Bidding Commercially

[BrendonTW]

How do I go about bidding on commercial jobs? Do companies contact lawn care guys, or do lawn care guys contact the companies whose lawn they want to service? How do I go about getting commercial business?

[SangerLawn]

First of all, do not get commercial accounts unless you are positive that you have what you need to do them. Commercial accounts are 10 times as bad as residential accounts.

You may be able to get one or 2 of them at this time of year however most of the time they are under contract and you need to contact them around January to find out when they are taking bids. Normally they will take bids up till February 15. At that time they will award one of the bidding companies with the contract.

[bohiaa]

First of all, do not get commercial accounts unless you are positive that you have what you need to do them. Commercial accounts are 10 times as bad as residential accounts.

You may be able to get one or 2 of them at this time of year however most of the time they are under contract and you need to contact them around January to find out when they are taking bids. Normally they will take bids up till February 15. At that time they will award one of the bidding companies with the contract.

this is NOT my experance at all. Commercial accounts are easyer than homes.
where the 10 times as bad comes from I dont have a clew.

you can pick them up any time of the year. simply go in and ask, most of the time. "not all-but most" you will need to show your company profile. net worth. all the nessary documents, as in insurance. i-9's and such.

I even had a company do a credit search on my company before we got the bid. if it's Government it's an entirely diffrent ball of wax.

Right now I'm NOT taking state and Government contracts. simply because of the way everything is....

I herd that California went broke....

P.S. be sure to have your contract all outlined for everything that could happen....

Best of luck

[SangerLawn]

Bohiaa
It may just be the area where you are compared to me? I have 12 commercial accounts. Some are huge and some that only take about 1 hour to mow. Every one of them except for 1 is extremely picky. I haven’t had any complaints this year since I know what they look for but they are by far worse then my residential. At the same time they are in high profile areas in high money commercial zoned parts of the city.

The one that isn’t picky is an apartment complex for low income tenets. With the amount of needles I find there I think it is safe to say they are too high to care what the grass looks like lol.

[bohiaa]

Bohiaa
It may just be the area where you are compared to me? I have 12 commercial accounts. Some are huge and some that only take about 1 hour to mow. Every one of them except for 1 is extremely picky. I haven’t had any complaints this year since I know what they look for but they are by far worse then my residential. At the same time they are in high profile areas in high money commercial zoned parts of the city.

The one that isn’t picky is an apartment complex for low income tenets. With the amount of needles I find there I think it is safe to say they are too high to care what the grass looks like lol.

Sorry to hear your haveing such a bad time. We simply dont have time for Picky customers. we know our job and DO IT.

I have several that I have never seen the direct customer.
you may want to restructure. sit down and crunch the numbers and see if your making money.
most of the time a 1 hr job is NOT worth the effort. I couldn't emigane pulling up to a commerical account and bid it at 1 hr.
WE keep our time prety high. were around 120.00 an hour for 2 men and 2 Z's a Commerical account that would require only 1 hr would have to be bidded out at 150-175 per visit. once a week.

Best of luck to you

[Vegetation Services]

You need to do a simple analysis of your costs. Include everything.
Everything and everybody in your business has a cost per hour....
yourself, laborers, each piece of equipment, truck, fuel, repairs, office overhead, office equipment, sales costs, taxes, employee matching, insurance, licenses, etc.....and dont forget profit. Landscape Management magazine lists the US average per man hour at $ 36.78 per hour in 2001.....you are way too cheap!!