How would you handle this?

[G-Mac]

OK...my 17-year-old son has a girlfriend he's been with for about three years.

The girlfriend has an older, married female cousin (early thirties I'm guessing).

The cousin (a teacher) and her husband (a construction manager) bought a nice house about two miles down the road from us about a year ago. It has a rather large lawn. The property is probably big enough to put three houses on.

They asked my son if he'd be interested in mowing the lawn when they moved in. He did it all last year. This involves me hooking the trailer to my truck, loading our John Deere garden tractor (54" cut), a push mower for trimming, and a gas weed whacker...taking him down the road, dropping him off, and picking him up about three hours later. No problem.

Here's the hitch...last year they were giving my son fifty bucks each time he did it. I thought that was fair...yeah...it was costing me a little time and gas, some wear and tear on my tractor...but the kid was making a decent buck for a few hours work.

Well, we've done it twice so far this year, and the husband gave my son $40.00 each time.

I told my son to talk to "Dave" to see if he could get paid what he was getting last year...$50.00.

He said no...that a neighbor around the corner has some commercial guy do his for $35.00. If that's true, I'm thinking that it's a much smaller lawn with a lot less obstacles to mow around, gardens, trees, etc.

My first thought was great...let him get the $35.00 guy. I don't believe ANY professional guy would mow and trim this huge lawn for under $60.00-$70.00..I think he's a cheapskate that's just trying to take advantage of a kid that doesn't know what stuff costs.

The only problem is that these people are related to my boy's girlfriend and he probably doesn't want to be as direct with them as I want him to be.

What would you do?

 

[kmyers]

I would tell them to use the commercial guy and not go through the time and effort of trying to mow their yard. It may be true that they think they should pay less because your son is dating their cousin, but they should also think that paying the original rate is the right thing to BECAUSE he is dating their cousin. Help out the cousins boyfriend instead of sending their money to someone else.

 

[tom turner]

Hi,

I'd let the son do his own negotiating. It is an important art to begin to master, and he's got his own reasons to take whatever stance he takes on the issue.

Lots of the commercial guys in my area now employ guys I can only assume are illegals . . . and those guys will work for peanuts. Another great life's lesson for your son, to encourage him to stay in school and eventually get a job that will pay him a great living . . . even if he ends up a poor negotiator!

T.

PS: Frankly, I would find it offensive if someone offered me eighty cents on the dollar for the same work I'd done for them the season before . . . and politely though tell them I was sorry but couldn't do it for that amount of money, potential relatives or not.

We are only as "valuable" to strangers as they consider us to be and once you sell yourself short . . .

 

[PLW45]

Kmyers +1

 

[Agent6-3/8]

Originally posted by kmyers:
I would tell them to use the commercial guy and not go through the time and effort of trying to mow their yard. It may be true that they think they should pay less because your son is dating their cousin, but they should also think that paying the original rate is the right thing to BECAUSE he is dating their cousin. Help out the cousins boyfriend instead of sending their money to someone else.

+1


If I were in you son's shoes I'd have a polite conversation with him about the situation and let him know that its just not worth my time and effort of less than $50. If he doesn't want to pay what he did last year, then fine, let him hire the commerical contractor. Shake hands and no hard feelings. Business is business.

 

[morsecode]

A teacher and a construction manager can well afford the $50. Your son may be at a disadvantage given the girlfriend/cousin thing, but I agree with Tom...he should decide for himself if he wants to continue.

On the other hand, they have to be aware that he's using your equipment, so in a way they're taking advantage of your good nature as well.

 

[kmyers]

Agrees with the above posts. It isn't like $15 is going to send them to the poor house, plus, some of that money will be spent taking their cousin out on dates. They should consider that as well.

 

[Class III]

Bidness is Bidness, as the saying goes. I have a 3/4 acre lot with 3200 sq ft of house on the lot with a 25' x 45' pool. I pay the guy that I have known since we were in 1st grade (now knocking hard on 50) $45.00 a week to cut, W/E and bag once a week. When he does the bushes and the above mentioned once a month it's $125.00. He has gone up $5.00 a year for the last eight years for mow, W/E, bushes and bagging and $5.00 a week for the last three years for just mow, W/E and bag. If the cousin can't deal with the increase in the price of services, politely walk away from the job and recommend someone that will do a job commensurate with what he is willing to pay.

As an after thought, have the commercial contractor have his insurance company fax AND mail a certificate of insurance listing the home owner and his property as an additional insured. Make sure the certificate of insurance list him and his property in the additional insured heading. He should call to verify that the "New Guy" has business liability insurance and ask what his limits for glass greakage insurance are (the most common claim in the lawn care business). If the cousin has archetecturally shaped windows, even a small (36" x 18") half round double pane window is going to run about $600.00 to replace. If his limits are under $1000.00 for glass breakage, bye bye in my book. Also make sure that the Cert. of Ins. shows that the commercial guy is covered by workers comp insurance. If the new guy is injured on the cousins property guess who is liable for the lost pay wages and medical expenses if the new guy does not have workers comp insurance. If the new guy is paying his people as a "Sub-Contractor" and the new guy does not have workers comp insurance and his sub-contrators do not have business liability and workers insurance the home owner will still be responsible for any damage, loss of wages and medical expenses incurred if one of his sub-contractors does damage or are injured while on his property.

