Commercial bidding

[IowaLawnEnforcement]

I am working for a company to get me through the winter months and the maintenance dept asked me to prepare a bid for lawn care. I have never bid a commercial account so I need some help on this one. I have looked over the property and it will take 8 hrs. I am a solo LCO so do you think $10,000.00
up front for the year is unresonable. Thanks for any advice.:hammerhead:

[BUCKEYE MOWING]

Might be...what do the guys you work with think ?

[carcrz]

Up front? yes. Just make sure you have a detailed contract & you should be fiine. Make sure you put due in 30 days or financing fees may be applied. This helps ensure that you get paid in a reasonable amount of time. You might consider asking what they were paying last year to get a better idea. Sometimes they'll tell you, sometimes they won't; it's a coin toss.

[fiveoboy01]

That's easy - if you know for sure how long it will take you, simply multiply by whatever you desire to make per hour.

I never ask or want to see what someone else is doing the job for. My price is my price, and is not influenced by what someone else is or was doing it for.

IMO, if you ask, it makes you look like you don't know what you should be charging.

[carcrz]

I've been reading so many threads, for some reason I was thinking he was new to lawn care all together.

[jaybow]

Hey guys,im just starting my lawn service in the spring and found a guy getting out of it.Says he works another job and cant handle it. He is giving me 15 residential accounts and I am verry excited but I am already interested in looking for a couple small commercial accounts.When you bid on commercial accounts do they usually pay for season up front or monthly or what?:confused:

[IowaLawnEnforcement]

As it turns out I am new to lawn care biz, Is there a problem with that CARCRZ I was under the impression I could come here to lawnsite to get questions answered.

[GreenN'Clean]

That's easy - if you know for sure how long it will take you, simply multiply by whatever you desire to make per hour.

I never ask or want to see what someone else is doing the job for. My price is my price, and is not influenced by what someone else is or was doing it for.

IMO, if you ask, it makes you look like you don't know what you should be charging.

I totally agree with you.

[carcrz]

As it turns out I am new to lawn care biz, Is there a problem with that CARCRZ I was under the impression I could come here to lawnsite to get questions answered.
No not at all. I was defending myself from a previous post. It is always good to see new people here that are asking questions & getting better educated.

[TGK]

I just felt like doing the math on this one. Iowa says 8 hours and Five O says multiply. Well lets see something. Using 40/Hour as a Solo guy. THats 240/ Cut * 30 cuts / Season = 7200.
But you have to build in a big fudge factor. Hes never mowed this place so it might take longer, plus you dont know how much garbage you may have to stop and pick up just so the job looks good. As in w/ many comm. jobs near the road.
10000 may be an intimidating #. why not 9200, 9400, or 9669 something like that?
There have been large studies funded by big box companies so explore pricing something at 49.99 instead of 50.00. The conclusion is, as we can see in large store, it works!
Just my .02

Chris

[d&rlawncare]

I just felt like doing the math on this one. Iowa says 8 hours and Five O says multiply. Well lets see something. Using 40/Hour as a Solo guy. THats 240/ Cut * 30 cuts / Season = 7200.
But you have to build in a big fudge factor. Hes never mowed this place so it might take longer, plus you dont know how much garbage you may have to stop and pick up just so the job looks good. As in w/ many comm. jobs near the road.
10000 may be an intimidating #. why not 9200, 9400, or 9669 something like that?
There have been large studies funded by big box companies so explore pricing something at 49.99 instead of 50.00. The conclusion is, as we can see in large store, it works!
Just my .02

Chris

To make 10,000 over the season with 30 cuts would be $333.33 per cut. 8 (hours) goes into 333.33= 41.66 per hour. Now if you can cover all your overhead making 41.66 per hour then go for it. I am new as well but I know that I cant do it for that little.

8 hour job for me would be at min $75.00 an hour. I do my estimates at $90 an hour and that covers my helper @ $10 an hour. So far this SEEMS to keep me in the ballpark as all the other local LCO's.

