Hostas

[Sasquatch52]

Sorry, i accidently put this in the wrong forum. I just picked up a brand new customer yesterday, and they want me to do some fall clean-up. They have about 45-50 fairly large hostas around most of their beds and a few more in their back yard. Thats all they want done for now and then once the leaves stop falling they want fresh mulch put down. But how much would you charge just to cut down the hostas? They are a new customer and I want to impress them but I dont want to over bid myself. What would be a reasonalbe price to where i am still making a good profit? It shouldn't take too long. Its only me that will be working.

[Sasquatch52]

I would like to give him a bid today.

[Ghost999]

Just my twos cent but maybe some others will chime in after I post this.

I don't charging by the hour here would be profitable enough if takes you and hour or less. example: $35 hr olny one hour you made $35 plus drive time.

I would charge per plant plus drive time, example: 50 plants at $2.00 at plant is $100 plus drive time. you can adjust the $2.00 up if that's not enough. but like I said just my two cents.

and good luck.

[Elwood]

You are selling TIME. Charge accordingly and as mentioned above, don't forget your drive time.

[Bikehigh]

Don't forget to charge for whatever time it takes to dispose of the degris. Personally, I try to divide it up among the customers who's debris will be on the truck when I go to the landfill, based on a percentage of the load. For instance, when I go to the landfill tomorrow, I'll have debris from four different customers on the truck. If you can get 50 hostas cut back in one hour, WOW!

[jschlenker]

I'd think with some gas hedge trimmers you could get it in less than an hour of work. I always give new customers a slight discount, but not too much because you are cultivating their future expectations. Remember what Elwood said--it's all about time, and you must get a certain amount for each hour of work to stay afloat.

[Mr Vern]

Elwood,

I typically find your posts very informative, but I am not sure I agree with your statement that we are selling time. If that is all we have to offer, we are charging way too much. People can buy time for almost nothing, minimum wage is $5.75 I believe. No, I believe what we are selling is a finished product. The customer is not interested in having you at his property for x number of hours, he is interested in having those Hostas cut back. That is a finished product, not time. Time is just one of the factors we use to calculate our cost to produce the finished product. The cost ultimately should be determined based on the market value for the area. Considering our hourly labor rate is a cost plus method we can use to determine our minimum price we will do it for, from there we need to ask ourselves how badly we want the job and what the market will bear. Then we can come to a good bid price. If all we do is sell our time, we will always be self employed and will never make it to the "Business Owner" realm.

Thanks for listening.

[Elwood]

Mr. Vern, to some degree, I do agree with what you have said, but since we are selling a SERVICE, instead of an item like a shrub or tree, our service is considered TIME. Once that is understood, it is YOUR job as a business owner to instill VALUE in your product, which in reality is a service or YOUR time as a business. When selling a service, or time, the business owner needs to sell time high and buy it cheap, meaning charging more than what it costs you per hour to operate. To do this, you need to create VALUE to sell to the client. Sure the homeowner can get someone to accomplish the task for $5.75 per hour, but do they have the proper knowledge or training to complete the job to expectations? Do they have the proper equipment? What about insurance or a long list of qualifications needed to perform the task properly? These things are why they hire YOU, a professional in your trade or the business owner and this is why they pay more than $5.75 per hour to get the job done. They expect it to be done properly and they expect good value for the money they spend.

I agree, the client wants the Hostas removed and are not concerned with how long it takes, BUT for us as business owners to put a fair market price on the job, we need to calculate how much time it will take to perform the task to a level that is acceptable or will exceed the clients expectations. Time is that measurement that we use since we are not selling a shrub or tree. Time costs us money as business owners and those costs must be recovered and profit added to arrive at a price that is acceptable for the client. How much profit you are able to add is very dependant on how much VALUE you instill in the client regarding the service you are offering. Most people won't pay an insane amount for something, but if they see the value in your service, they will pay your price for it.

The cost ultimately should be determined based on the market value for the area.

I disagree, price should be substituted for cost in this statement. Your costs are your costs, period. You have control over them to a degree and your goal is to keep them lower than what your market dictates what your prices can be in your area.

A successful business owner will strive to keep costs low while at the same time instilling high value in the service that is provided in order to charge on the higher end of the price range for your given market, thus leading to higher profits.

[Sasquatch52]

Hey, thanks for all the imput. The clients live in my neighborhood, so there isn't really any drive time,but there is a little of driving to where i dump my debris. I have some good Stihl hedge trimmers so I should be able to knock it out fairly quick. Ghost999, I think I will base my price off what you said. I think I will charge $1.50 per plant and then $15.00 to haul it off. I am also tring to pick up their yard for next year so I want to do a good job but with a reasonable price. Does this sound resonable for an hours work?

[Mr Vern]

Elwood, After reading your response, I don't think we are that far apart on the issue. Its more a matter of symantics, And I do agree that I should have said "Price" not "cost". I was thinking of cost from the customer's perspective, which is more correctly stated as price.