church bid

this is my first bid and I am new in the business, 5.75 acres, level with a few trees. It seems that other lawn care companies dont charge enough in my area for the work that has to be done. I need this contract to get up and running but dont want to bid it to high or too low. It is to be done every week. ANY IDEAS I am located near Peoria, Illinois.

Lawn care business tips

Originally Posted by [b Quote[/b] (jh1963 @ April 07 2008,3:15)]this is my first bid and I am new in the business, 5.75 acres, level with a few trees. It seems that other lawn care companies dont charge enough in my area for the work that has to be done. I need this contract to get up and running but dont want to bid it to high or too low. It is to be done every week. ANY IDEAS I am located near Peoria, Illinois. How large is the cutting deck on your mower and how many acres per hour can your machine mow? Usually the manufacturers website will give you this information. Next what is your time worth? I try to shoot for 45.00 - 65.00 an hour. You may have a different figure all together. Either way, let us know how it goes.

At the present time I have a Craftsman mower with 48 inch deck kohler motor hydrostat. I dont know what the capabilities are for mowing , I bought it used and the owners manal did not say. I wish I could charge by the acre until I get more familiar with time to do a cut. I will be getting a zero turn mower as soon as I can.

I would suggest going to the sears site and locating the information for your particular mower and it should tell you the drive speed or the acreage per hour. Once you have this information it will be so much easier to bid a job until you get familiar with your equipment and your own pace. I hope this helps.

[makbootzy]

Do you think $834.9 would be too much for 5.75 acres?
I just did 43,560sf(1acre)x5.75=250,470sf(5.75acres)/3=83490

[Steve]

Hi jh1963,

Are you going to be scaling up your marketing now to gain more new customers as well this spring?

[jawwells]

I would do $55 an acre x 5.75=316.25 + 316.25= 632.50 + 10% =695.75 The 10% is for gas. If there is not many obsticles or trimming I would make it an even $700.00 per wk.

I needed this contract and did not get it. This was 5.75 acres to mow plus some edging and trimming arond large church. I was told the bid went to another co. and there bid was $186.00 a cut per week , 4cuts per month. My bid was $375.00 per cut, 4 cuts per month. What do yuo think.

[Rouskey Landscaping]

I would say your price is a lot more accurate and that the church will probably be calling you for help when the other company cant afford to keep mowing it. When I did the math on that I would charge $325.61 per cut.