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Lawn Care Business Tips and Advice

Archive for category how much to charge

Asynchronous Risk vs. Reward Ratio

Feb 21

Posted by Lawn Care Business in equipment, how much to charge, lawn business strategies, start a lawn care business | No Comments

I had a great conversation with a business associate today concerning the concept of risk management.  In particular, we were discussing risks that far outweigh their rewards.

Risk management is a common subject in business and since this is a lawn care business blog, you may think we were discussing concepts such as giving 100% guarantees to customers who purchase landscape plantings.  Or, we may have been analyzing the spreading of landscape mulch and charging for maintenance without first properly treating the ground or placing weedblock as an underlayment.  Or we may have been discussing the purchase of a commercial 34 horsepower, propane fueled, 72″, zero-turn, front deck, lawn mower before even acquiring a single lawn care customer.

Climbing and a discussion of asychronous risk management.

While these are all great ideas to discuss, we were not talking business.  Instead, we were talking about free climbing a rock face without the use of proper safety equipment.

In your lawn care business, us proper risk management procedures.

Whether you are bouldering a rocky outcropping or starting your own lawn care business, it makes perfect sense to think strongly about risk management procedures. 

If you want to learn how to rock climb, seek professional rock climbing instruction (and use a rope!!!) 

However, if you want to learn proper risk management procedures for your lawn care business, purchase our lawn care business guidebook and estimating software package through our website:  www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com

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Lawn Care Business and High School Economics

Jul 3

Posted by Lawn Care Business in how much to charge, lawn care business | 1 Comment

It’s 6:00 AM and I just awoke dreaming of yesterdays post on job pricing for your lawn care business and how it relates to a test question I had, many years ago, in high school economics.

I remember the question clearly because I was gunning for a perfect grade and I got the question wrong.  The jist of the question was along the lines of:

“In a capitalistic economy, such as the United States, a business owner can charge whatever price he wants to charge for his goods or services.”

I answered that question “True” since I believed, and still do, that the question was more concerned with political freedom of business owners and not a question on sound economic judgement.  My teacher marked my answer wrong.

Yesterday’s blog posting stated that a business owner must not charge less than jobs cost if he wants to remain profitable and avoid financial hardship.  This is my opinion from a sound economic viability standpoint.

However, harking back to high school economics, I will amend my statement to say that in a polically capitalistic economy lacking price controls a business owner is free to charge whatever he pleases even if it means the eventual failure of his business.

As July 4 approaches, we should be aware of how lucky we are to live under an economic system where we are allowed to thrive in our businesses, or fail with them, without undue political control.

Though I still disagree with my economics teacher’s assessment of my answer, I must give her credit for devising a question that begs examination many years later.

Start A Lawn Care Business

The Start A Lawn Care Business business package is packed with information and business tools to help you start a lawn care business or expand an existing lawn care business.  Visit our site at:  StartALawnCareBusiness.com

Growing your Lawn Care Business

Jul 2

Posted by Lawn Care Business in bidding lawn care, how much to charge, lawn business strategies, lawn care business | 2 Comments

by: Lawn Care Business

Controlled growth and profitability is best for your lawn care and landscaping business.

As a note of caution to new business owners; control grow of your lawn care business and only accept profitable jobs to keep from getting too big too fast.

New lawn care business owners have a tendency to pursue all the business leads that come their way.  Aggressive marketing can bring many new prospective customers.  Another  tendency new lawn care business owners exhibit is dropping their prices to get as many customers as they can.

If you are a new lawn care business that is marketing agressively and underbidding all your jobs, you may quickly find your business in financial difficulty.

From the list of many attributes demonstrated by successful lawn care business owners controlled growth and profitability on every project rank high.

1)  Controlled Growth of the Lawn Care Business

Growing a lawn care business is a careful balance between developing capacity by purchasing the correct equipment and gaining customers to fill that capacity.  Ideally, a lawn care company should gain profitable customers slightly ahead of increasing their company’s capacity.

