Pricing out a commercial job

I was woundering if somebody could help me out with this,I don't want to loose my shirt,but I want to get my foot in the door. It's a bank we have here in town,it has roughly 200,000ft. of exposed land that needs to be mowed. I was figuring 2hrs. to mow this. I will be using my Scag with a 61" deck,and Iwas figuring on 26 mows for the season. Also the company from last year mulched the beds,should I include a new mulching for this year or just rake it over to make it look nice?
I was also woundering about the sand that gets on the lawn from the winter,should I figure on renting a sweeper for the lawn to remove the sand as well as sweeping up the parking lot?
I have a pretty good idea of the cost of the trimming,they also want to have it fertilized 2x's a year thats alot of fert, how do I price that as well.
Thanks, Todd

 

22 reviews, not 1 reply!

I really want to get some commercial accounts, but need some help along the way as far as bidding. Any input is greatly appeciated!

 

DPM,
Try chargeing by the man hour.
I dont know how you bid know but that is how I and the big boy's charge.
30...40...$per. man hour
2 people 60 an hour and so on.
Ask the customer if they want the mulch redone
and the sand will get rid of it's self after a rain or 2

 

I think you are going to short your self on the mowing time. I would figure acre per hour to mow.Thats over 4.5 acres. I might only charge $50 an acre to fert. but i use a ride on fert. machine so not much labor . As for the mulch I would ask the bank what they wanted.

 

price it per man hour. Fert $3 per 1,000 sqf. 200 X $3 = $600 per ap.

 

Thanks for all the responses. I appreciate the help.

 

15-25.00 per acre ( Mow & trim )

139.00 per acre to fert ( with a 4step app. )

40-50.00 per yd. of A grade mulch ( installed )

*** Based on the 4.5 acres, anything less and the price goes up 10-15%

Oh...by the way, these are not my prices... just the average for our area.