Getting to do this more and more, so i thought i would ask how you all do landscape maintenance pricing. Today i went to go give a bid for a commercial plce. Just a wine garden, but needs a bunch of weeds pulled and it needs to be maintained after and she liked the idea of mulch. I was thinking, $30-$40 for a base charge. And any additional hours charge $15 and hour. That is by myself and if i pay a friend $7.50 an hour then I will change price accordingly. Then i will figure out a weekly price or bi weekly for her once it is cleaned up the first time. How do you charge for this basic stuff?
How to price weeding
mwalz
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Getting to do this more and more, so i thought i would ask how you all do landscape maintenance pricing. Today i went to go give a bid for a commercial plce. Just a wine garden, but needs a bunch of weeds pulled and it needs to be maintained after and she liked the idea of mulch. I was thinking, $30-$40 for a base charge. And any additional hours charge $15 and hour. That is by myself and if i pay a friend $7.50 an hour then I will change price accordingly. Then i will figure out a weekly price or bi weekly for her once it is cleaned up the first time. How do you charge for this basic stuff?
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I charge by the hour for weeding and hedge trimming. Charge the going rate for mulch installation. Seems to work for me so far.
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i think you will go broke charging $15/hour and only $7.50 for extra help. i charge $30/hr and if i get help, its $50/hr and pay him $15. Next year's rate is going up to $35/hr
I charge $40 an hour, when not using equipment, and I operate solo.
I spray all weeds, as pulling them leaves most of the roots intact. Then, each returning visit is much easier to keep up the beds. I do that, no matter the type of account. If it's weekly, when you return after the initial spray, there will be a nice, crispy weed that you simply pick up. No pulling needed.
I'd suggest heavy, landscape fabric and gravel, for the least maintenance-intensive bed filler. If they have a lot of trees and heavy leaf accumulation, larger gravel works best, as it doesn't blow out when clearing the beds. Use of mulch means you're putting down something that will support life of falling seeds/nuts. If you have to do mulch, double-shred stays in place much better than single-shred. No fabric, under mulch.
I spray all weeds, as pulling them leaves most of the roots intact. Then, each returning visit is much easier to keep up the beds. I do that, no matter the type of account. If it's weekly, when you return after the initial spray, there will be a nice, crispy weed that you simply pick up. No pulling needed.
I'd suggest heavy, landscape fabric and gravel, for the least maintenance-intensive bed filler. If they have a lot of trees and heavy leaf accumulation, larger gravel works best, as it doesn't blow out when clearing the beds. Use of mulch means you're putting down something that will support life of falling seeds/nuts. If you have to do mulch, double-shred stays in place much better than single-shred. No fabric, under mulch.
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Thanks for the input! I'll bid her at $30 and hour, if she says $25 I'll agree, probably won't have help unless i get busy this weekend. With all this rain in the midwest i am getting backed up every week between school and my second job.
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Why would you haggle your hourly rate? If you can get a good feel for how long a job might take, just give her an estimate at a set price for the job. If the job's a bit more dynamic, then charge by the hour.
For what it's worth, going down to even $25/hr sounds way too cheap. I charge $15/hr for my 11 year old daughter when she works with me.
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Mainly for this particular job because if i get it, it could get me a lot more business because she always has a lot of people there on weekends. Maybe someone would ask Hey who did that, oh so and so here is his card. Say it takes 2 hours, what is $10 going to matter when I could possibly get more work out of it.
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$10 isnt much, but when that philosophy is repeated, it will spell trouble, dont get in the habit of giving away your time and effort for free. remember, that some of your potential clients actually make $200/hour and to them, $10 isnt much either
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It sounds good in theory, but the problem is, is that people talk. They're going to ask "who did this, what are their rates". Now you've got to talk yourself out of a hole, to get a higher rate for one person than you do for another.
figure out what your rates need to be based on the going rates for similar services in your area, the equipment you've invested in, and your other operating expenses. then just stick to it.
and as far as what you charge for helpers/employees.. ive only had a few people come out on bigger jobs with me over the years, but ive generally found that charging x3 the price i'm paying the worker works out well.
