Most of the time beginners in the lawn care business don’t worry about having contracts with their clients.  Indeed if you have just started out in your own landscaping business you might not even have thought about using them at all.

In truth a lot of newbies don’t have them.  But this is a good time to start exploring contracts and what they mean for you and your client.  A lot of people don’t even know where to start with such a document, but luckily there are a lot of resources online that will help you in this respect.

The first thing to consider is the advantage of having more than one form of paperwork to use.  You will certainly want to have an estimate form to send out or hand to customers which tells them exactly what will be included for the price of a particular job.  Both you and they keep a copy, so if there are any disagreements you can refer back to it for confirmation at any point in the future.

You then need an actual contract which states what you will be doing, how often and for how much.  This should ideally be something fairly standard in nature, so you can then attach the estimate or agreed work order to it.  This saves having to customize every single contract you ever use depending on the customer you are working for and what you are doing for them.

Some lawn care experts use contracts to set up monthly payment plans for their customers.  This can be easier for both parties as you can be sure of a regular payment without having to ask them for cash all the time.  It will certainly help you to plan your business more effectively in advance, particularly when it comes to investing in new equipment.

When you need a contract to start up with, go onto Google and do a search for ‘free lawn care contract sample’ or something similar.  People have created and uploaded sample contracts for you to use without payment.  You can either use them as they are, or you can tweak them for your own use.  For instance you could put your own name, contact details and logo at the top, to help brand your business and make it more appealing to the client as well.

There is no doubt that life will be made much easier if you can use a lawn care contract in your work.  Starting with a sample will enable you to ensure all the important details are there, and you can then carry a supply of them with you in case you should need one at short notice.  All you have to do is fill in your client’s details, the payment amounts and dates and attach the agreed estimate of services to the contract.

Just remember to keep a copy for yourself as well as handing one to the customer.  This will ensure you both have full details of what is expected from each contract.

Interested in starting a Lawn Care Business? Click here to learn more about our Lawn Care Business Guide.