saves time through efficient scheduling
• Invoices (with the potential to automatically do so, if you add automations)
• Creates custom reports
• Creates website forms (with the electronic signature option)
• Has the potential to auto-charge clients (when you choose a credit card processor)
• Tracks calls
• Automates your lawn care company through follow up estimates, upsells and etc… (when you choose this add-on)

There is no other software out there that has the potential of Service Autopilot.

Why? Because, Jonathan and John (our co-founders) specifically designed our software to fit the needs of lawn care business owners.

The opportunities Service Autopilot can offer your business are absolutely limitless. In addition, we have so many affordable options to help your lawn care business grow.

Conclusion

If you’re serious about growing your lawn care business, you need to read this article.

You’ll find out:

• The mistakes every lawn care business owner makes
• How you can correct these mistakes
• Resources that are going to help you supercharge your business’ growth
• Easy, simple tips on growing your business

You’ll be given actionable steps that will help you to quickly grow your lawn care business.

Stop waiting to make your dreams come true, and TAKE ACTION to grow your business TODAY!

Mistakes Lawn Care Owners Make: Pt. 1