What do you charge?

[wagne223]

In Central FL, residential area, 100 x 200 lot with 2000 sqft house.

One guy and a helper with a ZT, mow, weed eat, edge and blow costs me $150 per month.
He comes once a week year round.

Lawn companies are plentiful here. I had plenty of quotes for $30 per visit, however the quality was poor.

For the price of lawn care here, I dont even bother with it. Time, and equipment cost and maintenance simply are not worth it.

 

[Diggin It]

The key question is - Do you need the money to mow other people's yards? If the answer is no, don't do it.

NEED -- to be able to eat? No.

WANT -- to help pay for a new machine? Yes.

 

[Deere Dude]

You will do it on the cheap and they will still ask for a break on the price.

In the 70s I wanted to do rototilling so I advertised at $15 an hour, 1 hour minimum, I think. I trailered my Garden Tractor to town, unloaded, went to work. In the middle of the soft garden I got stuck and took an hour to get out. I finished the garden which was maybe 1/2 hour job if no problems. I was there for almost 2 hours. I charged him for one hour. Loaded back up.

The owner balked at the $15. He wanted it cheaper. I went home and sprayed all the mud off, got on the phone and pulled the ad. Things can happen that will ruin your day and attitude about the little jobs that pay a few bucks.

 

[4570Man]

I’ve mowed yards on the side for a couple years and made good money doing it. ( at least on a per hour bases since I only mow 1 day a week ) I’ve currently been uninsured and nothing bad has happened. I’m probably going full on commercial yard mowing next year and my insurance agent says it’ll cost me $600-$1000 a year for a business policy. I don’t typically bush hog for people because it pays less with more to go wrong.

 

[4570Man]

Not sure how to be much help on your request. You would probably be best off to set down and make a list.

1. How much per hour do you personally need to earn.
2. A list of the machinery or tools your going to use
3. Then a guesstimate on how many hours you can run your equipment before it needs replaced versus its replacement price. Such as 20 or 40 hours a week for 3 1/2 months for 3 years.
4. Fuel, oil, weed-eater line,
5. Filters and blades, wheels etc for the season
5. Time and cost to transport it to the job and load and unload.
6.Insurance or business permits for your area ? Advertising cost if any. Someone doing paper work ?
7. Total hourly rate might surprise you. Many people think the resulting price is ridicules. Unless you’re doing it to make a living then it puts a different perspective on things.
8. Then you get to have another guess on how long it takes you to work the area the customer needs.



Many people seem to be surprised that a 30 to 35 horse power tractor can cost 30 to 35 dollars a hour to operate it. Plus wages and transportation, and paper work, insurance. Many high end lawn mower, zero turns and what not are not going to be different.

Then you get to decide if you want or are able to compete against people that are just wanting to earn spending money or are only going to be able to stay in business for a year or two before they realize something is not adding up.
For example there is a local retired person in my area running a bush hog to mow with and using a older 40 to 50 house power tractor. It’s impossible to beat or match his prices. Visiting with him one day I found it interesting that his thoughts were that he was earning some nice part time spending money and it would last until the tractor needs a major repair. When that happens he will go to full time retirement. The tractor and equipment he already had will have served a purpose and no loss since a replacement will not be needed.

I have to say I’m on the side that thinks it’s ridiculous. Without factoring in deprecation to zero you can’t get to the $35 dollar an hour cost to operate a compact tractor. A zero turn isn’t that bad either. It cost me $10 a day to feed my diesel ZTR and maybe $200-300 a year for maintenance.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Silly to make a list of what it costs. It's about the going rate and competition. You are competing against the guy driving the Saturn pulling the home made trailer with the Yard Man Mower.

Or do it cheap, and make your money back "off that customer" some other way. If it's an old lady, charge a hefty amount to make sure the electricity isn't leaking from the outlets! kidding, of course.

 

[4570Man]

That's an open question, isn't it? :laughing:


Mowing I mean. For those that mow for others, whether a real business doing several yards a day or just some extra cash doing a couple of yards a week. For this discussion, assume a mowable area approximately 100' x 100', no buildings but a few landscape features like trees and shrubs. Would like to see prices two ways; mowing only and mowing with trimming.

I don’t have a single customer that opts for the no weedeat option so I don’t price that unless requested. I try to get at least $1 a minute on site for a small yard and a little less for a big yard since travel time is less.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Also, it takes the same amount of time to load/unload, regardless of property size.

I used to charge the same hourly rate cutting with my ten foot wing mower as trimming, simply because I hated trimming.

 

[Diggin It]

I have to say I’m on the side that thinks it’s ridiculous. Without factoring in deprecation to zero you can’t get to the $35 dollar an hour cost to operate a compact tractor. A zero turn isn’t that bad either. It cost me $10 a day to feed my diesel ZTR and maybe $200-300 a year for maintenance.

See, that's me. If I decide to buy one, I'd have it for my own use and all those costs would be on me no matter what. If I can get $50 a mow, that's $50 I wouldn't have had other wise whether it goes to the machine payment, fuel or the beer kitty.

But aside from the liability issue, I also have to keep in mind the 'legally required' reporting options for such 'income'. We all do that, right? (Wink, wink, nudge, nudge!) So what if I run over the bed of freshly planted Petunias and the friendly neighbor lady decides to call the Tax Man? Yes, I have considerable stock in a Tin Foil Hat company.

 

[4570Man]

My mowing income isn’t very good on paper. My firewood income is even worse on paper. The tax man doesn’t have much much left there.