Social Freedom When Firing Friends

I just had to fire a friend of mine. I've known him for 15 years, originally from BJJ. but he stopped training years ago so I never see him at the school. I only see him when he comes to take care of my lawn. He's been my lawn guy for like 7 years I think. 

The problem is that he can be hard to get ahold of, and he never does what he says he'll do when he says he'll do it. He's usually off by days, sometimes weeks. If he wasn't my friend, I'd have let him go for this already because chasing the people you hire to work for you defeats the entire purpose of paying for their help. I tolerate it because #1, I don't care that much about my lawn, and #2, he does eventually show up and he's got me grandfathered in at a super cheap rate. 

But even though changing lawn guys will likely cost me more money, I plan to replace him with someone who is more timely and communicates better - thus actually saving me more time and hassle, which makes up for the greater cost. ​

Most recently, he dropped the ball by not finishing a job for me AFTER I had already paid him. I asked him repeatedly for a refund and he gave me his usual answer of "tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow" and by now it's been weeks of time and multiple asks. 

So I'm just going to cut my losses, end the business relationship, and hope to keep the friendship. I'm not the only friend of his that has had to fire him - so it shouldn't come as a surprise - but I might be the only friend who wants to remain friends *after* the firing. So we'll see how he responds.

Here's the text message I sent so you can can see it as an example if you need something like this later on. Feel free to share your opinion if you have one, and the reasoning behind it below.

"Hey man, 
 
I feel I have to let you go as our lawn guy. 

You can keep the $ as a thank you for all the years. 

If there's hard feelings, let me know and we can hash em out bc I still appreciate you as a friend. 
 
I have no personal issues with you at all, I just hate chasing ppl when I shouldn't have to. 
 
I hope we can still be cool going forward."

This was NOT my first draft. 

My first draft listed all the reasons for the firing. But on my second draft I figured he probably already knows the reasons and doesn't need me to throw them in his face. If I'm trying to be friend with him then I don't need to make him feel any worse about the situation. He already shared with me that times are hard for him right now - so I'm trying to be sensitive to that - but times are hard for everyone so it's not much of an excuse. Besides, if he's confused about anything I feel the tone of my message leaves the door wide open for further communication. 

So we'll see. I'm actually expecting him to just say "ok I understand" and that's that. Fingers crossed!

UPDATE!

I never received a response to my text after I sent it. No anger. No word at all. 

Until the following season. 

When spring rolled around again I finally got an apologetic message. He said he was sorry, made no excuses, and asked for another chance. 

However, knowing this might happen I made sure to replace my friend's services almost immediately after I fired him. I had already signed with a new landscaper within a week of letting him go.

I replied to let him know that I'd already found someone else...

... and once again received no response.

My new landscaper turned out to be awesome - and had none of the issues my former one had. In the end, I was very happy with my decision, despite the difficulty.