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Stand On Blower prediction rate?

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#21 ·
SS Lawn Care said:
I think you need to price it based on what the job is worth. How big is the property, how many leaves are on site, and what is the difficulty factor? The job is worth what it is regardless of what method you use and what equipment you use. Let's say it's valued at $400, and then look at 2 scenarios. Scenario 1: 2 guys with backpack blowers and tarps, and a leaf loader takes 3 hours. Scenario 2: 2 guys, one with a windstorm, and the other with a back pack using the same leaf loader takes 1.5 hours. The reason Scenario 2 is faster is because you invested more money into a better piece of leaf moving equipment. You don't want to devalue that expensive piece of equipment by cutting down your price (based on hours) because you are faster. The only way to pay for more expensive equipment is to increase your hourly rate, in this example it would have to double. You can do this because you are faster. More work in less time. That is more valuable. If you price based on what the job is worth, it's your benefit to find out ways to increase your speed. The faster you get a job done, the more jobs you can do in a day to generate money.
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We don’t know what the jobs are worth, we do not drive to the lead request as we get 25 requests per day, outside of our normal clients.
 
#22 ·
Brucey said:
The more efficient equipment you have, the faster the job can be completed. But then if you are bidding an hourly rate the clients mind might be blown by say $200 an hour, versus a job price.
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Right and that’s part of the problem. Sticker shock on the hourly price. The second problem is that we would not have one for every job or every crew. So then you need to track which jobs are quoted at $x and which are $Y.

we thought about just selling it as a separate line item, a charge for using a peace of equipment, similar to how we bid jobs that require rental equipment, but then it requires a customer education, and if we don’t end up using it, they might ask why
 
#26 ·
I have two 580BTS backpacks, and a 14HP Billy-Goat self propelled walk behind. My properties are large commercial with a lot of maples. The walk-behind works really well, but it still takes awhile. I'm seriously considering a stand-on blower - compared to the walk-behind it has two and a half main advantages:
1.) Multi-directional nozzle discharge
2.) More blowing power
2.5) Less fatigue from full-ride on. The walk-behind is self propelled and pushes pretty easily, but there is no power reverse and you're still doing a ton of walking on a 3-5 acre property.

The price is what's holding me back. It's a pretty one-dimensional product that will likely be used for spring and fall cleanups and nothing else. I'm probably more likely to invest in a $700 JRCO front mount for the blower on my zero-turn mower, although I wonder how well that would actually work.
 
#27 ·
The advantage of the blower buggy would be that you could easily blow in reverse direction (where the Billy goat doesn't have self propelled). And prob faster overall with definitely less stress on the body. Downside is now you have a pretty long rig to deal with
 
#28 ·
troverman said:
I have two 580BTS backpacks, and a 14HP Billy-Goat self propelled walk behind. My properties are large commercial with a lot of maples. The walk-behind works really well, but it still takes awhile. I'm seriously considering a stand-on blower - compared to the walk-behind it has two and a half main advantages:
1.) Multi-directional nozzle discharge
2.) More blowing power
2.5) Less fatigue from full-ride on. The walk-behind is self propelled and pushes pretty easily, but there is no power reverse and you're still doing a ton of walking on a 3-5 acre property.

The price is what's holding me back. It's a pretty one-dimensional product that will likely be used for spring and fall cleanups and nothing else. I'm probably more likely to invest in a $700 JRCO front mount for the blower on my zero-turn mower, although I wonder how well that would actually work.
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"IF" it doesn't work, you're out $700. JRCO also makes a "Blower Buggy". I used on for years on a 4 acre property. It did a nice job once I got used to the weight forward. It's in the $700 range too.
 
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#30 ·
So, I just ordered a different setup from Fabworks OEM in TN. I'm in it $389 shipped. Basically it mounts a bar across the caster wheel arms with a 2" receiver hitch in it. The mount is a drop hitch with a few different heights so you can get your blower as close to the ground as possible. The mount is simply two arms that come forward off the drop with u-channels to cradle your blower's axle. There is another mount to your blower's handlebar supports which attaches a short chain back down to the receiver hitch to prevent the blower from tipping forward but also allows you to adjust the rake and pitch of the front of the blower. In the end, the whole thing is suspended off the ground, which means you haven't lost any of the zero turn's maneuverability like the blower buggies do. It's also easier to get the blower on and off the mount, and the drop hitch removes easily with a pin when you want just the mower. I'm willing to give it a try, especially at the price. Will post pics when I get it and have it installed.
 
#33 ·
Quoting leaf removal has always been a pain in the neck. If you have productive equipment (stand on blowers) you have to charge an hourly rate that will make most people choke. If you do flat rate you benefit greatly from increased productivity, but you also run the risk of losing money.

We normally quote per hourly with a minimum service visit fee for most residential clients. Most of our commercial clients require fixed numbers.
 
#35 ·
grass man 11 said:
Raise the hourly ?
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Yes.

When you invest 15k into a machine that cuts down time, then you charge more to make up for the fact that you are faster. I wouldn't charge $100 an hour to shovel someone's driveway with a 24in shovel when it would take me over an hour. I would charge at LEAST $100 an hour to plow with my tractor because I'm done in 10 minutes. That being said, I don't charge by the hour anyway... Lol

I had a person complain once that they were getting charged $60 and we (2 of us) were only there 20 minutes. Once it was explained that the mower was over 15k dollars, and the experience level of both people, then they understood why it costs what it costs.
 
#36 ·
HardDegard said:
Yes.

When you invest 15k into a machine that cuts down time, then you charge more to make up for the fact that you are faster. I wouldn't charge $100 an hour to shovel someone's driveway with a 24in shovel when it would take me over an hour. I would charge at LEAST $100 an hour to plow with my tractor because I'm done in 10 minutes. That being said, I don't charge by the hour anyway... Lol

I had a person complain once that they were getting charged $60 and we (2 of us) were only there 20 minutes. Once it was explained that the mower was over 15k dollars, and the experience level of both people, then they understood why it costs what it costs.
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we have yet to come up with a good idea besides just keeping this unit on flat rate jobs. We can’t quote all customers a new higher hourly rate, as we only own one of them, and its too big to use on smaller jobs. So some jobs might get it and others might not. I would also require educating the client as you pointed out. It’s honestly something I over looked.
 
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