Collections at the end of the lawn care season - GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Marketing Podcast

http://www.gopherforum.com - Are you finding it difficult to collect on your overdue lawn care business accounts? Are your lawn care customers holding off on paying? This article should help you with some tips and tricks on how to collect payments.

Gary got on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum and asked last year was my first year running my lawn care business. I made it through the whole season with only one lawn care client failing to pay. Now that the end of the season is here, I have several (previously prompt paying) customers who have failed to pay their final bill. Is this something out of the ordinary or is it common around the holiday season?

Frank: This happens to me all the time. Last season I had a property manager owe me $1,500.00 and it took him until Feb to finally pay. And as of now I still have some past due accounts but it is just normal and I know that after a few mailings or a phone call it will finally trickle in. The holidays, the economy and peoples ignorance are most likely the causes. Just remember it and either dont work for them next season or just accept the fact they are late payers and you definitely have to keep on them!

Steve: What kinds of things should a lawn care business owner do to get those bills paid that are lagging from last season and how long should they wait before they take further steps?

Frank: Well this is what I do. First send the lawn care customer a copy of your invoice with Past Due stamped on it. If you hear nothing after a few weeks then you go to a letter and remember to include you Past Due invoice (that Past Due really scares people its very powerful so always remember to make that stamp BOLD). If this doesnt work you go to a phone call or stop by the house. Be persistent, thats the key people will get so sick of seeing your face of seeing invoices in the mail that they will pay to get it over with. People are either forgetful or ignorant, sometimes the original gets lost in the mail and they pay by the second notice sometimes they dont have the money and are embarrassed but eventually do get you the money.

Read more about this discussion at my lawn care business blog at http://lawnchat.com/?p=396 or visit the GopherHaul Forum http://www.gopherforum.com/showthread.php?t=7991 We have the largest collection of FREE lawn care marketing material. Free logos, flyers, door hangers, web templates and contracts.
Also download a free 30 day trial of GopherLawn Care Business Software from http://www.gophersoftware.com

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[stavropulos]

Appreciate it

[Boycie77]

Really useful, thanks