per square foot**NJ

[dallasbarnone]

SO i was charging a company flat rate sixty five dollars per property, and thirty five to trim/blow/weed around porches -beds, and most of the properties have hedges all the way around the border to weedcut under neath -=all have porches and ramps., this year they want me to charge per square foot, one is 20195 and another is 33000, there is a smaller one that is around 13000 , but alot more trimming and edgeing, i have no idea of the rate per square foot in central NJ, i have to drive 40 minutes to get there- and they are all a few miles apart, I thought around .33 cents Per square foot, does that seem fair? and i have no idea what to charge for linear foot for the trimming, any ideas

[Steve]

Lawn care business tips

I dont think there is anyway to just give a company a price per sq. ft. without reviewing the property yourself and bidding on them individually. What if one property has a flat lawn and the next one has a hill with a 25 degree slope in the backyard with 50 trees and then a drainage ditch that needs to be manually trimmed? The price would vary. Knowing a price per square foot when all things are equal is one thing but there has to be a fudge factor allowance to be used when you deem it to be.

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[dallasbarnone]

Thanks for replying, i tried to explain that to the company, since we did snowremoval for them, flat rate, we had flat rated the larger /smaller lawns- mainly charging by the hour, they informed us this year the "budget" was cut by half, therefore wanted to know why we charged the same for one smaller prop then for the other three larger ones- we gave them a break, we charged less for the larger ones and a fair price for the smaller one** but they think we should charge per square foot, if i did it that way ** it would cost them more, not less, as the smaller one would be about 33 cents, PSF, doing that amount for the larger ones, instead of the sixty five we were charging** it would be over a hundred dollars,,,, so i dont know how to explain it to them that they got the break already- we have done them several years, i have a feeling theres a lowballer that is butting in.... i have no idea of an average rate in this area per square foot** if i knew that - at least i could somewhat figure what the lowballer is bidding** im not doing it for fun either, if i can't make something im not running my equip into the ground for nothing .. all the properties are fairly flat, just the smaller one in question has alot more weedwhacking to be done. and more hard surface to blow/porches etc..

[Steve]

I think giving them a price per sq ft is going to be a problem. Maybe you could give them a price per sq ft per property based on your previous year's pricing. But it's going to have to be allowed to change from property to property based on the different conditions of each of those properties.

Keep us posted on how everything goes.

[StartALawnCareBusiness]

It sounds to me like some accounting egghead is attempting to understand your mowing "formula." Trust me because I used to be one of those accounting eggheads.

They are probably doing this to either pigeonhole you into doing more work for less money or they are (like you say) shopping work out to lower priced competitors. Then again, maybe they are just developing a method of fitting your prices into a complicated spreadsheet.

Either way, it is your prerogative to decline giving them your formula. Tell them you only give prices on a per property basis and let that be the end of it.

[Steve W]

I thought around .33 cents Per square foot, does that seem fair? and i have no idea what to charge for linear foot for the trimming, any ideas

I think that should be .0033 per sqf. and here in SOWEGA I charge $4.00 per
linft. and for hedges over 5' I charge $6.00 per linft. And as for as the blowing and grass trimer it is figured into my per sqft cost. Unless it is a parking lot.

[jasonw]

Could you just take what you normally charge divided by the square footage of each property to come up with your price PSF? This way you still get paid like always and they have there number. I have done a lot of thinking about lower price competition and I have come to believe that sometimes you just loose. If they have a lower bid they will go with it, That is there job to opporate at the lowest expense possible for the highest return. You cant beet them all and just the same. Let them go with the lower price for less work and in a few weeks they will be offering you double to come fix the new guys screw up.