The Preseason Signup Checklist for Lawn Care Owners

November: Close the Book and Sort It

• Pull every mowing account from last season into one listInclude the ones who cancelled in July and the ones you fired. You are building a decision list, not a mailing list. Good looks like every property with an address, a visit count and what you billed.
• Mark each property as keep, reprice or dropDrop the slow payers, the ones twenty minutes off route, and the ones that ate three visits worth of time every cut. Repricing a bad property is better than losing a slot to it a second year.
• Record actual crew minutes per property from the seasonUse your own field records rather than what you estimated last February. Properties that ran long are where your margin went, and they are the first ones to reprice.
• Note the drive time cluster each property sits inGroup the book by neighborhood or route day, not alphabetically. This is the map you use later to decide which new accounts are worth selling and which are a distraction.
• Write down your loaded crew hour cost for the year that just endedWages, taxes, workers compensation, truck, fuel and equipment reserve divided by real field hours. Every package price you build this winter comes off this number.

December and January: Build the Season Package

• Fix the visit count and write it as a rangeSomething like twenty six to thirty cuts covers a wet June and a dry August without two awkward conversations. Price at the midpoint and state the rate for cuts beyond the range.
• Write the mowing height and clipping policy in plain languageHomeowners compare on scope, not on price alone. One line about cutting height by season and whether clippings are bagged or mulched removes the most common spring complaint.
• Set the mulch allowance in cubic yards and the overage rateBundle a realistic bed volume so April is a delivery, not a sale. One cubic yard covers about one hundred sixty two square feet at two inches, so measure beds once and use it every year.
• Define both cleanup windows with actual date rangesSpring cleanup by a stated week and fall cleanup after leaf drop in a named month. Vague cleanup timing is the promise that gets you angry calls in December.
• Price the package off crew hours and check the per visit equivalentBuild from committed crew hours plus materials plus target margin. Then divide by the visit count to make sure the number will survive a neighbor comparison.
• Decide your deposit and payment scheduleA deposit at signing plus equal monthly payments through the season smooths winter payroll. State the first draft date on the agreement so nobody is surprised in March.

February: Send the Offers and Work the List

• Send renewal packages to every keep account in the first weekLead with their own property and last year's service, not with a generic flyer. Good looks like every keep account holding a written number before Valentine's Day.
• Send repriced offers with the reason statedSay that the property ran long or that fuel and labor moved, and give the new number without apology. Most customers accept a clear increase and few accept a vague one.
• Follow up twice on anyone who has not answered in ten daysOne text and one call beats five emails. The second follow up is where most of the signatures actually come from, and skipping it is the most common offseason mistake.
• Fill route holes with neighbors of signed propertiesUse the cluster map from November. A door hanger on the six closest houses to a signed account is worth more than any broad ad, because it buys route density.
• Track signed accounts against your capacity number every FridayKnow how many weekly accounts your crews can hold and how close you are. This is the number that tells you whether to keep selling or to start hiring.

March: Close, Schedule and Get Ready to Cut

• Assign every signed property to a route dayBuild the week around neighborhoods, then tell each customer their day. A named day reduces calls all season and makes rain shifts easier to explain.
• Collect deposits and confirm the first draft on every agreementChase the unpaid deposits now, not in May. A signature without money attached is a soft commitment and it is the one that cancels in June.
• Schedule spring cleanups before the mowing route startsCleanups have to land in a two or three week window, so book them by property cluster and confirm dates in writing before the first cut week.
• Order mulch and confirm supplier delivery windowsTotal the yards from every signed allowance, then book delivery slots early. Waiting until April means paying more and taking whatever delivery day you get.
• Confirm insurance certificates, licenses and crew start datesApplicator certification, general liability certificates and any state fertilizer registration have to be current before work starts. Give crews their start date in writing.
• State your committed season revenue out loudAdd up every signed agreement. That number is what your hiring, equipment and cash plan should be built on, and it should be known before the first blade turns.