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Hello and welcome to the Green industry podcast, your go to guide for building a more profitable and thriving lawn care and landscaping business. Your host, Paul Jamison is the author of five best selling books including Cut that grass and make that Cash and his latest, level up your money, all available on Amazon and Audible. Now get ready for more expert insights and practical strategies to boost your business and level up your life. Here's Paul Jameson.
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Welcome back at two of the show. I'm your host Paul Jameson down here in beautiful sunny Florida. And today we're going to address probably the ultimate lawn care business nightmare. That is you complete the work, you did a great job. Actually, the lawn's looking spectacular and then it's crickets. You become a professional debt collector instead of a business owner. Now you're chasing down the money because there's this meme on, on social media that the guy who goes out in the wilderness and I forget, I forget his name, but he's like, I'm, I'm on a remote island in Alaska and people are like, they go to get paid and then that guy's, you know, doing, doing the meme, essentially saying, we'll do the work. Then when it's time to get paid, the customers miraculously disappear. So who actually loves checking the mailbox every day hoping for a check? Who loves sending out text messages basically saying, hey Ms. Smith, I'm just following up on invoice number 712. No one likes doing that. So today on the program we are going to put an end to what they call in the fancy schmancy corporate world, account receivable. Or they call it AR if you're really corporate. Right. Ar, which stands for Accounts receivable. Because those accounts receivable headaches, they've happened to me so many times, they're kind of just like forever remembered. So that I am very firm and stern and bold to a transition in my business to a strict credit card on file policy. And you may say, well, don't you have exceptions, Paul? We're going to talk about that on today's program. But I want to just, just you to think about because my, as I get older in life, I don't like wasting money and I definitely don't like wasting time. And if I calculated the wasted hours, yeah, social media, that's, that's, that's a whole nother conversation for another day. A lot of people waste their time scrolling through social media. But what a lot of small business owners do, Mr. Producer, is they waste hours being a debt collector. Let's Run some math. If you spend three hours a week chasing payments, generating your, your old school paper invoices, driving to the bank, parking at the bank, going into the bank, waiting that whole thing, that's 12 hours a month. What could you do with an extra 12 hours? I'm an avid golfer, so I can, I'm like, yeah, that's, that's four rounds of golf right there. That's extra round, that's an extra day of golf a week by just being efficient with how I do my billing, aka credit card on file. So this whole net 30 BS, it suffocates a growing lawn care business. So net 30 is popular in corporate America and in many ways it's the right thing to do. You, you, in corporate America, you got, you got, you do something for a company and you send the invoice, but because these companies are gigantic, they don't, they're not going to pay you the day you send them the invoice. They're going to try to play these games where they're like, well, we'll pay you net 30, net 60, net 90, net, all this nonsense. And that's how that world works. But you have to pay your crew every Friday. Honestly, that's a whole nother conversation for another day. I think you should pay your employees on Monday because they're less likely to blow their money if they get paid on Monday. You pay them on Friday, right? They go out to who knows where and do does who knows what. And then come Monday morning, they're broke and they're stressed and they spend all their money over the weekend. But anyway, my point is this, this is why net 30 don't work in a, in a lawn care business. If you're, if you're doing it right because you have to pay your crew every single Friday, every time you go to the gas station, quick trip, 7, 11, Wawa. Wherever you go, you got to buy that fuel every day. So you can't wait 45 days for a client to pay you. And you can get resentment towards your customers when they start owing you money. You start dreading going and cutting their grass knowing that they still owe you for the last three cuts. And here you are showing up again. Literally, as I'm saying this, I'm thinking about customers who I had this predicament with. I'd show up again another week and I'm like, they still haven't paid me. And I was so immature in business that I was always blaming them. Oh, they're not home again. Well, I mean, the yard is getting kind of long. I guess we'll just cut it and add it on to the invoice when the whole time the problem was my problem because I didn't implement the card on file solution as the new standard. So that's what we're going to talk about on today's program. We're going to hear a quick word from today's show sponsor. And coming up, I'm going to talk about every objection that I've heard with customers, basically telling you why they don't feel comfortable giving you their card, why they prefer the check, yada yada yada, yada yada. We're going to talk about all those objections so you can be ready to execute the strategy of getting 100% of your customers credit cards on file this year and getting paid fast. We're going to talk about that coming right up. Real quick. Before we move on. If you're tired of buying equipment blind or running your crew the same way, hoping something changes, get yourself to Equip Exposition this October in Louisville. Test drive the best equipment from every major manufacturer in one place. Come see me at the morning