Lawns out of service region? 8000 Square feet

[seanbsean]

Ok so I have been getting a ton of calls out of my service area and I got one that is 8000 square feet. No obstacles, no trim, just cut and go....What's a fair price and how do I add in the cost to these cases that are slightly further away. I could start to market these areas and have them in my regular routine, but in the meantime? What would be a fair rate for 8000 square feet?

[Steve]

Lawn care business tips

Sean, What is your view on why you are getting so many calls outside of your area? Is there something that can be done about that? It may be difficult for you to offer a competitive price when you have to account for additional fuel costs to get there and back.

__________________
- Subscribe to my Lawn Care Marketing Blog Feed and get daily tips sent to you. Free!
Download your Free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Software.

[seanbsean]

I agree on the fuel cost 100%. I figured if I gather enough clients in the same area, I could make up for the travel. I'm learning from my micro-marketing that I'm not getting people close to where I live. Instead I'm getting people 15-30 min away by vehicle.

So - I have a plan to do some MASS Marketing on a shoestring/ thread budget. I shall share how it goes.

[aduttonater]

You can charge per square foot. Maybe as low as 5cents per sq ft to .35 per sq ft.

Don't forget to toss in a service fee to cover your gas

[Steve]

I could make up for the travel. I'm learning from my micro-marketing that I'm not getting people close to where I live. Instead I'm getting people 15-30 min away by vehicle.

What have you been doing up to this point to get these calls from outside your area?

Maybe there is some fine tuning that could be done to fix this.

[jasonw]

Originally Posted by aduttonater

You can charge per square foot. Maybe as low as 5cents per sq ft to .35 per sq ft.

Don't forget to toss in a service fee to cover your gas

At the higher number thats $2,800 per mow for that lawn, I don't think he will get the job if he quotes that.

[jasonw]

It funny you bring this up. The exact same thing has been happening to me but I would love a 30 minute drive, a lot of my calls for new service this year are 1-1.5 hours from the office. Honestly I don't charge any extra for these jobs, if they were small I may but most of my jobs have me planted for a day or better so I still make money. Basically I cant say how much you should charge but they way I do it is if the job takes me less than 4 hours I may fudge up the price a little, for example if you normally charge $20 per hour then charge $25 for those. Be strait up with the people and tell then you have to charge a little more. I have already told 2 people this year to find someone in there area because for my service it would cost them way to much to have me so far out there.

[mark123]

Originally Posted by jasonw

At the higher number thats $2,800 per mow for that lawn, I don't think he will get the job if he quotes that.

And the lower price is $400. Still too much for a 10 minute mowing.

I think a better price per square foot is .125 cents.