Help me Bid this job. Please! I need it.

[t_r84]

I need help bidding this job. I have included two pics. I have done smaller commercial jobs but never a retail center of this scale. The total square footage of the cent is 245,835 but I don't know how much is parking. ( A ton though) I don't know if you can see but there are approximately 25 islands with hedges is all. The property owner wants landscaping maintenance including hedge trimming, mowing, edging, tree pruning. They also want the parking lot swept. I am looking into purchasing a sweeper. They are very expensive as I have been researching. I have used them before with a rental company but will definitely purchase my own if I receive this property. I manage six other commercial properties with this company, and they are very pleased with me and give me first bid on all of there properties. I just need a little help if you are willing, all advice will be appreciated. If I can help someone I will pay it forward also.

Attached Images

	image004.jpg (61.4 KB, 25 views)
	plaza.jpg (176.8 KB, 21 views)

[Steve]

Lawn care business tips

Break this down. I don't know if you can see but there are approximately 25 islands with hedges is all. How many feet of hedges are there? How often would they need to be trimmed and how long would that take you? What about the other services. mowing, edging, tree pruning. Break this down into easier parts. How many sq ft of mowing is there to do and how long would that take you? Same for the edging and pruning? They also want the parking lot swept. I am looking into purchasing a sweeper. To do the parking lot vacuuming, could you utilize something cheaper than a parking lot sweeper? Maybe something like this to help you scale up? http://www.caliberequipment.com/schwarze-PVII.html

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[t_r84]

Thanks Steve. I just sent that company an email I never saw those types of vacuums before. I will definitely be looking into buying one of those instead of an industrial sweeper.

Mowing/ around an acre (36,433) when i measured will take approx./ 1 hr/ once a week

Edging / 30 mins once a week

Hedge Trimming/ around 300 feet of hedges/ approx 2 hrs/ every 2 weeks

Tree Pruning/ I only saw a few that immediately needed/ 1 hr at most

Again Thanks Steve.

[lxarth]

Damn! I wish I could help, but I'm still small fry. Good luck though!

[t_r84]

Thanks lxarth, I'm still a small fry myself trying to make income to build and try to compete with the big boys.

Thanks for the support.

[Steve]

Mowing/ around an acre (36,433) when i measured will take approx./ 1 hr/ once a week

Edging / 30 mins once a week

Hedge Trimming/ around 300 feet of hedges/ approx 2 hrs/ every 2 weeks

Tree Pruning/ I only saw a few that immediately needed/ 1 hr at most

Ok so not including the parking lot sweeping, you are looking at :

• 1 hr per week for mowing
• 30 minutes per week edging
• 1 hr a week hedge trimming
• 1 hr week for tree trimming

So 3.5 hrs a week?

What is your hourly rate and then can you multiply that rate by that amount of hours? How would that figure work for you?

[t_r84]

I charge 50 an hour, so that would be 700 a week. I figured around the same actually around $50 less.

With the sweeping I have a parking lot that I maintain but its only around 3,000 sq feet and takes me around an hour to complete and I pick up the trash and then blow it don't even sweep. I've never done a parking lot of this magnitude so, I estimated that it would take around 6 - 8 hrs maybe more if I blow it because it is maybe 20 times the size of the other one that I maintain.

I would definitely need to purchase something to upgrade and take off some time.

I wrote out a quote of around $4500 a month...Do you think that was too much?

[Steve]

and I pick up the trash and then blow it don't even sweep.

What do you mean by this? Do you mean you don't sweep the parking lot?

Do you do this just by walking around with a blower on your back? Or do you have a walk behind blower?

[t_r84]

Yes, I just do it with a back pack blower, I have used a walk behind blower but the parking lot is ackward shaped so it's faster to just use the backpack blower.

[Steve]

Do you try to blow it all into one area to collect all the excess trash that you don't pickup initially by hand?