More Pool Guy and Gal Rookie Mistakes - Collecting Money Owed
Making
mistakes in business is all part of starting out and learning what to do and
what not to do. But if you can learn from someone else who has made every
mistake beforehand, the better for you. So here is part two of the series on Rookie
Pool Guy and Gal Mistakes. I am going to
cover collecting money, how long to spend at each service account and more.
Let
me start out with collecting money at the time of a job. If you are doing a green
pool clean up or acid wash you will want all the money or at least 50% of it
before you even start the job. I know asking for all of the money up front can sound
intimidating to the customer, but it is better for you and I am writing this for
the intent to show you how important this is. Say you complete a $1,000 acid
wash and power sanding of the pool surface. You didn’t get any money up front because
you trust the client. He says after the pool is filled that he doesn’t like the
results. You just spend 2 days on the project and now you have no money to show
and you are out the money for your helpers. What is your recourse at this point?
You
can badger him to pay, but he continues to refuse. The next step would be to
take him to Small Claims Court. There is a filing fee and you will have to give
up a day of work to meet him in court. There is no guarantee you will prevail in
the case. You can also put a lien on the property but in most states like Ca. you
will have to bring a Civil Suit against him within one year otherwise the Lien
in unenforceable. So, either option is tough, and you are still out your $1,000.
It is better to get at least $500 up front and even better to get the whole
amount. Then if there is a dispute you can arrange a partial refund but at
least you are holding the money in your hands.
So,
consider this when setting up your business. You can have them deposit the
money in your PayPal account, leave you a check or cash or open a Square
account and get the cell phone credit card swiper and charge their credit card
at the time you start the job. If you
get a bad feeling and the customer simply refuses to pay anything up front,
just walk away from the job. I would rather not take the chance of getting
burned and then fighting for the payment later.
When
you set up your company billing you want to also avoid giving away free
services. I suggest charging for labor, the maintenance dose chlorine and acid but
all other chemicals including 3” tablets will be an extra charge to the
customer. This prevents losses from heavy chemical usage as well as losses when
the prices of the chemicals invariably go up. This is not nickel and diming the
customers but strictly running a profitable business. You charge for everything
just like your mechanic does when you take the car in for service. He charges
for everything even down to the tire stem caps.
Let
me switch gears now and talk about how much time you should be spending at each
service stop to remain profitable. If it is a standard 15,000 to 20,000-gallon pool,
then 25 minutes should be your maximum time. In Texas where you are servicing 35,000
to 40,000-gallon pools then 45 minutes should be your maximum service time. Any
more than that and you start to lose money. To speed up the service account
make sure they have an automatic cleaner and proper running equipment. You may
also be over servicing the pool by spending too much time vacuuming it when it only
needs a spot vacuuming, or the pool may have too much debris in it each week. If
you are spending a lot of time at one pool, consider dropping it when you pick
up two pools that are quicker cleans. Time is money and you need to get each
pool cleaned and checked within a reasonable time as illustrated above.
Half
the battle is getting paid for your services and the other half is time
management out on your route. Both can really hurt your bottom line and you
need to set your business up so that it is profitable by getting paid up front
for large service jobs and by not wasting time on one pool or several pools
each day. Listen to the complete Podcast for more tips and things to avoid.
Visit my Website: http://www.swimmingpoollearning.com/
YouTube Video Index: http://poolmandave.blogspot.com/2014/03/swimming-pool-tips-reviews-how-to-video.html
– A list of all of my videos:
Comments
Post a Comment