One of the things I struggled with the most when I started mowing lawns was cash flow.
A big part of the battle was because I had no real systems in place to make sure I was paid on time.
I was so busy running around looking for work, securing new contracts, and building my business, I didn’t have time to go chasing people for payment.
I figured that if you do the work, the money will come in automatically.
Boy was I wrong.
You can work as hard as you like, but unless you have a good system in place for collecting payment you can find yourself running short of funds and in a world of pain.
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Nowadays I have rules on payment and I let the customers know from day one. As soon as I start with a new customer I tell them that they will get a text with my account details on the SAME day that I mow the lawn.
Terms of payment are within 24 hours.
If payment does not show by the next evening I send them a friendly reminder text. Then I will send another one 48 hours later if the account is still unpaid.
Video How to Get Paid on Time When You Run a Lawn Mowing Business
Now you may be thinking that this may upset some customers and it does, but the only customers it annoys are the ones who are constantly late with their payments. Then you need to ask yourself if that is a job you want anyway.
Most of our new customers pay quickly and get into the habit of quick payment so they don’t get reminder texts.
Also, our monthly accounts are strictly 7 days.
Just because businesses expect a statement before the 10th and payment after the 20th does not mean you have to play by those rules.
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We have a large supermarket on our books that pays us out for petty cash because the head office struggles with the idea. We have even used a 7-day statement with a large private hospitable.
We tell them before we start the job, the terms are 7 days unless otherwise arranged.
We also have a system for one-off work. As soon as the quote is accepted we will send the bank account details and tell them, that as soon as their payment shows we will book the job. If they don’t pay then we don’t show up. This hardly ever happens.
As a rule of thumb, we try to keep the amount you are owed in total to less than a week’s turnover.
Happy lawn-mowing people
PS if you would like templates of the texts we use you will find them in the Lawnmowing101 membership.
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