One time cuts... What do you charge?

[jimsny]

It seems every year I cut enough of what I call "One time cuts" to equal another account for me.

If I am not in need of another new account I usually price them 5$ to 10$ more on what should be a $30-40 yard. I sometimes explain (once I am done and have an accurate cutting time on the yard) the regular price if I think there is a chance I may land the yard as a regular account.

What do you folk charge when you know it will be a true one time cut assuming the grass is not out of control. Do you charge any more? a particular percentage? a flat hourly rate at a higher rate per hour?

What is your strategy to handle this?

Thanks

[1stclasslawns]

I charged $100.00 for a one time last year on a 10m foot lawn, it hadnt been mowed all year and it was in july!
took me 2 hours.
Charge at least time and 12 what youd regularly charge. Goahead and tell them the regular price like you said you did, but be ready for them to call you again in 3 weeks to a month.
Jim

[Majestic]

Dont do any one time cuts anymore.Used to do them when smaller.BE CAREFUL sometimes those people dont pay,have had a few of them.usually the grass is 3-4 weeks overdue and they are looking to get bailed out,after you bail them out they dont pay.If they are going on vacation they over extend and you wait weeks for your money.I would charge 50-60% more and make them PREPAY!voice of experience.

[Premo Services]

Last season my customers were getting me a lot of 1 timers while the neighbors were on vacation and I would do them.I did 2 jobs and the people talked to me a month before I was to do the cutting,when I arrived to cut the lawn the grass had at least two weeks growth, and the grass was grown over the sidewalk 4-5 inches. I guess the husband said he will work for his money on this job. From then on, I would charge 15-20 dollars more for the extra time it would take to do the job.If ti was a one time cut that was not cut in a while I would charge the 100.00 like naturalawn did.

[mdb landscaping]

a lot of times, you'll bail the people out and then they'll ask for a price and they'll go with somebody else. favors to one timers dont stand a lot of the time.

[Chopper Lover]

I normally charge $5-10 more for a one time cut if the yard is in good shape. If it is over grown I figure on about $30-40/hour. If it is just totally out of control, a lot more. Of course, when I make those prices I tend to utilize the sometimes dependable "what mood am I in today" formula of pricing.

If I get a referral from one of my customers to help out one of their neighbors while on vacation, I may give the one timer a little slack as a courtesy to my regular customer on the hope that I can get some free word of mouth advertising and maybe future work from them. Of course, as I stated earlier, that depends on "the mood of the day".

Taking into account what Majestic said, I see the point of getting the money up front, or at least a substantial down payment depending on the condition of the lawn. Things like that get me thinking about "Roundup Balloons, Rock Salt lawn applications, and the like". (For those of you with no sense of humor, that last sentence was a joke!)

Anyway, I hope my comments were helpful in some way.

Mark

[dmk395]

I do one time cuts for people all the time, basically I just name my price, and they are always happy to pay. If they ever question it, I just walk away, since I dont really need the business.

[jimsny]

Thanks for the input. Chopperlover, I too have JOKINGLY thought of round up baloons but have never had to implement them... HA HA.

DMK395.. I too sometimes name my own price. If they take it greate if they don't that's OK too. I will treate new accounts this way sometimes if I am already packed for the year. I price it high. If they take it great if they don't I have more than I can do anyway.


What are your thoughts on FOCUSING on the OTC (one time cut) market???

I was considering advertising this service and getting a flat rate for EVERY yard of say $35-40 up front (I would not cut unless paid in advance) and then billing them for the balance in hopes 75% of the people will pay it. I'm sure I will get stiffed on the balance quite often. If it happens I may raise the up front $ to $45.

I'm sure this will be time consuming and involve alot more scheduling than usual. Not to mention time on the phone explaining and selling the service. I'm just asking myself and you for this matter what sort of premium I should charge? I was thinking maby 30 to 40% more.

What do you think of the whole Idea and the pricing schedule?

[Edited by jimsny on 03-11-2001 at 05:16 PM]

[joshua]

i agree with most of the guys and what their saying, i also know that most 1 time cuts in my area are because they haven't cut the yard all year and its late may or something like that so i chagre most likely $10 extra depending on the size of the yard and the height.

if the yard is in perfect shape and they are just going out of town or something like that and its the begening of summer and i have extra time i don't over charge any. hope this helps goood luck

[thelawnguy]

I no longer do the one time cut jobs. usually the grass is long, full of 4 inch high stumps, bricks, dog run cables etc.

[Mowman]

I did only one last year and charged the same amount that I get from the neighbor. The guy came up to me and said I really like the job you do and wondered if you would take care of my lawn while I am on vacation. Sure, hey you never know the guy might decide that he likes that free hour a week to do something else instead of mowing the grass. On the other hand if it has not been cut since April and now it is June that is a different ANIMAL. And yes I would CHARGE one hell of a lot to clean up that kind of property.
I dont gouge people for one or two time cuts. They might give a few referals. Just food for thought.
Mowman

[CCLC]

The only one time cuts that we do are for employees at commercial properties that we maintain. They call and have us mow while they are on vacation or when their mower breaks down. They are just gravey money. We won't mow them though if they are not within a couple of minutes of a route.

