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Now, You want to Learn How to Bid Every Job Accurately? Do This...
Do You Have a Measuring Wheel? If Not Buy one $75 to $100 Bucks will get you Going I think? Measure all Your Properties. Sq. Footage of Grass to Be Cut, Sq.Footage of Surfaces to Be Blown. Then Measure the Linear Footage of Edging & Trimming. Why, LOL I'll tell ya this...
Take all Your Measurements, Time them. You don't have to be So Obvious about it. Just Do it Soon. OK You getting Your measurements. OK time them so you will Know How long it takes you to Mow 20,000 ft. With That Dixie Chopper. OK Do the Same with Everything Else? How long it Takes to Trim & Edge 500 ft.
OK, Now that You got Yo Measurements & Your Time of How long to do the Jobs. Figure out What you are Getting Paid per Hour? I bet it's varies from Job to Job. OK, But Now you Know How Long it Takes to Do each Job & What you are getting Paid per Hour.
OK, Now with all your Measurements you Should Be able to Make Yourself a Cheat Sheet! So by Now you Know How much you want to Make Per Hour?
Then You go to your Next Job to bid, you can Measure the Lawn, Edging & etc... OK You Should be able to Figure it Pretty Close Time Wise. So then you input what you want to make per hour. Get the Picture?
Now Keep all those measurements, Because you might want to Sell them Aeration, Dethatching, Fertilizing & So Forth. Guess What you already Have all the Measurements of your Existing Customers. So in a few Minutes you can Figure these Money Making Add Ons & Sound Very Professional about it.
The 1st and foremost thing you need to do is to keep track of how long each task takes. You should walk the properties and work the estimated times over in your head.
The 2nd aspect to consider is a larger specimen that may require ladder, scaffolding, or bucket work should be billed out at a higher rate than those you can walk around to complete.
Here are some ideas that might help you get an idea of how to price your work, figuring $60/hr as your rate. All times given include the clean-up.
If you have small sized shrubs under 3' in diameter these will probably take a total of 10 minutes each. These could include the barberry, euonymus, birdsnest spruce, goldthread cypress etc.
Then there are what I like to think of as the medium sized range between 3-5’, which usually are the yews, hollies, yaupons, fuller barberries, and boxwoods. I would recommend that you estimate 15-20 minutes each.
We often have upright/columnar specimens at corners as well. These would be your arborvitae, lelandi cypress, hemlocks etc. that are kept between 6-8' with minimal ladder work to shape the tops. I would recommend estimating about 20-25 minutes each.
If you have hedgerows and the like, I will usually try to block them together by counting individual specimens. If I have 30 hemlocks 8' tall along the curbside and 20 running along the back of the lawn to make a corner hedgerow I might figure 20 minutes for every block of 6. So it might be 5x20 for the curbside, and 4x20 for the back lawn totaling 180 minutes or 3 hrs.
You also are going to have to take into consideration how much growth is going to be removed. Are you cutting a privet hedge way back, or is it a well-maintained evergreen that just needs the new growth taken off.
Another thing to remember is that when you're cutting evergreens, STOP at the dark green layer and don’t get too thin.
Hopefully this helps some.
This is a Copy of a Post Made by Forum Member "Kutnkru", Excellent Post!
Do You Have a Measuring Wheel? If Not Buy one $75 to $100 Bucks will get you Going I think? Measure all Your Properties. Sq. Footage of Grass to Be Cut, Sq.Footage of Surfaces to Be Blown. Then Measure the Linear Footage of Edging & Trimming. Why, LOL I'll tell ya this...
Take all Your Measurements, Time them. You don't have to be So Obvious about it. Just Do it Soon. OK You getting Your measurements. OK time them so you will Know How long it takes you to Mow 20,000 ft. With That Dixie Chopper. OK Do the Same with Everything Else? How long it Takes to Trim & Edge 500 ft.
OK, Now that You got Yo Measurements & Your Time of How long to do the Jobs. Figure out What you are Getting Paid per Hour? I bet it's varies from Job to Job. OK, But Now you Know How Long it Takes to Do each Job & What you are getting Paid per Hour.
OK, Now with all your Measurements you Should Be able to Make Yourself a Cheat Sheet! So by Now you Know How much you want to Make Per Hour?
Then You go to your Next Job to bid, you can Measure the Lawn, Edging & etc... OK You Should be able to Figure it Pretty Close Time Wise. So then you input what you want to make per hour. Get the Picture?
Now Keep all those measurements, Because you might want to Sell them Aeration, Dethatching, Fertilizing & So Forth. Guess What you already Have all the Measurements of your Existing Customers. So in a few Minutes you can Figure these Money Making Add Ons & Sound Very Professional about it.
Although there are many factors as mentioned prior, you also need to have an idea of how long it’s going to tackle you to complete each site.
The 2nd aspect to consider is a larger specimen that may require ladder, scaffolding, or bucket work should be billed out at a higher rate than those you can walk around to complete.
Here are some ideas that might help you get an idea of how to price your work, figuring $60/hr as your rate. All times given include the clean-up.
If you have small sized shrubs under 3' in diameter these will probably take a total of 10 minutes each. These could include the barberry, euonymus, birdsnest spruce, goldthread cypress etc.
Then there are what I like to think of as the medium sized range between 3-5’, which usually are the yews, hollies, yaupons, fuller barberries, and boxwoods. I would recommend that you estimate 15-20 minutes each.
We often have upright/columnar specimens at corners as well. These would be your arborvitae, lelandi cypress, hemlocks etc. that are kept between 6-8' with minimal ladder work to shape the tops. I would recommend estimating about 20-25 minutes each.
If you have hedgerows and the like, I will usually try to block them together by counting individual specimens. If I have 30 hemlocks 8' tall along the curbside and 20 running along the back of the lawn to make a corner hedgerow I might figure 20 minutes for every block of 6. So it might be 5x20 for the curbside, and 4x20 for the back lawn totaling 180 minutes or 3 hrs.
You also are going to have to take into consideration how much growth is going to be removed. Are you cutting a privet hedge way back, or is it a well-maintained evergreen that just needs the new growth taken off.
Another thing to remember is that when you're cutting evergreens, STOP at the dark green layer and don’t get too thin.
Hopefully this helps some.
This is a Copy of a Post Made by Forum Member "Kutnkru", Excellent Post!
