Pulling weeds

[skeeta]

A regular lawn customer of mine requested the weeds be pulled from her ornamental beds ( no chemicals) so had two guys crawling around with 5 gallon buckets, it took them 20 min, so i charged her $20.; She calls today saying she will pull the weeds herself from now on. She was polite about but i was wondering what some others may be charging to perform this service. im located in south jersey if this helps. Thanks

[Fallguy]

If you ask me weeding is as hard as landscaping and pretty much falls into the same category - so i charge what landscapers in this area charge for work - $45 - $50 per hour per man - then i try and sell them on a preemergent herbicide application that will need to be done seasonally in most of my yards that will deter any further weed growth if applied often and professionaly - most houses that i do i will charge them what i charge them for a mow to do the beds around there house (assuming that they dont have excessive beds) - i use lesco's SNAPSHOT preemergent herbicide - be carefull that you dont use too much as one handfull will cover a bed 2ft wide and 20ft long (close approximation)- spread it out sparcely - and just for the safe side - i would get a lisense to do it.

[David Gretzmier]

we are at 35-40 per man per hour for bed maintenance plus markup on materials. Dave g

[CMerLand]

Skeeta,

She probably did some quick math in her head and said hmmm $ 20.00 per week on top of the grass cutting and Ill be eating dog food by the end of the year. You might have wanted to try to sell her on an annual contract with weekly service as it shouldnt take you 40 minutes to keep her weed free on an on-going basis. Explain to her that maintenance is always cheaper then repair. We also do a pre-emergent control app of snapshot and we also use roundup in the beds as many of the ornamental weeds such as mugwart, nutsedge,dandelion and thistle cannot be rid of by handpulling ever. PS You will need a license to apply anythign in NJ

CMerLand

[GreenQuest Lawn]

I charge $45/hr for bed main. If they dont want to pay that amount then they can be on there hands and knees.

[Holloway Lawns]

Your $25 was not bad at all maybe even should have been more for having two guys doing it I charge $40 per hour and $15 more per man or woman on the job.

[TGCummings]

That wasn't an unreasonable amount for pulling weeds. You have to figure you paid two guys for twenty minutes of tough labor. Two guys can probably get an average lawn (around here) in the same amount of time, so you have to pay for the time they're on the job.

If it's unreasonable to her, let her be the one to pull the weeds. I do maintenance of several beds now and take about 10-15 minutes per week keeping them in shape for app. $40/month, which comes out to $40-$60/hour when figured up. Some people will pay for that luxury, others won't. For a lot of people, the thinking is that you can just pull their weeds "while you're there", but they don't have to look at your time sheet when all is said and done.

-TGC

[scottt]

Holloway Lawns,
I am a little confused on your pricing. Does the $40 include on person's labor? I guess what I am saying is if only one person is on the job, do you charge $40 or $55 per hour. Also is this your minimum? I would appreciate it if others would tell their minimum charge also, if your already there doing other work.

[smburgess]

Ornamental weed control is a flat $15.00/$20.00 per weekly visit (for by far most residentials). When it's done every week, it takes maybe 15 minutes or 20 minutes. Usually one guy will blow off and secure the equipment while another guy does the weed control.

[Holloway Lawns]

Scott

I charge $40 per hr for myself and add $15 per hr for each extra person working the job.

[skeeta]

Hey, thanks to all for the rapid and informative responses! I felt i was on track with my pricing, guess i just needed to hear it from all the experts on the board. As for the customer in question, she is totally against chemicals, insited the weeds be removed manually. Also, some more info for all, we recentely mulched edged and weeded her property about two months ago, so the way i see it she is ony paying $10 dollars a month to have her beds maintained! sounds cheap enough to me, oh well, as CMerland has stated its difficult to control certain weeds by hand cultivating and also more expensive! Don't you sometimes wish they taught a little more about business in high school. Would make things a little easier to explain. :(

[kturner]

Yeah, some people just haven't spent enough time on their knees to appreciate the value of time yet.

You might consider offering different "levels" of service to cater to some of the customers who do seem ready to pay for care. We print out a list of everything we can think of from mowing to pruning to "observing and manipulating watering system". We have residential customers paying 300.00 to 700.00 for simple weekly visits. We spend anywhere from an hour to four hours depending on what's happening in the yard.
We always push for eco-friendly (manpower heavy) service also. Why? If I impress upon the customer, right off the bat, that she'll have a healthy, safe, and responsible yard, she'll be willing to pay higher rates for a contract. Hit 'em high. Some will balk at the price, but, at least in this market, there's always someone who will calling next month.
With my service area I find I can do about ten lawns a day alone. I get about 30.-40. per lawn. That's roughly a 350.00 day.
With my complete care contracts I average about four a day, maybe five. I average 400. for these guys. That's about a 400. dollar day.

Big deal right? I load/unload six less times. I burn one third the gas. The work is slower paced and lighter.

Just recognize what the customer wants and give it to them, but when you get busy, forget about the people who are always gonna want less, and start upselling the people who are allergic to yard work.

Good luck.

[kturner]

Geez, I kind of forgot the good stuff. I try to look for ways to avoid having to use an hourly figure. Any number that sounds good to you will be to much for the customer.
So, instead, try to size them up and charge them what you think they're worth. Listen to what they're saying and pick out the clues. I charge to the client, not the job.

If I've got a lady's budget scoped at around 275.00 a month, I'll start listing all the work she'll get with it until her face registers happy, then I stop and get her to sign the proposal.

But, then, you found the type of customer that I just tell "We're probably not the best type of people for that kind of work. You should be able to find someone cheaper than us to weed." That let's her know you care and gets you out of lowballing yourself.

[kutnkru]

If it was a once in a while thing that she wanted us to do for a "cash benne" I would have done it for $25/man hr. Otherwise its $30-40/man hr depending on the account as K Turner noted.

I think that you did the noble thing by only charging her $15/man hr. She was paying two men 25 cents a minute for their time. I say you did alright by my book of ethics.

Kris

[Fallguy]

I have never told a client wether new or old that "were probably not the best type of people for that kind of work....but - i have picked up a lot of business from others that were too tired and lazy to do it - picked up a residential the other day from a guy that didnt want the shrub work - charged her $35 for 20 min extra of work of hedge clipping - then i get to go next week and charge her about $65 for 30 min of weeding. Go me. LOL:p