2nd. Application Weed Control

[Fireman Gus]

Finally about finished with our second app of weed control. Am thinking of buying another ride-on unit to spray with and fertilize with. What are the best ones on the market? We made our first one using one of our old Walker mowers but have decided to buy this time. Also is there money to be made doing larger properties which take lots of time or smaller residential properties which we can be in and out in a short period?

[TiedemanLLC]

Lawn care business tips

Originally Posted by Fireman Gus Finally about finished with our second app of weed control. Am thinking of buying another ride-on unit to spray with and fertilize with. What are the best ones on the market? We made our first one using one of our old Walker mowers but have decided to buy this time. Also is there money to be made doing larger properties which take lots of time or smaller residential properties which we can be in and out in a short period? In regards to us with spraying it really would depend sometime. For example, lets say you spray a lawn that is 2,500 sq ft. Well our minimum charge was $40, so we just made $16 per 1,000 sq ft. But you also would have a lot more stop and go with the smaller lawns. Now in regards to the larger lawns we would give bigger price breaks because of the size. Some of the sports fields for the local city we would only charge $2.50 per 1,000 sq ft, while we have some homeowners that are at $3.00 per 1,000 sq ft. We have one homeowner in particular that has a 170,000 sq ft of lawn, that is $510 for the spraying. But keep in mind too we are not traveling to multiple lawns. For example, lets keep things simple and go with a fake scenario. We have 17 accounts, at 10,000 sq ft each (to add up to the 170,000 sq ft). To keep things simple lets say those 17 accounts take us 6 hrs to spray (drive time included in the accounts). If our rate is $4.00 per 1,000 sq ft, based on that we just grossed $680 in 6 hrs. Now take that 170,000 sq ft lawn, and lets say it takes us 3 hrs to do that spraying we just made $510 gross in 3hrs, compared to the 17 accounts (which is the same square footage, and even more in square footage price) at $680 in 6 hrs. I have always been a fan of the bigger accounts, even though it's less per square footage

[Steve]

Now take that 170,000 sq ft lawn, and lets say it takes us 3 hrs to do that spraying we just made $510 gross in 3hrs

At what rate? ANd in your example, why would the rate be different?

[TiedemanLLC]

Originally Posted by Steve

At what rate? ANd in your example, why would the rate be different?

Normally any lawn that is larger in size we start to knock down from our base rate. So in the example of the 170,000 sq ft lawn, we would charge $3.00 per 1,000 sq ft, compared to $4.00 per 1,000 sq ft.

The reason for the lower rate is we are on one large property and we don't have to travel to multiple properties to make up that amount of square footage. Also given the market, no one in there right mind should or would pay the same rate as lawn much smaller.

I will break it down even more. So the one 170,000 lawn took us 3hrs and we grossed $510, while 17 lawns took us 6hrs and we grossed $680. The one lawn we made $170 per hr, while the 17 lawns we only made $40 an hour.

Now keep in mind these are example figures, but you get my point. The larger lawns win out on having to travel to multiple properties throughout the day.