Pricing

[jhawk60]

Were I you I would take some of that money you are making and pick up a used 36" belt drive with a grass catcher. Your 30 minute mows would then be 15 minutes and a bi-weekly would only take about 25.

[Natural Impressions]

Originally Posted by jj123

I mow lawns in my neighborhood at $25 a week. the lawns are less than a quarter acre. what is a good price for every other week. I thought $55 because its twice as high and so much more work.

This is my take on how I handle bi weekly cuts. If a lawn is worth $25 ( my min. is $30) a week. bi weekly is $30. I explain it's a $5 add'l charge to hold that slot ever 2 weeks. If it seems to me that this particular lawn will grow to rapidly for a bi weekly cut, I explain to the homeowner I will not bag any grass clippings. If there is a mess, I can not be responible, but I will recommend that they go to a weekly cut at the $25 charge. I explain weekly cuts I will bag clippings if needed. I feel weekly cuts are my responsiblity to keep under control by raising or lowering hieght. Homeowners always seem to understand and appreciate that. Finally and to me this is very important. If I KNOW just by looking at the lawn that a bi weekly cut could not be possible cause this lawn will easliy grow at a rapid rate, I tell the customer I will not cut it bi weeky. If that is what they want then they can find someone else. Some lawns are too much of a head ache. With all the head aches I get with my weekly lawns through out the season, I definately don't want one on a bi weekly basis. It's not worth it.

[topsites]

Originally Posted by jj123

By the time its time to cut on a bi weekly the neighbor across the streets lawn is like 8 or 9 inches tall, even weekly its like 6 inches tall and I dont have a bagger mower that works right now. It cloggs the mower up so bad. on a nomal mow it should take about 30mins to mow cause all i have is a 21in mower but when its cut bi weekly it takes like 1hour and 15 minutes which is way too long.

Ohhh...
Well just cut the neighbor weekly and every 2nd time hers,
also raise your mower's height to the second-to-last setting.
For a 21" that's probably 3.5" and that helps some.

Cutting high saves me ALL of that hassle associated with tall grass
I used to think like a lot of folks do, that a short cut was the best way NOT to do as much work.
Nothing could be more wrong, short cuts promote weeds and it clumps like Crazy!
And the grass does NOT grow faster when cut high.
It might look a bit more agricultural, but that's only because it got cut on the high side.

MOST of my customers are bi-weeklies, I got my two regular mowers set to 4"
but my biggest mower can cut as high as 6"
I've let my own acre lot go a month between cuts before, I am telling you, 45 minutes and done.

So bi-weeklies, clumping, grass dying because of heat stress, you name it, the high cut fixes ALL of it.
And what it can't or doesn't fix, at least it still helps.

[DuraCutter]

Originally Posted by jj123

What Im getting with this is if i mow 4 times its 100 a month, if i mow 2 times it 110 a month, but if i would mow twice a month at 35 thats only 70 a month isnt that making me lose money

That my friend is lawncare logic. Ever lower we go...


But when I see my local grocer, geez prices are higher every year, my gas for the car keeps going up, hm... electricity same, dentist same etc...

[DuraCutter]

Originally Posted by topsites

Ohhh...
Well just cut the neighbor weekly and every 2nd time hers,
also raise your mower's height to the second-to-last setting.
For a 21" that's probably 3.5" and that helps some.

Cutting high saves me ALL of that hassle associated with tall grass
I used to think like a lot of folks do, that a short cut was the best way NOT to do as much work.
Nothing could be more wrong, short cuts promote weeds and it clumps like Crazy!
And the grass does NOT grow faster when cut high.
It might look a bit more agricultural, but that's only because it got cut on the high side.

MOST of my customers are bi-weeklies, I got my two regular mowers set to 4"
but my biggest mower can cut as high as 6"
I've let my own acre lot go a month between cuts before, I am telling you, 45 minutes and done.

So bi-weeklies, clumping, grass dying because of heat stress, you name it, the high cut fixes ALL of it.
And what it can't or doesn't fix, at least it still helps.

topsites, you're forgetting one thing, most people don't want it long, it looks like it wasn't done and most lawncare guys want it as short as possible so they can ruin the grass and by nearly killing it the idea is it'll be easier to take care of. I've seen that logic around condos a lot. While we we're doing our landscape project the lawncare guys are going around in their huge zero turns and funny thing is, you can see the dirt between the blades of grass, it's so thin. The heavy tires, the short cuts all conspire to kill the grass. Guess what, it doesn't grow much anymore and that's what the lawncare guy wants. He's getting so little money, probably the same paid in 1980 that he's looking for all the tricks he can.

[mhaley927]

If its 25 weekly I'd try 40 Bi-weekly. You cant insentivize bi-weekly

[yardguy28]

Originally Posted by Natural Impressions

This is my take on how I handle bi weekly cuts. If a lawn is worth $25 ( my min. is $30) a week. bi weekly is $30. I explain it's a $5 add'l charge to hold that slot ever 2 weeks. If it seems to me that this particular lawn will grow to rapidly for a bi weekly cut, I explain to the homeowner I will not bag any grass clippings. If there is a mess, I can not be responible, but I will recommend that they go to a weekly cut at the $25 charge. I explain weekly cuts I will bag clippings if needed. I feel weekly cuts are my responsiblity to keep under control by raising or lowering hieght. Homeowners always seem to understand and appreciate that. Finally and to me this is very important. If I KNOW just by looking at the lawn that a bi weekly cut could not be possible cause this lawn will easliy grow at a rapid rate, I tell the customer I will not cut it bi weeky. If that is what they want then they can find someone else. Some lawns are too much of a head ache. With all the head aches I get with my weekly lawns through out the season, I definately don't want one on a bi weekly basis. It's not worth it.

for the right price i'll deal with any head ache that comes my way.

what i've found is working really well for me right now is to cut a bi-weekly lawn once side discharging it. then going back over it with a catcher attached. this minimizes the amount of times i would empty the catcher if i were to cut it once with the catcher and chops up the clippings finer to save space in my truck bed.

works really well for me anyway.........