What are you Lawn Care pros getting for spring and fall cleanups???

[GreaterMilwLawnscape]

Thanks for coming to this post!!! I'm new at this so I was just wondering what you guys are getting for spring and fall cleanups? Any additional help would be GREAT!!!!!!
THANK YOU

[gene gls]

Lots of aches and pains in this old body.
Gene

[GreaterMilwLawnscape]

THAT DOESNT HELP, HOPEFULLY YOU GOT PAID!!!!!!

[paponte]

Charge hourly, the only way to make money.

[J&R]

Did one Monday mulch leaves clean gutters trim shrubs 2 men one hour. charge 125.00

[lawncare3]

Get "mantainence agreements" together and hope for the best. I also gas up all the equip and give it a few test before going out on the job. :)

[walker-talker]

$45 a man hour.

MATT

[PR0 TURF]

$200 minimum. Cleanups are done with a 4-man crew. We don't charge the customer by the hour...we use an hourly rate to determine a price to present to the customer. If we finish ahead of time...great...a little behind schedule...we'll survive. Estimated enough that we rarely finish behind schedule anymore.
:jester:

[xpnd]

Minimum $450.00 plus material @ cost + 10%. My Momma never raised a fool. She always told me if you aren't going to make money at least don't work hard at losing it. We only do about 3 or 4 for obivious reasons each year but then again that beats doing 7 to 9 for the same amount of money. If I'm expected to perform 4 or more months of what I consider routine service during the year in one day, I figure I should get paid the equivalent.

[Randy Scott]

Originally posted by PR0 TURF
$200 minimum. Cleanups are done with a 4-man crew. We don't charge the customer by the hour...we use an hourly rate to determine a price to present to the customer. If we finish ahead of time...great...a little behind schedule...we'll survive. Estimated enough that we rarely finish behind schedule anymore.
:jester:


This, to me, is the only way to get ahead in life. Anyone that has done this for a couple seasons should be able to estimate quite accurately, or you are dumb as a stump. You should be able to beat the clock on 95% of the jobs or somethings wrong. If I wanted to get paid hourly, I would have remained as an employee. Charging by the hour isn't going to cut it for me. What would make me, or certainly an employee, bust a hump knowing you only get a fixed amount per hour. You shoot the customer a number, you bust butt, you are done ahead of schedule and you increased your revenue and hourly amount. You go to the next job and the next and the next and all of a sudden your making good money. This reflects in profit and profit reflects in increased employee pay and incentive, all of a sudden you have ambitious employees that know the harder they work ,the more they make! Too many people settle for just getting by. That would explain our lackadaisical workforce we all complain about.


P.S. GreaterM, good talking to you today, best of luck and keep in touch if I can possibly help you or answer a question.

[GreaterMilwLawnscape]

THANKS RANDY, YOUVE BEEN A GREAT, INCREDIBLY GREAT HELP!!!! I sent you a message, let me know if you got it and where to go??

[grshppr]

A lot of my customers don't even ask for a price. They trust I will price it fairly. I do the job, figure out dump costs and time on the job, and bill accordingly. That way you don't lose out on anything. People who want a price, I will give a price. I have done this long enough and with experience you can get pretty close. Some jobs I will only charge hourly, because it is too hard to quote a price on some things.

[ToG]

what services do you guys usually provide in accordance with spring clean-up? i.e., does everyone clean gutters?

[lawncare3]

Originally posted by ToG
what services do you guys usually provide in accordance with spring clean-up? i.e., does everyone clean gutters?

Thatch, clean out beds, vacuum up thatch, mow, clear off driveway.

[Popsicle]

Remove limbs, leaves, light pruning, blow, dump, go home and of a couple of cool, adult, malt beverages (and Aleve).

I also bid by the job. It took me a couple to get the bidding process done but the "school of hard knocks" is the best one to enroll in. The beauty is, it's your own labor if your short.

[PR0 TURF]

In the springtime we also clean all the sand up with the powerbroom from the sidewalks/curbs. Our customers seem to like that, as simple as it may be.

payup

[PaulJ]

Haven't done any this year yet but Iv'e been letting cusomters know it will be about twice (maybe 3x) the normal mowing price.
This worked about about right last season to be consistent with my $ per man hour goal.

[LAWNS AND MOWER]

Originally posted by PaulJ
Haven't done any this year yet but Iv'e been letting cusomters know it will be about twice (maybe 3x) the normal mowing price.
This worked about about right last season to be consistent with my $ per man hour goal. This formula might work in your neck of the woods but not mine. At least not for fall cleanups. I have a $25/cut mowing account, and he spends $250+ on his fall cleanup. On the other end of the spectrum, I have a $125/cut account that doesn't even require a fall cleanup.

[PaulJ]

Lawns and MOwers

That is for my spring cleanups
Fall is a whole different story.
For fall I charge extra $ for the extra time above the average mowing time for each cleanup visit. Leaves are usually not done with just one visit.

Fall leaf cleanups are more involved than the spring for me. thus more money.

The 2 to 3 times mowing price is for the first cut /spring cleanup.

[Runner]

Another thing to consider, is look at the "Spring" cleanups some of us are facing this season. No Fall cleanup was done, so we're looking at a mess! While I can't very well charge both the price of what the Fall cleanup AND the Spring cleanup would cost, I WILL be charging a medium in between those two!:blob4:

[Turfdude]

We charge by the hour. The main reason I don't usually give a number first, is that 1 - I many times don't have the time & 2. Conditions may vary from when quote was done til time job is scheduled. What happens when you bid the job and its been dry for 3 weeks, then you do the job after 3 days of rain?? Are you making the same $/hr?? Don't think so.
If you have to give a price up front, my advice is to figure cost to do clean-up of wet leaves and quote it as a ceiling $$.

Bob