For Landscaping Business: Writing a Contract

Lynn Anders reports:

"Landscaping businesses take little time to manage once you have the right tools and business license. However, you will want to establish landscaping contracts with all your clients and keep these updated. Without a written contact, property owners may not have a clear understanding of what services you agreed to provide or when the payment is due. Having a landscaping contract that lays out the services will prevent miscommunication between you and your client and help enforce your nonpayment procedures...Put the basic information about the property to which the landscaping contract applies at the top of the contract. This includes the property address, name of person responsible for the bill and a contact phone number...Measure and record the general area of the lawn, flowerbeds and other areas that are to be serviced by you. Then, make it clear in the contact that if the yard space increases, your fees will need to be renegotiated...Write down how often you agree to service the property, such as once a week or every other week...List the major duties to be completed during each visit. Duties may vary depending on the needs of the property owner...Add information about your services and duties during different seasons...Also, include if seasonal duties, such as leaf raking and spring flower planting, are part of the regular fee or will be done at an additional cost...List your prices for the agreed-upon services. You may need to list different prices for different seasons...Put a due date for the monthly service fee to be due and your accepted payment options. Add to this, that if the payment is not received by the agreed-upon due date, late fees will be added and all future landscaping services will be discontinued until the account is paid in full...Provide a place for both you and your client to sign and date the contract...Use a separate landscaping contract for one-time big landscaping renovations or projects. This contract can include information from your standard service contract with the added information pertinent to the project. In this contract, add the design and other details of the project, cost of the materials and labor, any deposits due, who is responsible for obtaining permits, your warranties or guarantees about the project, and a completion date."