[WenzelOSLLC]

So, I'm looking for your guys opinion on a price I'm giving to a church to maintain their cemetery.

It's about 6 acres and I know it takes about 4.5 hours to get the trimming and mowing done with a helper. I know what it costs me per man hour and what I'd like to make but I'm not very confident that my prices are competitive. Just looking for your inputs.

I plan to charge roughly $275/wk or $1100/mo. When I look at the weekly price it seems reasonable but the monthly seems high. (I know they come out to be the same.) I don't have a lot of commercial experience when it comes to figuring out what to charge. Would you pay that much?

 

[SangerLawn]

Your price is about what I would charge except…when it comes to a cemetery I would tack a per stone charge. If you don’t, you will start to loose money on trimmer string.

 

[WenzelOSLLC]

Thanks Sanger. Is this a seperate line item you put on there or just mixed in with your other price? Would you say like .20 or .30 would be a good price? I remember seeing something like that when I read a couple other posts.

 

[Scag413]

I think your weekly price is competitve. Just a tip: always make sure that the church is accepting serious bids. Some churches get bids from their congregation members and they bid so low to save the church money that it is not worth your time to even bid.

 

[SangerLawn]

Thanks Sanger. Is this a seperate line item you put on there or just mixed in with your other price? Would you say like .20 or .30 would be a good price? I remember seeing something like that when I read a couple other posts.

Going rate in my area is 38 cents per head stone BUT it may be different in your area…also, with the economy the way it is, some companies might be bidding even lower then that….wish I could tell you for sure

 

[WenzelOSLLC]

I think your weekly price is competitve. Just a tip: always make sure that the church is accepting serious bids. Some churches get bids from their congregation members and they bid so low to save the church money that it is not worth your time to even bid.

Actually the church has had the same guy do it for some time now. He's the brother of the fire chief and in my town the people at city hall pretty much control everything so I'm not sure I would get it if I did it for free. However, me and the person who owns the mortuary in town are pretty good friends and says the admin at the church is getting a little fed up with the current guy not being on top of the mowing. So I may be the only one putting in a bid and if the price is right...bingo.

 

[djagusch]

I would say if anything your a bit low. It ends out being $30/man hr. I know a lot is just with a trimmer but that hourly is low. I have a larger one within 20 miles of maple wood and we average $47/hr. So the market should be considerably higher than you are currently at. Why leave money on the table?

Have you figured spring and fall clean ups? I make nothing on them but figure I'm good on the mowing which makes it all even out. Figure some time for branch pick up if it is an older cemetery for each mow. Usually you will have some wreaths to dispose of in the spring and pots to move for fall clean up also.

Also expect a 1099 from the church, one thing I did figure out is that churches are very biz like.

Do they want fert and weed control bids? Mowing most likely will be done weekly May, June, and every other for July, Aug, Sept. So don't count on weekly the whole season.

 

[WenzelOSLLC]

Djagusch,

I haven't figured out cleanup prices yet. I've helped this last guy do the fall and he gets about two passes before he needs to dump the bags. I'm trying to figure out how long that will end up taking. Spring cleanup I'm looking at double whatever I'd charge weekly. I haven't been talked to in regards to chem yet. The price I have up here is on the lower end of what I had calculated. I have two other prices I was thinking about using that would be closer to your price. I might go with them instead.
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[djagusch]

Djagusch,

I haven't figured out cleanup prices yet. I've helped this last guy do the fall and he gets about two passes before he needs to dump the bags. I'm trying to figure out how long that will end up taking. Spring cleanup I'm looking at double whatever I'd charge weekly. I haven't been talked to in regards to chem yet. The price I have up here is on the lower end of what I had calculated. I have two other prices I was thinking about using that would be closer to your price. I might go with them instead.
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Quick question, does the guy you helped last year know you are bidding one of his accounts that he paid you to work on?

Also what are you mowing with?

 

[WenzelOSLLC]

It actually wasn't last year. It was like '06. And I didn't get paid for it....it was community service, my friend at the mortuary kinda forced him to let me get the hours.

I'm using a 52" Toro ZTR and i'm looking to get a smaller walkbehind to use at the old part and speed up cutting at the new one. I have a couple trimmers and blowers. And a bagger for the ZTR.
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