2) Profitability on Every Job

Successful lawn care business owners know the costs of every job.  Even jobs as small as $25 lawn mowings have associated costs.  Equipment depreciation, gasoline, trimmer line, travel time, and  opportunity costs all have to be calculated.  Successful lawn care business owners will not bid less than the  job’s total revenue.  If costs out strip revenue the job is not profitable and should not be accepted.

Start and Expand your Lawn Care Business

If you want to grow a successful lawn care business, check out our lawn care business material by clicking the “How To Start A Lawn Care Business” link at the top of this page.

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Tips for Starting a Lawn Care Business

Apr 29

Posted by Lawn Care Business in bidding lawn care, customers, how much to charge, lawn business strategies | No Comments

by: Start A Lawn Care Business

The lawn care business program available from our website: www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com is packed with information about how to operate a lawn care business.  Sometimes we are asked: “What is your number one piece of advice for someone brand new to the lawn care business?”

No individual tip can sum up all you need to know about running your own business, knowing how to price your services is a tremendously important lesson to learn about running your business.

Pricing is subjective in the lawn care industry.  No one can tell you exactly how much to price each job.  Therefore, it is very important for you to develop a strong pricing strategy. Know your costs, know how much your time is worth, and know what price the market will bear. If the market won’t bear the amount you need to cover your costs then don’t do the job. You can’t make money by losing money. DUH…right? You’d be surprised how many people don’t know that basic concept.  Companies go out-of-business everyday because they can’t cover costs.

Additionally, don’t let customers talk you down in price or intimidate you because you’re new to the business…they’ll do that, trust me. If a lawn care or landscaping job is worth $30 hold firm to that price. If the customer won’t pay, walk away and find someone who will. Don’t sacrifice your rightful profit just to get a lawn care customer.

Our lawn care business package has a huge section on how to bid and estimate lawn care and landscaping jobs.  Estimating calculator software is also included with the package.  The lawn care estimator will help you estimate your lawn care jobs.

You can purchase the lawn care business package, on sale right now, from:

http://www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com

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Bidding a lawn care job.

Mar 28

Posted by Lawn Care Business in bidding lawn care, how much to charge | 1 Comment

by: Lawn Care Business

How to bid a lawn care job.

Properly bidding a lawn care and landscaping contract involves a fine balance between covering your costs and knowing how much your customer will pay. Underbidding is one of the biggest problems that new lawn care business owners face.

The StartALawnCareBusiness.com estimating guidebooks give you extensive information and examples on how to bid lawn care jobs. Whether you are doing simple grass cutting or installing intricate landscapes, you must know how to properly bid your jobs or you risk going out of business. Below are 3 simple guidelines to follow.

1) Know your costs:

You should never bid on a lawn care job until you know your costs to perform that job. If you are bidding on a straight-up grass cutting job, your costs include: labor, equipment depreciation, supplies (gasoline, weedeater line, etc.) transportation costs, and office expenses (including all other expenses of operating your business.)
There are very few instances when you should ever do landscaping for less than your cost.


2) Know your customers:

Knowledge of your customers gives a good indication of the amount they are willing to pay for your services. A customer in an exclusive neighborhood with 30,000 square feet of finely manicure grass should be willing to pay more than $20/week to have the grounds maintained through the summer. It behooves you, as a lawn care business owner, to extract enough information from your prospective customer during your initial interview to help you determine the amount of money that customer is willing to pay for your services.

3) Know your competition:

Your competitors will always attempt to lowball and underbid your prices. Keep tabs on your competition. Learn what they are charging. Learn what tactics they are employing to steal away your customers. Counter their moves by providing top-quality services and charging fair prices for your lawn care / landscaping work.
 

These are just a few tips on pricing your lawn care jobs. In our 17 years of lawn care experience we have performed jobs from small $20 duplexes up to large 90 acre industrial complexes and multi-year government contracts. We have poured our pricing experience into the lawn care business program. If you are interested in learning how to properly price your jobs, our estimating guidebook and estimating calculators will help you give better bids.

Our Lawn Care Business program is on sale right now at:
www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com

 

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