How do I find the cost of mowing when I first started my lawn care business? We were recently asked this question at the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum. Here are some ideas.
If you have not already done so, please log into the Lawn Care Company Forum first and submit your question to your area. The owner of another lawn care company in the area will likely provide you with the latest prices. You may also ask, do you have any friends in the industry? If so, ask them how much they charge for each lawn.
Another response was to contact several local lawn care companies in your area and get estimates from them on how to maintain your lawn. If you don’t have a lawn, ask a friend to estimate the cost of repairing the lawn. If you have three estimates, you will know how much to charge. You know the price, plus the square footage of the lawn, and you can divide it by the price per square foot. This should give you a general idea. Keep in mind that the costs of running a lawn care business can be completely different from the costs of other lawn care business owners, so understand your costs.
The next question you might want to know is: should you charge per square meter or per shift?
Kurt Chance said, “When you give estimates, the first thing you always want to do is actually walk around the house, not run in and out. When I got there I did. Let me. Surprisingly, I didn’t know there were four of the front trenches were to be pruned, and I could only move when I was being trimmed, but luckily for me I still spent an estimated time and my price can still be calculated the way I wanted. ”
If you are a new owner of a lawn care business, you may be billed based on hours worked. Joel LaRusic, author of mowboy.com, suggested that “you should quote quality, not time. In other words, saying” I will satisfactorily provide these services for a price of $ 50 “then saying” I’ll be in an hour you spend $ 50 on the house. “You can of course use your hourly rate as the basis for the price, but you don’t have to pass this price information on to your customers. You don’t want customers to watch the clock when your work gets better and you save a few minutes. to your advantage over time. ”
Kurt further explained, “When estimating large real estate, I have to figure out how long it will take. If necessary, I can break it down into smaller parts. Then I calculate the hourly rate or want The income earned from real estate, often commercial properties, are divided into different mowing areas, I find it easier to determine the time required for each property and then calculate the total time and driving time.
Another more advanced method is to charge a fee per square meter according to a formula. Using formulas requires more experience because the most important thing is that your formulas are correct. Remember that your quote is only as accurate as your formula. However, if you are sure about the price, you can create the following formula:
- The cost per thousand square meters of mowed lawn.
- The cost of fertilizing lawns per 1,000 square feet.
- The cost per square meter of hedge trimmer.
How do you create your own formula? You need a measuring wheel or measuring wheel to walk around the property and find the square footage. Joel said, “A lot of work is quoted per thousand square feet, such as fertilizer and seeding.” As your working hours increase, you will gain a better understanding of your operating costs – that is, how much it costs to run your business per hour. You will know how long it will take to mow a 1,000 square foot lawn, and you will know what margin of profit you want to aim for. From there, figuring out your formula is as easy as adding your overhead to your profit margin, costing you 1,000 square feet of grass.
Do you have an idea? You have to measure everything accurately, but once you have a few good formulas, estimating the lawn becomes really easy. You may need to make adjustments (cutting steep slopes takes more than a flat lawn), so you will need to use your own judgment.
Which pricing method is more suitable for your business? If you’re just starting out, it’s easier to charge by the hour. As you grow, you need to create formulas that allow you to bid more accurately on attributes, regardless of the size of the attribute. As you mow larger properties, it becomes increasingly important to estimate lawns in square feet. Regardless of the size of the property, it can keep your bids at a stable profit margin. Many new owners of lawn
