Hello From Kalamazoo Mi

[justin9978f]

Hello,

My company is Universal Property Services and I have several of experience doing lawn and snow care. I started my business in Oct 2010 and it took off like a rocket, alot of this credit is from gopher and all the great info they provide. So I have a few questions on pricing some of the jobs my customers require. My hourly is $45.00.

1.How do you charge for spring and fall cleanups? I have myself and 2 helpers & I charge 45/hr do I charge $45 for each man on the job and try to estimate how long it will take?

2. How much to charge for start up of sprinkler system and also winterizing for a residential average size house and do you charge more for commercial.

3. All my customers know that my prices will flucuate based on gas cost. What is a good formula for raising my prices?

4. Cutomers want windows washed how much should you charge per window on avg.

Thanks for all your info and I will be posting some very simple contracts and other great tools for everyone to use.

Universal Property Services

[Steve]

Welcome to our forum!

1.How do you charge for spring and fall cleanups? I have myself and 2 helpers & I charge 45/hr do I charge $45 for each man on the job and try to estimate how long it will take?

The $45 you charge per man hour for yourself has to cover not only your salary but all the expenses of your business. As you add employees, you won't be adding the same amount of expenses per employee. You will have to review what those additional expenses are per additional staff member and include that in your bid price. The more streamlined you keep your operation, the better the price you can offer your customers and ultimately the more jobs you will be able to land because of your competitive bid prices.

2. How much to charge for start up of sprinkler system and also winterizing for a residential average size house and do you charge more for commercial.
There are a bunch of discussions on here about the costs other charge but it will be based on the amount of time it takes you to perform and that needs to be compared to others in your area in order to maintain your competitiveness.

3. All my customers know that my prices will flucuate based on gas cost. What is a good formula for raising my prices?
It may be worthwhile to estimate your jobs based on a higher level of gas costs so that no matter what the change in fuel prices are, you will still be able to continue service.

4. Cutomers want windows washed how much should you charge per window on avg.
There are some window cleaning (http://gopherforum.com/showthread.php?t=7843) posts on here to help you see what others charge for this service, but you have to keep in mind, are you equipped for this? Are you insured for this? How long will the service take you and then compare that to others in your area.

Does this help?