Necessities

[AWJ Services]

If your not charging by the hour then you would not be making the same per hour. Maybe it is how you estimate your jobs that it ends up like that?
Here on septic I may profit 1500 dollars for 2 days. Laying sod I can profit 2000.00 in one day. Throw in some stone work, drainage , plants , irrigation and I can quadruple my profit per day over septic. The septic is steady year round and pays the bills.

[Toy2]

Get into erosion control, silt fence, rock berms,blankets, etc......here silt fence is going for $2.00 a foot, some of these companies are getting rich.....

[AWJ Services]

Originally Posted by Toy2

Get into erosion control, silt fence, rock berms,blankets, etc......here silt fence is going for $2.00 a foot, some of these companies are getting rich.....

Less than a dollar a foot here.

[tbi]

We get $4-4.75/ft here on prevailing rate jobs. We did an airport this winter that was over 7000' and much of it was put in with a mini. Way too many stumps and roots to trench it but we still made good money.

[4 seasons lawn&land]

Originally Posted by AWJ Services

If your not charging by the hour then you would not be making the same per hour. Maybe it is how you estimate your jobs that it ends up like that?
Here on septic I may profit 1500 dollars for 2 days. Laying sod I can profit 2000.00 in one day. Throw in some stone work, drainage , plants , irrigation and I can quadruple my profit per day over septic. The septic is steady year round and pays the bills.

It is the way I price it. I price everything the same. $1500 per day for 2 guys. I dont bid the job like that. If I think its going to take a day then its 1500 if there arent any materials costs. There must be more service providers around here because all those jobs you mentioned are far from "niche". There are plenty of people to do all of that which tends to generaly keep you within 90-110 an hour for the equipment guy. And 50-60 for the ground laborer no matter the type of instal. Which is $150 an hour times 10 hour day= 1500 a day. Again, just to be clear, customers have never seen this break down.

[AWJ Services]

Originally Posted by 4 seasons lawn&land

It is the way I price it. I price everything the same. $1500 per day for 2 guys. I dont bid the job like that. If I think its going to take a day then its 1500 if there arent any materials costs. There must be more service providers around here because all those jobs you mentioned are far from "niche". There are plenty of people to do all of that which tends to generaly keep you within 90-110 an hour for the equipment guy. And 50-60 for the ground laborer no matter the type of instal. Which is $150 an hour times 10 hour day= 1500 a day. Again, just to be clear, customers have never seen this break down.

Makes sense. Each area is different. For instance We have a very diverse area as far as home values and family incomes. There are plenty of houses for less than 50k and they are within 10 miles of million dollar neighborhoods. Septic pays teh same no matter the size of the house but the luxury work really goes up in profit in the better neighborhoods. When the economy tanked evne the well off people here stopped spending money. The Landscaping industry took a major hit. The Septic never really changed other than new construction. The jobs I mentioned are not what I would consider niche market rather a market of want. And as far as contractors we are loaded. Remember Ga had several of the fastest growing counties in the USA for like 10 years straight.