Prices

[drewslawncare]

i'm just starting up a new business and i thought i would get yalls advice on some prices
3500sqft of grass and 100ft of edging

[rocksrscott]

You might get more information if you do a search on " what to charge " but here is my long winded response.

Every area region state city even different areas in the same city will have different price ranges. What you need to charge is what you need to pay you. And your equipment taxes insurance fuel truck trailer ecetra. Even if you are starting out without brand new equipment you will need to charge enough to replace what you have or you will not be in business long.
Are there any fences gates can you get a 52" Z to everything (even if you don't have one now you may next year.) are you using a stick edger a walk behind edger a line trimmer turned on its side how many trees. The questions can go on and on.

We just started this year and have under bid and over bid on almost every job. Some we wish we had bid more on others after we have done them would be able to go less if need be so it is a guess on what you can charge on each job. You could have two houses side by side with your lot size listed and on could be charged twice as much because of some of the items listed above. There are some LCO's who will measure eveything and give you a price, others will look at it and give you one. Some use Science others use their Gut for what its worth. What we do is if we have time, we will look up the lot information on the County Tax web site for actual lot size, then go and look at the lot to get our estimate. We usualy have a minimum of $30.00 but it all depends.

If we had to use a 36" WB or if it could be done with a 52" Z I would probably bid it at $30.00. If the edging was in good shape I would not charge anything extra. ( we use the Edgit ) If the edging was out of control we charge about the same as another cut this would be $30.00 in this example to use a walk behind edger unit. We have a used $75.00 MTD 3.5 Horse Power unit as well as a $1200.00 Turfco bed edger to do this. this would be a one time charge to get it under control then it would be done no extra charge with the Edgit each cut. You did not mention about blowing off the sidewalk and street? Is this something you do not do? We include it in our prices. Even if the customer does not want it to save money your name is on that lawn every time you leave it.

Some books on how to start a lawn care business will tell you to have your friends call other LCO's to give them an estimate. I will not do this my time is money so is theirs. If I see one I might strike up a conversation let them know I'm new in the business and see if they were willing to give up some trade secrets. Most LCO's will after a couple of years will have one or two PITA customers they would be willing to give to a newbee you may not want them but they may also have more business than they can handle so be ready to give them some business cards if they seem willing. I would only try this with smaller outfits. Remember Most of us started out small or even part time. ( thats me )

If you find out that someone else would do it for say $40.00 I would not undercut them to say $20 - $25. but I would do it for $37. If it was worth it to me.

We just got a customer and after I gave them their bid I asked what the current large company was charging and we were almost double but because of what they were doing and what we said we would do we got the customer without a question on our price.

Sorry to be so long winded on such a short question but oh well

Good luck and as I've seen on some bylines
Bid them like you don't need them.