Should i quote this as a comercial property?

[Steve]

What is your view on why some lawn care business owners have different rates, for residential or commercial customers? Is it a sign that they are potentially underbidding one type of customer? Or is it something that must be done in some markets to stay competitive?

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[cruzgardening]

Lawn care business tips

Originally Posted by Fisher I have had customers tell me to ignore their house when bidding their yard work usually when they are large (and possibly the person can't truly afford the house or the landscaping that comes with it). My response is usually: I'm here to work on your landscape and/or lawn, the house and drive really has no influence on that. Really the more house, concrete and other structures that are on the property the less lawn there is to care for, and landscaping is landscaping. If it wasn't for the right to accept, reject and issue bids however one wants I would fear a lawsuit for price gouging in some areas where by the above reasoning I would possibly charge one of my better residential accounts $750 for the same work done across the street that was performed for $300 with the only difference being the larger house. A labor hour is a labor hour isn't it? Commercial or residential my labor rates are basically the same. My variances usually are figured in for billing methods, (taking 60 days before getting paid for work in some cases), liability obstacles like vehicles, people and traffic, and then the way that they want the work done in the contract. So, you could have two guys on one commercial job for an hour for $150, and three on a residential for one and a half hours for $135. hey there you have a point a work hour is a work hour but who will pay me for materials? i mean he wants his pots to be changed as they die off and i did not have pictures of how many pots he had but i did count them it was 35 pots of all sizes and most of them had Annuals. This is why i would charge him more and ill have 3 guys working on this property working for about 3hrs there is weeding to be done on all 4 sides of the property it can be done with chemicals but he does not want chemicals on his land he said also he wants mulch to be added once a year to 3 sections of his home total of 1,200sqft he wants reseeding all natural fertilizer A.K.A. compost, but it has to be none smelly one, leaf compost he wants sprinklers to be checked and adjusted leafs to be removed and we will haul all trash when we are there, also the trimming is included and color should be added to the planting area as well as any plants that die. its quite a bit more then any regular costumer so yeah i charge $75/hr for landscaping and $30 for lawn care big difference? not really considering i buy all the materials price gauging? mayb if the client paid for materials but not if they are included. also if i have a city that charges me more for gas and parts do i charge the same if i buy the gas and parts in that city then if i was in a cheaper city?

[Fisher]

I must say I'm lost with the parts and gas as well as the labor consisting of materials, this is what I'm understanding


My labor cost are per man hour, so regardless of how many guys are there I try to account for each one so 3 guys for 3 hours is 9 labor hours which would be either $270 or $825 for labor only on the same work and time with your rates depending on the size of the house/business.

Materials are a whole other issue and is never figured into our hourly labor though we will account for picking up and delivery of materials.

As far as the way I account for fuel or parts I always budget and account for a worst case scenario and base those overhead cost at whatever would be the highest regardless of where I am or would be able to get the gas/parts cheaper simply because having to buy gas/parts at the higher cost is more reliable than trying to count on getting them cheaper.

[Steve]

As far as the way I account for fuel or parts I always budget and account for a worst case scenario

What kinds of things do you consider when thinking worst case scenario?

[cruzgardening]

Originally Posted by Fisher

I must say I'm lost with the parts and gas as well as the labor consisting of materials, this is what I'm understanding


My labor cost are per man hour, so regardless of how many guys are there I try to account for each one so 3 guys for 3 hours is 9 labor hours which would be either $270 or $825 for labor only on the same work and time with your rates depending on the size of the house/business.

Materials are a whole other issue and is never figured into our hourly labor though we will account for picking up and delivery of materials.

As far as the way I account for fuel or parts I always budget and account for a worst case scenario and base those overhead cost at whatever would be the highest regardless of where I am or would be able to get the gas/parts cheaper simply because having to buy gas/parts at the higher cost is more reliable than trying to count on getting them cheaper.

it was simple to account for how much i was going to spend each time the mulch plants pots and any other thing i was using in this property should of been about $800 my cost so i do up-sale so it would of been $1400 for the client now i made the calculations and i would of added that to the rate i would have to spend this much twice a year so the rate is spread out monthly but i might have to come by and check my accounting a bit more i might be over charging them thank you