First post: couple of questions

[clean green]

Hello everyone,
I have been thinking about starting a lawn care business next year, it would be part time. I have been reading all of your post for the past couple of weeks and have learned a lot from your information. Thank you.
I do have a few questions, and would appreciate any advice that I could get.
I had originally planned on doing a few residentials. I was going to try and get 3 or 4 decent residential accounts. I am brand new at this, so I was going to start small but offer several things (mowing, pressure washing, gutter cleaning, leaf removal, etc...)
I have a full time job at a steel mill. We are in the process of reducing cost. I looked into our lawn mowing account. We currently pay $10,200 a year to have the grass cut. I measured the area with a wheel, and it is about 170,000 square feet that gets cut about 32 times per year. There is an additional 100,000 square feet that gets bush-hogged twice a year.
I was going to quote cutting the 170,000 square feet for $8,200 per year, around $.0015/ft2. Is this a reasonable price? The land is pretty flat with minimal trim work.
I don't have a bush-hog, and I was wanting ideas on what to do with the other 100,000 square feet.
Should I go after one big commercial account, or try to get a few residential? Is there anything wrong with quoting to my existing employer?
Any and all advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Clean and Green

[GrassMaster]

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<b>Welcome to the Lawnservicing Forum Community, clean green!</b> []

I would first try to get about 3 seperate bids on the Bush Hog Work. For the time being you can sub that out.

The Problem with one Big Account is, What if you Loose it?

By All means try to get it, but don't Stop there.

[BergLawnCare]

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Definately go after that commercial property and don't stop there like admin. mentioned there is always that chance that you lose that one account then your left with nothing. My recomendation is if you get that one make sure you have signs on your truck and/or trailor while it is parked in the parking lot, and also get shirts printed up with who you are and wear them. This type of advertising is priceless. The more people see your name the better the chances are of growing as long as your work quality is good also. Good Luck With Your Business!!

[CCLS]

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Great Suggestion BergLawnCare,

I had shirts printed up this year. It makes you and your employees look uniform and professional, this can sometimes get you extra money on accounts.

[GrassBustersLawn]

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CLEAN GREEN

$8200 would be a nice account to start out your book of business. Cutting 32 times will yield $256 per cut. How long is that going to take you? What size mower are you using? (A 72" Dixie Chopper or a 22" pushmower?) Do you have the mower now or will you be buying it?($6k to $10k new) Will the commercial client require you to have insurance? If yes, figure $1000 for truck & liability. Will you have any employees? If yes, figure another $1000 for Work Comp. Don't forget about other overhead to recover like gas, maintenance on mower, a new trimmer, blower, etc.

Personally, $.0015/sqft sounds cheap to me. Apply that to residential that would be like doing an 8,000 yard for a homeowner for $12. I get 3 times that in Indiana. On other hand, if you can knock this commercial property out in 2 or 3 hours by yourself, it sounds reasonable. Lots of expenses to think about (you didn't give many details about equipment, etc) before undercutting price. (Part of the problem with our industry, we are always cutting each others throat. IF you aren't recovering your overhead and making a profit, what's the point? You wouldn't tell the boss that you'd volunteer your day off to cut the company's grass for 32 weeks would you? Seems like a BUSINESS should have the $$$ to pay for the COSTS OF DOING BUSINESS such as having the lawn cut (certainly a MINOR cost when compared to the rest of their expenses), more so than an individual.

That is my 2 cents worth.

What does anyone else think?

[CCLS]

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Never try to undercut on work, it will usually always come back to bite you in the butt. Stress better quality work instead of lower cost. There is probally a reason why the other lawn business is charging 10,200 per year instead of 8,200. Whether it be their overhead or labor hours. If you think that you can make money on the account then more power to you, go for it.

[srlawnservice]

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Without looking at it, my quote would be 11500-12000. I think you may be a bit low. But then again, I would pass on this one as it is too big for my operation.
RL