How much to charge?

[chobbs1957]

As long as you do your part it does not matter if they pay or not. I know guys that have not filed taxes in years and has never came back on me. I pay mine that's all I care about.

The IRS has some pretty tight rules over who may be a "1099 contractor" and who may be an employee. From what my accountant described to me, I was going to have trouble contracting crop scouts the way I was putting together their job descriptions. I was always there, always supervising, had to set their schedules, all things that would not pass the acid test if a "1099 contractor", so I employed.

 

[Carscw]

The IRS has some pretty tight rules over who may be a "1099 contractor" and who may be an employee. From what my accountant described to me, I was going to have trouble contracting crop scouts the way I was putting together their job descriptions. I was always there, always supervising, had to set their schedules, all things that would not pass the acid test if a "1099 contractor", so I employed.

He could not find away around it?
Like paying by the job or day

 

[chobbs1957]

Contractors have to have a lot of independence to be contractors, with lots of flexible options, options like flexible hours, for example.

I researched on my own, and was not comfortable with taking the chance.

If I had done it, I would have had put together a thorough contract, set procedures, train, and sit back from a distance and let them work. I could only schedule jobs to be done within a somewhat flexible time frame, not hour by hour, for example. Documentation after documentation validating the contractual status was needed as well.

I started to go that way, but was glad I didn't. However, it can be set up to comply in the crop scouting industry, and the lawn care industry as well, I am sure. Just cross t's and dot i's precisely.

 

[dude]

I am a 15 year old

I live in a small town. I do a lot of yard work blowing, cutting, mulch spreading every thing else. For mowing I charge $20 a job. For leaves its $15 an hour. Every other project is what every I feel like. Are these ok. For mowing I have 5 clients. That's $100 from that. Going into the fall with all the leaves I use my trusty br 380. That brings in about $150 a week. Mulching in the spring is around $20 an hour. I would like to know if this is ok. Are there any mistake that I have made.

 

[dude]

I am a 15 year old

I live in a small town. I do a lot of yard work blowing, cutting, mulch spreading every thing else. For mowing I charge $20 a job. For leaves its $15 an hour. Every other project is what every I feel like. Are these ok. For mowing I have 5 clients. That's $100 from that. Going into the fall with all the leaves I use my trusty br 380. That brings in about $150 a week. Mulching in the spring is around $20 an hour. I would like to know if this is ok. Are there any mistake that I have made.

 

[Ric]

I am a 15 year old

I live in a small town. I do a lot of yard work blowing, cutting, mulch spreading every thing else. For mowing I charge $20 a job. For leaves its $15 an hour. Every other project is what every I feel like. Are these ok. For mowing I have 5 clients. That's $100 from that. Going into the fall with all the leaves I use my trusty br 380. That brings in about $150 a week. Mulching in the spring is around $20 an hour. I would like to know if this is ok. Are there any mistake that I have made.

I'd say your doing real good with those prices.

 

[Lawnboy18]

I am a 15 year old

I live in a small town. I do a lot of yard work blowing, cutting, mulch spreading every thing else. For mowing I charge $20 a job. For leaves its $15 an hour. Every other project is what every I feel like. Are these ok. For mowing I have 5 clients. That's $100 from that. Going into the fall with all the leaves I use my trusty br 380. That brings in about $150 a week. Mulching in the spring is around $20 an hour. I would like to know if this is ok. Are there any mistake that I have made.

Sounds pretty good to me! After a while, you will be able to raise your prices slightly if you keep up the good work. People are ready to pay for very good services!

 

[TaskForceLawnCare]

I hope I'm not ill advising but i won't even think of dropping my gate for less then $35 a yard. We've a decent amount of equipment and I've done the math on what it cost to operate per hour as a legit company. I'm all for the little guy starting out, but talk to the larger companies and find out what they are charging. It's the wrong answer to price your services at half the rate. All it does is drive the rate down for all of us. I get it you don't have as much overhead so why not make as much as you can. We service 17 yards in a small 26 house neighborhood. I recently confronted a guy working out of his van, no insurance, no license, ect. I just wanted to know why he was offering my customers service at a 1/4 the price. I'm not even sure the guy wasn't an illegal immigrant. Long story short you can't compete with larger operations but you can make more money for yourself if you price residential properties close to the same price because they've created the market value. Most guys will even sub contract their services they offer and you don't to you at a discount.

 

[exotion]

I hope I'm not ill advising but i won't even think of dropping my gate for less then $35 a yard. We've a decent amount of equipment and I've done the math on what it cost to operate per hour as a legit company. I'm all for the little guy starting out, but talk to the larger companies and find out what they are charging. It's the wrong answer to price your services at half the rate. All it does is drive the rate down for all of us. I get it you don't have as much overhead so why not make as much as you can. We service 17 yards in a small 26 house neighborhood. I recently confronted a guy working out of his van, no insurance, no license, ect. I just wanted to know why he was offering my customers service at a 1/4 the price. I'm not even sure the guy wasn't an illegal immigrant. Long story short you can't compete with larger operations but you can make more money for yourself if you price residential properties close to the same price because they've created the market value. Most guys will even sub contract their services they offer and you don't to you at a discount.

I could make more money like you said but I don't feel the need I charge 25 a yard I average between 50-60 dollars an hr I'm good if I am driving the price down for the greedy bigger companys oh well that's their problem not mine

 

[LoCo86]

I could make more money like you said but I don't feel the need I charge 25 a yard I average between 50-60 dollars an hr I'm good if I am driving the price down for the greedy bigger companys oh well that's their problem not mine

" I could make more money " if you're doing this for a living and to support your family. Why not maximize your profit margin? I saw in am earlier post that you were satisfied and felt successful with $42,000 you made last year. I know guys who work a full time job and do lawn care on the side and make more than that just with their lawn business. By living in the south I know the cost of living is lower than the north west, so I really don't see how you can have a good lifestyle making $42K.

As far as working for a lesser price than the larger landscape companies and trying to drive down their prices. At some point would you not want to be one of those larger companies and make more money to provide your family with a better lifestyle. Not have to worry about the electric bill being too high or having threats of someone turning off your water. So if you keep your prices low you're only hurting yourself now and in the future. I had those problems I mentioned earlier when I was growing up and I'm not going back to that lifestyle. And to be honest the larger companies are not even looking at you as a threat. There are several companies here that make almost a million dollars a year or better.

I don't know how ambitious you are and I don't know what drives you to get out of bed and go to work everyday. But if " I could make more money but choose not to" is your attitude towards your bottom line and how your family lives. Then you should just be a shift manager at McDonald's for what your making and the attitude you have towards your profession and you fellow mower men.