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Mwalz stick to 35/man hour its competitive and fair enough for missouri. That means for you and your worker 70/hr. If its a weeding for a residential custy I tell them 35 since it will take us ten/15 minutes. About the same amount of time and income I generate cutting their grass. If this lady has an hour worth of pulling weeds tell her 70. Like mentioned before stray away from hourly rates, you will do better for yourself.
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I ment to say stay away from disclosing your hourly rate to the customer. Just use it to help you formulate a price in your head. Sometimes. Other work like drainage, retaining walls, etc I use a competitive per sq/ft price that gives me a even better hourly rate but then again its not just pulling weeds or cutting grass. Still those are luxury services like having a maid so charge accordingly.
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For new clients who opt for regular bed maintenance, I spray all the weeds and grass first to get it killed off down to the root. Then the following week when their lawn gets serviced I yank up whats left. For that I'm usually at around $60 an hour depending on the amount of herbicide and amount of weeds but it rarely ever takes an hour to take care of it all. Then after the initial clean out I charge anywhere from $5 to $20 each service to go over the beds and keep them clear. $5 beds usually take a couple minutes to check out and more than half the time there is nothing to yank up. It works for me. The amount of the extra charge keeps me from hating dealing with going through the beds and the client rarely ever sees a weed in their bed.
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Create a real business budget if you intend on being in business long and expanding. From that you can figure out what you NEED to make per hour to pay expenses. Then add on your desired profit. I am running a small operation with plans for growth and one hour of costs is close to $40. Granted we are in very different areas, not the point. The point is being paid at $25 an hour means you are basically working as her employee not a business owner. This job is better to charge a set fee. Too late though it seems. Thats ok, do the job, do good work, and next time you'll be better at it. Its all about learning.
He's metro-STL/West County-ish. If he does great work, he's worth more than that.
That's exactly what I do. It's so much easier to only have to do a walk-around spray, after that. I've had some resistance to doing this, but, they eventually see the advantage, once things clear up.
Exactly!
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Guys,
Remember that Mwlaz is still just a kid.
hes 90% solo.
It's ok to have a lower hourly rate when you don't have all the costs associated with being out on your own with a family to support.
An Apprentice craftsman isn't worth as much as a a Journeyman, and in turn neither, even out together can earn the wage of a Master.
Weeding/gardening is tricky, if you don't know who to identify plants, you can end up pulling the wrong thing. Or not pulling enough of the things that need to be pulled.
Ultimately, The true definition of a weed is anything you don't want to be there.
but you have to know what stays and what goes and what the difference is.
that alone isn't just a "$7.50" laborer, as such, you can't really get someone to garden for that price, at least not one you want yanking on stuff.
Also weeding suck.
It's not "cool" like lawn mowing.
You're on your knees, getting muddy, attacked by insects, pain in back and neck, and it doesn't seem like you are getting much done, which gets boring and frustrating.
To keep someone on task and even remotely interested in doing it, you have to pay more.
Most customers really already know this, so they are trying to take advantage of the new kid to get some labor done, if they are trying to go for a lower price.
One of the posters above is right, I also charge less for gardening per hour, than for mowing, because I don't need equipment thats chewing up fuel, and Iv never broken a window with a gardener before.
$40/hr is fair… don't stoop to $15-$25.
Charge $40, pay your friend $12 or even $14…if the lady doesn't agree to your hourly price, oh well.
As to how many hours, try to figure based on a portion of a day.
Will it take a half day?
A full day?
Two days?
a day is 8 hours, half a day is 4 hours, two guys doing it? 8 man hours,
multiply by $40, and you have $320.
you might get it wrong, it might take longer than you think.
But oh well, you're learning right.
got to start somewhere.
If you price your guesses at $25 an hour… the guesses get more dangerous.
Save tight pricing for something you know more about, like mowing
Even without all the overheads of "the big boys" I still wouldn't go less than $35, because you will get 'type cast' at theta wage and it will take a long time to get out of that rut, like someone above mentioned.
