Well fellas i may have.......

[lawn-guy]

just gotten very luckyi was at the countys official office today and was talking and joking around with some of the girls in there and come to find out one of the ladys huspand owns a landscape company specializing in marine landscapes(bulk heads rip rap etc) and she took one of my cards and they will be refering there customrs to me for lawn maintance.. but yet there is more as i was talking with her a woman over heard us talking and interupted wanting to know who i was and exactly what i offered so i confidently told her come to find out she is the editor of the local paper and i have a appointment with her in the morning at 830 to give her a price on some work and she also offered to do a write up on me and my business for the business colum of the paper needless to say she will be getting a hell of a deal if there is something she wants done so just remember there is work everywere u least expect and to always be advertising your services even if your not getting any work out of it your name will eventually be branded into there mind and that will in return give them some sort of comfort level with you and the will be willing to give you referals best i can say is always keep a hand full of cards in your pocket

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[musician/lawnman]

Lawn care business tips

That's great man! I had a similar experiance last week, I got a call from a guy who just bought a new home, still owns the old one, The frosts this winter beat up the landscape & he wants a quote to trim out the dead branches, pull a few dead plants etc. I qoute him $200, he accepts. I do the job & he says "now, how much to replace those 5 dead plants, I don't wanna spend a ton" I tell him him similar plants in a 1 gal size are probably around.... he interupts me & says lets just do this..... We got $200 for the clean up, do what ya can for me for $500 total. I went back 2 days later & installed new plants, fertilized the old plants & took some time to water them all in well (old & new). I call him up & he says so what do I owe ya $500 right? I said " ya know what I can't even justify that, you only needed 5 new plants. Call it $325 He says I'll pay ya $350 & that's final. Then He asks me to drop off some cards at his office cause he told all his salesmen about this guy that did a great job for him at a fair price who had the opportunity but didn't take advantage of him.... He's a manager for one of the national pest control companies. I won't say the name but.... They drive little funny lookin' yellow cars. Got it? So, then he says no come by the office wednesday at about 3:40 pm instead, I said sure, why? He told me they have a weekly sales meeting at 4 & he wanted to introduce me to all the salesmen & do a little speach about who I am & what my company offers. Then a I got a little Q&A session from the guys about cutting heights, frequency etc. (they wanted to be sure I know what I am doing) and they are now going to refer all their lawn pest & fertilizer customers to us! How friggen cool is that?

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[lawn-guy]

thats awesome man word of mouth is the best advertising u can get but on same hand it can destroy you to i fhave found that if your honest and do what u say when u say it will carry you a long way

[Steve]

WOW Those are great stories.

Keep us posted on the updates. I'd love to hear all the follow up stories to this.

[lawn-guy]

well i got the one contract act 2 (1 contract for to bank locations were are going to do a 6 moth contract with option to extend just to make sure i like them and they like me

[Steve]

Congratulations on winning the contract.

Do you have any advice for others how to create a commercial bid for a bank? What services should they be looking to offer and how should they price it?

[lawn-guy]

they gave me a list of what they expected to be done i priced all individualy then gave a small discount for the fact there are 2 locations and the fact that they are having me do so much im charging them around 5800.00 for the year for mowing service and hedge trimming and 16 yrds of mulch

my cost gave to them at

mulch20.00 yrd_______________________________________________ ____________35.oo yrd 32yrds= 1120.00
25.oo for mowing (a piece per visit)___________________________________________8 5.00 x32= 2720.00
50.00 hedges __________________________________________________ _____250.00 x2= 500.00

total cost __________________________________________________ ______________total resale profit
mulch-640.00 __________________________________________________ _____________1120.00
mowing-800.00____________________________________________ __________________2720.00
hedges-100.00____________________________________________ _________________500.00 __________ 2800.00
total 1540.00___________________________________________ ____________________4340.00

thats about 87.50 per visit each visit will take about 45-50 minutes per visit for the 2 combined plus i charged extra to install mulch

[Steve]

How do you come up with a price for mulch? Do you use some kind of markup %?

8 5.00 x32= 2720.00

Could you explain this? I was trying to figure out what you meant here.

[lawn-guy]

total cost was - 1940.00 for the season
total i chrged was - 4905.00
total profit no including all extras(snow aeration weed n feed fert seed etc.)

2965.00

[lawn-guy]

Originally Posted by Steve

How do you come up with a price for mulch? Do you use some kind of markup %?




Could you explain this? I was trying to figure out what you meant here.

i just take my cost and then add to it (in this case cost is 20.00 yrd i chrg them 30-40 depending on who how much and ease of job) then figure how long it will take to install and figure my labor this case about 4 hours for labor@20.00 a hour(ill pay the kid i have do it 10 a hour)