National Maintenance Systems

[Maclawnco]

Originally Posted by jhenderson9196

Go ahead. Borrow to finance working cheap, then watch them go T U. Then you can go T U trying to pay the short term note.

Who said borrow?

[dfd9]

Originally Posted by Maclawnco

I dont see the problem. Our target pays similarly odd but so what? It amounts to the same annual figure. Favorite month of that contact is may

Why does the insurance, phone, etc companies get to bill ahead but the DA lawnboys and plowjockeys have to wait a month--actually 45-60 days--to get paid for the work and materials they applied?

Just a basic principle of cash flow, and losing money because you are acting as a bank.

[jhenderson9196]

If you read all of the replies, you would know the post before mine stated "If you have the cash or Line Of Credit".

[pats plowing]

One national company has all the Kohls sites in New England and its not the one being mentioned. Merrimac if you want the contact info let me know. We currently do 7 of them but our service area is already large enough.

[Maclawnco]

Originally Posted by dfd9

Why does the insurance, phone, etc companies get to bill ahead but the DA lawnboys and plowjockeys have to wait a month--actually 45-60 days--to get paid for the work and materials they applied?

Just a basic principle of cash flow, and losing money because you are acting as a bank.

Differernce between being a monopoly utility and comodity service provider. As a comodity provider, you have to be innovatibe to be successful. If that means I take a contract w odd cashflow terms, ill do it. That willingness to do something unique will set you ahead or hold you back. Your decision.

[dfd9]

Originally Posted by Maclawnco

Differernce between being a monopoly utility and comodity service provider. As a comodity provider, you have to be innovatibe to be successful. If that means I take a contract w odd cashflow terms, ill do it. That willingness to do something unique will set you ahead or hold you back. Your decision.

Or, your decision to act like a professional business person by telling a customer that I am not a bank, but am providing a service that requires cash flow just as they do in order to survive and make a profit......

Not saying one isn't professional by acting as a bank. Just saying we should be as professional as possible. And not acting as a bank is one way.

The easy answer is, "Sir or madam, I would love to wait 60 days to get paid, but my employees won't wait 60 days for their checks." Neither will the utility companies that we both use, etc, etc, etc.

[Maclawnco]

Difference of viewpoint. Agree to disagree. Got to change with the markets

[jhenderson9196]

One is only professional when acting as a bank when one earns interest on the operating Capitol provided as well as a fair fee for services rendered.

[Maclawnco]

Whats more expensive: opprtunity cost of an unawarded contract or unearned interest income / interest on borrowed funds to win said contract?

[jhenderson9196]

If you don't consider the cost of loaning money to your customer interest free, you need to think again. If you need to give money away to get business, you need a new business plan.

[Maclawnco]

Have a great life. You win

[merrimacmill]

While I don't agree with the crazy payment set up of NMS of 5%, 5%, 10%, etc... We all know that in reality, we are all banks to a lot of these people.

So far this month, I have received a grand total of $2,000. And for purposes of perspective, during Nemo, including shovelers, I had a total of about 40 people working (A LOT of shovelers). So I'm not a 1 truck wonder here or anything.

I'm owed a completely insane amount of money, which is ALWAYS LATE. Both from local customers, national customers, and direct store to contractor national customers. I do expect things to start rolling in today or tomorrow, as anytime at or after the 20th people seem to get tired of my phone calls.

I chalk it up to the nature of the business most of the time...


Has anyone ever thought of what happens with the money from a payment to a national for say 2,000 stores at $10k each when they are 30+ days late? What if they are able to string us along for an extra 30 days, and keep 20 million in the bank for that duration of time. Is there money to be made that way? I always wonder... But am not enough of an expert with that stuff to start pointing fingers.

[Maclawnco]

Originally Posted by merrimacmill

While I don't agree with the crazy payment set up of NMS of 5%, 5%, 10%, etc... We all know that in reality, we are all banks to a lot of these people.

So far this month, I have received a grand total of $2,000. And for purposes of perspective, during Nemo, including shovelers, I had a total of about 40 people working (A LOT of shovelers). So I'm not a 1 truck wonder here or anything.

I'm owed a completely insane amount of money, which is ALWAYS LATE. Both from local customers, national customers, and direct store to contractor national customers. I do expect things to start rolling in today or tomorrow, as anytime at or after the 20th people seem to get tired of my phone calls.

I chalk it up to the nature of the business most of the time...


Has anyone ever thought of what happens with the money from a payment to a national for say 2,000 stores at $10k each when they are 30+ days late? What if they are able to string us along for an extra 30 days, and keep 20 million in the bank for that duration of time. Is there money to be made that way? I always wonder... But am not enough of an expert with that stuff to start pointing fingers.

Thank you Colin. Its just a fact of business. Its technically called float. And yes, interest income is probably a revenue stream for the nationals

[94gt331]

Thanks to lawnsite and plowsite I've decided to never ever, ever take a national management job anywhere no matter how fancy and big I would look doing it. I stick for the lower paid jobs. I know at least i get paid for them.