New here and to the biz... A few quick questions

[neighborhoodlawn]

I have been cutting grass since I was a little boy. Once I became an adult I enjoyed maintaining my own lawn. I became the guy in the neighborhood with the perfect lawn. I'm no stranger to hard work, and am TIRED of working for someone else, so I decided to start a lawn care business.

My wife passed out fliers in 2 neighborhoods, and I got about 10 calls from that. Of the 10 only about 6 panned out. You all are right, good work speaks for itself, and I get calls all the time. I try to squeeze everyone in, but I still work full time. I will cut any chance I get. Before, or after work ,and weekends.

My question is how much do you all charge to plant trees? I charged a guy 50 per tree, and I feel that was cheap, considering they were cherry trees.

[Phil Nilsson]

Charge to plant trees (in addition to the cost of the tree to acquire) depends on the size and quantity being planted and (where) easy access or not etc. I think each price situation might play out differently on pricing trees for the following reasons ... and each step in the process needs to be assigned a (time to do factor) ... planting method matters since if you can dig holes with a backhoe the ratio of machine assisted versus hand digging will allow many more to be planted compared to digging a hole with a shovel. Some contractors use a markup method based on tree cost ... me I like to break it down into cost "parts" ...

. Travel, select tree at nursery
. Transport
. Unload
. Prepare hole at sight
. Prepare ball at sight
. Install tree
. Water the tree
. Stake the tree
. Mulch the tree
. Cleanup the site
. Return travel

Add: transport & unload/load backhoe if that's a factor

Did I leave anything out?

Leave watering instructions ...

Invoice the job ...

Check back to make sure it's being watered ...

[Ric]

Landscape estimating can be easy if you follow the X 3 rule. Any material times 3 should be your installed price to the customer. If you charge any less then you are cheating yourself and passing the saving on to your customer.