Leaf Removal

[CHEESE2009]

The going rate for leaf removal service is $100.00 in my area. Personally, I find it expensive & scary. My lawn service ends October 16th. / Leaf removal begins then. Should I charge all of my customers what they pay per month instead of a set rate of $100.00? I figure that I'm not there to mow, no trim work, just blowing, raking, tarp, maybe some raised wheel mowing. Why I believe that I should charge my customers the amount they pay monthly for lawn maintenance Basically you can't tell how much leaves the customer may get, could be less then what the price is worth to remove them. I don't want my customers saying NO, I want they to hire me. If they have to pay the monthly fee for me to remove them, it goes by the size of their yard. Leaf Removal is hard to estimate. I'd rather have my customers pay me September 15th, so I know I'm hired & booked. I can't be "on call" giving them an estimate when their lawn is full of leaves, because if I did that, I would lose customers. The benefit with Breeze is the way we charge. If the leaves continue to fall the next few days, we'll come back again for $10.00... this ensures the job is done, & the customer has gotten his/her moneys worth. What is your set up for leaf removal? Charging everyone $100 for the service is possible, you might get 1/5, but if you charge by the price they pay monthly, you have a better chance at getting 4/5 customers.... Leaf Removal isn't necessarily a thing that will cost me. I figure my equipment needs to be drained of it's fuel etc for winter, so I don't mind going the extra mile and removing leaves a second time for my customers for $10.00... It will cost me the first 10 jobs I do guaranteed, but that's not much on gas compare to profits made.

[CHEESE2009]

Lawn care business tips

Rough draft of a letter to be sent out

[mark123]

$100?!?! That is crazy. If they will do it for $100 I've got some leaves for them to pick up. Send them on down! I've got a 5000 sq.ft. lawn that takes about 8 hours to clean up because of the amount of leaves they have. Getting the leaves out of the landscape takes the longest.



Leaf removal gets charged by the hour. I'll give the customer a break if they have woods that I can blow the leaves into and I don't have to haul them away.

$100.00 for leaf cleanup? Where did you come up with this price? Is there minimum / max size properties for that price?

$30.00 for gutter cleanup? That is way too cheap. And you'll never make any money charging that.

$10.00 for re-visit? What if the neighbors huge maple drops right on their property and you have to now clean it up for $10.00? What if it took 8 hours to do and you had to take it to the dump and pay $20.00 to get rid of?

I think you need help with your pricing...

[turfmaster]

Originally Posted by BREEZE2009

The going rate for leaf removal service is $100.00 in my area.

Personally, I find it expensive & scary.

My lawn service ends October 16th. / Leaf removal begins then.

Should I charge all of my customers what they pay per month instead of a set rate of $100.00?

I figure that I'm not there to mow, no trim work, just blowing, raking, tarp, maybe some raised wheel mowing.

Why I believe that I should charge my customers the amount they pay monthly for lawn maintenance

Basically you can't tell how much leaves the customer may get, could be less then what the price is worth to remove them. I don't want my customers saying NO, I want they to hire me. If they have to pay the monthly fee for me to remove them, it goes by the size of their yard.

Leaf Removal is hard to estimate. I'd rather have my customers pay me September 15th, so I know I'm hired & booked.

I can't be "on call" giving them an estimate when their lawn is full of leaves, because if I did that, I would lose customers.

The benefit with Breeze is the way we charge. If the leaves continue to fall the next few days, we'll come back again for $10.00... this ensures the job is done, & the customer has gotten his/her moneys worth.



What is your set up for leaf removal?

Charging everyone $100 for the service is possible, you might get 1/5, but if you charge by the price they pay monthly, you have a better chance at getting 4/5 customers....


Leaf Removal isn't necessarily a thing that will cost me. I figure my equipment needs to be drained of it's fuel etc for winter, so I don't mind going the extra mile and removing leaves a second time for my customers for $10.00... It will cost me the first 10 jobs I do guaranteed, but that's not much on gas compare to profits made.

I bid each clean-up separately . No two clean-ups are alike.
Clean-ups are tough to bid to begin with. You never know what you'll run into sometimes.

After you under bid and get burned a few times you'll quickly learn.
Bigger clean-ups always seem to take longer than you thought.
I usually add an hour or 2 to cover my azz.
hourly rate x how many hours + 1= bid

[picframer]

Originally Posted by ritchiem

$100.00 for leaf cleanup? Where did you come up with this price? Is there minimum / max size properties for that price?

$30.00 for gutter cleanup? That is way too cheap. And you'll never make any money charging that.

$10.00 for re-visit? What if the neighbors huge maple drops right on their property and you have to now clean it up for $10.00? What if it took 8 hours to do and you had to take it to the dump and pay $20.00 to get rid of?

I think you need help with your pricing...

I agree 100% buddy your prices are far to cheap and I can't see Montreal being a tougher market than Halifax, I would think my area would be far harder. I am charging a min $45.00, $25.00 travel fee, $50 to $65 an hour and have 8 without any advertising yet, all I did was say to people, man those big hardwoods must be a pain to clean up after in the fall, general response it it takes weeks...really I say??? We have a unit that will save you the backwork etc.

Bud, rather than mowing for other people, increase your prices and your area you are looking, I mean where you are is a massive market area within a small range and the fact you speak english and french opens up a pack of doors.

[CHEESE2009]

Yeah I see your point.

Usually a job takes me an hour or less roughly.

