I price by shrub size and quantity. The bigger they are the more it costs and the more there are the more it costs also depends on how hard clean up will be
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I've done a couple of searches on here and it looks like an even consensus between charging by the hour or by the bush or flat rate. So in order to make things easier for me and to cover my cost of clean up, dump fees and pay my helper its looking like I'll charge same as my mowing fee. Roughly $60/hour. With a wide variety of work involved...trimming, raking, bagging, dumping. Some on the ladder, most are not, it will be a good way to start and see how it goes. I can tweak it later.

I really did not want the shrub job but I did want to cut the grass so he can take it or leave and it will not hurt my feelings at all.

The more I do these yards and get a feel for the work and equipment needed...at $1.00/minute is not only fair, it may be a little cheap. At $1.00/minute or $60/hour you get me, my helper, equipment, gas, oil, blades, travel AND the work done. Most service based work meaning appliance repair, plumber, electrician, etc. you pay a service call of $75.00-$100.00 just for them to show up. They have not even begun to work yet. Then the per hour charge kicks in. Why should I be any different??

 

I've done a couple of searches on here and it looks like an even consensus between charging by the hour or by the bush or flat rate. So in order to make things easier for me and to cover my cost of clean up, dump fees and pay my helper its looking like I'll charge same as my mowing fee. Roughly $60/hour. With a wide variety of work involved...trimming, raking, bagging, dumping. Some on the ladder, most are not, it will be a good way to start and see how it goes. I can tweak it later.

I really did not want the shrub job but I did want to cut the grass so he can take it or leave and it will not hurt my feelings at all.

The more I do these yards and get a feel for the work and equipment needed...at $1.00/minute is not only fair, it may be a little cheap. At $1.00/minute or $60/hour you get me, my helper, equipment, gas, oil, blades, travel AND the work done. Most service based work meaning appliance repair, plumber, electrician, etc. you pay a service call of $75.00-$100.00 just for them to show up. They have not even begun to work yet. Then the per hour charge kicks in. Why should I be any different??

Really depends somewhat on what the competition is doing. You don't want to price yourself out of jobs but you still want to get what you are worth. What part of Arkansas?

I know here in Fort Smith that I will generally look over the shrubs, kind of shrubs and trees(Crape Myrtles more than anything else) and price accordingly but generally it comes out to about $50 per hour per person if I am staying through one job. If I were doing two jobs say one right across the street then it would usually come out a little higher than $50 per hour per person.

 

If its a fair amount of bushes I charge $50-$60 an hour (covers gas, oil, blades, help, hauling off or not, etc....)

If its a small job I'll charge by the bush - $10 for large bushes and $3-$5 for smaller bushes.

 

We have a lady that pays $95 a visit the yard only takes about 15 mins to cut the yard but the shrubs can take up to an hour to trim and clean up but we dont have to haul off the trimmings
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I have all the yards I want for $60.00/hour mowing. I don't care if I price my self out on bush trimming. So if I get it or not makes NO difference to me. I still stand by my same price for the bushes. They will accept or reject. I win either way!

Said it before and I will say it again. In my area THE thing I hear the most is "no one shows up" or "you (I) am the only one taking new yards" so with that kind of demand its a 'name your price market' here in NWA! Over in Bella Vista they cut yards for $85.00/hour!! Wish I was over there. I'd go full time in a heart beat!

 

I have all the yards I want for $60.00/hour mowing. I don't care if I price my self out on bush trimming. So if I get it or not makes NO difference to me. I still stand by my same price for the bushes. They will accept or reject. I win either way!

Said it before and I will say it again. In my area THE thing I hear the most is "no one shows up" or "you (I) am the only one taking new yards" so with that kind of demand its a 'name your price market' here in NWA! Over in Bella Vista they cut yards for $85.00/hour!! Wish I was over there. I'd go full time in a heart beat!

Yeah...a lot of older people with some $$$ in Bella Vista. I have the same issue in my area with LCO's not showing up and other various fly by night guys not show up either. I get a lot of calls where the customer specifically states that is the issue. I tell them what happens is a lot of these guys around here price themselves too cheap early in the year so they can fill their schedules but as the season wears on they start picking and choosing what yards they want to do. I have never done that.

 

Well, first off, are you TRIMMING or PRUNING? There's a huge difference bt the two. If you are uneducated on plants I would first gain some knowledge before you go around cutting things. I would much rather take on gardening work all day long. Don't have to lug around mowers and weedeaters and it you can charge a premium if you know what your doing.
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I charge about $30-$40 an hour for that kind of work.
This price does not include any hauling of brush.

 

Update:
Sleeping on it last night I have decided to decline the trimming of the bushes. I informed the client this morning. Bottom line is I have all the work I can handle and right now have no business over extending myself with work I don't normally do anyway. Have not heard back but I told him I would understand if he wanted to find one company that did it all. Thanks to all here!

