[A1 Grass]

I am in San Antonio, Texas. I know that this town is notorious for LOW wages but I need some confidence boosting from people who know!

I do not discuss hourly rates with customers, just the flat bid. I have gotten looks of utter astonishment from people when I quote a price for some work. Take a look at my rates and tell me if they don't sound REALLY LOW as it is... please...

Mowing - .75min (32"Scag)
Other yardwork - $30pmh
Fertilizing - same as Mow + fertilizer + pickup
Mulch spreading - $5bag + mulch + pickup
Trimming bushes - $5/$10/$15/$20/etc each
Hauling - $50 truckload (not incl load time)
Pickup/Del (local) - $20 under 300# / $30+ over 300#

I gave a price of $30 on a 15x3x3 holly hedge. That's LOW, isn't it? I wish I had a pic...

Whad'ya think? Please tell me your rates so I can compare.

A thou$and thanks!

 

[A1 Grass]

I pushed this thread back up once more in the hopes of some feedback. Here's why:

I am new at this game and want to be realistic in my bidding. I need some comparisons. I do NOT want to be the cheapest around, OR the most expensive.

I understand if people may not want to discuss their personal rates out in the open, so feel free to private message me.

Thanks

 

[tiedeman]

trimming bushes I would have at an hourly rate. I feel your lawn care rate should be $1.00 per min. $30 per man per hour sounds good to me. Because think about $1.00 per min, is $60 for an hour. So 2 guys working is $60 per hour.

 

[GLAN]

rates is determined by location and what the area sustains.

Many factors need to be considered.

Living expenses for the area.
Average income for the area
Cost of housing and so on.

Your business overhead

I am not the cheapest out there. Can't be, would not survive. I am not over priced either. For I would not acquire new accounts.

I do however cater to a particular group. We only provide full service. Shrub trimming for this year 95%. Less than 2% of all the accounts are the basic weekly with spring and fall cleanup. If I can't get them to go for lawn apps. next year. Bye, bye.

Weekly maintenance no less than $2.50 a minute
Any other work minimum $40 and up per man hour. Not all the men are at equal pay. Not all work is the same.

 

[tiedeman]

very true Glan

 

[dvmcmrhp52]

$2.50 per minute for weekly maintenance?? Ya right,
and the cow jumped over the moon with the fork and the spoon.

 

[A1 Grass]

$2.50 a minute?? Wow. I guess if you can do a $35 yard in 14 minutes, I'm REALLY IMPRESSED! Leaves me a little room for improvement.

I'll hafta bust out on the WHEATIES!

 

[bobbygedd]

u cant charge hourly for mowing, u will get smoked. what if the lawn is tiny, 2k, u r in and out in 10 min, are u gonna charge $7.50? i always quote prices, not hourly rates for mowing, and hope it works out to at least our hourly rate, now with mowing, u can always get more economical because as time goes on, and u become used to the property, where every little bump is, etc, u can get it done faster, but not with trimming, leaves, etc. we charge hrly for that.

 

[GLAN]

Originally posted by A1 Grass
$2.50 a minute?? Wow. I guess if you can do a $35 yard in 14 minutes, I'm REALLY IMPRESSED! Leaves me a little room for improvement.

I'll hafta bust out on the WHEATIES!

suprised noone noticed me saying this before. A crew does 5 - 6 residential in an hour. For some of you that would be the "postage stamp" type of property.

We have many properties that are in the area of 60' x 100' where I am. Yes there are some smaller and yes, there are larger. We do commercial of 1 - 3 acres and estates in the 3 acre range.

The minimum we charge is $25 weekly.

25x6=150 / 60 minutes = 2.5 a minute

 

[GLAN]

Originally posted by bobbygedd
u cant charge hourly for mowing, u will get smoked. what if the lawn is tiny, 2k, u r in and out in 10 min, are u gonna charge $7.50? i always quote prices, not hourly rates for mowing, and hope it works out to at least our hourly rate, now with mowing, u can always get more economical because as time goes on, and u become used to the property, where every little bump is, etc, u can get it done faster, but not with trimming, leaves, etc. we charge hrly for that.

