lawn Care Tips for anyone in business

[ron]

Question I live in Port Orange Florida and have mt own lawn care business I have been doing this for about 9 months I am Licensed and Insured and have only 20 accounts plus 1 commerical account business is starting to pick up I have been placing fliers around the neighbor hoods etc.Well I am seeking info on anything on how to run a lawn care business in florida I have been in Law-enforcement for 16 years and still working full time with the state as a correctional officer plus working part time in this business any info would be great. I have also build a web site http://homestead.juno.com/skyler72/ron.html
if any one wants to look at it thanks

[Starling Lawn]

Ron,
Try http://www.lawnservicing.com ,I`m in n.e. fla if I can answer any questions,feel free.
Dave

[ron]

thanks Dave for the info I will check this out.

[ron]

Hey Dave can you give me some info on pricing lawn jobs,
I have been charging $20.00 for regular size lots for the works. per cut, most of my 20 clients pay $55.00 per month do do there lawn care and the ones who live on corner lots pay $65.00 per month is this a fair price...

[Starling Lawn]

Ron,you are underpaying yourself.We don`t unload for less than 30.00.Up in jax,most guys start at 25,but we do upscale stuff.What services are you offering?The more you offer,the more you charge.
Dave

[HOMER]

Ron,

If you ever want to leave your day job the first thing to do is get rid of that $10.00 starting price! If you start with a price like that you'll have a hard time raising it down the road when your cost's go up, and they will!

Second, start reading all of the information you can. Do searches on this forum for trade magazines, there are plenty available and they are free.

You can get a pretty good education by reading these posts and older ones. Just about every subjuect has been covered that can be covered so sit down and start reading!

[Starling Lawn]

Homer is right.HE BE THE MAN!
dAVE

[ron]

WOW Thanks for the info Well my Motto Is NO JOB IS TOO BIG OR SMALL WE DO IT ALL.
The reason I have Lawns cut starting out at $10.00 is because it is a eye catcher.Last week I did a Sod job for a hotel in Daytona Beach Shores. I made $440.00 for laying one pallet of Sod and three yards of Red Mulch. I also do odd jobs if the customer wants something done around there house I will do it my cost for labor is $40.00 per hour with min one hour.

[HOMER]

OK Ron,

Just wanted to make sure you knew the rules! :)

Sounds like we may need some advice from you, one pallet!

I don't know about being da man, just havin' too much fun here while the grass is brown and the depression is setting in and the money is tight and the bills are piling up and the kids need shoes and the dogs out of food and them stupid gears in my head are going all the time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Maybe it's time to seek help? :confused:

[ron]

HeyHomer
I am confused did I charge too much for the job if so they really liked my job and they want me to come back after the special events here in Daytona to do it all over again..

[LoneStarLawn]

How long did it take you to lay down that one pallet..it would take us less than hour. Thats including rolling.

[Starling Lawn]

If they liked the job,and they paid you,the price was right.You charge more than I do on that.
Dave

[zimm4]

Dont forget to include your travel time.
At 10 bucks thats not even worth driving A mile.

Kyle

[ron]

Well the job took myself and my son about 6 hours because the way it had to be placed down around trees side walks each piece had to be cut to fit around the objects this was alot of cuttin on sod . I had to haul all pieces by hans cause the truck or a wheel barrel would fit between the palm trees from the truck to the sod area was 100 ft.plus putting down 3 yards of red mulch by the bucket fulls si this job was not easy,plus being my first job...

[Starling Lawn]

thats alot of time spent for 1 pallet.ouch.
Dave

[Starling Lawn]

not ragging you Ron,just wanted to hit 100 posts.

[ron]

No problem Hey everyone thanks for the great info.now if I could only start making some money.in this business,I have all the good equipment, 36 in Scagg walk behing two stick weed wackers back pack blower one stick edger two gas operated shrubbers and soo far all my 9 fingers and 10 toes..

[HOMER]

No Ron, yu did better than me on my last sod job-------believe me! I've never heard of anybody complaining that they got too much off a job--so heck man, if they paid and are happy-------------KEEP EM HAPPY!

Don't sound like you had a lot of overhead either so you did good Ron, real good.

