Regular lawn care prices and equipment suggestions.

I started a pressure washing / deck staining business last summer. This spring we are starting lawn service. 9 of my pressure wash customers have already indicated interest in full-service lawn care and I'm still pulling those strings. My other advertising consists of Facebook ads (I've spent about $50 so far) and flyers door-to-door (I'm a college kid neighbors don't care if I put flyers at their door.)

So my questions are about pricing and equipment for lawn care service.

For pricing, my region is suburban DC where people tend to have a good amount of $$ to spend. The lots are typically around 10,000sq/ft. (normal suburban house size and property and a good amount of trees. For our full-service lawn plan, which consists of weekly mowing, blowing, trimming, edging, and fertilization 3-5 times per year, I'm thinking about charging $395/month with another few hundred a season for spring/fall cleanups. (obviously this can be adjusted based on size of the property) It should take me and my buddy less than a hour to knock off each house once a week, so what do think about our prices. Do you think we can go even higher than $395/month??

Also for equipment, I'm looking for cheap but effective. I need 1 good lawn mower, 1 leaf blower (doesn't even need to be a backpack blower for now), 1 edger and 1 trimmer. I already have a Toyota pickup truck. Maybe I'll get a trailer but for now those 4 pieces of equipment will be my biggest expenses, so if I can keep the price for this equipment down to a minimum that would be ideal. If anyone has any suggestions for cheap but decent equipment let me know please.

 

I’m going to recommend finding and building a great relationship with a local mower equipment dealer ( can be John Deere,toro, stag, etc). They may have some in good condition used mowers and may be able to help with new stuff, if you want to go new instead of used. By having that good relationship with the dealer they can help with down time and provide advice on tips/trips to get more out of your equipment. Price wise, I’m going to leave that you as you know your market better than I do. Also I’d get advice from people on here that are smarter than me and maybe more local to your market, but I guess that the pricing sounds reasonable.

 

Don’t forget commercial truck insurance and general liability as well.

Depending on where you’re at don’t forget most places in the US you need an applicators license to put fertilizer down.

 

$395/month seems kinda low to me.

$395/4 cuts-month = $98.75
$98.75/2 man hrs = $49.38/man hr

Add in the fertilizer cost and application time and that $49.38/man hr will get even lower.

If I were you I’d just roll with the mowing and leave the apps alone. You more than likely need a commercial applicators license and will have to have GL ins to be in compliance(I’d get a GL policy and commercial auto ins regardless).

 

Doing some quick math, our pricing for mn.
For 10k 42.50*4= 170/month
Apps= 65*5= 325/6= 65/ month

Total 235/month not including cleanups.

Our area isn't your area but if you can get those prices I think you'll be doing good, over here you wouldn't get much work though