Don't ask how I know this. But in 10-A-C it's the law. Yours state law may vary, but I would be willing to bet that it is facially the same.

Class III

 

[Wickahoney]

I guess I have a different take on this.

One, doesn't your 17 year old drive? If so why can't he do this on his own?

Two, if you ARE tryting to teach him the value of work and a job, why isn't he paying a TINY ammount towards the tractor and mower? Put it in his college fund or set it aside for a new mower/tractor someday.

Three, in case you haven't noticed the economy sucks and the construction manager and teacher may very well not be as well off as you think and you don't have a clue if either has taken a pay cut just to keep a job, period. Teachers in Idaho just took a 5%-10% cut if you figure the NEW share of the insurance they are required to pay. Per the govenor, times are tough, tax revenues are down and state employees and those depending on state funds aren't exempt from the down turn.

Construction manager, lot of that goinng on where you are? Sure isn't here. 80% of contractors in the state of Idaho have left or shut down or like my brother in law gone bankrupt. He was actually pretty frugal and had a thriving concrete finishing business for 20+ years. 2 years of no houses and the builders not paying is all it took to ruin him.

Great big house on a great big lot doesn't mean much if your upside down in the place with house payment of a gadzillion dollars.

Kids using your tractor and mower and getting $40. for 3 hours work. Geez, that's $13.33 an hour. In the great state of Idaho men with families to support work for $15 an hour with zero benifits and TRY AND SUPPORT A FAMILY. A 17 year old with no family to support and probably still living at home would seem to be doing pretty good at $13 an hour for pocket money, but hey, maybe things are different where you live.

By all meens encourage your SON to talk to them and see if there is a reason. If it isn't worth his time and your trouble then he has the option of stopping.

RWT

 

[Indiana George]

G-Mac,

I frequently have lunch with a retired teacher who now operates a lawncare business, here in central Indiana. This fellow charges $35.00 per hour for mowing, weedeating, rolling, fertilizing, etc. Relatively inexpensive when you consider the investment and overhead.

Our 5 acre property with house, barn and fencing takes 5-6 hours to mow & weedeat, for an average of $192.50 per week. He said that if we would agree to a 6 month contract, that he would reduce the cost to an even $300.00 per month.

Note: With the current economy, this is a very competitive business.

Just food for thought. Prices in your area will likely vary.

 

[NMPinNYC]

Price of everything has gone up, so, looks like Junior should be getting $25 an hour, plus five per hour getting kicked back to you for "rental" costs. Otherwise, there might be a few choice words written in the lawn with Roundout. Great idea, right? No, wait, that's no good, please ignore everything I wrote above, my keyboard eraser isn't working right.

 

[Bassamatic]

Well, here's my 2 cents.

Your 17 year old son is a MAN now. He should be doing his own negotiating and he should be loading up the equipment and driving it all down to the neighbors himself. An argument could be made that he should also be paying you some rental on the equipment, but that's up to you.

I don't believe you are doing him any favors at all by involving yourself with his business decisions. Sure, give him your opinion on the whole thing but whether he acts on it should be up to him.

Time to let go.

 

[m1gunner]

Tell your son to make a deal with his girlfriend. He will do it for that money if she supplies the equipment and gets it to the job site every week.

Otherwise, no go.

 

[bmhiii]

My brother taught me something quite a few years ago that has worked for me ever since, most of the time for my benefit. In any given situation like this, deal with facts, logic, and fair play. I think you should work with your son in helping him lay out this out and then let him talk with the girlfriend's father (maybe you are there if you feel like son needs a little back-up).

Now this is the biggy. Your son has to be willing to accept the worst outcome (possibly losing job, hurting relations w/ girlfriend) if negotiations fall thru. If he can't live with this, he's stuck.

Wow, politics (in a way) are even affecting a lawn mowing job! What an early life lesson. Welcome to the grown up world son!

Just my two cents worth....

 

[wbraswell]

I've never met a 17 year old man before. I met a lot of them that thought they were. They're minors, unless they commit a crime. At that age, they still need guidance from a father, although most of them don't understand that.

 

[crofoot629]

Find something else to worry about.

Let the kid do his thing.

Emory

 

[feralmerril]

When I was a kid I tried to get dad buy a power mower. He just said "I got one", meaning me!

 

[Bullseye Smith]

Tell your son to take his girlfriend and tell her the story and if she agrees (Money that they go out on

, of course she will agree)they both go over and tell him it will be $60 bucks from now on. When he gets a 35 buck wash and them comes back, then it is 65 bucks

.

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

It's up to the kid-if he wants to do it for $40 let him-He may have made the decision that $40 is better than nothing. It's a cruel world out there and to be honest-the kid just a soon learn it now rather than later. I can charge $1500 an hour for my services, but I ain't gonna get any takers-one charges the most the market is willing to pay for ones services-If I have competition charging $200 an hour, I ain't gonna get too much business charging $350 an hour no matter how good I am. Everyone has a price point-this is a great example of economics and busines for the boy to learn from.
Good example-I've been getting swamped with work from the public defender office with no increase in pay. There's about 10 lawyers that would take my workload and pay right now. This ain't the time to ask for more money or else.

 

[leswad]

Great Life Lesson here: He now knows how much trouble women are!