My UNPOPULAR OPINION on RAIN DAYS for Lawn Care and Landscaping Companies
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- Опубликовано: 15 окт 2024
- We go to my whiteboard to discuss My UNPOPULAR OPINION on RAIN DAYS for Lawn Care and Landscaping Companies.
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My boss had us mow in the rain. We had an old man come out pissed off asking us if we were stupid or what. Down in the south, customers do not like us putting a mower on their wet grass.
I worked for lawn care for 2 years I'm Texas. We never Mowed in the rain.
@ryanfruge8819 You'd figure after he lost account after wanting to mow in the rain he'd of took notice, not the guy I worked for.
Had plenty of people let us go due to leave ruts in their grass.
I always enjoy your mindset. For us (husband & wife operation) we don’t stress over rain delays because we use a rolling window schedule. Weekly (every 6 to 10 days) and Bi-Weekly (every 10 to 14 days). No customer has a set day and/or time for reoccurring lawn maintenance. As far as projects in the mix, we only book in 2 hour sessions. Mowing is priority over projects. Projects are done and billed in progress segments. An 8 hour project could take up to 4 sessions to complete. We try for less sessions if all possible (weather permitting).
does it rain a lot there? we have a set day for every customer and work in the rain. Only like 5 times in the yr does it rain like crazy where we cant work. this is texas
@@caseyporter499 we are in Maryland and it rains once week here on average. We don’t work in the rain.
I never fully pack my days so if I have rainy days I can add them to the next day cause I don't do anything in the rain here in texas if anything the week be cut short or find something to do like maintenance on equipment
I've got 50+ clients. I can't do that. It's 5-6 days a week mowing period
This is why I keep Fridays completely open. My crews have a three-day weekend if the week is perfect weather. If the weather is bad, we just have to push everyone a day or two max.
i used to landscape on a commercial crew fresh out of high school.
then i went to the food industry for 12+ years and landscaping on the side for myself.
since the pandemic the restaurant never recovered, im going full time with the landscape. thanks for videos like this. teaching people like me how to be more efficient out here.
Since I’m a solo operator, I schedule all my mowing tues-thurs and leave mondays and Friday’s for fertilizing and any other work. It Also makes it easy to move my schedule up or down a day for mowing depending on the weather
My business schedule for myself as a solo who does 95% just mowing is mow Monday Tuesday, Thursday Friday. Gives me Wednesday and Saturday to make up for rain on an average week if need be
a lot of ppl are doing that these days
I agree 100%. I do this with my schedule. I have 200plus jobs on the schedule. That would be a huge hassle to call all those customers.
Do you know what I do I work Monday Tuesday Wednesday mowing Thursdays for projects if you have a shorter work week you have room for a machine to break down a truck to break down for a rain day or worst-case scenario at the end of the week you need to give them Friday off or use it as a shop day. The idea of having a full schedule to me is a terrible idea because there’s always something that’s going to happen give yourself at least one buffer day
Thanks! I am a solo operator and I think this would help my income, anxiety and it would be nice to have a weekend day off instead of working 10-15 days when the weather is good. I was going on the theory that if I get sick from working in the rain, then I'll miss even more days. Also jobs tend to be slower, which leads me to a question. If you're paying p for p, then the slower work in the rain means your crew will only get base pay for working in miserable conditions. If this lower pay happens too often, don't you lose employees or lower morale? I think it could be a good idea, if they finish the project, to give a little more than base pay for rainy days, even if it takes longer than budgeted
Don’t commit to specific days on projects. It’s a nice level of service but if you’re up front with customers they will understand the need to be flexible. Making it more difficult than necessary. Employees and clients would rather work be done in proper conditions… yes we push a few things forward and do moderate rain. But you can’t run 15 yards of mulch in wheelbarrows across a soaked lawn. EVERYONE is un happy with that….you are spot on with most stuff and again you’re spot on that you are wrong. Thanks Mike!
😂✅
For big jobs i give the the "day we planning on it" weather permitting if not my next available time to do a big job
@@johnmock5825 if they want to know what day we give them a call or email on Sunday the week of service…this gives us a chance to layout the week with as much information as possible… weather, maybe a small job around the corner just confirmed an estimate.. employee is sick. Hold your cards and then make honest play on Sunday. We run 5 crews and this really keeps things flexible up until the last minute.
@@grassmonkeyllc8240you know something. Had to learn that the hard way😂😂😂. Sometimes its better to call it a day instead of rushing to a landscaping job midway through the day. Now it turns into a 2 day job instead of one.
For cleanups and fertilization I don’t give dates. I explain to customers that we can’t control the weather and job times and add ons. If the customer doesn’t understand they are not my customers. My only exception is if they are willing to pay a premium I will give them a specific date. I explain that to them and it works well for those clients that need specific dates.
I'd add considering changing your mowing equipment on rain days when it is absolutely necessary to mow. A lot of times if you use smaller equipment you cause less damage even if it takes a little longer. Better to have 1 hour of over time than reschedule an entire day.