Exactly, thanks bobby.

But as for trimming and leaves. If I charged hourly I would be charging less than I do now

 

[QuadRacer041]

Originally posted by GLAN
Exactly, thanks bobby.

But as for trimming and leaves. If I charged hourly I would be charging less than I do now

how often do u do a leave clean up at each home?i cut each house once a week and usually in the fall clean leaves at each house every other week and charge for a double cut.
if i charge $35 per cut that means i charge $70 for a leaf clean up

 

[A1 Grass]

Originally posted by GLAN
suprised noone noticed me saying this before. A crew does 5 - 6 residential in an hour. For some of you that would be the "postage stamp" type of property.

We have many properties that are in the area of 60' x 100' where I am. Yes there are some smaller and yes, there are larger. We do commercial of 1 - 3 acres and estates in the 3 acre range.

The minimum we charge is $25 weekly.

25x6=150 / 60 minutes = 2.5 a minute

Okay, so really it's 2.50 per minute divided by the number of crew members. I think that's what everybody meant.

When I say .75 per minute, that's per man, so going by what you are saying, if I had 3 guys in my crew I'd be charging $3.00 a minute!

 

[GLAN]

Originally posted by QuadRacer041
how often do u do a leave clean up at each home?i cut each house once a week and usually in the fall clean leaves at each house every other week and charge for a double cut.
if i charge $35 per cut that means i charge $70 for a leaf clean up

Sycamores around here drop all year long. As the leaves fall they are blown onto the lawn and picked up with the cutting.

October it get worse. We still make the weekly, our timing gets slower, but they are all completed with leaves removed by the end of the week.

The last Saturday in October the clocks change. That last week we can complete the week but do cheat a bit with the leaves, only to complete the week.

November there is no schedule. We make no less than 3 visits till we are done by mid December. Flate rate for fall cleanup beginning November.

 

[GLAN]

Originally posted by A1 Grass
Okay, so really it's 2.50 per minute divided by the number of crew members. I think that's what everybody meant.

When I say .75 per minute, that's per man, so going by what you are saying, if I had 3 guys in my crew I'd be charging $3.00 a minute!

Thanks A1
Surprised I did not realize that. Oops....................:blush:

Around .50 - .55 or so a minute. Weekly is not a money maker around here.

 

[QuadRacer041]

does your price for each visit stay the same for october or do you raise everyone?
also when you bid your job, how do you know how long it is gonna take for leaf clean ups in the fall?so how do you calculate your bids?

 

[GLAN]

Originally posted by QuadRacer041
does your price for each visit stay the same for october or do you raise everyone?
also when you bid your job, how do you know how long it is gonna take for leaf clean ups in the fall?so how do you calculate your bids?

I don't charge anything extra in October for leaves.

The thing with calculating is that you can complicate things further than is needed. Do you know for a fact that everytime you get to an account to clean the leaves it did not rain the day or night before? Wet leaves realy does bring down your estimate time.

For everything else by hourly rate or a straight up price quote?
Straight up price quote. Give you an example. In another post about shrub trimming. I wrote; "I can trim an account my self and do $150 for the hour" Now do I tell the client that I charge $150 an hour? Or I can have 2 men do the work at a house that is say for the 2 of them 1 hour each. Plus about 15 minutes to cleanup. that 2.5 man hours. Charge that customer $175 - $200.

I know what the maximums I can charge for any of the services we provide. And I know what my peers charge. When I say peers, those that we consider to be equal. I would not ask a butcher what he charges, as I would not ask a start up what he charges. They are competing with me.

And this year 2003 I did an across the board price increase. I have gained 3 - 5 full service clients a month in the last 4 months.