Pricing for Mowing

[wxmn6]

Yes, I did use search feature but there are thousand of them that I could not read them all. I found out that there are different ways to price the mowing job. Some of you price by hourly, some price by per thousand square feet, some by per acre. I have 11 years of mowing experience and I have been mowing a few of my customers' lawn for several years when I was teenager using their and my parents' mower. This year will be my first year mowing while DBA. I am planning on expanding my business, getting more customers, so I will have to get my own lawn mower and trailer. So I will have to make a new pricing and I am not sure how much to price because I will be mowing with my own expenses so it will add up.

I usually charge by hourly, but I like the idea of setting a minimum charge. But it would not be a big factor because here in New York most lawns are 3/4 acre and larger. I am not sure about pricing per thosand square foot because I don't think that is how they do that here. So I would like to know how much do you usually charge per hour? Pricing varies from area to area. I heard that down in Texas that some people are making $30 an half hour. That's a big difference. I know that everyone have their own cost, but I just would like to get a rough idea of how much you charge per hour. One of major factor in pricing per hour is the size of mower deck. Big difference between 38" and 54". So I think this is one of the reason why you price by per thousand square feet.
So I'll also give some thought about pricing per thousand square feet.

So how much do you usually charge per hour using 48" mower?How much for per thousand square feet? When pricing per hour, usually how much do you charge for labor and for expenses, which will be added up to the total per hourly pricing. I am doing the business all by myself and am doing residential lawn mowing. Sorry for the long post.

[Nebraska]

Price by the hour then what happens when you become more efficient at each job and can do them quicker? Work for less?

[wxmn6]

I got email notification saying that Pauls Mowing replied to my thread but when I went on LawnSite to read, there is nothing there. What happened?

[1MajorTom]

I'm not exactly sure what happened.
I did a search but I can not find a post by Pauls Mowing for this thread. Maybe it was a glitch? Not sure.

Incidentally, I am moving this for you over to the commercial forum where more eyes will view it.

[LAWNGODFATHER]

advice run your biz the way you want to.

Pricing it's all over this forum just pick one.

$25 to $100 a man hour

$1 to $3 per 1000 sq ft

Etc..........

Search and read the posts from NY only

[GLM]

In my area its a dollar per minute minimum, bigger mower more per minute, that for mow trim and blow.

[wxmn6]

Nebraska, if it is a case for me, then I would adjust the hourly rate.

1MajorTom, thanks for moving this thread to Commercial Lawn Care forum.

I did some more searching and I found one thread that says that a rule of thumb for charging expenses per hour is $5/hr. per 2' of mower deck width. I did the calculation and it sounds about right to me.

But I'm not sure about pricing the labor per hour. Do you charge a fixed labor rate no matter how big the mower deck is, or do you increase the labor rate as the mower deck get bigger?

Did some calculation as if I were to charge per thousand square feet, and it shows that it may work for some lawns, but not for some other lawns because then numbers turn to be too big for large lawn. If I charge $1 per thousand square feet and I have a two acres lawn to mow, it would be around $90 and I probably would not have the job.

There are many variables so it is hard to do the pricing.

Thanks for your help, keep it coming.

[Charles]

Originally posted by wxmn6


Did some calculation as if I were to charge per thousand square feet, and it shows that it may work for some lawns, but not for some other lawns because then numbers turn to be too big for large lawn. If I charge $1 per thousand square feet and I have a two acres lawn to mow, it would be around $90 and I probably would not have the job.



Thanks for your help, keep it coming.

If you charge less than $90 for a 2 acre job you won't be in business for very long so what is the difference?

[65hoss]

Originally posted by Charles
If you charge less than $90 for a 2 acre job you won't be in business for very long so what is the difference?

I agree with Charles.

[wxmn6]

Charles and 65hoss, you are both from different states, and like I said pricing varies from area to area. People here do not price by per thousand square feet. It is a different market from your area. The two acres lawn I was talking about takes me about one and half hour to mow.

I have been doing some calculation and I think I figured out the hourly rate and it appears to be in the ballpark in my area after doing some checking.

Thanks for your help.