Showed up yesterday about 11 to do a pretty good sized drive that was covered with mud from a recent pool installation, for a new customer. When I get there she points to a chair she had set up in the shade and says," I put this chair out for you and just inside the garage is a refrigerator that I made sure was stocked with plenty of water and drinks, including beer that you’re welcome to if you get tired." “And oh, by the way, I blew off drive for you too and trimmed back bushes along the sides”.
On top of that, she handed me a check that I didn’t even look at till last night and she gave me a 10% tip. Like Wow, I could get use to this. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to avail myself of any of the goodies.
Those are the type of clients that keep me going… because once in a while we run in to nasty ones…
When we first shut down here in Cali, 1st month of quarantine when everything was literally shut, I had one of my good clients call me asking me if we where okay, I said yea! I mean we aren’t working and we are shut for now but we are ok!
She then proceeded to tell me that she had a check for me ready on the mail, for the work that I do for her every August… It’s a rather large amount (commercial) I was shocked!
Sure enough the check arrived, just a few days ago we did the cleaning for her…
one of the benefits of me running my business at a young age is the respect i get from some of my customers. I did a large concrete job for this customer, quoted $500 and i look at the check and see $2,000. it was an unreal feeling.
That’s crazy! Biggest tip I’ve gotten was $300 from a $900 job. Yeah man I feel you on that one. It’s a good feeling and people love seeing young entrepreneurs who work hard and do a good job.
You know, I get people ask me all the time about why I do this and my answer is always - I like being outdoors, i like the immediate gratification you get when you take some property and in a matter of hours transform it and I get to meet a lot of really nice people. I’d say 99% of my customers are super nice and the other 1% aren’t too bad. With all the crap going on, It kind of does the psyche good to know there are still plenty of good people in the world.
Why do you think they ask? Genuine curiosity, or b/c they think it looks like a job they’d never want to do and can’t believe that you’re doing it?
I’m the same as you - I enjoy the transformative aspect of it. It’s similar to mowing an overgrown property with a commercial lawnmower, and taking it from a mess to presentable. Sure beats a desk job or working in the food service industry.
I washed a single wide trailer for a $100 few yrs back for a couple. They got a notice to have it cleaned. It was obvious they didnt have much. He was handicapped and they were so happy when i finished they gave me a $25 tip. I realize thats not a whole lot but for them to give me that it took me back a bit. Didnt want to take it but they insisted. Making friends and meeting good hearted people is the best part of doing this.
I think the majority of people think we use a wand on every inch of the house and couldn’t fathom doing it them selfs after having a crack on there driveway with there little electric DIRTBUSTER XP5000 TERMINATOR.