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4,646 Posts
Be careful who you talk to.
There are people in this business that are going to act like your buddy and talk about "how prices are too low" "more licensing is needed to get rates up" "etc., etc." and then bid your properties for 20% less.
I am trying to target government, institutional, large acreage mowing with a 15' trideck mower behind a 60 hp Kubota, 1 72" Kubota ZD331, and (2) 60" Kubota 331's.
I'm after large open areas with minimal trimming, non-irrigated (for the most part) mow and gos.
It's a niche I'm working on. I don't make tons of money doing it, but there's little competition as well, other than these places keeping it in house. There's a fine line of trying to make a buck, while getting these people to bid the work out, instead of hiring another employee.
I have a city that's in the mid 24's to mow. 19 parks, city hall, library, 14 lift stations, various areas of right-of-way.
We're already mowing by the large majority of lift stations and right of ways with other properties.
One of the people in business in town, a poster that used to be on here, who listed his equipment for sale 2 years ago on here, approach the city about placing a bid. They said no, we're taken care of with the company that's doing it now.
He called me up about 3 weeks later and stated that he'd approached the city, what they said, and that after thinking about it, he thought my price was too low and there was no money to be made. He's only got a 66" Exmark and a 60" Exmark.
By the time he bought some more equipment and hired a guy, or two, he couldn't make any money.
Well, turns out he thinks he can make some money.
He's going to cut my price by 20% to do so. His bid was in the mid 19's.
I flat out told the city to hire him, so he can lose his butt and finally get him out of the business.
It took us 35 man hours / week last season for 20 weeks to mow the contract. That's 750 man hours. Those that want to can do the math and realize I was NOT making any real money on this contract.
Now he thinks he can do it for $5k less.
This after he told me he couldn't make any money at what I was charging.
This is a guy that's 45 years old. Not some newbie that doesn't have a clue. The only thing I can think of, is he's gotta be getting desperate for work.
At 19k, for 750 man hours, that's $28 / hour, BEFORE any expenses. You could ALMOST work at Wal-Mart for $10 / hour and clear the same amount of money at the end of the year.
Again, this is a public contract, he KNEW how much I was charging. He could have bid at $23k and been $1500 less than my bid.
I know he's on here, hopefully he'll read this post.
There are people in this business that are going to act like your buddy and talk about "how prices are too low" "more licensing is needed to get rates up" "etc., etc." and then bid your properties for 20% less.
I am trying to target government, institutional, large acreage mowing with a 15' trideck mower behind a 60 hp Kubota, 1 72" Kubota ZD331, and (2) 60" Kubota 331's.
I'm after large open areas with minimal trimming, non-irrigated (for the most part) mow and gos.
It's a niche I'm working on. I don't make tons of money doing it, but there's little competition as well, other than these places keeping it in house. There's a fine line of trying to make a buck, while getting these people to bid the work out, instead of hiring another employee.
I have a city that's in the mid 24's to mow. 19 parks, city hall, library, 14 lift stations, various areas of right-of-way.
We're already mowing by the large majority of lift stations and right of ways with other properties.
One of the people in business in town, a poster that used to be on here, who listed his equipment for sale 2 years ago on here, approach the city about placing a bid. They said no, we're taken care of with the company that's doing it now.
He called me up about 3 weeks later and stated that he'd approached the city, what they said, and that after thinking about it, he thought my price was too low and there was no money to be made. He's only got a 66" Exmark and a 60" Exmark.
By the time he bought some more equipment and hired a guy, or two, he couldn't make any money.
Well, turns out he thinks he can make some money.
He's going to cut my price by 20% to do so. His bid was in the mid 19's.
I flat out told the city to hire him, so he can lose his butt and finally get him out of the business.
It took us 35 man hours / week last season for 20 weeks to mow the contract. That's 750 man hours. Those that want to can do the math and realize I was NOT making any real money on this contract.
Now he thinks he can do it for $5k less.
This after he told me he couldn't make any money at what I was charging.
This is a guy that's 45 years old. Not some newbie that doesn't have a clue. The only thing I can think of, is he's gotta be getting desperate for work.
At 19k, for 750 man hours, that's $28 / hour, BEFORE any expenses. You could ALMOST work at Wal-Mart for $10 / hour and clear the same amount of money at the end of the year.
Again, this is a public contract, he KNEW how much I was charging. He could have bid at $23k and been $1500 less than my bid.
I know he's on here, hopefully he'll read this post.
but rather than working for yourself and making the rules, you are working under someone else s rules...and that one of the main reasons many of us started our own thing...Work by our rules...Now that I'm back working under someone else s rules it has it "bummer" moments but it also has its "warm fuzzy" moments as well...
