What would you do

[Ric]

As a lawn-care business your faced with competition daily and sometimes decisions have to be made. Friday I was at a clients mowing lawn and noticed an individual up the street watching me and waiting for me to finish the lawn I was doing and I know he was wanting me to mow his lawn because I'd mowed it before. Before I could get finished another service pulled up and the individual flagged him down and asked him to do his lawn, well they talked a couple of minutes and the service went across the street to service his client.

While all this was going on I finished my client up and moved up the street to do another up two houses from the other service and the guy tried to flag me down to ask me the same question about doing his lawn. Before I gave him a price and an a answer I talked to the service that had been there and the guy said he gave him a price of $40 to do his lawn but the guy said he'd only pay $25. ( Keep in mind the guy's lawn was like 12 or more inches deep)

Now the Question. Do you respect the $40 price given by the first service and proceed to your next client or do you under cut (Lowball the first service) and do the lawn for $25?

 

[exotion]

If the grass was that deep I wouldn't do 25 but (not sure on sqft average houses here are 3000 sqft) I would charge 35 -40 depending on varibles. Then if he signed up for weekly service I would do 25

 

[sjessen]

What would your price have been? Some will tell you to get every lawn you can and undercutting is fine while others will be on the opposite end of the spectrum. $25 seems low for what you described. If you need and want the work there is nothing wrong with doing it for a low price. Doesn't sound like the customer wants regular care so the chances of him become a regular are slim, at least at this point.

Just a thought, mowing overgrown lawns are among the most perilous to cut for lco's. We don't know what obstacles we will encounter or where they are. No sense in giving away your service on a property that has risk of equipment damage.

 

[Bill Martin]

Being the lowest cost guy is hard to sustain. Someone will always go even lower than you. Try to distinguish your biz in other ways

 

[Ric]

If the grass was that deep I wouldn't do 25 but (not sure on sqft average houses here are 3000 sqft) I would charge 35 -40 depending on varibles. Then if he signed up for weekly service I would do 25

Ok but there's the problem, he already told the first service that offered a $40 price No and said he would only do $25. My question is would you respect the price the first service offered or lowball him and do the lawn at a cheaper price.

 

[mowerman05]

I don't do 12 inch deep grass for anybody for 25.00 let alone 40.00. Let someone else do it lawns are all over the place to pick up if you want them.

 

[Lawnboy18]

Screw him! It will cost you a lot of time and gas and for 25$ might as well stay at home. Explain him why you would charge x number.

 

[Mike88se]

It's iffy but I don't think I would do it unless I just really needed an extra 25 bux at the time. I'm not against competing prices but that doesn't seem like an issue here. You've cut his lawn before so it's fair game. It's fair game anyway because this is a free market economy
As someone pointed out, the most you stand to gain is $25 one time. I don't think this guy will ever be a regular... certainly not a good customer. He will wait til the grass is a foot high again before he wants it cut.

 

[Dave1954]

You said you had cut this mans grass before, So he knows what you charge and was waiting to talk to you, So he must have been satisfied with your work . I would stick to what I charged him before.

 

[exotion]

Ok but there's the problem, he already told the first service that offered a $40 price No and said he would only do $25. My question is would you respect the price the first service offered or lowball him and do the lawn at a cheaper price.

No I definately would not honor the first companys bid. I don't care about them. I also wouldn't do it for $25 either I would give them my bid which will for sure be lower than the last company but not 25 I would explain why and if he says no I walk away.

Lowballing is such a funny term I can in fact do it for 25 as long as it takes less than an hour. And if someone feels I'm low balling them that's their problem not mine looks like they need to lower prices ...