Spent $60 on a cheap CRM for my landscaping side gig and it saved my butt after one season

I been running a small lawn care biz on the side for like 2 years now. Kept track of everything on paper and my phone notes. Got busy last summer and forgot to follow up with like 5 customers who wanted quotes. Lost maybe $800 or more in jobs. So I grabbed a basic CRM called FreshBooks for $20 a month and set it up in a weekend. Tracks leads, sends reminders, even invoices. After 3 months I picked up 12 new clients from follow ups I woulda missed. Pays for itself easy.

3 comments

3 Comments

wyatt13511h ago

Agree totally. I had the same problem with missed leads and it was driving me crazy. Switched to a simple CRM called Jobber for my landscaping side gig and it changed everything. After two months I landed three big mulching jobs from customers I would have completely forgotten to call back. That $30 a month is nothing compared to the money I was leaving on the table.

adams.uma8h agoMost Upvoted

Flip it around though - maybe the real problem isn't organization but being too quick to say yes to every lead that comes in. I used to chase every single inquiry and ended up wasting time on people who were just price shopping. Screening a little harder up front might save you the headache of even needing a CRM for that many missed callbacks.

lewis.mila14h ago

Oh man, I feel this so hard. It is wild how easy it is to let those quote requests slip through the cracks when you are juggling everything yourself. My buddy runs a pressure washing thing on the side and he used to write quotes on napkins at restaurants. He lost like three big driveway jobs before he even tried a spreadsheet. His wife finally made him use Google Sheets and now he swears by it for at least keeping names and numbers straight. He still messes up invoices though. But yeah, that $20 a month is nothing compared to the headache of missing out on cash just because you forgot to text someone back.