new guy with a question on whats the going bid

[high quality]

I started my buisness in 2005. And have not recived alot of calls.
I handed out lots of cards and flyers and whent door to door.
people ask me what i charge and they say well the kid down the road
will do it cheaper. The poperty is always around an acre and the grass is
two to five feet tall so i tell them around 100 dollors the first time and 25
the rest. i have a weekly bid figured and a bi weekly. and on and on
so any ways this next season i dont want to short my self and get lots of buisness. I have talked to realitors and some give me the inside on what the other guys charge like one charges 95 hr and the rest around 65 an hour.
most my bids are around 25 an hour and i think thats way to cheap...
whats the best way to get your name out there and to get the jobs.
thanks the new guy.

[NC Lawnscaper]

HQ,
I'll be starting my second year this spring. I have flyers printed and plan to distribute them door to door in Residental areas and make some face to face contacts with commercial customers.

I charge $35 for half acre lots which includes, mowing, trimming and edging and blowing which takes about 30 minutes by the time I unload and load back up with two workers. My minimum is $25 with the same service. I don't think I can make money charging anything less unless the properties were located next door to each other. Good luck

[Team Gopher]

Hi high quality,

Have you considered offering other services that the local upstarts can't perform?

Also keep getting your name out. Don't give up.

[jumpcoachpm]

New guy,
I started 3 yrs ago with 10 cust. Today i have nearly 100 it comes with being patient and doing excellent work for a fair price. You are really the only one that can determine the price you need to charge, you know your overhead and other costs.
I have found the best advertisment is word of mouth from your clients. So if you do ok work you do okay but if you do excellent work you will do excellent, but if you do crap work everyone will know not to call you. Thats becuase bad news spreads about 100x faster than good news.
So do excellent work, keep letting people know you are there, and don't be afraid to fix up stuff others screwed up and you will grow as fast as you want or even faster
dan

[Sammy]

.....The poperty is always around an acre and the grass is
two to five feet tall so i tell them around 100 dollors the first time and 25
the rest. .....

If the grass is that tall, and one acre, I would charge a lot more than just $100.00 for the first cut.

[CCLS]

Like myself and many others have said before, charge for time not by size. If you have one acre that is completely open with nothing to trim around, would you charge less for the half acre property that has 100 trees to mow around? The first property could take you a half hour and the second property could take you four hours. You need to bill for time.