money,money,money

[GreenStar]

hey guy's i was doing some searching on pricing.some of us out there really have really strange pricing structures.i could not find any single post to match my system.i charge by the acre and an hourly.am i alone here or do i have comrades?

[MuskTurfKing]

I start off with $35 an hour for mowing, trimming, edging, and blowing. If there is excessive trees or walkways, etc. I add $5-$10 according on how much I think it's worth.

I can't tell you how I go by the hour thing on mowing, sure it might take 10min on a Z, but I don't go lower because of that. I just do it by instinct.

[lawnboy82]

I try to get about $80 per acre, or $75 per hour for 2 guys to cut / trim

[Scraper]

Time to put on the hip boots...or should I say chest waders? $80/acre? I don't care if you live in Utopia...that's insane! I've heard it all now! All the power to ya if so...

[curlawngreen]

I charge $60 per acre.

[GreenStar]

my structure runs like this...
$35 an acre
$48 an hour
3 acres an hour....35x3=105+48=153
this might clear things up a bit.
$80 an acre huh, we used to have a saying in the navy
"save your watch,the compartment is fillin up"
do ya see what i'm sayin guy?

[Henry]

For you guys that charge by the acre, does that include trimming, edging and blowing or just cutting?

I don't have any properties that large but I would definately get more than $80 to cut one.

[Scraper]

Uh...Greenstar...if I am guy...I wasn't talking to you...you didn't say $80/acre did you?

Henry...you are out of your mind if you think you're gonna get over $80 an acre......stick with the smaller lawns

[Grassman]

I think Lawnboy is pretty much on target. I charge around $50 for a 1/2 acre to mow, blow and go. With insurance, taxes, labor, and such I still think I'm a little on the cheap side. Russ

[GreenStar]

no scraper your not the guy...the boy's the guy....
alright i need to do my route sheets for tommorrow.
have a good week fellow tradesman.









BE THE STAR ON YOUR BLOCK!
GreenStar Commercial Groundskeeping

[MATTHEW]

Hey, guys, this stuff is posted on one big area !!! America and Canada. We service ghetto areas and highly exclusive gated communities.There are sooooooo..... many variables involved in pricing. We simply cannot come to a conclusion that $35, $50,$80 is the magic number! Man, within my city, there are major variables. Just down the road, the people think $10 to $15 is a fair price for a mini that takes 15-20 min. Then I get an offer just 6 miles north- $100.00 per cut!!!! 30,000 sq ft. Not much trim and only a few trees. We need to fill the "marketing" position of our businesses better and research the field. Get to know the competition. Watch other lco's do their work. Read as many posts on Lawnsite as you can. Get subscribed to sponsors' magazines.
GET SERIOUS AND MAKE A BETTER FUTURE FOR YOURSELF!

[Henry]

Are you guys talking acres of lawn or acre properties? I have jobs with 20k sf lawn that I get $80 for.

[TLS]

Those that charge by the acre may be able to do so because they are all relatively similar size/shape lawns.

You still need to base that charge "by-the-hour" to see if you are profitable.

I have some lawns as small as 20k and some that go up to approx 175K sq/ft. I get from $35.00/cut up to $175.00/cut. Some are more profitable than others, but never do I break it down to an acre-ly price. I take total daily hrs and divide by total daily income.

This is your magic number guys.

Then its off to figure in your hourly cost of operations, which will vary depending on your overhead and location.

[LJ lawn]

i try to charge by the size/and time also,but most lco's in my area charge the same.it's extremely hard to get any more out of the customer because they know someone else will do it cheaper.i've started to turn down the larger size lawns (1 acre and up) because it's just not profitable.i try to stick to the smaller $25-30 dollar cuts. people around here don't want to pay much to have the larger lawns cut.we also have oversaturation of the market with everyone and their grandmother running around with a mower.i had a good laugh the other day,a guy calls up and tells me he has 3+ acres to cut and was unsatisfied with his current service.i looked at the property which has multiple seperate areas to do (drainage ditch,around pool,garage etc) along with extensive line trimming.i find out that the guys are only charging him (so he says) $90 to do the whole property.i just told him i can't even come close to that- thanks anyway.find out what the going rate is in your area and try to stick to what some of the ligit lco's are charging.even then it's a crapshoot.some of these guys make it up in volume work.

[lawnboy82]

Ok, let me clarify this. Over where I live you gotta get about $75 per hour for 2 guys to cut / trim / blow. There are not many properties over by me except for your LARGE estates / corporate parks which are gonna be lots and lots of acreage. And in these cases there will still be lots of trimming. So to go and do a lower per acre price because of being able to bang out many acres in an hour is not feasable. A lot of the properties over by me are where 3/4 an acre and up is big. So if you get a couple of those lined up- where 1/2 acre goes for $35 and up from there. 1/2 acre property size... So I am not full of shot.

[lawnboy82]

LJ- I had the same thing happen to me last year. Place takes 5 man hours to cut and trim, not much blowing at all. They were paying $90 per cut, and $90 per clean up. 2 1/2 hrs of trimming / 2 1/2 hrs of cutting. Took to clean up and cut in the fall on a semiregular basis- 23 man hours. for $180?

[GreenStar]

how big was the property that it took 5 hours to do?2.5 hours to cut how big are your mowers?have you thought of a bigger mower and adding a part-timer to aid in trimming.my operation would fold if i spent 5 hours on a job site for 90 bucks.i do a great deal of commercial work ranging from 4 to 15 acres(apartments and such)for instance i do a property that is 166,790sqft.broken up into courtyard's and road frontage.there are 98 trees to trim around plus buildings.with 2 guys i've done this in 2.25hrs at $284 wk.not bagging on ya guy but how do you stay afloat?is this your full time job.like i said i'm not bagging on you.i spoke to a friend that does large estates he's at $33 an acre and $56 an hour.with 2 guy's he does 2 acre parcels (mowed,blowed and edged) in 45 minutes.
i ask all of you to pray for my friends stationed on the
u.s.s. george washington

[lawnboy82]

Greenstar- This property was about 3 acres. When I had gone there they showed me the bill from the last guy. I got them to go up to $150 a cut. Did it on my own in 5 hrs. However I would only trim about every other week. I had tried to bring in a tiger and a walker. The only advantage I saw to those machines was that I was not as tired after doing it. The tiger created more trimming. The walker was the same cut as my machine, but I think it reduced trimming and fatigue. I only cleaned the property up once in the fall- because I was keeping my trailer on the property. That was really the only work I did there after the beginning of september.