show. Check out Equip's education sessions built for guys actually running crews. Use my code Paul at registration to save 50% on your pass. The link is in today's show notes. Have you ever felt like you're drowning in scattered quotes, schedules and chasing payments that never come easy? I've been there with you. I used to be a truck in the truck, completely disorganized and constantly chasing payments. But then I started using jobber back in 2019 and it was a complete game changer for my business. I'm still using it today. I love it and recommend it to all my coaching clients. Now Jobber is an all in one business app software where you can store customer information, send quotes and invoices, schedule your appointments and even collect payments. Best of all, you know I talk about this a lot on the podcast. You can save a credit card on file for automatic and hassle free payments. No more awkward follow ups or lost money. You ready to simplify your business operations? Check the link in the show notes and use my special Jobber link and try it for free. You won't look back. All right, so let's talk about the card on file solution. This truly is the new standard in the industry. My friend Jonathan Potoshnik, I think it was 2015, Mr. Producer, I was watching him on YouTube talking about we don't collect cash, we don't collect. My impression of him. Very monotone or just. Just even keel in the way he talks. But he basically is like, this is 2015. Okay? I'm recording this podcast in the year 2026. This is 11, 12 years ago. He was saying, yeah, our company's policy is we do not collect cash or check. If you want to be a customer, we only take your card on file. And I was watching this, and I was just thinking, man, I don't know how I'm going to be able to get my customers to give me their credit card on file. And I was having this. This problem in 2015. But then I was like, you know what? If he can do it, I can do it. And I got with Jobber and I started getting their cards on file and. And one by one, they just kept doing it. And so then I became the Jonathan Pitocinik in the sense of. I was like, guys, this is simple. This is actually pretty easy. This is. And. And then I started getting all this pushback. Yeah, but that one at work where we're from, Paul. And so now it's kind of like, all right, if JP can do it, if I can do it, my initials are backwards. PJ JP And PJ can do it, and Netflix can do it, and your gym can do it, and Amazon can do it. The lawn care industry can probably do it. We might be a bunch of rednecks, but think about it. I don't have Netflix. I don't even have a tv. But if I did, I'd imagine you're not paying Netflix with cash or check, I'd imagine to get your Netflix subscription. Again, I don't have Netflix. I'm just using that as an example. But I would imagine they have your. Your card on file and then they charge you each month, and then you get your. You get your little. Is Netflix like the documentaries, Mr. Producer? Is it. Do they have movies on there? You don't have it either. Well, maybe that's a bad thing. Let's use the gym. All right. I don't have a gym membership either. So I'm trying to think of examples because I. I don't have a gym membership. Maybe I should get a gym membership. My. My muscles living in Florida, I like to just kind of walk everywhere. That's kind of my exercise of justify. But anyway, let's think of another one. Amazon. I do have Amazon prime, so that, That's a good example. So my Amazon thingy, Prime, I think it's like 15amonth that, that they charge me and they. I don't I don't send Jeff Bezos a cash, you know, or. Or. Hey, hey, hey, hey, Mr. Bezos, what's your PayPal? Let me. Let me PayPal. You know, what do I do? They have my card on file, and then they charge my Amazon prime membership. The. The 15 bucks a month or whatever it is. I think it's 15 bucks a month. So then when I go to buy something on Amazon, they still have my card stored, and they make it really convenient for me. I. I bought a. Today, I bought a door stopper that goes at the bottom of your door because I'm the new place I moved into. Whoever designed this bathroom, I'm not sure their level of intellect, but they put the door, like, right by the toilet. So you, like, you open the door, and it's just. It's just. It's just a hassle because, long story short, you can't leave the door open. You got to. You got to shut the door, which most people would shut the door, you know, if they go to the bathroom. But if I just want to go. Anyway, it's a long story. I just wanted to. I just want to keep the door open at all times. Yeah. All right. We're not gonna get a deep. Yeah, that's Mr. Producer. This is why his mic is. Is muted 95. Good Lord. All right. But. But I. I got on Amazon, I typed in door stopper for the bottom of my door. Boom. A picture showed up of the product I, I. I like. Yep, I like that one. It was, I think, $4.99. I ordered it, I clicked a couple buttons, and then it was it. They're going to. They're going to ship it to me tomorrow. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. So why can't we in the lawn care industry get our car, get our customers cards on file? Here's a new rule. No card on file. No spot on the schedule, period. Some of y' all got to get some. Some backbone and make this your policy that, hey, if you want to work with us, we'll need to get your crest, your card on file. So here's how it works, okay? This is what I call the. The lawn care dream, or the dream scenario that literally thousands of companies are doing. Your crew finishes the property. Whether the crew is just you, we have. We have a lot of people listening to the program that are just. They're just one man show, and that's fine. Or your crew is. You got two or three guys out there, they finish the property. So the crew clocks out of the job on the phone. And then the card is automatically charged. Bam. And then depending on what day of the week it