Remember that Mwlaz is still just a kid.
hes 90% solo.
It's ok to have a lower hourly rate when you don't have all the costs associated with being out on your own with a family to support.
An Apprentice craftsman isn't worth as much as a a Journeyman, and in turn neither, even out together can earn the wage of a Master.
Weeding/gardening is tricky, if you don't know who to identify plants, you can end up pulling the wrong thing. Or not pulling enough of the things that need to be pulled.
Ultimately, The true definition of a weed is anything you don't want to be there.
but you have to know what stays and what goes and what the difference is.
that alone isn't just a "$7.50" laborer, as such, you can't really get someone to garden for that price, at least not one you want yanking on stuff.
Also weeding suck.
It's not "cool" like lawn mowing.
You're on your knees, getting muddy, attacked by insects, pain in back and neck, and it doesn't seem like you are getting much done, which gets boring and frustrating.
To keep someone on task and even remotely interested in doing it, you have to pay more.
Most customers really already know this, so they are trying to take advantage of the new kid to get some labor done, if they are trying to go for a lower price.
One of the posters above is right, I also charge less for gardening per hour, than for mowing, because I don't need equipment thats chewing up fuel, and Iv never broken a window with a gardener before.
$40/hr is fair… don't stoop to $15-$25.
Charge $40, pay your friend $12 or even $14…if the lady doesn't agree to your hourly price, oh well.
As to how many hours, try to figure based on a portion of a day.
Will it take a half day?
A full day?
Two days?
a day is 8 hours, half a day is 4 hours, two guys doing it? 8 man hours,
multiply by $40, and you have $320.
you might get it wrong, it might take longer than you think.
But oh well, you're learning right.
got to start somewhere.
If you price your guesses at $25 an hour… the guesses get more dangerous.
Save tight pricing for something you know more about, like mowing
Even without all the overheads of "the big boys" I still wouldn't go less than $35, because you will get 'type cast' at theta wage and it will take a long time to get out of that rut, like someone above mentioned.
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Well guys i appreciate the feedback, but she never returned my calls or texts. Not sure what happened. Ended up doing a 8.5 hour job for my grandmas neighbor in her backyard. I cut her a deal by about 35% of normal price for what i would have normally charged, mainly because of a few other circumstances that she is dealing with that aren't worth getting in to. She is more than satisfied with it, and going to put some weed killer on it this week. She doesn't want mulch because of the price considering the size, but I'm going to do mulch for her front yard at least.
Its all trial and error. A very simple and somewhat flawed way to judge how much to charge when you are just starting out is to ask yourself how much would I charge to mow this lawn, also ask how long would it take to mow this lawn.
If you'd charge $35 to mow it and it would take about an hour. You would obviously have an hourly rate of $35 an hour. The fact that you don't have fuel and equipment cost doesn't necessarily mean have to charge less per hour. That type of work is typically more labor intensive, and in my opinion that should count for something.
If I were you I'd also consider setting a minimum, especially if you are considering dropping your hourly rate below $30. Having a minimum will also give you some leeway with your time estimation while you learn how to price work. Try your best to track and record all the important data when you are getting into something new. If you measure sq. ft.. the bed you are weeding, then divide that number by how many minutes it take to complete the job you will begin to get a basic idea of how to price your labor rates for different types of services. Again, its trial and error. Good luck!
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If you'd charge $35 to mow it and it would take about an hour. You would obviously have an hourly rate of $35 an hour. The fact that you don't have fuel and equipment cost doesn't necessarily mean have to charge less per hour. That type of work is typically more labor intensive, and in my opinion that should count for something.
If I were you I'd also consider setting a minimum, especially if you are considering dropping your hourly rate below $30. Having a minimum will also give you some leeway with your time estimation while you learn how to price work. Try your best to track and record all the important data when you are getting into something new. If you measure sq. ft.. the bed you are weeding, then divide that number by how many minutes it take to complete the job you will begin to get a basic idea of how to price your labor rates for different types of services. Again, its trial and error. Good luck!
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