hedges

I havew a job to do the trimming on about 100 ft, of hedges and to remove two of them. I need some thing to go by on the pricing Thanks Paul Weber

[FourSeasons]

Lawn care business tips

I would estimate how much time its going to take you then multiply that by around $60/hr. Or whatever you feel comfortable charging them. Don't forget cleanup time and disposal fees. Time yourself From start to finish. Then you can figure out some kind of standard price to go by for every 100ft. of hedges you trim depending on what kind they are.

__________________
Rob
Green Image Lawn & Landscape

\"If you don't feel the same way about Friday nights as you do Sunday nights, then you are not doing the right thing.\"

Is that about the going rate, $60. per hour.

[Steve]

I would say that is the goal most lco's shoot for.

When you are figuring this out, most would suggest you don't let the customer know you come up with your estimates by using an hourly charge or they will watch you and keep a stopwatch going to track how long it takes.

[FourSeasons]

When you are figuring out your estimate I would base it off of at least $60/hour. Start making money now at the start. I figured this out about 4 months to late. I was basing my estimates off of $30/hr when I started in May and I was definitely short changing myself. I could have easily had another 3000 in the bank now if I would have known sooner. I slowly raised my rates until I figured out that at least $60 is the going rate.
Of course you never tell the customer that. You have to figure how long its gonna take you. After you do it a few times you'll know what your capable of doing.
Don't give your services away. If you are a business then run it like one.

How much do they charge per hour for your car to be fixed? Where I live the rates went from $60/hr to 75 - 90 in some shops. I just paid 3000 to have the transmission in my car fixed. It was there for 2 days and just less than half of that was parts. We are a service based business also. But with less overhead than a shop of course. I'm just trying to give an example.

And always throw in an extra 30 min or so on a small job like that. You never know what you'll run into.

Thanks for all the help.

[Steve]

Paul let us know if you get the job and take a few pictures so others can see how much to bid on what you did

Thanks!

how high off the ground are they, if you need a ladder and need to move it a million times that takes extra time. Are you cutting the 2 flush or are you trying to dig them up? I would say a 4 ft high evergreen hedge 100 ft long and 4 ft across is tops a 2 hour job for me w/ cleanup and disposal $250.00 depending on what you are doing w/ the dead ones flush cut or digging up will add some more time. As far as hourly rates you need to determine your costs. Not picking but the guy who charges $60.00 per hour might have 20.00 per hour in overhead where another guy might have 40.00 per hour in overhead. So they arent making the same profit per hour in the end.

[FourSeasons]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ] Not picking but the guy who charges $60.00 per hour might have 20.00 per hour in overhead where another guy might have 40.00 per hour in overhead. *So they arent making the same profit per *hour in the end.

Wouldn't you say that $60/hr should at least be the minimum starting point for figuring out estimates if not more.
I saw some company's send out 2 guys for $72/hr. Of course a company has more overhead.
Thats why I would think $60 should be the minimum base per hr for a total on an estimate. I wouldn't use a lower figure to base an estimate off of.

This is where alot of guys can go wrong in buisness. everyones rate has to be different based on where they live and their overhead. If the prevailing rate where i live is $45 per hour and I start a buisness and begin basing all my estimates on $45.00 per hour. What is my profit? It is not 45 per hour. What if my overhead ends up being $55 per hour because i dont work everyday, or have all sorts of stuff financed. If i have the ability to work 40 50 hour weeks I have the ability to work 2000 hours of which not all are billable. So lets say I can bill 80 percent of my time 1600 hours for the season. If i had a 900 a morgage a 400 a month truckpayment, 200 a month phone bill, a 100 month advertising, 100 cell phone, 400 month equipment loan, utilities 300 per month. insurance 300 month $2700 per month or $32,400 in fixed expenses that you would need to pay whether you worked or not $20.25 per hour in fixed exp. Variable expenses things that change from month to month would be gas, supplies labor etc. So add your labor cost say you pay yourself $20.00 per hour and you use $40 per day or $5.00 per hour in gas thats adds another $25.00 in variable costs bringing your over head up to $45.25. now lets say for the month of may you worked 160 hours (4 weeks at 40 hours that you could bill). You ran over a piece of metal causing a flat tire on your truck $150.oo you had to replace oil, filter and 3 blades on your mower $60.00 , you put a rock thru someones window $200.00 , the shrub you bought for 40.00
This adds an additional $2.81 per man hour this month so if your prevailing rate was set at $45.00 your per hour rate would be too low. See what i mean people need to know their exp and how many hours they can bill per year to find that.