is, the money's gonna hit your bank account that you know very soon. So I have, I actually have Jobber open on my computer right now. And it's literally as simple as this. You click on your customer's name. So for every customer, I have their address and their email address and their phone number. And then there's a little button that says, so you just navigate to the client's profile in Java. Then you click. Once you have your, your customer's profile selected, there's a button on Jobber that says payment methods. It's right below. I'm on my desktop. Good point, Mr. Producer. This is the desktop version of Jobber. So right below the billing history box, there's the button there. It says payment methods. I click on that, then it says send email request or send SMS request. So you can choose if you want your customer, if you want to email or text your customer. And then it's going to text them a little vault thing that it's secure and it's just basically them implementing their card detail into the vault in Jobber. When I say vault, I can't see their, I don't see their actual card number. Like, I don't even have their card number. It's, it's vaulted in Jobber. So you can't, you can't just go to your customer and be like, hey, can you give me your card, your card number? And you have a little yellow sticky note and that's a massive liability. You have to use this or you should use a secure PSI compliant system. So that's why I personally use Jobber and recommend Jobber for running your business, because it makes this transition frictionless, literally. I use the email free feature, but if you want to text your customer either, it doesn't matter. Once they get that message from Jobber, then you, they'll just put their card number in just like they would at Netflix or the gym or Amazon. And then Jobber is securely vaulted that card in Jobber. So you can then set up automated billing. Or if you're going to just bill them per maintenance, then you can just charge their, their card on file, you know, on specific days that you finish the job. It's just one click of the button. It's very, very, very simple. The friction, if you will, is lawn care business owners don't take the step to get the customer card on file. And again, I don't know how the other CRMs work, I just know jobbers is about seamless and easy as it is. You just literally create. There's a button, a little plus button that says create. You type in your customer's information, their address, their name, their, their billing address, their, their, their phone number and their email address, and then just send the request for the payment method on file, credit card on file. Either email that to them or text that to them. It's that simple. So here's the objections. Well, I don't feel comfortable giving you my card, Paul. Okay, I totally understand. For your security. I actually don't even see. I don't even ever see your full card number ever. It's securely encrypted and it's vaulted in our CRM system. I call it CRM system to the customer. They don't even know what jobber is or care. But you know, we use a CRM system and it's securely encrypted and vaulted in our CRM system the same way Amazon stores it, literally. So that should give them peace of mind. Well, I prefer to pay by check at the end of the month. Well, Randy, to keep our routes efficient and our price is competitive, we move to a fully automated billing system. This allows our crews to focus 100% on making your property look great rather than doing administrative paperwork. Okay, these are real conversations that I have. Let's talk about this, Mr. Producer. The, the grandfather clause. You may been doing this for so long, you have these legacy clients, right? Sweet Sue, I call her. She's paid you by check for 10 years. Her handwriting is actually kind of like, um, her, her hand, you know, it's kind of like not the clearest font, the way she writes. So do you switch her to card on file or do you only strictly enforce it for all new customers moving forward? Well, 100% of any new customer, you enforce it immediately. You onboard them, you let them know, hey, we use a CRM. We're going to send you an email. In order to get on our schedule, we have to get your credit card on file because then the day we do your service, we'll charge your card. We can't get you on the schedule until we get that card in our system. And don't worry, it's securely encrypted and it's vaulted in our CRM system. And then you just get really bold with making sure that you email that to them, follow up with them. You could even text them after you email to them, hey, I just emailed you for the credit card. On file. Please fill that out and then we'll get you on the schedule and then follow up with that. It's up to you what you want to do about, you know, old lady, grandma, you know, Sweet Sue, I would try to switch all your customers to cards on file. But the great thing about spring is it kind of gives you an out because you can just kind of go to them and say, hey, Sweet sue, we've updated our system, our CRM system. We're doing our billing online this year. I'm going to email you a credit card on file form. It's fully encrypted and it's vaulted in our CRM system, but we no longer accept checks this year. I know you've been paying with check for 10 years, but this year we're switching the card on file. So I'm going to email you the. The little form and then we'll get your card on file and just try to. All those legacy clients, right? The sweet old lady, the sweet old man, get them to switch the card on file. And then all your new customers get a backbone. You run a lawn care business. If Amazon and the gym and the Netflix and all of them can get their customers to put their card on file for their subscriptions. If you're good at what you do as a small business owner, surely you can do this and Jobber can help you. It makes it so simple. And I'm sure the other CRMs I honestly don't