r/LawnCarePros

I'm getting close to 50, and feeling it. I've cut back on hilly properties. Will probably cut a few more between seasons.

I think any sort of customer service job wears on people. I've got many delightful customers I've collected over the years. But the basic idea of only getting communication from most of the human race when they want something from you or have some issue just tires a person's soul out.

Idk. One of the reasons i got out of the snow business though was i couldn't deal with people's endless delusional expectations.

My own life is doing well enough. Stable financially. Have rental property. Just world weary I guess. Just felt like rambling a bit.

How are you doing?

Curious how anyone handles yards after a week where it rains non stop to where I cannot mow with drastic grass growth.

Now this week the jobs take a lot longer and wet clumps into early afternoon to deal with to get looking great after the grass shot up.

Currently bagging and hauling away clippings because my customers usually don’t prefer a deck length of 3.5 to 4 ( I usually mow at a 3 or 3.25). Only other option to save my hourly rate would be to mow higher and worry about getting it down to normal next week.

My current price is per mow. And charge seperate for any weed control in the beds. Seperate pruning cost and clean up costs etc. so no packages and it’s been working for us. I will be raising prices next year so wondering if I should add a bi weekly price for weeks like this even though it’s out of mine and customers control.

I typically do not do biweekly mowing. But customers like not being charged if I decide to skip in hot summer months.

Additional bonus on your experience if you raised prices how your customers react / what % stayed.

Thanks in advance.

I did a one time mow recently. A house down the street from me.

I was to mow and weed wack only the front yard. It was large overgrown. Now edging to save money. I didn't ask about grass hight or clippings as the yard from the street didn't look so overgrown due to how uniform it was, very think grass. It was maybe 2 or 3 times higher than it should be. This was my first time cut with them and a one time cut.

The couple used to do landscaping and owned a large walker mower that I guess they sold, then had their kid do it once or twice with a push. After that they let it get very overgrown over weeks of not mowing.

I said $70 and did the yard in about an hour. Later when they got home the wife reached out very upset over the amount of clippings asking why I didn't bag it, I had to cut it by at least half height so there was lots of clippings. I said I never ever bag and I would have charged extra for bagging and the clipping will dissolve in a few days. She reached out again and said I should be ashamed of myself, it was the worst mow ever, that she hopes I have insurance and a license. Should I go back to bag it? I've never had a client like this. The yard was very obviously overgrown and we never discussed bagging it? The wife is reaching out not the husband and she sent me photos of bags of grass. What should I do? Did I do anything wrong? I've never had an experience like this before.

I just bought a new 61 in commercial mower. Previously on my 42' mower and my 36' mower I kept getting tiny punctures in the tires and it just built up to the point that I was plugging 4-5 spots at a time it felt like and they were tiny pin-prick holes that didn't patch or plug well. Eventually I just sold the 42 and I put Tweels on the 36 and that's cut my down time due to tire issues to 0.

Now on this 61' mower there's no direct fit for the tweels, it'll take some adjustment to the deck after their installed. I'll eventually do that once I just can't use the factory tires anymore (I don't want to waste a perfectly good new set of tires) but in the meantime I'm trying to get as much life as I can out of the standard tires.

I see people talk about using slime, just putting it in and letting it sit as a preventative move. I also saw Flatout which may be better. I'm just wondering if any of you have experiences with these or if I should just keep plugging stuff as it gets messed up.

Also-- I know that Slime and stuff will still require me to plug anything large like nails.

I run a small garden maintenance business outside of the US and seeing some of the prices you guys throw out blows my mind. No shade but how can your costs possibly justify up to $125 an hour? The margins must be crazy

Top end rates here are around $50-$60 per man per hour

Any advice is appreciated, I’m a noob pls help

To preface, I’m 19 and I started lawncare early july, and I have around 10-15 yards. The problem is that they’re pretty separated so I spend most of my time driving. Obviously the first thing would be get more houses in the same neighborhood but since I started kind of late it’s kind of just random houses not really patches if that makes sense.

For example today (I live in the center of a city)

Drive 30 mins to yard 1, 0.3 acre, $65, took 1 hr
Drove 25 mins (back towards my house), 0.1 acre, $45, 45 min

Drove 5 mins, 0.15 acre, $50, 45 min
Drove 25 mins, 0.2 acre, 1 hr, $60.

I left my house at 9 am, got back at 5:00 pm, took a 3 hour break in between, only made like $200.

Question:
Should I drop the houses that doesn’t make sense location wise, or try to keep them for next season

Also general advice is appreciated, I was literally outside for 7 hours give or take and only made $200

I’m a 18 year old landscaping company owner my business has been open for about a year and a half I’ve recently hit a plateau on my company’s progress we don’t get to many jobs I’m trying to start advertising on Facebook though and making actual landscaping videos for my social media plat forms I’m trying to get into more project based work and junk removal instead on weed removal because I feel like it’s not worth my money for the time it takes and especially since where I live it doesn’t snow but the weeds won’t grow during the winter either if any one has any advice for me (even if brutally honest) it would be greatly appreciated!

Bad boy is one brain I’m looking into but open to suggestions.

Hi, I’m moving to the city in a couple of weeks, I work at a garden center now and have a love for the work. I’m thinking of possibly starting my own small gardening business? Now I know this will be challenging due to the fact that I can’t drive. But especially living in a walkable community I think it’s possible. I would probably focus more on maintenance, weeding, pruning, snow and leaf clearing, maybe lawn mowing? Thank you!

What’s the average people be charging for cutting a yard/property care?

What are other owners doing for winter services? I’m in nw Ga and obviously grass is dormant in winter and we don’t get snow that last over a week. What services could I provide to resi and commercial properties? I’m trying to fill my winter books in with hardscapes, drainage, irrigation installs.

Is undercharging for lawn care just a temporary strategy when I start… I want to get more clients.

I own a lawn care company and we’re looking at adding mosquito control as a new service. We already service around 3,000+ properties, so we’d be selling mosquito control primarily to our existing lawn customers.

For those of you who have experience in mosquito control:

• What does your typical mosquito application look like? What areas are you treating?
• What products/active ingredients are you typically using?
• How often are you treating throughout the season?
• What are you charging per application?
• Do you price based on lot size, treatment area, or just use a flat rate?
• What equipment are you using?
• What are the biggest things you wish you knew before adding mosquito control?
• Anything specifically I should be aware of?