$42.50 for 1.33 hrs (2 man crew)????

[wesLESCO48]

I get a call thursday for a request to submit a bid
to a residential customer next door to an existing client.
The lady says she's having trouble getting her lco to
perform the tasks she requests, mainly blowing out her
rock beds. So i and my wife go and meet with the home
owners and we walk the property and discuss its needs.
After this i walk to the truck get out the measuring wheel
and get my turf, edging and trimming measurments.
I calculate my time based on measurements and come up
with my bid $87.50/per visit(1.25 crew hrs. @ $70/crew hr.)
Oh by the way the property is about 10,000sq.ft. turf and
1,500 linear ft. trimming and edging, all beds blown and
clippings bagged and removed from property. I could only
use a 21'' mower on the property due to the tight landscaping
and steep slopes in the back yard ( which the only access
is pulling the mower up steps in the carport area). The
lady mentions that the lco sends a 2 man crew and that
they usually 1.5 hrs. to do the job. Anyway today she calls
me and asks how much is the bid so i tell her $350/month
and she sounds like she's going to have a heart attack.
She tells me her lco is doing it for $170/month(4visits).
I then begin to tell her she better kiss their A** for that
price. I guess my question is how do you keep from getting
discouraged in these situations. Also how can someone
afford to charge $16/hr. I guess I'm going to have to focus
on the garden home and town home subs. where i can charge
$35-$45/ hr. Sorry for the long post but this Pi****
me off.

[LAWNGODFATHER]

First I would have told her to buy a pushmower cause we don't use one.

Second 1.5 hours to pushmow that hahahahah more like 1/2 hour total.

I think their price is right on and your's is way to high.

BTW I get $34 a man hour for 5 hours total on the job a month.

[wesLESCO48]

Yeah it may take .5 hours to mow PLUS another .5 to Trim and
edge, then .25- .50 hrs. to blow the debris out of the beds
that comes from all their trees. Lets see you do all that in
a half hour SMART A**. You need to re-read the post, i stated
it took the lco, consisting of 2 MEN 1.33hrs for $42.5 which
equals 2.66 MAN HOURS so do the math $42.5/2.66 equals
$15.98 a man hr. Plus I needed to add more time for blowing
the beds (that was her complaint). If you can make money
bidding like this good but i need more, my expenses aren't far from $15.98/hr. I think you weren't paying attention when i
said 1.33 CREW HOURS(2 man crew) or you don't know the
difference between CREW HOURS and MAN HOURS. Maybe
its just your math skills. Oh by the way, why not try to be
more civil in your replies and not such a smart a**?

[MikeLT1Z28]

**sits down in his easy chair with a coke and some popcorn, this oughtta get good**

wes, mike knows his business, he was actually featured in Turf Mag a few months back, he is highly respected here and i don't think he was being a smart @$$.

[LAWNGODFATHER]

Now it gets tricky.

Add .5-.5 and .25 together and I get 1.25 man hours. Humm your figures.


Now divide that into $42.5 what ya got? I get $34 a man hour.

Do YOUR math again!!!!!

Even at 1.5 man hours I still get $28.33

What you typed is everything doubled.

I did read the post very well before I replied.

First customers times are never correct!!!!

Second if that job takes all of almost 3 man hours, no one will ever get $80 for it.

Third 1500 linar feet of trimming should take no more than 1/2 hour, if it does then your walking to slow.

Sence I can't see the lawn there is no reason to arguee, but if you isist.

I thought my post was rather cival, and gave you another prospective, but if you don't want it smart azz, then I wont post to your threads again.



I do know the difference between crew and man hours.

[wesLESCO48]

Sorry, but i guess i took your post the wrong way.
PLEASE help me figure this out, I'm solo the majority
of the time, if their 2 guys are on the property 1.25-1.33 hrs
isn't that equal to 2.50-2.66 man hrs? I added an additional
10-15 minutes for blowing out the beds meticulously,
because thats what the homeowners want, although
it sounds like they don't want to pay for it . It did seem
like quite a long time when i calculated the bid, because
i do her neighbors in 45-55 minutes alone, but i can use my
walker on it.
I try to charge $35 hr. or more for myself
so shouldn't i try to charge double that
if i have someone helping me?
If i am wrong with my numbers somewhere
let me know where.
As far as the hrs. i'm going by what the home owner
told me, 2 guys at the property for an hour and 15 or 20
minutes and i based mine off footage and got the same
times , 1 guy around 2.5 hrs@35/hr=$87.5, 2 guys 1.25 hrs@70/hr=$87.5
If the other LCO is charging $42.5 for 2 guys and it takes
them 1.25 hrs aren't they only making $17 a man hr.( its
not uncommon for people to charge that). Here is how
i calculated it $42.5/1.25 equals $34/2 equals $17.
Pehaps i'm presenting the #'s wrong or something.
Again i'm sorry for getting defensive, i do value everyones
opinion.