I use two backpack blowers, a tarp, a rake, done. No real need for the mower. Just blow the leaves in the center of the lawn & rake them on the tarp, drag it to the truck, simple.

I'm only giving certain customers a set pay for leaf removal, the ones that will take me no time at all to complete.

There is a system where I can choose what I need to charge, judging by neighbors & the size of the trees, the obstacles & what not.

My average lawn is pretty much just that, average. It's really not appealing to charge over $100.00. I'll be beat out by every company if I go over that price unfortunately. Unless the property is larger than my average, I have no choice but to charge accordingly.


As for the $10.00 re-visit, it'll most likely never happen... I just want my clients booked early & have the money. I'll do the visit when the trees are 90% bare. $10.00 for a revisit is just eye candy to my customers.

Once again, the highest rate for the average lawn here is $100.00 for leaf removal. No lawn is the same, true. Though if the lawn is 1/3rd larger, I'll charge it extra by 1/3rd, etc.

I've done it in the past, not so bad, but I only plan on doing it for my current customers this year, so I have to make some tweaks & set a price where everyone will be happy, making sure I get a decent profit. I'm only looking for so much money, not all the money in the world. Experimenting is something I like to do, & if it doesn't work in the end, I'll try something else

I'm still up for suggestions.


Gutter cleaning starts at $70-$145 for customers who have not hired me for lawn maintenance a minimum of 4 months.

It's all a part of the plan for them to hire me ON time May 1st, so I get them for the entire season. Surely this wont be forever, but it's a tactic I don't mind using for now.

Either way, I had beer for breakfast & it was delicious!

[picframer]

OK but buddy, it cost you money to get there, use your equipment, then you say you are dumping the leaves in the truck...you hour isn't over, you have to dump them somewhere, that's time and gas and here you would have to pay to dump them. Here would would be hard pressed to get three properties leaves in your truck, that would be small properties and Quebec has more hardwood than we do, unless you mulch.

I personally find age groups stick together in cities within reason, my street for example has maybe 20 homes, we are all the same age +/- 4 years, I find the easiest age group to get the best bucks from is 40 to 50, people over 55 can be a tough sell.....then again some pour the bucks out...maybe hit different areas that are within a reasonable driving distance, how did your old company get new clients?

Still not exactly sure where you are in Quebec but.....is it $100.00 for the leaf clean up or $100.00 for the month, I am not clear on that.

[CHEESE2009]

Originally Posted by picframer

OK but buddy, it cost you money to get there, use your equipment, then you say you are dumping the leaves in the truck...you hour isn't over, you have to dump them somewhere, that's time and gas and here you would have to pay to dump them. Here would would be hard pressed to get three properties leaves in your truck, that would be small properties and Quebec has more hardwood than we do, unless you mulch.

I personally find age groups stick together in cities within reason, my street for example has maybe 20 homes, we are all the same age +/- 4 years, I find the easiest age group to get the best bucks from is 40 to 50, people over 55 can be a tough sell.....then again some pour the bucks out...maybe hit different areas that are within a reasonable driving distance, how did your old company get new clients?

Still not exactly sure where you are in Quebec but.....is it $100.00 for the leaf clean up or $100.00 for the month, I am not clear on that.

Oh yeah!!! I forgot to mention LMAO.

For dumping I don't get charged, I don't even use my gas. A guy comes & picks everything up with his truck/ my trailer for free. The catch is, he only comes on Sundays. If he misses a Sunday I'll have to dump Monday morning than get to work late. He is apparently starting a compost business, so I don't ask to many questions, this way he wont think to charge me lol.

If he doesn't come, which hasn't happened yet, the dump is only 10 minutes away, & I usually have to go that way anyway to make transactions at my bank. So consider it 6 minutes to get there from my errand, & 10 minutes to get back home... 16 minutes every dump. I have to go measure out my trailer again, but I don't think I'll be dumping every 3 customers, not my lawns. If I had different lawns I'd be dumping every day.

Companies around me charge $100.00 per leaf removal, they don't really go by the size but we've done it for lawns from 1000sqft - 2000sqft easy.

Personally what I mean with this whole topic is... Charging 1000sqft $100.00? Isn't that a bit silly? Give or take we have to figure out what the property looks like, smaller houses can be more difficult to do.

All my small properties, I'm lucky they are bare, just a stretch of lawn & gardens... Most of my customers don't even have trees!!! Though they all have neighbors with quite a few.

All my lawns make a giant J on the city map, the drive time to my furthest lawn is 10 minutes. I start there & head back to my home, now I go to the bank, take a few minutes to go dump, head home. Or I just head home & wait till Sunday.

As for gas, I imagine we're only going to spend 20-25 minutes using the blowers per house. Then we have a few nice piles on the lawn, rake one pile onto the tarp, drag it to the truck, etc. The job never really comes to a full hour.

I also won $100.00 on gas playing blackjack with friends lmao. It could help!


Remember... I'm weird!

breeze, you should look into setting up a shop in my area. ill sub out all my work to you for your pricings listed.

jk

ya, your prices are way to low.
i charge 1 dollar a foot for gutters , including downspouts.
i think that is fair since i am risking my life on those crazy roofs and ladders.

leaf removal is tricky so i charge per hour
usually 45 to 65 per hour depending how hard it is
plus a 25 dollar charge for each trip to the recycling center,
which is free also.
BUT your time and overhead have to be figured into the equasion
and trust me, there is NO SUCH THING AS FREE!!!!!!!!!