first commercial contract bid

[gogreenlc]

lawn care price estimator example: wage 45 mower 6200 trimmer 389 blower 450 wkly fuel 100 mnt phone 120 office exp 100 add exp 25 min to completejob 215 co % 20 owner % 25 wks work per year 30 hours a wk work 25 totals charge $610.76 This is where the calculator gets me. This cant be a weekly calculation. Should this be a monthly calculation that divides by 4 weeks equaling 152.69 a week...

[jymie]

Lawn care business tips

Wages are $45 per hour?

__________________


. http://www.lunchesruslawncare.com

[gogreenlc]

yes the wage is $45 per hour. Im servicing right at 1 arcre of grass since the company wants another small are cut. He wants a bid on weekly and biweekly service. Mowing, trimming, edging, and blowing only.... 1780ft of trim and 697 ft of edge 28955 sqft of parking lot...

[Steve]

Keep in mind, what you are entering into the calculator for wages ($45) that is what the average lawn care company gets in total for everything per hour.

Here in the calculator you are entering in all your expenses, you are then adding $45 on top of that for wages, then you are saying put a 20% markup for profit for the company and a 25% markup for the owner.

This is shooting your costs through the roof.

Look at your other properties you service. How much are you paying yourself per hour to mow them? After you cover all your expenses? What % do you try to set aside for company profit?

[gogreenlc]

I didnt charge by the hour on my othere properties.I eyeballed a price for them. Now that im changing how I do things and want to use the calculators. So is 10% company and 15% owner is better? The percentages is where I got lost at.

[Steve]

Well you gotta figure in your area there will be a maximum price you can charge per hour.

Say nationwide it is $45-50 an hour? Maybe?

As you play with the calculators, you can experiment with the different % to see what you can add to hit that price range.

The more competitive your area is, the less profit % you will be able to charge on standard services.

Does this help?

[gogreenlc]

check this estimate out..
1 acre mowing, trimming 1780ft, and blowing 28955ft parking lot
total charge $ 150.00 weekly (monthly $600.00) (yearly $4,500)
30 weeks of mowing

additional services:
26 knee high boxwoods @ $5.00 each = $130.00
4 large Crape Myrtles @ $30.00 each = $120.00
Dump fee $50.00
Edging 697ft @ $180
spraying @ $38.00 per 1000ft (anything under $40.00 flat rate)

Biweekly mowing, trimming, and blowing
plus edging @ $45.00
total charge $270.00 biweekly (monthly $540) (yearly$4,050)

What do yall think about those prices? Should i charge more for cutting and add an hour wage to the trimming and pruning too.

[Steve]

With that estimate,

How long do you feel it will take you to mow and with what size mower?

How long for the trimming?

How long for the blowing?

[gogreenlc]

I bought a Toro grandstand 36 inch deck. I never used it before so dont really now exactly how long it would take to mow. Some area I will have to use pushmower because the rider want fit. Mowing time realistically may take 90 min. trimming 1780 ft may take me 45 min (alot to trim where mower cant go). Blowing and picking up trash around 30 min possibly. I put a price out there but it feels like im lowballing the weekly charge. What you think.

[Shark1611]

What brand of weed and grass removal works for you? Stuff I use just makes them yellow and they are are back again!!!!!! Sick of it. And the dog gone dandy liyon keeps growing in there lawn too!!! Makes me look stupid. Nothing works it's all watered down junk!!!!!

Originally Posted by jrod14

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!