[beck]

I helped a guy with one last year. The grass in front had not been cut in three weeks. The back yard for 3.5 months. the grass was literally up to our knees. It took us ten minutes to get the mower into the back yard but there was no way a 21 inch would cut it. We then had to go over it and over it and . . . a total of five times Charged them $150 for a little over two man hours

[kutnkru]

I agree with MowMan. We will agree to cut for neighbors of clients only. They must pay us 50% in advance, and we too avoid gouging them. I do like the fact that they are usually when the lawns are not growing much, so we can put a nice ribbon cut on the properties and clean them up nicely.

More often than not we will use the wb edger along the curbs and sidewalks to spruce them up with that extra TLC. If the lawns are done in 2/3 the time it would normally take us because they are not growing, I feel its only right to use the extra time wisely.

So far it has paid off and in July/Aug/Sept when most people take their vacations we are busy, but not swamped. To date, it has been a win/win situation.

Good Luck this season!
Kris

[Roger]

I've been doing lawn mowing for five years and when I started, I priced OTC too far from my regular customers, usually too low. In some cases, these folks became regular customers, and then I got stuck with prices that were too low. Yea - foolish, I know!

Now, I price them along with regular customers, hoping that I can win them as regulars. This is especially true if the property is next door to a regular customer.

I may be unusual because rarely does anybody ask for a price beforehand. Therefore, I'm not dickering about a price - the question is simply, "...can you cut my lawn while we are gone?" A couple of times, I've been used (abused) because the owner didn't make a cut when they should have before I showed up. But, never have I been stiffed for money, everybody has always paid. And, since they are usually gone on vacation, I can't collect after the work, but rather they get an invoice at the end of the month like regular customers.

When I've had difficult cases (e.g 3 months since cut) I simply tell them "I'll charge you what I need to depending upon my time." Nobody balks at that. Usually, they are desparate to get it done, and cost isn't an issue.

In general, I have found OTC customers reasonable. They've seen my work elsewhere and trust I will do the right thing. I wouldn't want a steady diet, however!

[Jet boater]

Customers point of view....

I have 2.0 acres that I normally cut myself. I consider it a fairly easy cut. (Approx. 15 - 20 trees and mostly flat.) Went on vacation last year and had a local company (NOT scrubs) cut it. They charged $55.00. I thought that was reasonable for a one time cut.

[joshua]

Originally posted by Jet boater
Customers point of view....

I have 2.0 acres that I normally cut myself. I consider it a fairly easy cut. (Approx. 15 - 20 trees and mostly flat.) Went on vacation last year and had a local company (NOT scrubs) cut it. They charged $55.00. I thought that was reasonable for a one time cut.



consider that a low price for the amount of grass and obstacles, you got a good deal.

these are the kind of people (guy who went on vaction) who tell there friends about the company who cut this grass if they need someone, and next year when he goes on vaction he will probably call those same people. as kutnkru said its a win/win situation.

[Jet boater]

I do.

I will.

[shorelinelawn]

I advertise for temp. or vacation cuts. I do 90 % of my customers between 2 subdivisions, so I do get a lot of word of mouth business. I also do NO estimating, or quoting over the phone. I do not give a price until I " walk the yard "
It does help bring in extra $$ , when biz tends to slow down a bit.
If you REALLY want to clean up on " one hits" , get yourself known with the local realator. They usually have vacant properties waiting to close that need to be cut, and as the realator is NOT paying for your services, you can charge up a bit higher than a regular customer( your fees come out at closing, usually from the seller )Don't rape them , but don't cheat yourself either !!!
I have one customer that travels a lot with his job, so I usually hit his lawn 2 times a month, but only when he calls me. Be flexible enough if you want the job, and it'll be yours.

[eslawns]

I do a lot of these. It's [i]extra[/] money, and not something I have to do all the time. I add about $5-$10 or so to the regular price as long as the grass is not too high. I've never been burned by people not paying on this, and I want cash from non-regulars. Then again, I don't mow in the rough parts of town. For really high grass, I have a weed mower, and charge big bucks. This is one area not many people want to mess with, and you can get away with charging a lot more.

[lawnboy82]

i can remember doing one of those one time clean up jobs one time with my friend that i used to work for. we got there and the lawn had to be a good 3 - 4 feet tall. so we took the machine off the trailer and started cutting blowing out. had to take the chain saw and go get some fallen trees out of the back yard. tick heaven. we cut it i think 5 times or so. maybe 4 maybe 6? had to big blow it 2 times, bucket the refuse and throw it into the woods. the property was around 1/2 acre, maybe a big 1/2 acre. but he got something like 400 dollars for that. not too bad right?

[jimsny]

Jet boater ... You got a steal!!! If you call them next year and they have raised you to $100 I think it would still be a good deal for you!

Jim

[lsylvain]

I also advertize for vacation cuts. It works pretty good. I have gotten stiffed before on $. I have a formula that I use to figure cut prices based on the # of cuts for the season. Of coarse you will need to adjust it to your own proffit margin etc.

Profit * number of months in season * cuts per month * Time(or area of yard) + Total cost/number of Customers Then divide all that by the number of months in the season times number of cuts per month

It seems like a lot but it really isn't

For example if your season is 7 months long and you want $10 profit per hour and your total costs are $4000 with 10 customers and the job will take you 1 hour it would look like this.


((15 * 7 * 1 *1) + 4000/10)/(7*1) = $72 and change

I hope this isn't to confusing

[LScom Addict]

We would charge what we do for realtors in this case, $50 per hour.