Originally Posted by
Mellors
Hi there Lawnmowers!
My first post - I was looking around this evening and read someone's gripe about people who use all this valuable information collected here, but don't contribute, so I thought I better say something, even though the reason I haven't contributed so far is really because I know bugger all compared with yous lot.
I'd ought to contribute something then, hadn't I? Not that it will be much better than my first commercial mow was ...
So, here is my wisdom, accumulated over WEEKS of being in the LM business - the most important thing is to CHARGE HIGH PRICES. I am (currently) sure that (at least in Sydney now, with the rain the way it has been), the supply/demand ratio of lawmowing contractors to lawn proprietors is such that there is really not that much competion between LM contractors - the real competition is between the LM contractor giving the quote, and the potential client doing it themselves (or having some significant other do it), or leave it to grow into wildlife habitat.
It is in all of our interests to quote as high as we can. The more we all quote, the higher the perceived "going rate" will be.
I would not be at all worried by "cowboys" charging very low rates. I started off charging very low rates, not because I was a cowboy (but may have been seen as such), but because I was a fool, and did not realise how much work was involved to do a good job. Now I know that the customers that will snap up naive aspiring lawnmowers at their bargain basement rates are not the customers that professionals would want to have.
It's all good - starting LMs get their first work and experience from the tight-arses who are exploiting their inexperience - these clients are not ones that professional LMs want or need. The starting LMs benefit from the work and experience they get, the TA-customers get cheap mows, and, best of all, the new professional LM who finally figures it out gets the exquisite pleasure of informing TA/PITA customers (in the most polite and professional way) that their services are no longer available for the price that they had been getting!
Brrm brrm ....
Mellors