I used to work for a small printing company that specialized in printing apparel.
We were a small operation, 3 employees that consisted of a sales guy, a printer and an operations/do it all guy (that was me).
We had 2 small presses for screen printing and on a good day, with both presses going full time, we could produce about 100 prints an hour.
One day our sales guy came to us all excited that he had landed a meeting with a large local company that produced headphones.
This company also happened to sell apparel and they were willing to look at us to do some of their printing.
After the initial meeting the company decided to let us do a test run on one of their new shirt designs.
Their test run was 8,000 shirts with 3 prints on each shirt.
That means 24,000 prints.
We were ecstatic and took the job right away.
After several weeks of 16 hour days we finally finished the order, didn't make a cent on the job and our workforce was exhausted and disgruntled.
It was by far the largest job that we ever did and we quickly realized that we weren't cut out to produce that amount of prints.
We simply didn't have the resources.
We lost money on the job and turned down smaller jobs that were profitable while we scrambled to finish the job for this big client.
My point in telling you this story is that sometimes jobs are simply too big to handle and that goes for the lawn care industry as well.
If you are a 2 man team with push mowers there is no way that you should be accepting a job from the school board.
You simply can't handle it unless you have the resources to hire 20 more people and buy some big, hefty commercial equipment.
You'll find a sweet spot in your lawn care business where some jobs are more profitable than others.
You should try to go after accounts and properties that are really worth your while and fit into your business model.
It's really hard to pass up a great opportunity with a big time client, but for the benefit of your business, sometimes it's necessary to do so.
I find the best approach when turning down a job that is simply too big for your operation is to be upfront and honest with the person.
Don't simply not call them back or give them a bid that is outrageously high.
Tell the perspective client that you're really flattered and excited that they want a bid from you but at this time you simply don't have the resources to dedicate to this type of project.
Let them know that you'd like to be considered for the job in the future and that as your business grows you will eventually be able to handle larger size jobs with ease.
It's really important to stay grounded here and don't bite off more than you can chew.
You'll find yourself in big trouble with the client and you'll find yourself losing the clients that are most important to you if you do.
As for the printing job.
It took us weeks to finish a job that usually takes a printer that is equipped to handle high-volume jobs just a couple of days.
We did a good job on the print, but in the end the customer was dissatisfied with the amount of time it took to complete the job so we never did any work for them again.
Know your limits and which lawn care jobs are most profitable for you and you'll succeed.
We were a small operation, 3 employees that consisted of a sales guy, a printer and an operations/do it all guy (that was me).
We had 2 small presses for screen printing and on a good day, with both presses going full time, we could produce about 100 prints an hour.
One day our sales guy came to us all excited that he had landed a meeting with a large local company that produced headphones.
This company also happened to sell apparel and they were willing to look at us to do some of their printing.
After the initial meeting the company decided to let us do a test run on one of their new shirt designs.
Their test run was 8,000 shirts with 3 prints on each shirt.
That means 24,000 prints.
We were ecstatic and took the job right away.
After several weeks of 16 hour days we finally finished the order, didn't make a cent on the job and our workforce was exhausted and disgruntled.
It was by far the largest job that we ever did and we quickly realized that we weren't cut out to produce that amount of prints.
We simply didn't have the resources.
We lost money on the job and turned down smaller jobs that were profitable while we scrambled to finish the job for this big client.
My point in telling you this story is that sometimes jobs are simply too big to handle and that goes for the lawn care industry as well.
If you are a 2 man team with push mowers there is no way that you should be accepting a job from the school board.
You simply can't handle it unless you have the resources to hire 20 more people and buy some big, hefty commercial equipment.
You'll find a sweet spot in your lawn care business where some jobs are more profitable than others.
You should try to go after accounts and properties that are really worth your while and fit into your business model.
It's really hard to pass up a great opportunity with a big time client, but for the benefit of your business, sometimes it's necessary to do so.
I find the best approach when turning down a job that is simply too big for your operation is to be upfront and honest with the person.
Don't simply not call them back or give them a bid that is outrageously high.
Tell the perspective client that you're really flattered and excited that they want a bid from you but at this time you simply don't have the resources to dedicate to this type of project.
Let them know that you'd like to be considered for the job in the future and that as your business grows you will eventually be able to handle larger size jobs with ease.
It's really important to stay grounded here and don't bite off more than you can chew.
You'll find yourself in big trouble with the client and you'll find yourself losing the clients that are most important to you if you do.
As for the printing job.
It took us weeks to finish a job that usually takes a printer that is equipped to handle high-volume jobs just a couple of days.
We did a good job on the print, but in the end the customer was dissatisfied with the amount of time it took to complete the job so we never did any work for them again.
Know your limits and which lawn care jobs are most profitable for you and you'll succeed.
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