Sample of my bid I put in this morning?

[Steve]

Matt that is great! Did you use your wheel when you created your bid for your leaf cleanup? Can you tell us a little about the job? What was the size of the property? How long did you think it would take and how long did it ultimately take? What lessons do you feel you learned from that bid that will help you in the future?

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[Growing Green]

Lawn care business tips

Originally Posted by Steve Matt that is great! Did you use your wheel when you created your bid for your leaf cleanup? Can you tell us a little about the job? What was the size of the property? How long did you think it would take and how long did it ultimately take? What lessons do you feel you learned from that bid that will help you in the future? No for the leaf cleanup I just guestimate as best as I can. I have been using the measuring wheel like crazy though. That has been a life saver as I've been getting a lot of people wanting estimates on composting and fertilizer over the past week. I take it out, measure the lawn and give them the price right then and there. I can't believe how much I'm learning. Process is getting easier, confidence is building and I'm starting to get busier. I actually signed this lady up for our ultimate package today - $130 a month for 26 visits. About the job: Lady had about 2200 sf of lawn and 605 sf of mulch. They had a huge driveway of small rocks and lots of rocks in their backyard. Was a beautiful landscape on about 3/4 million dollar home. Lessons I learned: Pine needles and pecan shells are hard to remove out of rocks. I had a really hard time with those. I will not make that mistake again. Oh plus we were having some gusts of wind that day. Made it really hard to blow the leaves together. LOL Was very frustrating at times, but this job is so much fun! Overall thought job would take me a little under 2 hours and it took me 3 hours. Not very much for the price I charged. I messed up, but at least I got the 1 year agreement from them. Matt

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Austin Organic Lawn and Landscaping Care

[Steve]

That is great to hear.

Now that you are using a wheel, do you find that you are using as a prop as well in your sales presentation? Do you find that your customers respond or react to your use of it?

[Growing Green]

Originally Posted by Steve

That is great to hear.

Now that you are using a wheel, do you find that you are using as a prop as well in your sales presentation? Do you find that your customers respond or react to your use of it?

Yes, that is exactly what is happening. I need to get my estimates out faster. Just takes a while measuring everything then coming back to my truck, calculate the fertilizer, compost, mulch and all that stuff. I just tell them I need to measure out your lawn in order to give them an exact quote of material and cost. So far the response has been ok I guess. Nobody has mentioned it, but every place that I've used it so far has used my service.

Matt

[JLH Pro Lawn Care]

My way to expedite most billing,invoicing and estimates while on the job site

[Steve]

Did you install that? Do you have a mobile printer too? Any pics of how you set it up?

[JLH Pro Lawn Care]

Originally Posted by Steve

Did you install that? Do you have a mobile printer too? Any pics of how you set it up?

no pics installed but yes there will be a color scanner,printer,copier onboard along with mobile internet all running power from a 3000 watt power inverter so anything that could be done at home can be done on the go.
just one reason having a van rocks!

[devuono311]

I'm still working on perfecting my business as well as I'm only in my second year. However, one of my very first purchases was one of the measuring wheels. After a good number of bids under your belt getting to know sizes by eye, you find you use it less but it is a great deal of help.

[lxarth]

I haven't really been on the board lately, but I saw this and just had to reply. Forgive me, but it's going to be long

Obviously you are going to make mistakes starting off, especially with underbidding yourself. You will get better.

I managed to get a measuring wheel from a customer who was moving, and he traded me a bunch of lawn equipment for the last 2 weeks of service (including the wheel). I have used that a lot!

My first thought about your bids was why are you only mowing every other week? I have customers that I visit weekly, even in the winter. I have in our agreement that during the winter service is only every other week, but I still show up anyways. I figure if I was paying someone what they pay me, I want them to at least show up.

My second thought, your price is way too low. But you also say (in the fine print) that any products are going to cost more. As a business owner, and consumer, I don't want hidden costs.

I give my customer 1 rate, and that includes everything (mowing, blowing, fertilizer, weed spraying, etc). It's a hassle for a customer to budget in $85 a month for lawn service to be hit with an extra $30 for fertilizer, and $100 for mulch. Screw that, just give me one price.

Going back to something you said before about other companies not doing as good of a job. I feel I do a good job, and sure, some days I slack a little. But I have had customer ask me about their lawn, because "there is some moss over here that they aren't taking care of...". I tell them that they should contact the company and just express their concerns about the moss. They might not have noticed it, or they are waiting till a certain time to deal with all of it at once. I don't steal customers. I consider other companies as associates, not competition, and certainly not someone to steal from.

I've handed jobs to other companies, either because it's out of my area, or over my head.

Also, about price, why did you bid a clean-up at only $35?! You said you expected it to only take 2 hours...$17.5 an hour for a company is nothing. If your company is making that much per man hour, you are paying yourself less then $6/hr.

I think I will stop at all that...

[Steve]

My first thought about your bids was why are you only mowing every other week? I have customers that I visit weekly, even in the winter. I have in our agreement that during the winter service is only every other week, but I still show up anyways. I figure if I was paying someone what they pay me, I want them to at least show up.

I think many lawn care business owners are unsure of what to do when it comes to this. When it is winter and you show up to their property, what do you do? What if there is nothing to do? What then?