My Pricing Guidelines...

[CCLS]

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I will partially agree with Zach.. Smaller yards are more profitable than larger yards only if they are in close proximity with each other. I don't agree with his price stucture and rationalle though.

[Scaper-S2k]

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Zack, you can't say you average $100 per man hour until you figure the whole darn day and divide by that days hours. I can't mow one lawn on Tuesday at $60 in 1/2 hour and claim that I average $120 per hour!!! Does that not make sense? According to what you say at $100 PER MAN HOUR, that would be $200 per hour per 2 man crew (get it?). So, $1600 per day........which equates to 89 (Eighty Nine) $18 lawns per day. We are NOT idiots here. You aren't mowing 90 lawns every day with 2 men.

Thank You.


Steve, you say you don't see how people get over $45 per acre, but then said

"My average rate is $35-$45 per cut and those are about 20-25k sqft properties..."

So you could be as well.

[Scott]

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ding-ding,,, let's get it on!!!

[qualitylandscaping]

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Sry Scaper,

I meant that I don't see how anyone could make more than $45 on a flat, no obstacle acre. I make about $60 per acre when there are obstacles and up to $70 per acre when there is alot of trimming involved..

[Popper]

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I think that any large property in the commerical market has to be estimated at either estimated labor man hours x's goal hourly rate, or for an experienced company that knows what to charge per thousand square foot because they have measured an area and used a stopwatch to time the mowing.

My 48" mows 5 acers in 2.3 hours. The mowing charge is $92 because my goal hourly charge is $40 per man per hour.

The trimming and blow times are .5 hour and I charge $20 for this.
Add these together for my total of $132.

The mower you are using will mow a certain amount of grass per hour, in the commericail big lot market, companies are much more competive for business. The market can be a dream for the right company, that is why it's so competitive.

Residential markets are different. My goal is still to make my goal per man per hour of $40. After support times of around %30 (shop time, drive time) I want my per man per hour average for the day to pay my expenses and fund a profit. My expenses per hour are only $22,
with a %30 suport time I need aroudn $33 acual per man per hour across the year. Add profit of 7 per man per hour to the adjuted expense per hour and you have a figure to charge per hour.

I alway charge $25 minimum to show up on a property except to talk and sales estimates.

I hope this helps those that haven't calculated how much they spend per man per hour to be in business. I only recently got informed by a friend how to take charge of my business.

Sometimes on residentials it's possible to make $100 for an hour or two, but you can't charge that much for residential lawn care. Every able bodied person would say "Screw being a doctor or lawyer, lets mow grass, I'll be a millioare in 5 years"

Say there are 2000 hours you are willing to work in a year, $100 per hour after support time of $30 would be $70 per hour. $70 x's 2000 is $140,000. This amount is for a one man opperation.

Any one with some input on my numbers is urged to respond on this topic or to me personally.

[Scaper-S2k]

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The only thing I see about those numbers would be the 2000 hours used to figure what you would make at $70 per hour. There are not 2000 billable hours in a year. Drive time, shop time, prep time. There are lots that will eat into that figure. Ideally under normal working hours, I think they shoot for 1700 billable hours. And that is if you work in a place that allows 52 weeks of service per year. And not subtracting off paid vacations or paid holidays.

[TJ]

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I believe that the commercial prices are closer to what the residentials should be. I have two yards I bid on and got just this week one is 6900 sq.ft. rounded up and I got 30.00 bucks on it, and the other one is less than 7500sq.ft. I got 35.00 bucks on it and it mows TWICE a week in the fast growing part of the year. I could not get this price on either property going with the sq.ft. or 1.00 a minute theory totally. Just my input TJ

[mariner]

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A little bit of controversy here.

[Hawkeye5]

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Popper: I use a 48" LHP, just bid a 9.5 acre commercial property. I was just a bit more conservative, using an average of 2 acres per hour and $45 per hour. Lots more trimming. My opinion is that you are right in the ball park. My mow price for your described property would be $119.68. Perhaps some validation for both of us. Some will think the price too low, but if you know your costs, have a target rate and reduce all that to a price per square foot or per 1K square feet, and take into consideration time for individual property characteristics, a job will produce a reasonable profit. On the above 9.5 acres I bid $420 per cut because the obstacles and linear trimming required have a significant impact on the time required to finish the job.

[Grass Groomer]

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WTG Popper. Very good!!! The 22 how did you come up with that number?
the 22+30%= 28.6 per man hr. You charge 40 per man hr, you are making ruflly 41.5 % profit per man hr? I think I am looking at this right, I may not be, because I am new to this.
I do concer that making $100 a man hr is not going to happen.

Thanks for your help and input Popper.

[CCLS]

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Popper,

Does your 2,000 billable hours only include mowing? Or does it include other summer and winter services? I would assume all services throughout the year.
For a one man operatiion...
Depending on where you live and if you work an excess of 40 hours a week, it is absolutely possible to have 2,000 billable hours. If you work less than 40 hours a week then it is impossible.

As far as how much you can make per man hour in gross sales is concerned, it is possible to make an excess of $100 per man hour mowing. Not that this is what you are averaging per man hour mowing, but it is possible to bring in more than $100 per man hour for mowing because I have done it before. I have worked on new housing developments before where I had five houses directly next to each other. No travel time between properties since they are adjacent to each other. Trimming is minimal because there are no trees or obstacles in the yards.

[Scaper-S2k]

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I was figuring he was from Kansas. NOt sure how he can have 2000 actual billable hours per year per employee. Billable meaning on the job hours. I think to get 2000 billable hours you would need to be putting down almost 50 hours per week every week. After subtracting off non-billable hours, it may be close to the 2000 range. We may be speaking of something else.

[Bryan]

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I think that maybe if your in this line of biz you would be working atleast 50 hours or more.

[Scaper-S2k]

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Yes, you could put in 50 hours of work, but that is not 50 hours of 'billable' work. The amount of hours you put in throughout the year are not all billable hours. They are hours that you need to cover in the end, but not all are billable to the client.

[lawnrangeralaska]

i kno a lawn company that shows up at a commercial places mows trims edges blows in one hour 15 minutes and makes $350.OO . HE GETS ABOUT 250 DOLLARS A HOUR!!! he runs 2 crews , mows with 2 walkers ghs and is a dealer for robin trimmers.