Forum Discussion

DPungitore's avatar
DPungitore
Contributor 2
2 months ago

LANDSCAPERS: Let's unite on best practices...

Calling all landscape home service companies! We are a full-service landscaping company doing everything from irrigation, fertilizer and lawn maintenance programs to large projects. We've used Jobber for about 6 years and 'figure it out' as we go but tend to have to do a lot of manual work and workarounds.

Wondering how others in the biz are best using Jobber and what kind of administrative help you employ to help manage it. 

For us... we have 3-4 people dedicated in the office at all times. We have 2 people dedicated to scheduling services and customer service for existing clients. We have another dedicated to billing daily, and another for administrative support to strictly field new requests and ensure people are being responded to. We use Trello to help manage all the tasks and customer status. It's a lot to manage. 

There's a lot of room for error. Setting up jobs is very manual. Scheduling can be pretty manual despite knowing there are ways to mass schedule in Jobber. Tags get super messy and are only so reliable. There isn't a great way to enforce good notes from techs in the field. Job Forms are only really for customer leave behinds and don't help with billing so the open notes field is really the only way to gather info from the field for invoicing... 

Interested in whatever others have to share that are really working for them! 

installation services
irrigation services
landscaping
lawn care
snow removal
  • mowtownedmonton's avatar
    mowtownedmonton
    Contributor 3
    2 months ago

    I love this idea, but I think context is important. Team size and revenue, geography and what specialities you service will make you a great fit for some, and tough to imagine for others. Sounds like you've built a very strong business to have that much admin horsepower (congrats!). Would you say most of your customers are one off jobs or regular scheduled work?

    I've got a team of 12 in the field servicing Edmonton, AB, Canada. 5 months of snow, 6 months of lawn maintenance, ~ $1M revenue. We've set up the snow and lawn as recurring jobs that operate more like a subscription. Our one off jobs are mostly just spring and fall cleanup packages that the customer assembles like ordering from a restaurant menu. 

    One thing I think we do a little bit differently is sending our invoices at the beginning of the month. Since the cost of mowing/snow removal is known, we send on the 1st of the month, and payment is due at the end of the month. If you don't pay your bill on time, service for the next month doesn't start. This has helped us maintain a healthier cash flow. 

     

     

    • ProperGuy's avatar
      ProperGuy
      Contributor 3
      2 months ago

      If a company doesn't want to deal with snow in AB - what are the other options to keep busy during the snow season?  

      • mowtownedmonton's avatar
        mowtownedmonton
        Contributor 3
        27 days ago

        I guess it depends on how uncomfortable you are with snow, and why. You could be referring to the overpriced insurance for snow removal or the capital expenses of buying and maintaining skid steers, but technically there are ways to work snow here that don't involve either of those. Or it could be that you just hate snow that much that you don't want the team driving in it or shovelling. Here are the things I've seen done or done myself in the past 8 years to augment revenue in winter:

        • Run only residential snow (don't necessarily require GL insurance or expensive equipment)
        • Run only commercial parking lots (mostly you stay in the warm skid steer cab)
        • Lay off the staff (EI will still supplement them some income for them) and reduce expenses until spring. Work a seasonal job to support yourself until it's time to spring back into action
        • Battery boosting and roadside assistance
        • Delivery driving - for companies, not for UberEats. Alberta has massive logistical requirements from oil and gas and construction. 
        • Christmas lighting
        • Junk removal service
        • Car detailing
        • Pet waste cleanup service and cold weather dog walking
        • Small scale manufacturing (we made lawn care specific trailer accessories one winter)
        • Buy things you know and are talented with at auction, rehab them, sell them for profit (we bought lawn and snow machines and fixed them up)
        • See if you can cram your sales for the non-snow months into the quieter winter months, same with training, major maintenance and repairs.
        • If you're tech savvy and good at marketing, you can work with other small businesses to create their websites and build basic ad campaigns. 
        • If you don't want to build your own snow removal clientele and have the stress managing that kind of operation, you can factor that out by choosing to act as subcontract labour for someone who does. As a small business owner, I think you'll find that you're usually valued for the character traits that helped you be successful in your own business.
        • You can act as subcontract labour to businesses outside of snow removal too: roofers, plumbers, construction, installers -- all sorts of trades need helpers, especially around the holidays. As a business, they can pay your labour invoices without having to worry about things like severance, payroll taxes and policies
        • You're an entrepreneur now, which should hopefully mean that you lead people. Choose to volunteer in your community in a meaningful way during winter, because your business allows you the flexibility to give back time in winter months. Alberta is in rough shape right now - your community can use your leadership and expertise.
    • DPungitore's avatar
      DPungitore
      Contributor 2
      5 days ago

      Interesting! Sounds like you keep things simple with flat pricing as much as possible. That’s something I keep saying I want to get to but with so many variables it’s hard to figure out. How do you structure your menu like clean ups? With snow and mow we bill after because we charge per event. How do you figure out pricing for this to charge in advance?

  • Daichi's avatar
    Daichi
    Contributor 2
    2 months ago

    By the sounds of it you operate on a much larger scale. One thing I do for our regular property maintenance clients is a job form that our employees send after each visit. It's reduced the number of emails we have from these clients. We mentioned what we did and what the plan is for their next visit. 

    Probably a lot to unpack here but I'd be interested to chat over Zoom or something to learn about what you're doing and answer any questions you might have! 

    • DPungitore's avatar
      DPungitore
      Contributor 2
      5 days ago

      We do use job forms. My problem with job forms is that it’s really only for the customer. We can reference it on the admin/billing side but it’s not as easy to see as notes which appear on the same page. 

      definitely interested in how it’s working for others 

  • Nate's avatar
    Nate
    Contributor 2
    2 months ago

      Curious of your yearly invoicing average with that much office help?  I run 80% of our jobber on 3.5 mil yearly invoicing

    • DPungitore's avatar
      DPungitore
      Contributor 2
      5 days ago

      When you say you run 80%, you mean you invoice yourself? We invoice $2.5m. I’ve been doing it for the past few months because our dedicated person has been on leave and I’m constantly behind, plus I have a million other things to do as an owner. When I try to keep the admin staff to 3 people they complain about too much work and the ball gets dropped. I def feel like we’re doing something wrong to require so much manual effort and supervision. How do you do it?