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“What happened when you told him you were pregnant?” I was curious about Addy’s father.
“He was distant, more so over time. He wasn’t interested in the doctor’s appointments or the ultrasounds. At some point in my third trimester, he said he didn’t want a child. He’d support me but wasn’t sure how much he wanted to be involved. It hurt, but it wasn’t a huge surprise at that point. I’d already resigned myself to being a single mother. I was lucky because I had my parents and my sister nearby.”
“He sounds like an asshole.”
Sarah smiled sadly. “You can’t force people to want the same things you do.”
“This is different. Addy’s his child.” I already loved her, and I’d only recently met her.
“I have Addy, so I don’t regret a single thing. I wish he was a better father to her. But I’m so grateful to have met your family. They’ve opened us up to so much love and happiness.”
“You’re enjoying yourself on the farm, then?”
She smiled wide. “I love it, and Addy does, too. She’d live here full time if she could.”
“Mom would love that.” My heart was thumping hard in my chest.
“I’ve said it before, but this place is magical. When I see the lights, I feel like there are limitless possibilities. Like I’ve closed myself off to things that I see as too risky or not responsible when it’s exactly what I want.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked, afraid to ask if she was talking about me.
“Work. I’ve stayed in my nine-to-five because it’s steady and reliable. I have good insurance and a guaranteed paycheck. But I’d really love to do my side business full time.”
“Then you should.”
“It’s not that simple. I have Addy to think about.”
“Does your ex carry her insurance?”
“He’s required to.”
“Then it’s just you that you have to worry about in that regard.”
“It’s scary. What if it doesn’t work? What if I don’t generate enough money to support us?”
“You can talk to Sebastian. He can give you a plan. He’s good at that stuff. He’ll recommend how much you’d need in savings and if your business is viable as your sole income.”
“That would be amazing. By the way, I took a look at your contract and made some notes on it. I think you could be more restrictive, requiring them to pay you monthly with an automatic payment. You should consider offering different contract periods. Right now, it’s month to month, and I notice you have a lot of cancellations. What if you made it a six-month time period or enough to cover the typical grass-growing period in the spring through the fall? You’d know what to expect, and they’d get the full experience. By the end of the contract, they’ll be spoiled and won’t want to go back to mowing their own lawn.”
“That’s kind of genius. I hadn’t thought of it like that before.”
“You mentioned in your email that clients do one or two months and then cancel. This would eliminate that. You’d be able to predict your income and know if you’d need to hire people to help. You could expand your business.”
“I love that.”
“I also noticed that you don’t have anything about the lights in your contracts.”
“That’s something I do on the side.”
“Maybe that’s why they’re taking advantage of you. You could only offer it to your landscaping clients as an add-on. Then you set a fee based on the square footage of the house. Then there’s no way for them to negotiate the price.”
“That’s an interesting idea.”
“You’re giving them an extra service you don’t offer to everyone. It limits how many clients you have and encourages others to sign with you for the season. Or maybe even have work done they’ve been putting off. How are you pulling in the clients who want a patio or a retainer wall?”
“That’s usually word of mouth. A neighbor sees the work and asks for my information. I have images of the work I’ve done on my phone that I send to them.”
“That’s good, but what if you had a glossy brochure or even a website where people searching for something specific would see your business?”
