first commercial contract bid

[gogreenlc]

This is my first commercial contract and having trouble bidding. What would be a good figure for this.. Thinking about charging $45.00 per hour. Always eyeballed and never charged by the hour before. 43284 sqft grass 1780 ft of trimming 697 ft of edging 26 knee high boxwoods 4 crape mytles 28955 sqft of parking lot 423 sqft flower bed area

[Steve]

Lawn care business tips

How long do you think it would take you to perform each of those services? How did you get the sq ft? Did you measure it or did the location tell you those figures?

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[gogreenlc]

I measured it myself. My father and I only run the business.
Grass area 1:30, shrubs 2:00, trimming 30 min, edging 15 min, blowing 15 min and crap myrtles pruning 3 hrs. Never serviced a property this large. Try to make it a yearly contract. May be off on the hours due to I never using a 36in Toro Grandstand nor any type of rider before. Always pushed my properties.

[jrod14]

Originally Posted by gogreenlc

I measured it myself. My father and I only run the business.
Grass area 1:30, shrubs 2:00, trimming 30 min, edging 15 min, blowing 15 min and crap myrtles pruning 3 hrs. Never serviced a property this large. Try to make it a yearly contract. May be off on the hours due to I never using a 36in Toro Grandstand nor any type of rider before. Always pushed my properties.

so your price is at $337.50? i would charge by the look and not per hour. how often are you gonna cut this property? weekly, bi-weekly? i usually charge anywhere between $100 to $130 and acre. your gonna be mowing just under and acre. 1 acre = 43,560 sqft. so say thats $120 with the edging. I would add the trimming and crape myrtles together for $260. flower beds for a one time charge if they have weeds...thats a hard one to estimate. but once you have them free of weeds i would use weed and grass eliminator. 5.5 oz per 3gallons will last almost 2 months per. its $15 for a 64oz at walmart. really good stuff. it has the same ingredient as eraser that sells for $18 a bottle for a 32 oz. the parking lot? trash or what? thats gonna be your most time consuming part. is it in a high traffic area? if it is....you can bet there will be alot of trash. i guess i would charge about 325 to 375 a cut if it was bi-weekly and 275 to 325 for weekly and offer the weed control as a free option since the weed killer will go a long way. i use a 50" zero turn and it cuts an acre in about 30 to 45 minutes. your 36" shouldnt take more than 60 min to 80 min once your familiar with the territory. you would only trim the trees and bushes once monthly so your time would only be longer once a month. unless they wanted it trimmed constantly but they would eventually burn. i dont know bro. i would say no less than $350 a cut. good luck!! let me know how it works out and hope my advice helps!

[gogreenlc]

I will most likely be cutting it biweekly and the parking lot will just have to be blown off. Want it to be a yearly contract but by this being my first large bid. Im lost coming up with a price. Dont know should I charge separtely for the grass or combine grass and shrubs as a package? I know I will shape shrubs once month and Crape myrtles once a year.. Is it better to charge one monthly fee or charge everytime I cutt it?

[gogreenlc]

I got this new mower and need to pay for it. So im really trying come up with a good price. This place righh across fom my jod too

[Steve]

Dont know should I charge separtely for the grass or combine grass and shrubs as a package? I know I will shape shrubs once month and Crape myrtles once a year.. Is it better to charge one monthly fee or charge everytime I cutt it?

I would think they are going to want to see each service broken down as it's own line item. You can ask them and see what they prefer.

Keep us posted on how this goes.

Also, do you have an overhead map image of the property?

[gogreenlc]

I will post a map of the property asap.. I need to get this bid in before they accept another. Steve this why I love this site. The info is priceless. Didnt think to present each service to them separately so they could see and decide on the service. Im new to this commercial stuff but I will succeed,Thanks! With just servicing the grass,trimming, edging, blowing, and strubs. What would be a great price biweekly or weekly.

[jvholt]

Originally Posted by gogreenlc

Want it to be a yearly contract but by this being my first large bid. Im lost coming up with a price. Is it better to charge one monthly fee or charge everytime I cutt it?

Charge a monthly fee that way you still get paid in December and January.
If you decide to do it for 300-375 a cut figure out how many times you will cut it in a year. Where I'm at I figure about 38-40 times a year, that includes leaf pickup. Multiply your 375x40 for how much you would charge in a year. You get 15000. Divide that by twelve months for a monthly cost to the customer. You get $1250.

[Steve]

I will post a map of the property asap.. I need to get this bid in before they accept another.

I'd love to see it. Keep us posted on how this goes.