any ideas

[awm]

I have been figuring lawns at 25 per hr with LT.
Have a 52 exmark now so those figures wont work anymore.
I havnt yet decided what adjustment to make so any ideas appreciated.By the way I live in rural NC

[joshua]

ok what does lt mean? i know i'm gunna fell stupid but its ok.

[Eric ELM]

Lawn Tractor is my guess. I am pretty sure that is what he used to mow with. I think $25 an hour is sort of light, just bid the lawn by the job, not by the hour.

[awm]

The standard abreveation for lawn tractor is LT AND
GT for garden tractor.Never let any one make you feel stupid for asking what you dont know. They didnt always know either.
Eric that rate is fairly reasonable for LT work,hence my point that this is
rural carolina.A lot different here than in charlotte just up the rd. A lot lot different than chi town.
It will take a while to figure what the different cost will need to be .
Any other input appreciated. Thanks fellas

[Eric ELM]

Well just charge them what you did before. Did you charge a different price each time you mowed a customer? I would think it took the same amount of time each time, so if you charged them an hours worth of pay to do the lawn, charge them the same $25.00 is what I would do.

[joshua]

ok i knew that, i'm having a dum night. charge the same. you will actually be able to do more yards with the lazer, when i bought mine before last season, i was doing 20 yards a week and playing football and running track and school full time. but aftre i added the same mower i was doing 40 yards a week in the same amount of time. now its my last year of high school and not running track and getting out at 12:30, up to around 70 or 80 yards a week, i wouldn't be there with out the lazer.

ohh yea, kutnkru 100 posts since friday. just messing but its around there.

[kutnkru]

AWM

Now that you have upgraded your fleet to include a piece of professional mowing equipment, I think that it might be time for a change in pricing structure.

If you were able to get $25/hr before, consider charging $28/acre starting now. Something to keep in the back of your mind is that many will often try to get around $45/hr for mowing $30/hr for trimming and 1/3 the cost of trimming for blowing off.

Good Luck this season!
Kris

[GreenQuest Lawn]

I run a 60" lazer. I charge $45 an hr. By the job, If it takes me 90 min to Mow,trim,edge,blow,weed,whatever. It would It would be 67.50. Even with a 52" you should be able to get more than $25.00 per hr. I would bid by the job also. dont let people know what you charge per hr. They may get STICKER SHOCK. In the past when i told people how much i charge per hour I would hear "you make HOW MUCH???" Alot of times joe homeowner doesnt realize how fast we PROS can work.

[KirbysLawn]

$25 an hour
-$fuel
-$taxes
-$insurance
-$travel time
-$wear & tear
= How much left?

That's the bottom line, some folks could make more at Wal-Mart depending how the above breaks down.

I suggest you figure about how much it cost you to work per hour, figure what your "bring home" should be and chage accordingly

Ray

[1stclasslawns]

Dont even think of charging less then 25.00!

One of the above post is right, If you got 25.00 for Mrs. X's lawn and it took you 1 hour with your LT. you now can do it in about 30 min. right. so you get the same 25.00.

They are paying you to do a service ie mow their lawn, If you have spent the time to get a better machine you are working SMARTER not HARDER. They the customer needs to pay for what is done, not the time it takes to do it.

I went from a 42inch LT, to a 42 inch z to a 61 inch Great Dane. I could do an acre per hour with the LT, I went to 2 acre per hour with the 42 inch Z, and to almost 4 acre per hour with the GD. Do you think I am going to just charge 25.00 per hour when I an doing almost 4 times what I used to?

These figures are not necessarly to the min. but you can see the point I am trying to make.

If somone ask me how much I charge to mow for them for 1 hour it is no less then 50.00 an hour, BUT I can do more in an hour then they can in 4. Do you see?

You have bought a mower capable of so much more then a LT and invested a lot more also so you can do more and charge more.

Jim

[awm]

Well it seems to be taking care of itself
averaging about 40 per .And I am still not to good with this ztr yet eh JR.Enjoyed talking to ya today.LATER ON

[awm]

Forgot to thank you fellas for suggestions
I always appreciate it.Kirby your points were
why I knew there had to be some changes, the coming year
GETTING READY TO PAY IRS BIG TIME.gotto make some changes there to.

[LScom Addict]

We figure that we can make a decent profit off of $35 per hour. Most guys struggle to net that much.