raking pinstraw into island(flower bed)

[landonkade]

i had a current customer call me wanting me to rake pinestraw out of her yard( not the whole yard) just parts of the yard close to the island(flower bed) She wants to make her island thicker cause they are getting thin(bare spots). I am guessing she dont want to buy pinestraw to put in it, she wants to be cheap and use it from the pine trees in her yard so how should i charge for this. I told her i wouild get back with her tomorrow so i could think about this one she lives in a richie place(got money)

[landonkade]

Lawn care business tips

Originally Posted by [b Quote[/b] (landonkade @ Dec. 05 2007,9:03)]i had a current customer call me wanting me to rake pinestraw out of her yard( not the whole yard) just parts of the yard close to the island(flower bed) She wants to make her island thicker cause they are getting thin(bare spots). I am guessing she dont want to buy pinestraw to put in it, she wants to be cheap and use it from the pine trees in her yard so how should i charge for this. I told her i wouild get back with her tomorrow so i could think about this one she lives in a richie place(got money) bump...

Since no one is responding I will chime in with my opinion, though I must warn you I live in Florida and have no experience in bidding jobs with pine needles.

If it were me i would figure out how long it would take to complete the job and charge according to an hourly rate that you feel is worth your time. I could guess at a rate but only you can decide what your time is worth.

Hope my rant helps.

This is one you'll just have to suck it up and throw a # out there and hope for the best. Idealy this is where you ask yourself "I'm I going to get more work from this customer in the near future". If so then don't kill yourself but maybe go at a happy medium price per hour.

?? Is this a repeat Customer??

?? Do you have a small yard sweeper that may be towed behind a rider or a quad, If so then sweeping the pineneedles is easier that raking them by hand and a lot faster. If you don't have one most hardware store tool rental places have them cheap to buy or rent.

Good Luck
Tim

[Steve]

Let us know what happens Matt! Good luck with this too!

[landonkade]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (Team Gopher @ Dec. 06 2007,3:45)]Let us know what happens Matt! Good luck with this too!

i think what i am going to do is blow the pinestraw into the islands, little bit of trimming, and clean-up for $90

That sounds like a pretty good price... as long as it's not going to take you over a couple of hours... anything more than that would make me want to raise the price.

Keep in mind, like realhuntin said, if this is going to be a regular customer, you don't want to gouge her... but if she's in a "well-to-do" part of town, then you don't want to charge her pennies on the dollar, either.