I was gonna say the same thing. If you are doing smaller mow jobs an electric mower will not rut.
@@babuskarashuka8651 just use a gas 30 inch not a zero turn
It rains here in Florida mostly every day, we either push mowing off to the next week or mow anyway. We get paid for rain days no matter what although when we put off an account a couple times we may discount the monthly bill but this only happens once a year. We also get paid year round one price 12 months get paid with no issues. Now switching to zelle pay working great office work using yardbooks
I still mow in the rain unless it's just pouring. If I wait another week some lawns turn into hay fields. Other times on rainy days I'll trim shrubs or do bark mulch. Also, sometimes we get snow flurries in early April in Washington state. We did this year and 2 years before that.
I'm a solo operator, but if I had employees I would stagger the schedules and cover the entire week. Crew 1 sun-wed Crew 2 wed-sat. Each crew would have three available days to make up rain delays. What do you think?
Not a bad idea
Then you could get by with one mowing rig possibly.
This method is completely against the grain/norm and just saved me and others tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenue. Thank you for sharing!
Glad to hear 👍🏻✅🌟
Everybody watching in the UK is wondering why you needed a 20-minute video to explain this......sometimes we even take our rain gear off 😅🌧🌧
lmao thats what ive heard
a lot of times ppl will just refuse to work. we have even had ppl refuse to work if u dont stop somewhere to eat by 12 or if water bottles in cooler arent ice cold. We are raising a really really weak generation
We are a tiny new england crew of 5, plus 2 family members part time and we play it by ear. Rains alot here, but we can mow alot of places in the rain, and depending on how intense the rain is sometimes we pull projects forward, or more likely do equip maintenance (decent chance theres stuff to do: 1 pickup, 3 tonners, 1 8yd, a 35/2×60/160 excavators, a loader chainssaws, rocksaws, compactors, trimmers, 3 zero turns, a push, a couple trailers, hand tools, 3 sanders, 5 plows.....theres always something to do...) . But well take rain days sometimes since we dont have an over booked schedule forcing us to go balls to the wall
I still see the thumbs-down count. It's currently at 79 up, 6 down. Good content Mike!
We cannot let the 👎🏻 button die 😀
We had 22 days worth of flooding in a 4 weeks period earlier this year. We were booked out 9 weeks on small jobs, and did all of those during that time. Ended up having to hope the weather forecast was correct and edge/trim properties one day then do nothing but run mowers/blowers the following day.
dam where is that?
@@caseyporter499 Yeah, a dam would have come in handy.
I agree with mostly everything. I have my landscaping company with only myself and one employee. I personally work in the rain unless its pouring too hard but my employee doesnt even like a drizzle. I rather get wet than get sizzled in the heat and I prefer to get wet and not have to stress about getting behind and rescheduling
Personally, I think that your logic makes sense on what to do on rainy days. More your jobs up instead of back if you can is what I thought most businesses would do but we're a small business so that is a bit more feasible for us at this time it may be a bit harder or different as we grow with more employees.
I agree with you Mike but but I’d have to give my guys an extra incentive for working in the rain, I do myself and I know it makes things much more tedious. After all if they are on p4p I’d expect a lull in productivity on rain days which directly reduces their compensation, they’d get paid less for working harder.
I just skipped the customers day all together if there is rain. I do this because I have every day of the week scheduled the year in advance so I have no open days my customers are usually okay with that. I agree with you 100% you can't move all your customers forward that's asinine.
Just want to thank you for making this video. Stupid me ,let remind you I'm new to this industry. I'm small time . One man show .
But I never thought of wearing my rain gear .
This week I left Wednesday open for a rain day .. so im ok now ....just waiting for Monday to pass , rain is on and off , clifton nj ...but I have a motorcycle rain gear ...ill use that ..thank you again .
I'm so stupid...
I would love to see how you would schedule if you were here in California where rain is uncommon
its like that in texas. We would schedule 5-6 days. Customers get a dedicated day for the the entire yr . never a problem. Rain only prevents us from working like 5 times a yr or so
I hit the like in the first few seconds. I lost a ton of money from rain days this last season. Thanks for the video.
So, what about a mow crew? Booked 5 days a week already. Multiple days rain is tough. As a solo i have everyone on a 6 day rotation. Cant go 7. So i work weekends once a month. Tough but necessary.
So I live in the Pacific Northwest as well. I live in a dry valley in during summer what are good ways to work around fire season when it comes to power equipment?
I do a lot of what you said. Besides I can’t do most my mulch jobs in the rain because I used died mulch usually. It needs 24 hours after put out to dry. Also I’m usually edging beds and it makes a muddy mess. I do things like trimming bushes, tree jobs, debris removal and things like that. I’m also usually mowing as long as I’m not leaving ruts in the yard. I’m always one of the few landscaping business out working in the rain. Oh by the way I can still see the dislike button I all let everyone know how bad people like the video. Haha. You can never really make up that money on rain days because we work 6 days a week anyway.
Surprised this only had 1 like….it’s good advice. Thanks Mike.
