Figuring Pricing

[Kodie's Lawn Service]

I bid two jobs today. Both are jobs pertaining to cutting bushes down and getting rid of them. Both will only have to have the debris taken to the road where the city will remove it. Both wanted me to give a bid price.

I got a call tonight and I got one of them. I bid $450 on this job and I am banking on doing it by myself and it taking about 16 hours. If it works out I will make decent money.

Most of the work will be with a chainsaw and a brush cutter head or polesaw on my trimmer...... I will haul the material out to the road with my craftsman tractor and the cart I pull behind it....

A way to save time there would be to use your mower with a good chain and pull as much of the brush as possible

 

[jekjr]

$450.00 seems a little low for a 16 hour job. I'm not sure what size job you're doing but 16 hours is a long *** time it sounds like. Are you a real business or just a guy making cash on the side?

I am in real business. I am a one man show I do what ever bymyself. Our area is pretty economically depressed so you have to many times take what you can get. I can work on this job as I get to it. I worked about 5 hours on it today.

 

[claudedog1234]

How do you guys go about pricing work like cutting brush and undergrowth. NO mowing just trimming bushes and cutting limbs and hauling out to the road for city to pick up and haul off.

I had a guy call me this morning and he wants to hire me to do this work on his dad's place for his dad's birthday.

Probably two acres or more if memory serves me correctly I cut his brother's yard one time last Summer.

Chainsaw and hedge trimmers and possibly brush cutter......

I have been estimating how much time a job will take and charging $25 per hour. Any input will be appreciated.

Pricing and other info on starting a lawn care business can be found in this article. Hope this helps.

How To Start Your Very Own Lawn Care Business On A Shoestring, And Make Huge Profits, While Keeping Your Current Job.

 

[jekjr]

Pricing and other info on starting a lawn care business can be found in this article. Hope this helps.

How To Start Your Very Own Lawn Care Business On A Shoestring, And Make Huge Profits, While Keeping Your Current Job.

Thanks for the link. My major problem is figuring how long a job will take. Jobs like trimming shrubs that have overgrown and places in yards that for what ever reason have become way overgrown are hard to estimate or for me anyway. If you underestimate your time to do a job you go in the hole bad. If you over estimate your time involved you charge the customer what could be possibly a lot more. Problem there being you are high and probably do not get the job. Nobody wants to just say just do the job and give me a bill. They all want a set price. Therefore misfiguring just a few hours either way can be a good bit of money either you do not get for hours worked or you over bid, thus keeping you from getting the job.

Regardless of how one slices or dices it time is the measuring stick when it is all over with. You can say I will do this or that for this much money but we all have a figure in our mind that consists of how much time am I going to be there....... Guess it just takes a lot of practice. My problem is I have done it in the past a good bit but I did it for my self or in a situation where I was not having to figure how long it was going to take. Now that I am in business it would be nice to figure it to the minute.

 

[exotion]

Thanks for the link. My major problem is figuring how long a job will take. Jobs like trimming shrubs that have overgrown and places in yards that for what ever reason have become way overgrown are hard to estimate or for me anyway. If you underestimate your time to do a job you go in the hole bad. If you over estimate your time involved you charge the customer what could be possibly a lot more. Problem there being you are high and probably do not get the job. Nobody wants to just say just do the job and give me a bill. They all want a set price. Therefore misfiguring just a few hours either way can be a good bit of money either you do not get for hours worked or you over bid, thus keeping you from getting the job.

Regardless of how one slices or dices it time is the measuring stick when it is all over with. You can say I will do this or that for this much money but we all have a figure in our mind that consists of how much time am I going to be there....... Guess it just takes a lot of practice. My problem is I have done it in the past a good bit but I did it for my self or in a situation where I was not having to figure how long it was going to take. Now that I am in business it would be nice to figure it to the minute.

Basically this is where experience comes in. None of us can tell you how fast you work. At some point you need to kinda guess and use this situation in future bids. Sorry.