newbie

[martins]

hello, everybody just want to thank everybody on this forum, For helping me.
I have never posted but have read for many hours for the last 6 weeks.

Me and bother are starting a lawn business part time.We feel pretty good about it we both have some experience in the cutting and trimming but we have a lot tolearn about the business.

We are in central florida we bid on a 43,000 sqf comercial account yesterday
its cut up meaning a little grass here and there and some larger areas.

what would you guy cut it for plus trim grass only edge and blow the property
measure about 550 ft X 750 but it only has 1 acre of grass lots to edge and trim and blow I need a price per cut

[mariner]

$60 an acre seems to be industry standard for mow, trim,blow. If it is wide open you could be commpetitive. The egding is what is going to kill you...unless it has been maintained in the past. I think you still have to charge extra for that.

[Elwood]

$60 an acre seems to be industry standard for mow, trim,blow.

Sorry, but there is no "industry standard". I know people in this country that can only charge half that and others in different areas that can charge up to 4 times that per acre.

You are selling TIME. Figure out how long it will take to perform the task on that property with your equipment.

Good Luck and welcome to the site.

[martins]

thanks guy, I think I over bid it with my figures I have about 5-1/2 hours to do this property.

1.5 hours to mow
2 hr to edge
2 hour trim and blow
I charge 50.00 per hour
I'm around 250.00 cut
I have encore 48" walkbehind stihl trimmer, stihl edger and blower plus back up equipment

than there the hedge trimming is .75 a foot to much for this service.
i figure with clean up 1200 feet of hedge per building 3600 X .75= 2700 per service
9 times a year thats every 6 weeks =24300 a year

[LRL]

Martin Listen to Elwood. He's very knowledgable on the business.

I am in Central FL too. North of Orlando

The price has to be determined by how long it would take. Phil's Labor Time Data Handbook has all this information in it and is really helpful in this.

You could probably mow that lawn alot quicker than 2 hours. Depending on how cut up it is. Also when it comes to edging, you have to go by linear feet. How many linear ft of edging needs to be done? In phils book there is a guide to how long it should take per 10 linear ft. I'm not gonna say how long because he sells his book through this site so if wants to tell you thats fine.

Once you know your correct time and your cost of doing business you can then apply your hourly rate.

If it was just one flat out acre I could cut it for $60 with my 36" w/b and thats at a higher hourly rate than you're charging. You're not too high on the hedge trimming I charge slightly higher

Christian

[Ground Works]

Dumb question ??

reading this post I show the trimming and edging as seperate services?? whats the difference then??? when u are actualling using an edger???

thanks
Lin

[martins]

thanks for all the help,
I got my times down pretty good just wanted to get a feel from others

I have been doing lots of them with my equipment.
hedge trimming is hard to price.......
soon as the biz pick up I want phils books. He is a sharp guy and so is a lot of other on here...

and go JR 8