URGENT HELP NEEDED!

[LGYardService]

hey everyone, I have about 15 good residential accounts. For equipment: I have 2 Toro Commercial 21", a old 22" Crapsmen used for mowing crappy yards and power raking, a stihl trimmer, stihl stick edger, backup Homelite trimmer, and a Homelite blower.(still need to get pics) Now i realize that compared to everyone else, my equipment sucks. LOL But i need everyones advice on this apartment bid that i need to put in. It will be my first commercial job and it's pretty huge! (i will post pics from google earth) they want weekly mowing of all turf areas, a spring,fall, and summer fertilization, and also a cleanup and power raking in fall & spring. What do you guys think i should do? is it too big of a step for the equipment and 3 man crew that i have? if i should get a bid out, what do you think about all the pricing? i dont have any idea on bidding commercially so please help me out! Thanks! Luke

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15 year old teenager in the business!

Luke Gilbert
LG Yard Services
Casper, WY


http://www.lgyardservice.com/index.html

Lawn care business tips

I started with one apartment complex last year, and now I have four, including a very large one. My equipment is a 21" Yardworks mower, and a low end trimmer and blower, which I'm probably gonna replace. So I would say definitely go for it, it works for me, and I'm only a one man crew most of the time!

[Steve]

Dave,

Do you have any advice on how you came up with a bid for that apartment complex? What kinds of things should a new lawn care business owner keep in my when bidding on something like this?

[LGYardService]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ]I started with one apartment complex last year, and now I have four, including a very large one. My equipment is a 21" Yardworks mower, and a low end trimmer and blower, which I'm probably gonna replace. So I would say definitely go for it, it works for me, and I'm only a one man crew most of the time!

How large are these aprartments? I was trying to post a google earth image but i think its too large. The complex that i'm bidding on is at least 2 acres+

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ]Dave,

Do you have any advice on how you came up with a bid for that apartment complex? What kinds of things should a new lawn care business owner keep in my when bidding on something like this?

and yes this would be very helpful!

thanks

Hmmm...the one I did (our owner has actually done all the ones this year, since I'm still away at school) was a smaller one. Only about 3000 sq ft or so. Based on the kind of stuff they wanted me to do with the hedges and flower beds, I figured I'd spend around an hour or two a week extra, on average. So I just took the measured size of the lawn then added an hour and a half of labour on top of it. I'm not sure how our owner does it...he uses the same pricing method for lawns, and I've told him that I do $35 per hour for labour, so I'd assume he does a similar method.

The biggest one I have is a $2600/month contract, but it's mainly garden beds and bushes, there isn't much grass.