Keep up the good work!
Cograts DLS 100 and counting.

[ron]

Opps 1o fingers........Only a inside joke I had a small accident fell off a 8 foot wall trying to cut the back side of 10 ft shrubs and grabbet the wall while falling down and doing the old PLF fall on the concrete ground thank god for all the Air borne Training I had at Ft.Benning Ga AIR BORNE

[ron]

Thanks again for all the good info.I just recieved my packages from nebbs they look pretty cool and now If I can get a good computer program without spending soo much money for the program I would be set for the summer fling..

[GrassMaster]

Hello Everybody:

Ron it sounds like you did OK on the Sod & Mulch job!

BTW, I live about 10 miles from Fort Benning! I really like Columbus, LOL it's the biggest City I've ever lived in. I's 1 - 8 Up Country Boy! :-)

The Biggest Problems I encountered when I first started was.

1. I couldn't understand why I did not get that many jobs that I bidded on? Later I found out that I was bidding a little on the high side & a few years later, I got more jobs to bid on & I raised my prices even higher. Almost every job I got I was very Happy with my Profit!

2. One Day I fell off the roof of a house, LOL I hit the corner of an AC unit & thought I broke my hip. Well after that I decided that I need to hire some help & it was straight up from there.

[Richard Martin]

Ron you may want to make sure you are licensed and certified to put down fertilizers. Getting caught doing fertilizer without certification can ruin a years worth of profits.

[GrassRoots Lawn Care]

Ron,

I am in New Smyrna Beach, about 5 miles south of you. Richard is right about the License to Fertilize, they are strict in Port Orange, had a friend two years ago lose his truck, trailer and equipment for laying a bag of weed and feed without a license. Watch out. Port Orange is really competitive, much competition from older retired folks cutting lawns for $12-15 just for something to do. If you have any questions about local lawn care just ask. Don't be discouranged about the competition and low-ballers, same down here but I charge $10-15 a cut MORE than competiton and still get the contracts, I think the key down here with the elderly population is PRESENTATION and good-old-fashion QUALITY WORKMANSHIP. If you do those you'll have more work than you can handle by the end of this year. As far as picking up the commercial accounts, nothing has worked better for us than the Yellow Pages. We used the Sprint Yellow Pages, bought an ad a while back for $550 and very happy with the results. Pulled the our ads from the local Pennysaver. You will have much less volume of calls/bids but you won't be out there bidding against the low-ballers and you will get more opportunities to bid out commercial work. Hope this helps.

[lawman]

Ron off your topic, be safe out there. Lawman Ret. Baltimore City Police.

[awm]

Just curious ,do you have to have pesticide
certification to put fert down where you are.

[Richard Martin]

Yes, you need to be certified to put anything down on a lawn other than your own.

[ron]

As far as I know you do not have to be licensed to lay down fert. only If you have a commerical accounts that are around lakes then yes you need a license from the Saint Johns Water Management which costs about $250.00

[ron]

Hey this is great info I am glad to hear about the pros and cons on this subject I really do love doing this kind of work..............

sO HAS ANYONE HAD A CHANCE TO LOOK AT MY WEB PAGE..cOME ON LETS HEAR YOUR SIDE OF THE STORY..I REALLY LIKE TO HEAR SOME INPUT BEING THAT THIS IS MY VERY FIRST WEB PAGE.....

[Administrator]

Ron, why don't you update your profile? Put your homepage in there and other info so we know who you are.

[zimm4]

Ron I spent some time in ft.benning, ga. I got my basic and ait there back in 82 to 83. Ground pounder all the way.

Kyle

[ron]

Hey thanks for that info my info is now updated. I went to Ft Benning Ga in 1984 durning the cold season wow it was sure cold there...

[ron]

SO can anyone here suggest how tomake a web page stand out...........

[Eric ELM]

Take a look at other members websites and maybe you can get some ideas from theirs.

[guntruck]

awn i'll answer for him ....no you do not need any liscence here in Md to put down fert just pesticide. I just spoke with the man the other day to get this settled and thats the bottom line he said!!

[rinerlawn]

i am just starting out any advice if i should buy new or lease my lawn equipment

[ron]

WOW THANKS TO YOU ALL .