Pricing, for the novice

[earlsherl]

Hey, I just started my own residential lawn service business around the charlotte north carolina area. I have a 48 inch gravely mower and was wondering how to charge my customers for my service. I am not sure about local rates or how they are calculated. I was hoping that anyone could help me with this. I have worked for a lawn care business before but was never savvy to how they charged their customers. Thanks and look forward to any replies.

[youngdude]

It all depends on the size of the lawn. For me it wont be anything less than 20. The only way i would go below 20 if the lawn is really really small. Good luck this season!!!

[BW4486]

price it by the hour. hours x cost per man hour. Figure out your cost of doing business and the going rate for Charlotte

[jeff_0]

you should average about $45 a hr per person on a job.. minimal charge around $25...

[codywyomingus]

we charge $70 an hour & that covers all types of work,as well as the overhead! Residential work only.

[EagleLandscape]

60/hr min if its just me. 100/hr+ if its more than one person working the job

[KL Squared]

We charge $35.00 per man per hour for lawn service only. We have a minimum of $35.00 for residential lawns. Ask around your area and see what others are charging. You can only charge what people are willing to pay. If the standard rate in the area is $30.00 for 8,000 sqaure feet then there is your starting point.

[lawn999]

I have found that pricing ranges anywhere from $30 per hour to $70 depending on what part of the country you are in and competition. If you have insurance and workers comp or a workers comp exemption you can justify a higher rate since the land owner will not have to worry about you hurting someone or you getting hurt on their property.

I use lawncalc which is a spreadsheet based program that is real easy to use. I bought it at www.colebrothers.com/lawncalc .

lawnman

[ThreeWide]

These are the factors I use in determing mowing pricing. You have to get a pretty solid number on what it costs for all of these based on 1 hour of work:

Fuel for equipment
Mower operating cost (no exact science there)
Operating cost for trimmer/edgers/blowers
Labor cost (you don't work for free)

Then you have these factors to build in:

Travel time to site on average (you should get paid for that too)
Mileage factor to site on average (37 cents per mile)
Non-billed labor (end of day maintenance on your equipment)
Overhead (insurance, cell phone, storage, etc.)

Once you have all of that, you have a good base number to work from. Chances are, this number would be fairly close to your minimum charge unless you are dealing with VERY small lawn. A 1 hr job is probably no more than 35 minutes of mowing when you consider unloading, edging, blowing, trimming and reloading equipment. You should have a pretty good idea what size square foot lawn you can do unload to reload in 1 hr. Once you know that, you can start estimating your pricing mainly on the size of the lawn and level of difficulty.

Its never a perfect science, but you will be right more times than you are wrong.

[jeff_0]

Originally posted by codywyomingus
we charge $70 an hour & that covers all types of work,as well as the overhead! Residential work only.

$70 a man hour for all type of work. Man you most be rich.

[BW4486]

Yea if you can charge 70 pmh thats good. that wouldn't fly to good down here

[JBird]

I have just recently experienced the WIDE range of prices in Hagerstown MD. I know guys that get some contracts @ 65 p/h and some @ 25 p/h I myself have several that range from 20-60 an hour. My 20's are for a customer who I mow several locations and about 45 acres for. I lower the per acre/hourly the more mowing the individual gives me. And believe me, I've been underbid more than twice by guys with an 8hp yardman or dyn-o-mark lookin for beer money, LOL!

[earlsherl]

I appreciate the information everyone. Thanks alot for the help. I am avging about 45 an hour and most of my jobs are residential at 35 a pop. Its not too bad. Thanks again.

[lawnmagicinc]

i allway say 1 buck per man hour there about

[lawnmagicinc]

1 buck per minit on the property