On of our recently completed landscape Job

[musician/lawnman]

This one was a relandscape of the house, Original bed was 3ft deep off the front of the house & only ran to the corner. Had to shovel old rock out, then pull up sod to create new beds down the side of the house, & on either side of the driveway, added stepping stones near the driveway with rock, then mulch to the other beds. All new plantings, with exception of transplanting the 3 living hibiscus bushes from the front to the side of the house (the jurys out on weather they will survive the transplant especially since it was near freezing here last night & supposed to be colder tonight). We used realatively young plants & trees to save costs for the client but it came out pretty nice. Pictures below, whataya think?

Attached Images

	Grantham front before.jpg (861.9 KB, 46 views)
	left side - before.jpg (702.5 KB, 17 views)
	During-after 014.jpg (923.0 KB, 15 views)
	Grantham- front design scan.JPG (932.8 KB, 36 views)
	During-after 010.jpg (864.7 KB, 16 views)
	During-after 001.jpg (283.3 KB, 14 views)
	During-after 005.jpg (301.9 KB, 34 views)
	During-after 006.jpg (258.9 KB, 33 views)
	During-after 008.jpg (245.5 KB, 17 views)

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AAA QUALITY CLEAN CUT, LLC.
LAWN CARE & LANDSCAPING
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[justin_time]

Lawn care business tips

Nice job Chuck, I wish I knew how to do that kind of work, hopefully I will get into that in the future.

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Justin Pitre
Just in Time Yard Services

[Steve]

Very nice work Chuck.

Can you tell us how the drawing helped you sell the project?

How long did it take to install all of this?

Also for newer lawn care business owners, what price range would you suggest they charge if they were to offer a similar service?

[musician/lawnman]

The design drawing gives the client a visual for plant placement, I also give them photos of each type of plant. This way there are no suprise "oh I hate those, TAKE IT OUT!" or " "I don't like that there, can you move it 2 feet to the left?" problems after the job is completed.

It's like a blueprint to build a house, If a builder gives you a design & you ok the design, & sign off on it, you can't ask him to make the living room 2 feet wider than it was on paper after the house has been built. That's what you wanted, we agreed on a price & that's what I delivered. I can changed it now at an additional price (this is called a change order). It's a good way to CYA.

For this job we spent about 2 hours picking up all the materials, + 8 hours on the job on day one + about 4 hours on day two. If you add in travel time we had about 15 hours per man with 2 guys, a total of 30 labor hours for the project.

As for the pricing, well due to some of my competitors being on here, I'm not saying what I got for this job. I'll say a general rule of thumb is often around 2x the costs of the materials. A $7 shrub is often around $14 bucks delivered & installed. If you are doing a lot of new plantings it might be a bit less. You also have to consider the other tasks you'll have to perform that don't require new materials like pulling weeds, removing sod, pulling out old curbing, removing old plants, in this case we transplanted a few plants & dump fees (+time to dump) don't forget the dump fees!

[legendlawn]

Cool Looks Good...It also looks like this customer could use an overseed on the yard. Did you try to sell that service to this customer?

[Steve]

The design drawing gives the client a visual for plant placement, I also give them photos of each type of plant. This way there are no suprise "oh I hate those, TAKE IT OUT!" or " "I don't like that there, can you move it 2 feet to the left?" problems after the job is completed.

This is really interesting. I'd like to walk through this, especially for the newer business owners. When the client calls up, you visit their home and create this drawing of what they want? Do you let them keep the drawing at the time? Are you afraid they will take it and have others put a bid on that drawing you made? Do you suggest a lawn care business owner charge for a site drawing like that and then refund it if they purchase the landscape project?

[musician/lawnman]

Well most of the time the client has a vague idea of what they would like at best. Often times it's like "what do you think we can do with this?" or "God, we need to get all this crap out & try to give it some curb appeal." "I want some color". They are begging for guidance & ideas. I take reasurring control right from the 1st meeting. They want and are willing to pay for your expertise. Become an expert that can deliver! You are essentially the equivilent - "Exterior Designer". The same way people call an interior designer & say something vague like "I want this room to be modern sheek, what do you think?" The designers 1st statement should be something like, Yes I have some great ideas! But, I need to know what kind of budget you have set aside for this project?". You should do the same. If your client has a $3,000 budget for the project & you don't ask, you may well come up with a conservative design with smaller & less plants or species that aren't as nice because you didn't want to blow the unknown budget. Even if they except the cheaper job they may not ultimately be happy in the end. If you ask & they say $3,000 & you come up with a gourgeous design, install it perfectly & end up $200-$300 under budget you are a hero! They are happy & their home looks as good as it can for the money they WANTED to spend.

For the smaler residential jobs, I do not currently charge a design fee, though I've never lost a customer once I got to that point. You confidence makes them confident you're the guy they want to do their home.

[musician/lawnman]

No I have not attempted to sell an overseed of the yard, I should though!

Do you use a virtual landscape software or similar type program, and if so which program do you use?
Or maybe you only use your hand written design?

Yeah, that lawn sure looks like it could use some help as well.

[musician/lawnman]

I do all my designs by hand, I like the artistic (although primative) touch it adds. Some I do in color also. Depends on the client.

Yeah that lawn needs help,but what you may not know is many of the area lawns are just sand & whatever grows in it. Don't get me wrong I have some really gourgeous manicured lawns but I have alot of these sandlots too. It would take a load or 2 of clean topsoil to give many of these lawns a chance to really improve.