Price per SF?

[jasonw]

Ok so I got sick of ether always bidding low or bidding high so I devised a plan to bid the same for every single lawn. I got a measuring wheel today. I use my lawn as an example. I pay myself $20 to mow and edge my own lawn, it is 700SF according to the wheel which breaks down to about $0.03 per SF. Is $0.03/sf a good price to charge or am I wrong? I figure if its like mine, just a quick mow and go then $21 which is $0.03X700 is a good price. Any comments?

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White Company

[mark123]

Lawn care business tips

My lawn in 11513 square feet. According to your formula how much would you charge me?

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Boughter's Lawn Care Services Mowing and Fertilizing in New Castle, PA

[jasonw]

Originally Posted by mark123

My lawn in 11513 square feet. According to your formula how much would you charge me?

$345.39 dose that sound about right?

[mark123]

Originally Posted by jasonw

$345.39 dose that sound about right?

No! 11k sqft is 2 small city lots (about a quarter acre). I charge $30 takes about 35 minutes. I think I see a bit of a flaw in your plan.

[jymie]

Originally Posted by jasonw

$345.39 dose that sound about right?

ouch! That is really steep...

[TNT Family Lawn Care]

I look at the lawn and estimate how long its gonna take me to complete the mowing trimming blowing edgeing. Then I bid a dollar a minute this has never failed in getting anything I quote.Try it see if it works for ya


TNT

[jasonw]

Originally Posted by TNT Family Lawn Care

I look at the lawn and estimate how long its gonna take me to complete the mowing trimming blowing edgeing. Then I bid a dollar a minute this has never failed in getting anything I quote.Try it see if it works for ya


TNT

I tried the whole $1 per minute thing but it did not fly up here. I dont know what the deal is with people. I have had several of them call me back after crying about $35 per hour for something only to find I was the cheapest.

[wellbiz]

Originally Posted by jasonw

Ok so I got sick of ether always bidding low or bidding high so I devised a plan to bid the same for every single lawn. I got a measuring wheel today. I use my lawn as an example. I pay myself $20 to mow and edge my own lawn, it is 700SF according to the wheel which breaks down to about $0.03 per SF. Is $0.03/sf a good price to charge or am I wrong? I figure if its like mine, just a quick mow and go then $21 which is $0.03X700 is a good price. Any comments?

Pricing by the square foot works great if you are cutting empty lots with no side walks or obstructions. It falls apart really quickly on a lot with lots of trimming, edging and tight places that depending on your mower size may end up being cut multiple times as you transverse the property.

You might be able to tweak your formula and add a multiplier depending on how difficult the property is. Of course the calculators on this site pretty much take care of that for you.

Is your calculation based on actual lawn or the size of the lot?

[jasonw]

Originally Posted by mark123

No! 11k sqft is 2 small city lots (about a quarter acre). I charge $30 takes about 35 minutes. I think I see a bit of a flaw in your plan.

Thats not 2 small city lots, maybe where you are from but like I said I am judging of my lawn which is 700sf, about the same size as every other lawn in town. I do have about a half acre but i am not estimating the entire thing, only the green grass outside the front door. I have not attempted this on any large areas yet, I normally will charge $50 per hour to do the larger areas out here. Maybe the formula for SF has to go down with size, for example the little front lawns here would be good at $0.03/sf but maybe something like 11,000sf would be better charged at $0.01/sf for a total of $110? Dose that sounds better? Maybe the $0.03 is good for everything up to 2,000sf or something then you go to $0.02 up to 6,000sf then go down to $0.01 for anything larger than that.

I know there is a formula to use sf for billing, its just a matter of massaging it to figure out the proper price. I think I am getting somewhere with this lowering it a penny every couple few thousand square feet though.

[mark123]

Originally Posted by jasonw

... maybe something like 11,000sf would be better charged at $0.01/sf for a total of $110? Dose that sounds better? ...

No. That's still about 4 times too much. About $30 is my price for 11k. If you charge about $50 per hour then your price should be somewhere around $28 for 11k.