 

Just went to go look at a house today for hedge trimming, tell me what you guys think of my bid. $15 for the tall bush this one is about 7-8 feet tall and either $40 ish for the 40 ft length of waste high bushes or I could do $1.50 per ft which is $60. But I think the $60 may be a little bit to high.
Also, I have the 1 story house with 140 feet of gutters which I was going to charge $140 because the roof pitch is to high to walk on. I also wash out all the gutters to make so all left of debris is clear.

I charge what a lot of other people charge waist to shoulder height $10, since its over my shoulders I added $5. Could you guys also suggest if its better to use the $1.50 when you cant tell how many bushes are in the row or use a different method for bidding?

Thanks

 

Well, first off, are you TRIMMING or PRUNING? There's a huge difference bt the two. If you are uneducated on plants I would first gain some knowledge before you go around cutting things. I would much rather take on gardening work all day long. Don't have to lug around mowers and weedeaters and it you can charge a premium if you know what your doing.
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I would guess that by the question, he's hacking.

 

Just went to go look at a house today for hedge trimming, tell me what you guys think of my bid. $15 for the tall bush this one is about 7-8 feet tall and either $40 ish for the 40 ft length of waste high bushes or I could do $1.50 per ft which is $60. But I think the $60 may be a little bit to high.
Also, I have the 1 story house with 140 feet of gutters which I was going to charge $140 because the roof pitch is to high to walk on. I also wash out all the gutters to make so all left of debris is clear.

I charge what a lot of other people charge waist to shoulder height $10, since its over my shoulders I added $5. Could you guys also suggest if its better to use the $1.50 when you cant tell how many bushes are in the row or use a different method for bidding?

Thanks

$1.50 per ft seems cheap. Seems like there should be several prices like below the knee (small) is 1.50 per ft. Knee to waist height is $2.00 per ft. Waist to chest is $2.50. Chest to top of head or abt 6' is $2.50 per ft? Plus width...a hedge can be a few ft wide or 6 ft wide.

Does your $1.50 include clean up and removal?

 

$1.50 per ft seems cheap. Seems like there should be several prices like below the knee (small) is 1.50 per ft. Knee to waist height is $2.00 per ft. Waist to chest is $2.50. Chest to top of head or abt 6' is $2.50 per ft? Plus width...a hedge can be a few ft wide or 6 ft wide.

Does your $1.50 include clean up and removal?

Very true, Im still very new to pricing things. I have a guide that seemed to be pretty good when you can count the amount of bushes there are, but I couldn't do that in this situation.

I try to get $65 per hour trimming bushes and I trimmed these hedges an another small bush and cleaned up in I believe less than 35 mins. But, I kinda of just thought of a price for it.

 

Pricing $50 or $60 seem much easier than $1.50 to $2.50 per ft

 

Estimate how long you think it will take you to complete the job including hauling it off and dumping it. Figure out what you want to be paid per hour. Now ad the dump fee. It really is that easy.

What are you using to cut the brush?

 

Estimate how long you think it will take you to complete the job including hauling it off and dumping it. Figure out what you want to be paid per hour. Now ad the dump fee. It really is that easy.

What are you using to cut the brush?

Let say a hedge trimmer... Packing them in yard bags and leave it for collection but take the britches. If I do 140ft 6 height bush I should be 2 hrs or less.

 

It's always by your hourly rate plus dump fees and what I call the hard to do factor. That is hillsides or ladder work or how far away from the truck. Sometimes you pad the bill because that is what they expected to pay.

 

I price no less than $100/ hour. But I am experienced and work twice as fast as the average person. You should be ok charging $50 / hour.

 

you should still be charging $50 an hour. It doesn't matter how fast you can work.

 

Or how slow??

 

the best way IMHO to price anything is getting a good estimate on how long a project will take you, a day? half a day? 4 days? Doesn't take too much skill to trim but i think it should be priced more than what you make per hour mowing.

Most people can trim, yes there's a proper way and time to do it i.e safer for plants not in summer but that's when most want it trimmed from Spring growth doesn't look crisp, pruning things to the collar so it heals over rather than leaving a stub that'll rot and let rot into the tree, maintaining a central leader for pyramidal shaped trees, removing suckers, something like virginia creeper taking over the plant should be traced down to the root and uproot as much as possible, keeping clean/sanitized blades for certain plants to not introduce disease or something from other plants, things like that can be done wrong though.

I actually kinda like trimming, it's the clean up that can be a pita but sometimes you can mulch mow and blow small clippings somewhere beneficial like right back under the tree as natural mulch, thorns can be a pita to clean.

But basically anything should be priced higher than a mowing rate, most can do the trimming but they just don't want to or make the time to or buy and maintain the tools for it, same with mowing. I mean, some are making 800+ a day just mowing, but also your area can dictate a lot - if it's an expensive area like nj/ny/california people make more money there, so your price should be higher than somewhere like in the middle of no where middle of the country where you can get a brand new 2 story house for like 250k that would cost 650k in an expensive area. So find your state/area average income and go from there, most aren't running a business for average income there's lots of easier jobs that pay average, in an expensive state/area some price for a 6 figure-rate, some around 80k-rate, many charge something like a 150k+ rate.

 

I took a 2 hour nap in the park after lunch yesterday. I still got my $50 an hour.