commercial prices

bidding on a shopping center. i am going to measure this weekend as long as we do not have a foot of snow. what prices do you guys charge per sq. foot for mowing, hedges, edging, etc...
the big is for mantainence only, from march to october. mulch is extra, plants, etc. thanks for the help.

all hedges are no more than 3 to 4 feet off the ground, small bushes but in long rows about 20-40 feet long. i am figuring this job would take atleast 4-5 hours a week. we would get 2 shopping centers and try and do them on a saturday, 4 hours each.

 

Not to be a smart a$$, or anything... but these questions can't be taken serious. Jobs are generally bid on time, not sq ft. If you have 2 jobs, both the same size... let's say 1 acre each. One is an open sqaure with no trees ect. The other has about 60 trees, sidewalks, picnic tables ect.. are you going to bid then the same because they are the same size? Heck no. look at all the trimming time involved in the 2nd one, plus the slower production from having to mow around everything. Best thing I can tell you with any type of job.. figure how much you need to make per hour to be happy.. figure how many man hours it will take to do the job.. there's your price.

 

never did a commercial account before thats why i asked. i would charge more for a commercial account than a residential per hour. i charge 60 an hour res. for bushes. was not sure if you guys charged a fixed price per sq. foot for mowing.

 

We dont measure lawns to be mowed, look the property over, walk the property,take into consideration any mowing difficulty keep in mind most commerical propertys that you mentioned above always have trash to be picked up before you mow. the only job that would need to be measured are the beds for mulching.

 

I don't know about your area, but here... commercial jobs pay less per hour than residential.. Most residentials are about $75-100 per hour, where commercials are $45-$60 per hour. (man hour) The bigger LCOs go after the commercial jobs for one reason (full service accounts) mowing is the area of this business with the least profit. You want to do everything for a customer. Mow, fert, gardening, snow, ect. It is much harder to get this from a res. than a comm.

 

You said that you charge $60. an hour for bushes, how did you come up with that figure?

 

i came up with 60 an hour just from experience doing bushes. i had a couple customers just have me do the bushes then let them know how much it was going to be. most of the jobs were taking about 3-4 hours so i broke it down to 60 dollars an hour. they were happy with the prices. commercial i do not have experience with. trash pick up is not a problem, pretty clean area. i know the property well, lived next to it for a while, the gym i go to is in there also. also this contract is mantainence only, not a winter contract, beds are an extra charge (will quote them when needed). Mowing will be 4-5 hours, trim/blow 1 hour(2 people working). i was thinking about $30,000, march-october. that includes fert, bushes, mowing. i know you do not know how big it is, but just by my time estimates, low or high $. i believe they spent 38,000 last year.

 

Are you a certified pest app? you believe they spent $38,000 last year how do you know this ? if they told you what the bid was last year then if i were you I would have bid it at $37,999. Please tell me what area you do business in because I want to move there and set up another business.

 

i know how much they spent because my partner owns a store in the center. he gets a breakdown on what they spend. thats how i know.

 

if you know what they paid last year- WHY IN THE HELL would you under cut by $8, 0 0 0 !!!!!! Also working on a sat. at a mall might be very difficult- many people shopping and possible accidents ( or people just looking for free money )
I'm not trying to be an ass, just want you to think
"Work smarter NOT harder" Joel