There's always yard work regardless of the season!
I agree with doing certain landscaping jobs in the rain, but I disagree with being able to spread all mulch in the rain. If it is dyed mulch like most of my clients prefer here in Pennsylvania, you cannot spread it in rain. All the dye gets washed off. But I agree with everything else! I try to use my days as efficiently as possible!
What if you mow 150 yards a week barely finishing Friday by 10pm on a perfect week with 16 hour days?
I just tell my clients when I can go and if they don’t like it they can find someone else and I don’t have to go work in the rain. Maybe cause I only do this on weekends since the clinic I work at dont open on weekends so I can’t ask for overtime.
Thank you for the video this is very helpful especially for this season
Ohhh I've been waiting on this!!!!!
What do you suggest for guys that are only mowing?
What about a 80% mowing schedule? How would you recommend filling in the gaps with more projects so that I can hire another employee
Try only scheduling 4 days of mowing a week if you need you have a free day and Saturday to make up
You schedule sun up to sun down Monday through Thursday. If you get a rain day you move the schedule back so your Thursday jobs get pushed to Friday.
It feels like it's been raining for a month now in WA State.
The minute the grass gets soaked we give priority to bi weekly accounts only . just blow and go , and if it’s raining to hard we just go home . Don’t be a stressed out weirdo and make it a big deal. Let ur clients decide if they’d like to pay you still or not. And if ur clients expect you to be there while it’s raining , get rid of them . Not worth the pressure to move things around just because of rain. . And mowing on the weekends ? Lmao hell no. I got big landscaping on the weekends that get me real profit . Fudge the mows on a rainy day and fudge playing catch up. I got to much money on the line to be giving myself and my crew a headache
We work unless it's a full down poor and work till the rain starts to get as much done as we can and have the option to work Saturdays if we are behind or have extra work
Good video. Curious why you have your guys switch back and forth between mowing and landscaping days instead of having full time mowing and landscaping crews? Never seen that done in my area outside of solo operators or guys with just one or two crews.
Mostly to avoid them getting bored. It is mostly a retention tool… and they serve a Quality control for the previous crew
@@MikeAndes Makes sense, I figured it might have something to do with boredom. Have you ever tried dedicated mowing and landscaping crews? And if so, have you found either set up more or less effective/efficient?
Who would eat the costs if a job was pushed forward and took longer due to the weather conditions?
How do you decide who runs your company while your not in the feild so much
My mower gets clogged in rain. Any ideas. { Ferris 400)
Thanks for everything Mike keep up the good work
It depends how bad that rain is... Could be make or break
Mike Andes is a GOOD GUY!
Man! This is real good information
Did you say gutter clean outs in the rain? That sounds so dangerous. Those are the types of jobs I push back due to rain.
Hey. Just passed one of your trucks in Jacksonvile Florida. I own a landscape design and install business here and would love to do a video on the business culture here. I have a channel as well
Tom Nash is Awesome!
Love the thumbnail.
Love this
I actually can't relate to this problem at all. 95% of my projects is not booked on specific days. I'll just tell the customer, "We'll do your project around the month of june" for example. Nobody questions it. So it's very easy for us to move projects around. Also, I always mow in the rain. So I almost never have to move things around. We are high priced and have 4.9 in star reviews on google.
Just to spite you, I'm going to upvote this.
Much appreciated 😂
Rainy days gives me anxiety
Excellent advice Mike! 👌 thank you for sharing all your knowledge with the rest of us.
MIKE FROM AUSTRALIA
This is exactly how you lose customers....
People care about thier yards! Mowing in the rain or just after creates RUTS in the yard! Awful for lawn health!!!
I only take 30hrs worth of work a week for this reason
I think it looks Prity good on him.
GOD controls the rain so I just don’t worry about it. I do 100% mowing so I just make them up on the next dry day. I don’t schedule on Friday or Saturday so those can be used as make up days.
No...at this moment i can see the dislike button, and there's 10 dislikes...i wonder if this is only in different places
DO YOU WANT TO START IN MELB AUSTRALIA I WOULD LIKE TO HELP TO BE MASTER FRANCHISER
Not the most dislikes for the video. Most dislikes for a shirt choice.
But they didn’t work on the rain days.
Am i the only one who can see dislikes :/?
I can
We cannot let the dislike button die!! 😀
It's still there
Easy for you to say when rain gear comes in yellow. LoL 😶🌫
Lmao the dislike comment right at the beginning, mikes too smart 😂
Currently 10 dislikes. Apparently it’s a slow roll out.
Haven't removed the dislike yet
Am I the only who can still see the dislike button? I think I haven't updated lol
68 dislikes at this time
I can see the dislikes, 366 likes 21 dislikes currently.
I am no fashion police but that shirt does not look good on you.
🤣🤣
I think it looks Prity good on him.
I fired 4 different lawn companies because they mowed my lawn in the rain and they mowed it to short ...I bought a 61 inch deck Ferris... ill never pay someone to mow ever again