priced town homes. surprised at larger companies prices.

[ed2hess]

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.

There are a few companies in our area that have a strategy to build the business and then sell. So as long as they meet payroll they are fine.
To them they need customers and a lot of them. One company sold out then came back in 7 years and building business again.

[32vld]

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

Most people here are small. Many solo or they run one truck with 1 or 2 helpers.

The solo LCO that does 40 lawns a week clearing $8 profit each is going to make $320 for himself.

The big company that has same work per truck at the same profit for example has 10 trucks makes the owner $3,200 for the week.
The big company that has 20 trucks makes $6,400 for the week for the owner.

There is more then one way to value what a good profit is.

[Sharps_lawn&landscaping]

Originally Posted by 32vld

Most people here are small. Many solo or they run one truck with 1 or 2 helpers.

The solo LCO that does 40 lawns a week clearing $8 profit each is going to make $320 for himself.

The big company that has same work per truck at the same profit for example has 10 trucks makes the owner $3,200 for the week.
The big company that has 20 trucks makes $6,400 for the week for the owner.

There is more then one way to value what a good profit is.

Well you let me know how that 8 percent works for you. Ill be honest i think its a bunch of stupidity. For all the trouble you would have to go through with the mind set of clearing so little profit. So if you did ONE MILLION dollars in revenue, lets just say grossed. Then all you got out of all that headache was 80,000 dollars? You really think thats a good philosophy. When most solo operations make half of that amount. I understand it would work for someone like trugreen but im referring to operations that employ 4 to 50 people.

[Sharps_lawn&landscaping]

And of course they chose the cheapest group. Called me yesterday. Doesn't happen all the time but I had a feeling it would.

[ed2hess]

Originally Posted by Sharps_lawn&landscaping

And of course they chose the cheapest group. Called me yesterday. Doesn't happen all the time but I had a feeling it would.

We always ask them to allow us a chance to match. Sometimes they give
you the details and find that other bids don't include all the things you bid. Sorry it didn't work out....hard to lose bids.

[Weekend cut easymoney]

Originally Posted by Sharps_lawn&landscaping

Well you let me know how that 8 percent works for you. Ill be honest i think its a bunch of stupidity. For all the trouble you would have to go through with the mind set of clearing so little profit. So if you did ONE MILLION dollars in revenue, lets just say grossed. Then all you got out of all that headache was 80,000 dollars? You really think thats a good philosophy. When most solo operations make half of that amount. I understand it would work for someone like trugreen but im referring to operations that employ 4 to 50 people.

The part that they don't tell you is the big million dolar operation also is building equity in trucks, equipment ...worth and that dude likly has guys to do most everything so he can take vacations etc....they also take low margins so they can make the big bucks on the extras.....

[herler]

Sounds to me like a bunch of lazy bums, anyone could have bid that at $30 and been King of the Hill but kids today, they don't want to get out there and work for a dollar anymore, guess they'd rather sit at home playing the Xbox3 but then again it all evens itself out over time.

[32vld]

Originally Posted by Sharps_lawn&landscaping

Well you let me know how that 8 percent works for you. Ill be honest i think its a bunch of stupidity. For all the trouble you would have to go through with the mind set of clearing so little profit. So if you did ONE MILLION dollars in revenue, lets just say grossed. Then all you got out of all that headache was 80,000 dollars? You really think thats a good philosophy. When most solo operations make half of that amount. I understand it would work for someone like trugreen but im referring to operations that employ 4 to 50 people.

After paying all costs and clearing $320 as a solo is not going to work for me. Though is works for Brickman and the other large outfits.

[clydebusa]

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.

The big company are the Wal-Mart's of the competition

[trooper8870]

I have stopped trying to figure out how everybody else bids their jobs. You can take 5 LCO's, put them in a room with the same bid packet and all 5 will come back different. Alot different. I just bid a commercial facility. I was given the bid from another LCO to reference. Even though the price was obscured, I could still see what he quoted. I was $8,000.00 a year over his bid and was nervous at that. There is no consistancy in what we do. From the guys doing it for beer money and trying to clear $10.00 per hour to the guys who do this for a living that try to clear $60.00 per hour, there is just know consistancy in the pricing. I have given up on commercial properties. Folks lose their minds when it comes to bidding them. In my opinion, it does not matter if you are cutting 20 one acre residential lots or one 20 acre commercial facility. It is still hot, dirty and very tiring work. Expenses are expenses. Charge them for what you do, and have enough profit in it to make it worth doing. By the way, the big commercial properties are not going to fix or replace your equipment when it breaks!!