I have two young teenage boys and one thing I tried to teach them is to both work hard but to know the value of their work and stick to it. I think this point of knowing their worth is important for boys, and it is even more so important for girls.
My youngest boy is the neighborhood lawn mowing kid. Over time he’s built up his little business to the point where he does six lawns all summer.
So last summer this lady comes knocking at the door. Says she wants him to come over and look at a job. Turns out this lady and her husband have just retired and they have a cabin in Wisconsin they want to spend a lot of time at and retirement. She’s looking for somebody to do the lawn all summer, then they don’t have to worry about it.
So Tommy goes over and looks the job and gives her what I thought was a very reasonable price of $30 to add the house to his normal weekly rotation. She thought that was a good price and told him to go ahead and start next week.
That evening he received a call from the husband, Richard. He said he didn’t think they needed anyone to do the lawn and the deal was off. He was kind of abrupt about the whole deal and I was left with the impression that he thought Tommy was changing too much.
Tommy was disappointed and he thought it was a raw deal for her to agree and then Richard steps in, but we talked about it and I explained that’s the way it goes sometimes when you’re in business. He was wondering if she should go back with a lower price but we talked about it and he determined that no he wasn’t going to try and win business by cutting the price.
Fast forward to yesterday. Apparently Richard is tired of mowing his own lawn all the time. He and the Mrs flagged down Tommy and asked him if he would mow the lawn, but with a new twist. Richard says he wants to watch his Ring cameras from the cabin and determine when it REALLY needs to be done, and then he’d call for service.
Tommy says that will be fine and the charge will be $120 per mowing. Richard was a little taken aback by this quote. Tommy explained to him he has a full schedule and working in little onesie twosie jobs was a hassle and had to be worth his time. Especially since people who call tend to let the grass grow way too long and it takes extra work.
Richard starts on the “that’s a crazy price, you’re ripping us off, kid”. So Thomas thanks them and gets on his scooter and rides away.
He told me he could hear the lady yelling at Richard, “See you cheap SOB? We could have had the lawn taken care of all summer for the same price, but nooooooo. Who’s going to mow your lawn now, Richard? Maybe you can get your Ring camera to do it.”
I was proud of the kid for deciding what he was worth and sticking to it. Also I think he formed his own impression of what it would be like to mow for Richard and knew that he’d better make it worth it. I hope he remembers this.
when i was a kid…..i got paid $2.00 a lawn…..one was 5 bucks… i felt on top of the world when i got 3 bucks for a lawn!!!!
