money in leaf work

[awm]

i dont know about you guys but ive made at least twice as much as i expected from leaf wk this year. more still out there.
only problem is i mulch ,which my lazer will do at half throttle due to the exstreme dry conditions. i work in a cloud of dust a good bit of the time.most time ,cant even get a breeze to blow some of the dust away. thats getting old. i dont even run my mulch blades as the little universal blade i got at lowes makes less leaf dust. oh well,still glad to be working.

[GLS]

cant even get a breeze to blow some of the dust away
I'd rather have no breeze at all cuz then it blows all the leaves to parts I already cleaned up!

[Guido]

a paper dust mask and your good to go!

[LawnPro in NC]

No rain to speak of in over 30 days. would like to see some.

the other day I was in a neighborhood doing a leaf job and I notice a lady stopped in the road. I stopped the mower and walked over. She says what's on fire. I looked around. She said there's quite a bit of smoke in the air. Just told her everythings fine and walked away.

[awm]

guido it must not be as dry there as here. personnaly ive never seen it this dry. i had to borrow a resperator,i think its called.
if it was hot also i think even the trees might die.
one thing to remember is w no even light drizzle the leaf dust just sets there waiting for u to come back next wk. one little rain
would settle it in . PLEASE up there ,just one. or a long slow
3 day rain,if u feel genererous.:angel: :D

[AVRECON]

I did a lawn clean up for a reg. customer, and it took me 3 hrs. to do it and I charged her $150. The lady almost dropped the phone, A HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS! I didn't think it would be that much. I told her before I started that it would be $50 an hr. Now this is a customer whos husband is a doctor and charges $220 for a first time visit to his practice. Big azz yard with Half million $ home. You know its only the folks with money that I ever have a problem with. So anyway I was sorta leaning toward calling and telling her I would go back next week and mulch anything else that has fallen, not because I feel guilty or anything like that, but I don't want to lose a good mowing customer. What do y'all think?

[strickdad]

this is why we price by the job not by the hour..(no surprises to customer)

[awm]

avrecon,that would be being real nice. my folks can tell by the way i look, when im done, that im charging what the job is worth.
so far no one has dared haggle price. they just glad its not them doing it.later now

[LAWNGODFATHER]

Yes I have made more on leaves than in the past.

CHARGE T&M no other way to go.

[cclllc]

I tried the per hour bid too and it didn't work so I told the customer that the job would be 300.00 and she seemed ok with it.

[65hoss]

It's been a strange leaf season here. Mostly because it hasn't got into full force yet! As I was flying in yesterday afternoon, I was noticing all the trees still had most of their leaves all over the city. My 40 yr old oak tree looks the same as when I left 8 days ago. My lawn is not in bad shape either. Although my driveway is covered in acorns.

[cp]

Customer called for an estimate on leaves. Small fenced lot less than 13000 ft. I wanted to experiment with my mower so I told him to let me come in and mulch for $45.00. I was there about 30 minutes and he was impressed and I was able to see how the mower would do.

Normally I charge by the job.

[gogetter]

I want to put a scenario out and see what everyones thoughts are on it.

cp says he made $45 to take care of some leaves on a property by mulching them and it only took about 1/2hr. Customers happy, cp's happy, great.

But from a money making point of view, is this the best thing?

I go to a 5k sq.ft. property and REMOVE all leaves. Takes me 3 hours of blowing/tarping. I charge customer $125 ($105 for my labor and $20 for dump fees and some of the travel time).

Yeah, I had to work more, but at this time of year with no more lawns to cut, I NEED more work, so I'm basically making work for myself.

cp and other mulchers are taking the work out of it, but they are also tkaing the money making out of it. Aren't they?

Thoughts?

BTW, I didn't have to even use my more expensive equipment (mower), just blower, rake, tarps.
Mulchers are putting that extra wear and tear on thier expensive machines. Plus having to maybe do a little extra maintenance back at the shop like cleaning mowers, air filters, etc..

[cantoo]

gogetter shhhhhhhhh no so loud.

[strickdad]

no not really because 2 weeks from now he will be in there mulching again for another 45 bucks.. on the other hand your customer wont call you till all the leaves have fallen of the trees. cause she knows you are gonna get at least 125.00 make sense??

[cantoo]

Depends on the location and the weather, here in two weeks, you wouldn't be mulching anything but snow and ice.

[strickdad]

well yeah, you gotta point

[kutnkru]

I price fall clean ups by the job so this season when I finished a week early I was ahead of the game at the end because I didnt lose the hours others did by pricing hourly.

Kris

[gogetter]

Originally posted by strickdad
no not really because 2 weeks from now he will be in there mulching again for another 45 bucks.. on the other hand your customer wont call you till all the leaves have fallen of the trees. cause she knows you are gonna get at least 125.00 make sense??

Well, let's ask cp that ;-). Will you be making repeat visits on that lawn?
Is that correct for you mulchers out there, do you go back for repeat visits, and if so, how many?
Thanks for the input so far guys.

[kutnkru]

Jonathon the key that makes the mulching aspect so profitable is the basic point of
A. You know how long its taken you to clean your properties in the past.
B. You can do just as good a job with half the effort and still make the same money.

A fall clean-up is still going to cost my clients x number of dollars regardless of how much less time I am spending there. The job has not changed just my methods of operation.

Kris

[awm]

i some time spread the visits out . but make an effort to do leaves on the mowing schedual. this is best for me and them also.

[MIDSOUTH]

During leaf season whick is just now getting underway here good, I do the leaves for the same price as the cut fee, some customers every week and some every 2 weeks,but none longer than 2 weeks and it takes no longer to do them than a regular mowing, well maybe a little longer when they really come down. Alot of the leaves trickle down still in january and feburary so we never really quit coming during the off season.

[fshrdan]

I do the same as MIDSOUTH. We'll blow out the beds, pick everything up with the Walker, dump it on site or haul away, and charge as a regular cut. This keeps us going every week through December... especially yards with oaks. They hang onto their leaves forever. It's also much easier to get 12 month contracts out of wooded lots because of the leaf issue.