New to Business...Need Suggestions

[jay albers]

New to business! Got the zero turn with bagger,blower.edger ,and trailer. Im license and insured.I'v been looking at some of the blogs and people are saying they charge between 35-60hr.That seems high for my area. I was thinking 25hr.Iv bidded two mulching jobs out.both were 20 yards of mulch at 25$ a yard. Thats 500$ in mulch. I bid 1000 for one and 850 for the other.Both custumers looked and sounded shocked! And i thought that was low.
I also did a spring cleanup for 125. it took about 6 hrs.I felt I could have done a better job getting the leaves out of the beds and bushes.Would a wet dry vac helped in that situation? I did'nt have one so i picked them out by hand. took some time!
I know a billy goat would help ,but its time to build my account to get more equipment. any segestions would be great

[addictedtolandscaping]

Welcome to the biz. First, you got to get your rates up. If you bought a new ZTR< that costs 11k anyhow, you aren't gonna pay for it at that rate. Next, as for the mulching, you have got to edge it to be a pro, make it look like you would want your own place, that takes time and equipment. The price around here for mulch with the larger Co's is over 60 per cy. I am getting 52 as I can get it cheaper through a good friend of mine that handles about 1k cy through the manufacturer so i pay his price,As for the equipment with the cleanups, Stihl has a combination blower vac I use for exactly this type of situation, it is only a hand held so it generally stays with my firewood processor the chips get pretty high there, but is good for sucking leaves out of bushes, actually was the reason I originally bought it.

[jay albers]

Thanx for the advice.

[MarkintheGarden]

New to business! Got the zero turn with bagger,blower.edger ,and trailer. Im license and insured.I'v been looking at some of the blogs and people are saying they charge between 35-60hr.That seems high for my area. I was thinking 25hr.Iv bidded two mulching jobs out.both were 20 yards of mulch at 25$ a yard. Thats 500$ in mulch. I bid 1000 for one and 850 for the other.Both custumers looked and sounded shocked! And i thought that was low.
I also did a spring cleanup for 125. it took about 6 hrs.I felt I could have done a better job getting the leaves out of the beds and bushes.Would a wet dry vac helped in that situation? I did'nt have one so i picked them out by hand. took some time!
I know a billy goat would help ,but its time to build my account to get more equipment. any segestions would be great

I think that the mulch pricing is low, and that you did the clean up for too little.
I understand that you want to cut in on some business, but do not sell your self too cheap or you will come to understand how it sucks to work you tail off and still not make money.

For getting leaves out of beds and bushes I use two blowers at the same time, when I am by myself, I use a back pack blower and a hand held blower and watch the leave fly.

When you are mowing with a ztr mower you should be working for at least 40.00 per hour. Do not tell your customers the hourly rate, just learn how long it takes to mow a lawn and calculate the cost. Do not worry if you do not get all your bids.

[yard guys]

I agree with using blowers to clean out shurbs and beds but we use a leaf rake and it not only picks up the leaves but cuts the grass as well. This will leave the yard looking great. We have to turn down customers as we couldn't keep up with the jobs we were getting(just the two of us doing it). We take care of our grass customers first and then take on others, and word of mouth keeps us busy. Its called a cyclone leaf rake, find it on the web