[KirbysLawn]

If it involves push mowing I'm not interested anyway, sounds like more trouble than it's going to be worth. Since I have a 11k lawn and it used to take us 2-2.5 hours to push mow, trim, and clean I would say ask for what you wish and walk away if she is not going to pay, I think your figure is too high but you know your bottom line and know what you need to make a living.

[wesLESCO48]

Thanks for the reply Kirbyslawn. If you dont mind my asking
how much were you charging for the lawn that took
2-2.5 hrs with a pushmower. I was bidding so i would
be happy if i got it or not. Do most of you guys charge
more or less to use a trim mower? I try to charge the
same rate as i would for my other mowers because of
the hassle involved, even though i know it takes 3-4
times as long. Maybe i should have just asked for help
in bidding this property because i only have 1 property
that i push mow the entire thing. I make $110/visit
and it takes 2.75-3.0 hrs.(commercial with steep banks).
My bid was in the middle, i got the account because
it was a referal.

[KirbysLawn]

It was my home lawn...I have never push mowed anyone elses lawn.

[kris]

Oh man ..im gonna bite my tonque on this one ...id get banned for what i would like to type.

I think your bid is good... you've done the measuring..you know how long it will take from previous experience and you know what you need to make a living. Walk away from it and don't let it bother you.

Don't worry what other guys say to you here... take what you want and leave the other bull#$%^ behind.

[cantoo]

wesLesco48, not sure how much business you have but you have a Walker use it. Meaning bid on properties that you can use it on. I have Walkers and other mowers, we take on a wide variety of properties but it still bothers me when I see that "expensive" piece of machinery sitting in the cube van. I would just give the price and move on. What does the customers expect of you, are you going to drop your price in half? If you drop at all you can bet your existing customer is going to ask for the same deal..Price it and Mooooooooooooooove on.

[LAWNGODFATHER]

First No push mower here to mow with.

Only one lawn a week and that is 1,300 sq/ft. No reason to carry a 36" on the truck for one lawn area.

Second you already know she wont bite for $80, so why worry about it?

Third people that want maticulas service and wont pay for it, have to bite the bullet.

Fourth only you know what you have to charge not me.

Fifth I don't use a push mower.

Sixth I still think the times are right on at a total of say 1.5 hours.

Seventh I never belive time customers give, they have no clue anyways.

And last bagging and push mowing well I will leave it at that.

[Turf Dancer]

My estimate is Aprox. 1.75 man hours , forgive me if this throws you off. That is what I come up with, then again I am not the one who has taken the time to do the bid. If it were me I would say $52.50 per visit. That is just me. I think you are the one who has to do the work so you should bid it for what you think it worth to you !

[MikeLT1Z28]

Originally posted by kris


Don't worry what other guys say to you here... take what you want and leave the other bull#$%^ behind.

i believe others here were trying to help him and he took a comment wrong.

[ADLAWNCUTTERS]

shi......... if you don't need the work i would have told her give me $500.00 and i'll think about doing the job.:)

[wesLESCO48]

THANKS for all the replies and again i'm sorry for going
postal. Just dealing with alot of stressful situations
and not finding many good solutions.(outside of work).
I know it's no excuse but i am sorry!
I looked over the #'s and found that you guy's
bids seemed more inline than mine.

[Soupy]

wesLESCO48, I think the rate you charge is more then fair. your times might be off a little, but at $35/hour you have room to play with. just don't under estimate your time with that rate. I don't estimate by time. I just look at the property and a magical # pops in my head. There is alot of conciderations that goes into this magical # but after awhile it just comes to you. Like If the property has expencive landscapeing and the lawn looks like it is well maintained, I know this customer isn't going to bark at a slightly higher price then the guy next door with a lawn full of weeds. this is when the left side of my brain kicks in for a second and adds $5-$10 to my magical # without me even knowing it untill this # comes traveling out of my mouth. I have it easier because I don't advertise much and most of the time I'm pricing a lawn next door to a lawn I allready maintain. I almost always have at least a pair of lawns per stop. This helps alot with hourly averages. Ok, I'll stop rambeling for now. It's way past my bed time.

Soupy