Charge!

[(wi) Roots]

If you own a per a green are you able to charge less $$$$ against a Chem lawn gun an buggy? If so, sell me. I don't see the quality you would get out of a gun than a riding machine? How, do you get to those hard to get to places?

[(wi) Roots]

intimadating isn"t it!

[Jason Rose]

What in the flip are you talking about???

For starters it's a PERMAGREEN, all one word... And why in the flip would you charge less if you are using one?

The whole premise of a ride on spreader, don't care what the brand, is PRODUCTION, and coupled with the fact that you can cover large amounts of area, every day, all day, and not be dead. Quality directly follows. The fact that you aren't dead tired means that your application speed, which translates directly to the amount of product you are putting down, isn't effected. The machine dosn't care.

For spraying, well that's up to each individual. Some love the PG spray, some dont. Depends on the product you are using and the target pest.

Intimidating isn't it?

[RigglePLC]

Does your tire shop charge you less because they use an air wrench to remove the nuts? Course not. In my view you pay yourself about a dollar a minute. You charge for chemicals. And you essentially rent the Permagreen to the customer say at about a dollar a minute.

So you are trying to cover the costs of payments, gas and maintenance, plus in 10 years when it is depreciated and worn out you can afford to buy a new Permagreen, (at a higher price probably.)

[rcreech]

Originally Posted by Jason Rose

What in the flip are you talking about???

For starters it's a PERMAGREEN, all one word... And why in the flip would you charge less if you are using one?

The whole premise of a ride on spreader, don't care what the brand, is PRODUCTION, and coupled with the fact that you can cover large amounts of area, every day, all day, and not be dead. Quality directly follows. The fact that you aren't dead tired means that your application speed, which translates directly to the amount of product you are putting down, isn't effected. The machine dosn't care.

For spraying, well that's up to each individual. Some love the PG spray, some dont. Depends on the product you are using and the target pest.

Intimidating isn't it?

Exactly! Technically you could be able to charge more because now you have a $6000 piece of equipment to pay for!

I would keep my prices the same as where you are going to pay for the machine is increasing the amount of lawns you can do in a day which in return you can have more customers!

[Marcos]

Originally Posted by (wi) Roots

If you own a per a green are you able to charge less $$$$ against a Chem lawn gun an buggy? If so, sell me. I don't see the quality you would get out of a gun than a riding machine? How, do you get to those hard to get to places?

A smart businessman isn't looking for ways to "charge less" than the competition.
If that's what you're doing, I believe you're destined to be a short-lived operation.

What they're looking for are ways to provide better value to the customer than the competition in terms of things like overall better quality products applied, timely applications, better problem-solving abilities, better response time for complaints, better personalized face-to-face, e-mail, and phone customer service than the competition, etc...

(and I believe just about anyone could beat the average TGCL branch on response time! )

[garydale]

Increases your production,
Good material control.
There is always a tight spot to treat, however Squeeze bottle or handcan
will handle it.

Best of all you are not exhausted when you get home.

[lawnservice]

Originally Posted by (wi) Roots

If you own a per a green are you able to charge less $$$$ against a Chem lawn gun an buggy? If so, sell me. I don't see the quality you would get out of a gun than a riding machine? How, do you get to those hard to get to places?

I believe his question has to do with the way Permagreen markets their machine. Permagreen says you can charge less due to less time spent on a lawn (they average a lawn to be 1 acre)

I havent been on the permagren website in some time, but that was their marketing strategy as I recall. They claim you could charge less per app because of the time saved per app.
(they dont, or didnt, say anything about the time spent in repairs to their machine though, go figure?)

[(wi) Roots]

I can agree with the working to death part. However, I'm not servicing enough clients to purchase one now, but, I can see one in the future. My though of pricing under the competition isn't even a thought. The way I see my market in which I play a part is, if I do charge less than others than I'm only hurts my market. If I'm simular in cost in my market then whether the customer get service from me or another company, the customer can expect to pay what the market will bare. I work to say just above everyone else in cost and workmanship. Thanks for the responses!

[PHS]

A smart businessman isn't looking for ways to "charge less" than the competition.
If that's what you're doing, I believe you're destined to be a short-lived operation.

I agree 100%, but you can play that game a little bit and still have it be a good decision.

Say I'm spraying a lawn that takes 1 hour to spray with my backpack and charge $40. If I get a PG and can do the same amount in 15min certainly I don't want to drop my price to $10 per lawn to match my cost per hour. Ideally you would want to keep it at the same $40 per lawn but I may be able to drop it to $35 in a pinch and still come out ahead because the increase in production offsets the reduction in price.

I try to keep the price up and only use that reduction sparingly when I really want to get on a property. Like you say, guys get into trouble when they use the increase in production to undercut everyone and next thing you know they are in a race for the bottom with all of the other low-ballers. Not a business position I want to be in .