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Here's the big thing. People just do not value what they don't pay for. And that one hurts. But it's true. You know, when you give something away for free, it a lot of times it doesn't feel like a bonus. You know, it starts to feel like it's the baseline. And when you try to charge for it later, you get pushback. Not because the client is bad, but because you've trained them that way. And there's a difference between value and clarity. If you choose someone to help, if you choose to help someone out, that's a beautiful thing. But it has to be intentional. You decide when it happens and who it's for and why you're doing it. That's generosity. When, say, you lower your price or you give work away because you don't want an awkward conversation, that's not kindness. That's avoidance. And avoidance is it's going to show up later. As a lot of times that turns into frustration and stress and burnout. And I will tell you this, if you set boundaries, it actually builds better clients. I know that sounds weird, but this is a hard lesson I had to learn over the years. Most people are going to think you're probably saying to yourself right now, dude, if you're setting boundaries, it's going to push people away from you. But in my opinion, in my experience, you know, it filters in the right people. And when you're clear about what's included, what's extra, what things cost, you eliminate the confusion. And when you can confidently communicate that with your clients, it builds trust. You know, again, I've seen this in my own business. You know, the tighter we got with our scope of work, the better our clients became. There was less complaining, there was more appreciation, and in the long run, more profitability. So the thing is, it's not doing. Going above and beyond is not a bad thing. But don't do it. Just to avoid an awkward conversation. You know, if you have a cleanup fee for your first mower, make sure you express that. Make sure you clarify and let them know it's going to be an additional fee. It is not going to be just, hey, this is a $50 cut. This is going to take us, you know, triple the time that we would normally be on a property to get it straightened out. So it is going to be priced at X. You know, whatever that price might be. When you're upfront about it and you let them know, like, okay, and then afterwards, then we're going to be more routine and everything, and then everything is going to be good. This is your price per week. You know it. I want you to kind of take note of what you're doing right now. That might be like the free work that you're doing. Like any and every extra thing that you're doing, write it down. You need to see it before you could fix it. And maybe this doesn't apply to you. Maybe you're, you're dialed in, maybe you're hardcore. But you know, for, I bet you, for many of us, you know, we, we can always find an area where we're not, we're kind of doing some charity work. If it's charity work, that's great, keep doing it. But if it's work that you're just like, I just don't want to upset my client now you're, you're caught, you're going to cause yourself some problems down the line. This has happened to me in the past when I would do something above and beyond. You know, I stopped doing it and my client would take notice and say, hey, why don't you do this anymore? Like, well, that was never actually part of the program. I was just doing it because I had the time. Now I don't have time. And they get upset because their expectations were set way before. But if you were to tell them, hey, listen, this is an additional service or this is something that we would charge extra for, you know, you want to set that baseline early. And you could do this easily by building a simple add on menu. You know, the extra services, the touch ups, the callbacks, everything gets a price. That way there's no guessing. And especially if you make this known to your clientele, you know, there's less awkwardness. I shouldn't say I wanted to say no awkwardness. But still, there's. No matter what, you're still going to get a little bit awkward. But you know, if you're ever confronted with that and somebody wants you to do some extra work, you just use this simple phrase. I can't tell you how many times I've said it myself, but I'd be happy to take care of that. Here's what it would cost. And that one sentence helps keep you professional, clear and profitable. So if your business is feeling tight, if you're busy but you're not getting ahead, if you feel like you're constantly giving more than you're getting, it may not be about your pricing. It might be because of your boundaries. So again, catch yourself. You know, if you could catch yourself doing something where you normally just say, you know, oh, I'll just take care of it. You know, it's a little add on or something, instead of saying that to your clients, I'm saying, oh, I'll just take care of it, don't worry about it. Instead say, here's what it would cost. And that is going to help solve a lot of the issues that you may be having where you're giving away work for free that is actually valuable. Your time and your effort is valuable. The things that you do are valuable. You must remember that. You know, you don't need to change everything overnight, but, you know, just kind of start there. So with that being said, I want to thank you for listening. I hope that you had a wonderful week and as always, God bless. Keep pushing through and we'll catch you on the next one. Thank you once again for listening. If you've enjoyed the show, please leave a review and share it with fellow business owners. Your support means the world to me and helps keep the show going strong. I want to give a special shout out to our friends at Yardbush. Their continued support has been instrumental in bringing this podcast to you week after week. If you haven't checked them out yet, visit yardbook.com and see how they can give you the tools to streamline and manage your lawn care business. Also, don't forget to explore the resources and upcoming events that I've collected just for you in the show Notes. These are curated to help you stay ahead in your business with the latest tips, tools and networking opportunities. Whether it's a new tool, an insightful article, or an event you don't want to miss, I've got you covered. Until next time, keep pushing through and God bless.

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Sam.