Who would you pick to mow your lawn:
Him?
or them?
Here's another way of looking at it:A) The established business with two employees and a better price?
B) The hard working guy who's a bit more expensive, but fighting to build a better life for himself and possibly his family?
C) The hard-working guy, but ask him to meet or beat the price of of the pros?
D) The established business, but get them to lower their prices even more, locking in best quality + price. Boo-yeah.
What's better for me? And for the overall system? I'm leaning toward C... What would you do? What would Obama do? Murdock? Jesus?
Ok, here's the story:
I got a knock on the door this morning. It was a neighbor, who came over to introduce herself. Then, she slipped in that if we wanted to share a gardener, it might be a good idea since my lawn is getting "wild."
Wow.
Hello, nice to meet you too.
I didn't realize I'd moved to Celebration.
Actually, I've been planning on finding a gardener, so we're on the same wavelength. But I found her overture "interesting," as they say.
In any case, I took her gardener's number, called him, and he came by to give me an estimate. He owns a landscaping business, and he sends a team to take care of the block every few weeks.
"How often do you want me to come by? Every two weeks?" he asked.
"I think once a month is good."
"And the hedges? Every two months?"
"I think twice a year is fine." (They're just hedges! Not hippo topiaries. How much trimming can they need???)
"Ok. Anything else? Back yard?"
"I'll take care of that. Really I'm looking for a low key, low water approach. A drought/recession approach. And since you're already doing three houses on the block, could your price reflect that? No driving time, no gas..."
"I can do that. I can give you $40 for the first trim, and then $25 after that. It's a discounted price."
"Ok, I'll have to talk it over with my boyfriend..."
Next, I got another quote from a man who's starting his own business. He's a gardener for another company and he's starting to do weekends on his own to earn some extra dough. He handed me a colorful business card that could have been home made, and I get the feeling he needs the money more (just a hunch, maybe not...).
Only he's more expensive, not tried and true, no neighborhood accountability... but he's working toward a dream. I respect that.
Gained: A discount. No commitment yet. But just writing this post has helped me make up my mind... and you know exactly what I'm going to do.