know because I've used. I started the card on file thing in Jobber in 2019. They started broadcasting on the podcast in 2019, but I started using Jobber. It was a long time ago. And before that it was yard books, I think is what I used, like, way back in the day. So I've been. I've been using CRMs for a very long time. And before that I was using QuickBooks. So it's all very commonplace in our industry to get your customers cards on file. So stop acting like a bank that's basically offering your customer a line of credit. Get Jobber, get their card on file, get paid instantly, get your time back. So you want to streamline your billing. Get your life back. Please, my friend, get all your customers cards on file. This year, if you need help with getting set up with Jobber, Mr. Producer will put a link to Jobber in the show Notes where you can get a free trial and a discount on your first few months with the promo code. Paul, there. It's in. It's in the show Notes and That will help you do it so seamlessly, so easy to get your customers cards on file this year. What about the big landscaping jobs? If you're doing a job that's like north of $10,000 and you want to collect checks for that, that's up to you. Everything I shared about today is for your basic maintenance. Your, your, your dollar eighty a week mo edge trim blue, your, your little fifteen hundred dollar mulch job. Just charge the card on file, up your prices to cover the little way Jobber has the little processing fees. And they all have them, all the different CRMs. They all. There's not really a way to get around that, that I'm aware in Jobber you can get like ach. You can have your customers pay by ach, which is reduced. That's a whole nother conversation for another day. It's just the principle is get your credit card, your customer's credit cards on file and charge them. That's, that's the point I'm trying to make. So people get into the weeds of well, what if, what if I'm doing a hundred thousand dollar job? Okay, Wouldn't it make. Because that's a lot to be paying in credit card processing fee. I'd be paying thousands of dollars just to. And I'm like, do you actually have a hundred thousand dollar job coming up? Well, I'm just saying if I. Come on, bro, you're wasting my time, okay? You don't. That's not even a real scenario. So why are we talking about this? Do you get your cards on file and stop making excuses? I've, I've, folks, I've fought tooth and nail on this and I get all worked up and I'm realizing I'm just trying to help you. I already have my cards, I already have my customers cards on file and I, and they, I get paid on time. Like the day it's due. Bam. I charge the card. Bam. I get the little, little, not a little green notification paid. I'm just trying to help other people and then they push back on me. So why am I getting all worked up about it? Streamline your billing. Get your life back. Get your customers cards on file. Try it out. You'll see why folks like Jonathan Patosnik, myself, many, many, many, many, many, many, many other reputable companies, not just in the lawn care industry, but in other industries. This is how folks do business in 2026. It's, it's embarrassing that our industry is so far behind on this and then they gripe and they complain. And they. They. I'm trying not to cuss. They complain about the customers not paying, when truly it's their fault. That's a tough pill to swallow. But my customer, I true, I'm not going to say their name. I truly, in my brain cells, I'm imagining being in their front yard, that I had this one customer that always paid late, and I'd always get so mad, and I'd show up again. I'm like, they still owe me from last month. And I was getting mad at them, but I should have never. If I would have said the day I met them, hey, we'd love to. Because they had just moved into the neighborhood. Their real estate agent connected us. I showed up. If I would have been a good business owner day one, I would have said, hey, her name was Mary. I'm not gonna tell your last name, but hey, Mary, we use a CRM. And in order for us to get you on the schedule, which we can this afternoon, we were in the neighborhood all day. Once we get your. Your card on file, I'll have my guys come over this afternoon and we'll do your first maintenance. And I know we got a. You got a bunch of trees. She had a bunch of trees overhanging her driveway. We'll even limb those up and haul them away for you this afternoon. Here's the price for the first time, because it's gonna be a little extra work the first time and then ongoing after that. You know, your price is gonna be 65 of maintenance. We just need to get your card on file. And if she gives me a card on file, I would have avoided all of those headaches of showing up every week and her not paying for several weeks before. It was my fault, not her fault. And if she would have been like, well, I'm not putting my card on file, because that's not safe. I would have explained their. The whole, hey, it's actually securely encrypted and vaulted in our CRM system, basically the same way Amazon does. It probably gave her piece of mind. She would put. Probably would have signed up and then she wanted to have. That would have been a red flag that, hey, this lady is going to be a problem. So I'm just going to say, hey, I'm so sorry. It's not going to work out. We. We only serve customers to give us our card on file. All right, I'm getting too worked up trying to help people. So I'm gonna go. Mr. Producer. What? I'm gonna go get some ice cream. All right. I'm gonna go get two scoops of ice cream, and I'm gonna stop being so worked up. All right, see you guys later. Come out. Peace.
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Hey, it's Marty, producer of the Green Industry podcast. This episode is over, but check the episode notes for links to products and services that you heard about during the episode. And thanks for listening.