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I normally never bid by the sqaure foot for mowing ... but ive come to find out on jobs that are large it can be hard to judge how big it actually is. You misjudge a residential yard it may take you 10 extra min.... You misjudge a big industrial job and it may take you an extra hr or even more. So i wanted any suggestions yall have ... and possibly some numbers to go off of on sq ft and linear ft and such. By the way i live in Tx and I normally charge a min of 35 hr most of the time im making closer to 40 or 50. I have a 62 z rider 36inch walkbehind and a 21 inch mower
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well here where i am in penn. we are charging between 45-50 per acre, but that also depends on how much trim work is invovled with it. -
Any more input guys im going to work on finding new accounts tommorow?Comment
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Originally posted by N.TX
N.TX
Go to Home Cheapo in the morning and buy a measuring wheel. You can roll off the exact Lineal ft and calculate your Sq ft. Be sure to buy the Large wheel about a foot or so in diameter. Might be the Best $ 60.00 you ever spend.
On larger properties. I normally take a scratch pad that I will draw an out line on it and break the property into sections. I will measure and calculate each section before moving on to the next. After finding total turf area and totaling that, I go back around the property the same way I would Edge it and write down section totals as I go. One more time around for weed eating, Round up bed spraying Etc and I am done.
There are two major ways of doing correct estimating. Formula and Cost plus. By measuring and Multiplying by a factor you are using formula. The success of Formula estimating is in the factor you use and How actuate it is. Most professional Estimators will use both method as a double check. Cost Plus also requires measuring, but the math is converted into Man hours. Degree of Difficulty, Travel time etc are taken into account more so with Cost plus.
My one finger is getting tired so I will stop here but you should get the Idea. Knowing your costs and adding a profit margin is the only way to price any job.
When anyone asks me "What Should I Charge?? My answer is What Are Your Costs???????"Comment
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Knowing your costs
"We measure what we treasure."
When I started out as an estimator someone gave me this quote, and I use it to this day. There are no shortcuts to getting an actual quan. count.
But what is your system for knowing your costs. Do you visit it yearly, quarterly, etc. In this day with gas prices changing daily how are you recovering the expense? In our office we are adjusting prices weekly lately. This will insure overhead recovery in 2 monthes when the jobs we are bidding today will usually close.
Let me give you an example,
Our workers comp rate just changed from $ 8.60 to $ 9.44 per hundred. That worked out to $ .20 per man hour. Without having a acturate system for recovering OH we would not have known the effect on our wage. That $ .20 increase would have cost our company $ 4,800.00 out of pocket.
That a weeks vacation for my family.
If you need a overhead and expense recovery system please feel free to contact me.
Brian
yourcostcenter.com
Drucks Inc. brian@yourcostcenter.comComment
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