Lawn Care Forum banner

There is no easy money!!!

3K views 18 replies 11 participants last post by  all degree 
#1 ·
I am 75% lawn care and do one or two fairly large installs per month. Last week a neighbor comes up to me and wants the curb areas in front of her house rocked (8x15 and 5x8 115sq ft). I really do not want to do it so I give her an estimate right there. Two tons of stone some fabric($100), an hour of prep, an hour to lay it. OK $375.

She says OK. So last night I go over to do the prep figuring I will rock it on Sat. I spent two and half hours with another guy just trying to get the area 2"below grade so I could lay the rock. (its still not finished) I am so sore today its unbelievable. I will still make some good money off it but it seems that things are always harder than they look.

Anyone esle like me always picturing things much easier than they are????

By the way the reason I did it during the week was b/c this is a summer house for them and I figured it was not going to take me that long. So I wanted to do it when they were not there so that they did not get pissed if it only took me 1.5 hours. Man was I wrong.
 
#3 ·
One thing I have learned over the last few years is to always take a shovel with you when doing the estimate and try to dig a small section in the area where you will be working. It's important to know how hard and compacted or rocky the soil is because that is where you will lose the most money.
 
#6 ·
21/2 hrs for 2 men and your not done yet, Why after the first 15 min. you did not figure that it was going to take longer than you expected and go rent a bobcat or mini- excavator to make the job easier and quicker. It would of cut into your profit margin but so does 3 times as long as you estimated plus the job would have been finished.

Mac
 
#7 ·
Dirt you are in a dreamworld if you think that I would rent a bobcat for a $375 job. I have an one man hour left to do the stone. The hours are as expected it was just that I sweated a lot more than I thought I would.

High Grass I do the same thing with the I dont want to do it thing... Should have done it on this one
 
#11 ·
Originally posted by all degree
Dirt you are in a dreamworld if you think that I would rent a bobcat for a $375 job. I have an one man hour left to do the stone. The hours are as expected it was just that I sweated a lot more than I thought I would.

High Grass I do the same thing with the I dont want to do it thing... Should have done it on this one
So you going to have 7 man hrs + materials in a job that you did not want to do. I'm not living in a dream world you need to learn to estimate how long and how much work is involved before giving an estimate. If you would have rented a skid steer you would have had at the most $150 in it and 1-1/2 man hrs. How much did you pay the other guy becuase you could subtract off the $150. So by the time you did the whole job possably 3 hrs total that still leaves 5 hrs for a more profitable job. Don't step over quarters to pick up nickels.

Mac
 
#13 ·
Dirt I agree BUT we are talking about a $375 job that consist (if you read my post) of two areas of 5'x15' adn 5'x8' you have to admit a bobcat or skid steer rental is a bit of overkill. The point of the post was to share stories of how nothing is ever as easy as you imagine as a pro.

If I rent a machine we are talking at least $250 a day in my area. Stone and fabric for this job is about $100. I MAKE $25. RIght now as it stands I have my 3.5 hours of time, helper 2.5 hours at 10/hr and material $100. So I am in for $125 I make a couple hundred for 3 hours.

My original point was in my mind I saw an hour of prep for JUST me and then an hour of install for Just me.

But I am with you on the machine rental on bigger jobs. They big ones never give you a prob. It ones like this (120sq ft) that always scew me up
 
#14 ·
Larry I'm not trying to bust your hump on this just pointing out that you rent the skid steer for a half of day. and since you did not want the job anyway why waste a whole day on it ? I take and break even on this one and go to a profitable job for the rest of the day. And even on small jobs you should figure in the price of machine so that you can eventually own one and won't have to rent. If the job does not pay enough to juustify the cost of rental I pass on it that manual labor stuff sucks lol

Mac
 
#16 ·
I'm gonna admit that I have been in your work boots and although I priced the job like the big boys, I used the equipment from my kids sandbox.
Ya come out of it sore but every experience is a learning experience. Kinda makes me enjoy sitting on the mower, cutting grass.
 
#19 ·
UPDATE:

Finished the job. Here are the results

Paid man hours 5, total material cost $82.

Billed $375 labor $12 (all hours were me except for one)
Profit before ovberhead $281 or about $70/hr for my labor.

So it worked out ok.

I am not going to lie though I will never unload 1-3" river jacks without a bobcat again. The 1" river jacks are easy but the big ones are impossible to shovel. I am in really good shape and work out and i have never been so sore.

I was really hating my life on saturday moring shoveling the 2 tons of rock out of my truck. Oh well I made a couple bucks to go play poker in AC.

Thanks for all the advice...
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top