High Schooler needing some tips

[highschool_lawnboy]

Hey I started my lawn busines 3 years ago but this year is the first year I really started getting into it. I was wondering if you guys had any tips for getting new clients? Also I was wondering how much I should be charging per man hour to: prune bushes, and how much per hour for clean ups and other basic yardwork?
Thanks for your help.

[als lawn care]

most professionals charge between 45-65 dollars an hour..some even more than that, some things to take into consideration.. know what your operating costs are..know when to charge more if you're using more gas, or if you're doing an oddjob with a lot of material cost. I would charge by the job if I were you..reason being, it's much more customer friendly..say there's a few shrubs and some leaves for you to pickup for instance..and you want to charge the customer like 80..maybe 90 bucks. In your head you know the job won't take you more than an hour an a half, but people don't like the idea of dishing out that kind of cash for a little over an hours worth of work..there are some exceptions, but there a lot of cheapos out there. If you get in there, bust ur butt and get the job done right, I'm sure you won't really have any problems though. As far as picking up clients, I've said it a million times, and I'll say it a million more..word of mouth is your best advertisment. Do a good job for the clients you have right now, and the word will spread. Get some nice business cards made, hand them out to friends, family members, customers, neighbors, anybody. Have some real nice looking flyers or doorhangers made up..and after you have a little extra cash, you can also do postcards, but they cost a bit more than doorhangers or flyers..and yardsigns aren't a bad idea, if you keep up on the yards. Hopefully this will help ya, good luck :-)