silverspade
04-01-2008, 01:12 PM
So nearly 3 weeks ago me and a friend have this idea to start a simple lawn cutting business. We thought it would never take off and it was just an idea. So we did a feasibility study of our own. Designed and printed 1000 flyers, handed 500 out or so 1 call back. Then I get this idea to send out this email.. 24 hours later we are sitting here trying to figure out quotes for some 60+ lots. Now I must tell you we aren't dealing with 60+ land owners, because quite a few of our contracts would be with people with 10+ lots each.
Problem is this I feel that my partner wants to lowball just about everything just to get the job. I mean these are simple student houses that need a basic lawn cut nothing more. So the lawns typically aren't big because they are located in teh core of my city, most student houses have a small to medium lawn. But how do we charge for stuff like a spring clean up? My friend says to do that stuff for free... I tell him even if it was 5-10 minutes of work we did for free out of courtesy that 5-10 minutes*60+ lots would be hours of free time.
And then if i convince my friend we need to charge them something he thinks adding 5 dollars at most 10 to the job is sufficient. I sent out emails to local lawn care places in my area they charge about 70-80 a spring clean up.
We do tell people we are student lawn care business so I don't expect to charge as much as a "professional" but I don't want to be low balling just to get a contract. Or should I be? Any help would be appreciated.
Problem is this I feel that my partner wants to lowball just about everything just to get the job. I mean these are simple student houses that need a basic lawn cut nothing more. So the lawns typically aren't big because they are located in teh core of my city, most student houses have a small to medium lawn. But how do we charge for stuff like a spring clean up? My friend says to do that stuff for free... I tell him even if it was 5-10 minutes of work we did for free out of courtesy that 5-10 minutes*60+ lots would be hours of free time.
And then if i convince my friend we need to charge them something he thinks adding 5 dollars at most 10 to the job is sufficient. I sent out emails to local lawn care places in my area they charge about 70-80 a spring clean up.
We do tell people we are student lawn care business so I don't expect to charge as much as a "professional" but I don't want to be low balling just to get a contract. Or should I be? Any help would be appreciated.