what would you charge?

[Agape]

so this guy calls and says "I have a rather large lawn that should have been mowed about 10 days ago"

I get there and the grass is average shin high to waist high in a couple areas and it's big (thay bought the lot behind them to make a gigantic lawn- I mean it's enormous). the front is small but nasty.

pics don't show the massive size well and on camera phone

[KINGMADE]

aha at the 10 days ago. 1 month plus. Depends on if they are going to be a regular customer but I still would not give them that much of a break on price. Looks like a monster pita. Do they want you to bag it? also what equipment would you use?

[jsslawncare]

Don't fall for the "Good price for future work" trick.

[ALC-GregH]

I did a lawn right next to one of my regulars. The woman hadn't had the grass cut yet this year. She knew I was coming by to do my regular. When I got there I wasn't on the trimmer 2 minutes and she stopped me. I gave her a price that equaled out to almost $100hr and she jumped all over it. She is now a weekly customer right next door to my other. I should have gotten pics. It was a lot taller then what the OP posted.

[MOturkey]

I never end up charging enough for these deals. Well, almost never. I did one a couple of years ago, quoting a price of $225 because I didn't really want to do it at all, but only charged $200 because it didn't really take me as long as I thought.

We should get 3-4 times what a normal mow would be, because the customer is getting a month's mowing at once. Realistically, twice the cost of a regular mowing is probably ballpark.

[Agape]

Originally Posted by KINGMADE

aha at the 10 days ago. 1 month plus. Depends on if they are going to be a regular customer but I still would not give them that much of a break on price. Looks like a monster pita. Do they want you to bag it? also what equipment would you use?

well, I never fall for that crap of "do this super cheap, and I'll give you a ton of super cheap stuff" lol
As for equipment used; I got a brand new worker and he(his wife) was worried that he wouldnt get hours so he was gonna go to his old job if I couldn't guarantee a certain amount of hours (awsome worker, so i wanted to keep him) so I dropped him off with a honda homeowners that I use as a back-up mower, (old aluminum deck). I have a brand new honda commercial, but $1200 vs.$120 in grass that could have anything in it.

and gave him 2 buckets and a string trimmer for the fence (here's your hours) and went to see my accountant and have a cup of coffee and I have a guy who works at home who wants me there between "such and such" a time so i went to do that.

I got back a couple hours later and helped him finish for an hour.

I wanted to charge a min. of $200 but I also wanted the job so I bid and got it for $170 mow only and bag/haul figuring as long as it took my guy less than 15 hours I was in the black lol

[Agape]

Originally Posted by MOturkey

I never end up charging enough for these deals. Well, almost never. I did one a couple of years ago, quoting a price of $225 because I didn't really want to do it at all, but only charged $200 because it didn't really take me as long as I thought.

We should get 3-4 times what a normal mow would be, because the customer is getting a month's mowing at once. Realistically, twice the cost of a regular mowing is probably ballpark.

I always charge as if i'm using a crapsman mower.
If they don't like the price they can get their own $1200 mower.

[Mountain Peak]

Originally Posted by Agape

well, I never fall for that crap of "do this super cheap, and I'll give you a ton of super cheap stuff" lol
As for equipment used; I got a brand new worker and he(his wife) was worried that he wouldnt get hours so he was gonna go to his old job if I couldn't guarantee a certain amount of hours (awsome worker, so i wanted to keep him) so I dropped him off with a honda homeowners that I use as a back-up mower, (old aluminum deck). I have a brand new honda commercial, but $1200 vs.$120 in grass that could have anything in it.

and gave him 2 buckets and a string trimmer for the fence (here's your hours) and went to see my accountant and have a cup of coffee and I have a guy who works at home who wants me there between "such and such" a time so i went to do that.

I got back a couple hours later and helped him finish for an hour.

I wanted to charge a min. of $200 but I also wanted the job so I bid and got it for $170 mow only and bag/haul figuring as long as it took my guy less than 15 hours I was in the black lol

Nice!! I love it.

[Snyder's Lawn Inc]

how many hrs did it take him to mow it and hauled the grass off

[Agape]

Originally Posted by Snyder's Lawn Inc

how many hrs did it take him to mow it and hauled the grass off

I think I dropped him off at about 8:45 and I came back and helped him finish for about an hour, half of which was tossing the big pile in the truck i had him make 'cause I took the truck. and we left at 11:40 so just over the 4 man hours I thought it would take, and I produced half a load of grass in my 7x8x3 dump box, I finished off the route day with a mostly full and took my empty truck for fridays route with a bunch of buckets and threw them in at the end of friday and dumped for $20.

He wanted hours and I gave him 12 on thursday (lol). he said the next day "If we get off at regular time today, is ok" he was sore and tired.