Should You Contact A Customer Who Doesn't Pay You?

A customer ghosted me for $60 and I lost my mind over it. And looking back, I'm not even mad about it because that $60 ghost taught me one of the most important lessons I've ever learned about running a lawn care business. And if you're in this thing under $100 grand a year, you need to hear this. Before I get into it, I want to let you guys know who don't know, my name is Will Kelly. I'm the CEO and founder of Military Lawn Cuts. We run 3 locations with nearly 25 team members right here in the Dallas-Fort Worth market. 5-star residential lawn care. And everything I talk about on this channel comes straight from what we are building in real time. If you're in the lawn care industry or a lawn care business owner or a lawn care professional trying to grow and want real tactical ways to grow, subscribe, and let's get into this. So here's the story. The early days, I'm out here grinding, 40, maybe 50 clients, scraping by and clawing to build something great. And we pick up this customer with an overgrown lawn on a recurring service that needed a cut. I think it was maybe $60 at the time. So we went out, me and one of my team members, basically knocked it out. We mowed, weeded, edge and blowed, did the work. Used our time, our fuel, and our energy. And then nothing. No payment, no response, no communication. Just silence. So I did what any guy running a tight operation would do. I called, I texted, I emailed over and over again for weeks. Nothing. They literally ghosted me completely. And I'm sitting here like, this is $60,000. $60. But it wasn't about the $60. It was about the principle. I showed up, I did the work, I kept my word, and they didn't. So I made it my personal mission every single time I was in that neighborhood, every single time I drove past their house looking to see if they were home. Sometimes I would pull up, park the truck, engine still running, walk up, knock on the door, the Ring camera and everything. Nobody answered ever. You see, this went on for months. And then one day I'm out there with my mom and I tell her, hold on, we need to make a detour and go knock on this customer's house that owes me money. She looked at me like I'm— like I lost it. So we pulled down the street and right there, as I'm getting out of the truck, lo and behold, their truck pulls into the driveway at the same time. The moment I've been waiting for. This moment. So I walk up friendly, calm. I say, hey, how's it going? The guy goes, oh, hey, what's up? I said, You know, nothing much. I was actually out here a few months back, mowed the lawn, and I never got paid for it. And this man, without missing a beat, goes, oh man, she did it again. Blamed his wife, which in his defense, his— her name is the one on the account. He goes, give me a minute, I'll run inside and grab the money for you. Just give me a second. So there I am standing on their front porch. 5 minutes go by, 8 minutes go by, 10 minutes. I'm there literally thinking to myself, this guy just straight ghosted me again. And I'm standing on his front porch for $60. And then the door opens. He comes out with the cash, hands it to me and says, I'm really sorry about that. I smiled, said, no worries, have a great day. Walked back to my truck all proud, like, got the money. Yeah. Never serviced them again. Didn't want to sign them back up. Now here's what happened after that. I called my mentor, told him the entire story, proud of myself, right? Like I hunted this guy down and my mentor just kind of paused and said, Will, for $60, your time was better spent finding the next customer. And that hit me hard because here's the reality. And this is the lesson I want to teach you, especially if you're in the early stage as an owner. There are going to be people who don't pay you. It's going to happen. It is inevitable. And when you're brand new, it feels personal. It feels like a punch in the gut because you need that $60. You need every dollar. But as you grow, you have to shift how you think about these things. Non-payers are a cost of doing business, just like equipment wear, just like fuel. You have to price for it. When you're out there building your rates, Just understand that a fraction of your volume, a small percentage, is never going to pay. So bake it in. Don't take it personal as a personal attack. It's literally just business math. Here's your framework. 3 things. Write it down. Number 1: pre-charge when possible, especially for one-time services, new customers, or anyone doing monthly billing with you. Charge before you show up. Collect payment first to protect yourself before the work gets done. Number 2, pause or cancel fast. If someone doesn't pay after a service, do not keep going back. Do not keep servicing them hoping they'll catch up. Pause their services, cancel them if needed. Stop the bleeding. The longer you wait, the more you lose. And number 3, price for the reality. Know that a small percentage of your clients will never pay. That's not a failure. That's just the math of operating a business at volume. Build your margins around it so when it happens, it doesn't break you. It costs you. It turns a crisis into an inconvenience. That's it. Those are the 3 things: pre-charge, pause or cancel fast, and price for the reality. When I was chasing that $60, I was spending time I didn't have, energy I needed, and mental bandwidth that should have gone toward finding the next 10 customers. That's the shift. Early on, everything feels like it has to be fought for, and sometimes it does, but you have to know when to let go and move forward. One more thing before I close out. I want you guys to drop in the comments below: have you ever been ghosted by a customer and lost money without them paying you? How much was it for? What did you do? I want to hear your stories because I I'm not the only one out there that's been out here chasing somebody down to accept their money. If this video helped you, share it with another lawn care professional who needs to hear it. And if you're not subscribed yet, hit that button. I drop 2 videos a week built around what it actually takes to grow a lawn care business from the ground up. We're building something real over here at Military Lawn Cuts, and I want to help you guys grow. So let's grow together. Thank you guys so much for watching. We'll see you in the next video.