Your book is slowing down for the winter, and an offer comes in for steady work: a list of work-order cuts, or a managed account with a lot of addresses. No selling, no quoting, just jobs. It looks like a way to keep the trucks moving. Before you say yes and give them your days, what do you need to know?
Ask for these in writing before you take much volume:
- The rate sheet. What each job pays, and what counts as extra.
- The work-order rules. What each job includes, how fast it has to be done, and how you close it out.
- The photo requirements. Which shots they want and when, since a job without them may not count as done.
- The revisit and redo policy. Who decides a job needs redoing, and whether the second trip gets paid.
- The payment timing. When you get paid after a job is closed, and what can hold it up.
With all five in hand, you know what a job really pays before you drive to it.
Get the terms in writing and watch how the first payments arrive before you hand anyone your days.
A job that comes back for an unpaid redo is two trips for one payment. A job that gets paid months later is money you're floating for someone else. Look at the rate with both of those in mind, and compare it to what your own customers pay you. That's the number you're really deciding on.
Take a few jobs, not a full week of them. Do them to the letter, then see when the money actually arrives compared with what the terms said. If it comes in on time, take more. If it doesn't, you've lost a few days, not your whole slow season.
If you use Run My Lawn Biz, put the account's rules in each property's notes so the crew does the job their way every time. Record each payment as it comes in, and you'll see for yourself how long this account takes to pay.
Get the terms first and test before you commit, and the slow season fills with work that actually pays you.
