starting out

[wgallagher]

Hi everyone, today I found a guy that buys junk equipment and gets running and sells them. He had a 8hp brigs n Stratton motor yard vacuum for sale for $200. He said he has a small orchard there at his parents house where I seen it, supposedly that vacuum picks up alvacados in that orchard as he vacuums the leads with no problem. Does anyone have experience with this type of equipment? I am just starting and have never seen one of those around here, I was hoping to hustle that $200 for it and try to hustle leaf taking jobs asap so I can get legit quicker and have money for used backup equipment like a spare lawnmower and spare weedeater and blower.

Also a guy asked me to look at his backyard and give him a price to clean it up. Its about 40/50`x30` with a 10`x6` strip on each side of his house. It is all dead grass or weeds about a foot and a half in length. He said he basically just wants me to weedeat and take it all. He does have two pits so I'm sure there will be tons of dog crap by the time I get to it. Anyways how would you guys price on something like that? I have a small 5x8 trailer and will have to get rid of the debris. Any insight is appreciated.

Also was thinking of posting a ad on craiglist for rain gutter cleaning, i have seen some people post $1 a linear foot and others post a flate rate such as $50 or $125, in my area most of the houses at a dollar a foot i would make $20 or even less, as most houses around this area dont have long rain gutters usually just around the front of the house like a porch or just the area near the front door. So i was wondering how would a proper way to charge that be? in that case theres a huge difference between a flat fee such as those listed and a dollar a foot.

Also, how do yall bid, i hear the golden rule of a dollar a minute, how is that calculated if you actually measure out the yard? Any and all insight is higly appreciated.

And does anyone pressure wash mobile homes? was thinking about trying to advertise for that too but i dont know how to charge with that as well.
Thanks guys

[bruces]

The blower can be a big money maker ,or a big money waster depending on its actual condition ,a model number ,approx year , hours ,or a picture or two would probably help us help you.
The "how much " questions can all be figured out by searching and reading the bazillions of other threads dedicated to that already .

[wgallagher]

The blower can be a big money maker ,or a big money waster depending on its actual condition ,a model number ,approx year , hours ,or a picture or two would probably help us help you.
The "how much " questions can all be figured out by searching and reading the bazillions of other threads dedicated to that already .

Thanks for the feedback, im already on that, it is a parker leaf vac, an old one, on the bag it said the name parker and MA-585, im assuming the model number, trying to google on it now

[Steve]

how do yall bid, i hear the golden rule of a dollar a minute, how is that calculated if you actually measure out the yard?

Have you played around with the lawn care estimation calculators (http://www.gopherforum.com/showthread.php?p=43299#post43299) yet?

They should help you with the information you input.

[wgallagher]

Just checked it out, thanks for that link!