priced town homes. surprised at larger companies prices.

[ed2hess]

Originally Posted by Sharps_lawn&landscaping

It isn't bad money. So by what you are saying is if i was paying 35 an hour for this and that and it took two hours that would be 70.00 paid out. Leaving me with a 200 dolllar profit in two hours. How would 100.00 an hour be no meat on the bone? I pay my guys any where from 10 to 14 an hour. Realistically, with labor and fuel costs you would be looking at around 40.00 an hour cost operating. Thats why it is important to try and bunch your properties on a good route with little drive time.

The problem could be that a big company looks for a profit of around 8%. What do you expect? I am talking about Brinkman and TruGreen kind of size.

[Sharps_lawn&landscaping]

Ha 8 percent I'd cry. So if you had a 100 dollar cut you would make 8 bucks . That's slave labor

[jbell36]

yeah that's terrible...i'm dealing with that right now that is even less than 8%, actually about half that...they are absolutely killing the commercial market...they are a very large company out of a larger city around here...they drive 45 minutes just to get here then start their day with 5 guys (per crew), then head back...i guess having 30 crews making a 4% profit would make the owner money, not much though...

i don't understand how it's worth it...first of all, you have to pay 5 guys 1.5 hours of drive time and pay for that additional fuel every day...secondly, what happens when something breaks down or you need to buy new equipment?

[skorum03]

We're talking 280 per mowing right? Excuse me for being new. haha


YardBros Outdoors
www.yardbros.com

[ed2hess]

Originally Posted by Sharps_lawn&landscaping

Ha 8 percent I'd cry. So if you had a 100 dollar cut you would make 8 bucks . That's slave labor

Would it seem better if I said you could make $20,000 on a $250,000 dollar business? It is a struggle for a mid size business to get to 25% profit. You are cheery picking(as some say) hoping that none of the mid size business move into your area. Not being critical just the way it is. Now often the big companies fail at these condo and HOA and that is where we try to focus our attention on.

[Sharps_lawn&landscaping]

Right now i'm at a point where i can cherry pick what i want. I get what your saying. This is a really small contract compared to some i have. I bid against a lot of different size companies. I guess the only way for the larger companies to keep expanding their profits quickly would be to price low and wedge as many people out as possible. Theres plenty to go around but when they loose contracts and you come up on some of them, its just a pain to convince people to pay more like they had been previously before the landscaper that priced it low came in.

[orangemower]

Originally Posted by Sharps_lawn&landscaping

Right now i'm at a point where i can cherry pick what i want. I get what your saying. This is a really small contract compared to some i have. I bid against a lot of different size companies. I guess the only way for the larger companies to keep expanding their profits quickly would be to price low and wedge as many people out as possible. Theres plenty to go around but when they loose contracts and you come up on some of them, its just a pain to convince people to pay more like they had been previously before the landscaper that priced it low came in.

welcome to the world of lawn care.

[Sharps_lawn&landscaping]

Yea what fun

[grassman177]

commercial is totally dead, resi soon to follow, and is already stale in some respects

[LandFakers]

I bid on a commercial property once, I was over $200 more than the guy who won it, he went out of business that same year and I got the job the following season. It all works out in the end