All opinions on this are welcome.....

[TGK]

So how would you work it out D&R?

[martinfan06]

If you say this place is going to take 8hrs and your new to bidding theres a good chance your a little off. That said your talking 8 hours of labor for 330$,now that 8 in the beging will most likely be more like 9-91/2. In time you will be able to get it done faster with the experience of the job. Just seems low to me for that much time and work, the upside I guess is youll be getting a lump sum up front for the year, which is good and bad. What about extra labor thats not just your average day mowing,youll need to leave that open and they need to understand it will be extra. If it were me it would be 400-475 a cut no upfront contracted for the year,now thats FLA prices much diff down here.

[d&rlawncare]

So how would you work it out D&R?


If it was an 8 hour job and I was doing it myself....$75x8=$600.00 per cut. Keep in mind this includes the trimming/blowing and mowing. I know it sounds high but without seeing the property it is hard. PM the address to me and I can look it up on google earth and get more of an idea.

gas-$25.00
your pay-160.00 (@20.00 hr) Because I am sure you have to feed family!
insurance-27.00 (800 year/30 cuts) I believe 800 is on the low side
equipment-?????
taxes-???
figure in any other overhead and divide it by your 30 cuts. I believe this will help you cover your overhead on a yearly basis. as you can see the 600 a cut can disappear fast. We are down to 388.00 and have not figured in your cost of equipment/ upkeeping it, taxes, etc

[pjw]

$40/hr seems low for commerical accounts. You need to look at the whole picture. I mean is it flat & open, hilly w/ obsitcles. What`s your costs?? Labor, insur. etc...Plus profit..You might find its more like $60/hr What does it take to service the account?? Then you can make a decision. Just some ideas to think about.

[lawnpro724]

let me see if I understand what you are saying, you are going to spend 8hr cutting this business once a week and you are only charging them $10,000? I think that is to low. So your only going to make around $35 an hr based on a once a week mow for around 8 months what about gas 8hr on any machine we use would burn alot. What about equipment charge? per hr. If that big mower you have breaks down on that big job will you make enouph to pay for it? You should sit down and figure out how much it will actually cost you per hr to cut that lawn and price it accordingly. I would say around $15,000

[lawnpro724]

If it was an 8 hour job and I was doing it myself....$75x8=$600.00 per cut. Keep in mind this includes the trimming/blowing and mowing. I know it sounds high but without seeing the property it is hard. PM the address to me and I can look it up on google earth and get more of an idea.

gas-$25.00
your pay-160.00 (@20.00 hr) Because I am sure you have to feed family!
insurance-27.00 (800 year/30 cuts) I believe 800 is on the low side
equipment-?????
taxes-???
figure in any other overhead and divide it by your 30 cuts. I believe this will help you cover your overhead on a yearly basis. as you can see the 600 a cut can disappear fast. We are down to 388.00 and have not figured in your cost of equipment/ upkeeping it, taxes, etc

Thats what I charge $35 per man hr 2 guys =$70.00 +$5 hr equipment charge for 8 hr =$600.00

[TGK]

Lets use the Dollar/ Min Formula. 8 hrs * 60 Min = 480 mins or dollars
Hes a sole prop this might work

[daveintoledo]

I am working for a company to get me through the winter months and the maintenance dept asked me to prepare a bid for lawn care. I have never bid a commercial account so I need some help on this one. I have looked over the property and it will take 8 hrs. I am a solo LCO so do you think $10,000.00
up front for the year is unresonable. Thanks for any advice.:hammerhead:

how do you know it will take 8 hours, what experience tells you this, do you have the right professional equipment to get the job done in the proper time,

dont get me wrong, just asking if your sure,...
alot of grass can be cut in 8 hours, like 20 or 30 aces or even more.... just mowing time, so how BIG is the property, how LONG will the trimming and other cleanup take, ... base your price on that...... good luck....:)