Need some bush hogging advice

[airbiscuit]

You do know what you are doing. You also have well heeled customers who are willing to pay $$$ (I'm not saying it's not worth it). I'm guessing you have a lot of repeat business and not as much of a $hit$how as what the OP is describing. If you bid this job, I'm guessing your quote would reflect the difficulty and the uncertainty. Given your experience, I'm guessing you would be pretty close.

I'm not sure the OP has your experience, so a more cautious approach might be in order.

 

[Hay Dude]

You do know what you are doing. You also have well heeled customers who are willing to pay $$$ (I'm not saying it's not worth it). I'm guessing you have a lot of repeat business

Yes, of course I have repeat customers, but I take on several new or 1-time customers every year, too.

and not as much of a $hit$how as what the OP is describing.

No, go to my thread “Life of a Custom Mowing Contractor” and look at the “$hit $how”I just cleared.

If you bid this job, I'm guessing your quote would reflect the difficulty and the uncertainty. Given your experience, I'm guessing you would be pretty close.

I'm not sure the OP has your experience, so a more cautious approach might be in order.

Correct, but I take on new customers, too. Sometimes they are a one-time customer, and I still ALWAYS bid by the job. Cutting jobs are widely varied. Some have trees, fences, hilly, streams, rocks, etc. Some are just flat fields of grass.

Those inconsistencies require different tools for the job. Therefore “$100/hour” or “$25/acre” for every cutting job, is a sure path to either
1. losing money or
2. losing work because your prices make no sense.

Bidding by the job, and NOT by acre/hour IS the more cautious approach.

 

[airbiscuit]

Unless you underestimate how much time it will take, and equipment damage may occur. Your 50th quote is probably more accurate/comfortable than your 1st.

 

[BlueKnife]

What I pay my employees is completely irrelevant compared to what I charge a customer for mowing.
I have about 100K in mowing contracts with about 20 customers for 15 years.
Not one of them is charged by the hour or the acre.
When I was inexperienced, I mowed by the hour. The reason I stopped doing that very early on in my career is because theres so many differences from field to field.

I know what I’m doing.

I'll bet you're not using your client's mowers to do those contracts though, are you? . Correct me if I've misunderstood, but I think you may be missing the part about the person in question having no equipment. His girlfriend, who clearly has no idea what she's talking about (no offense intended to the OP) is asking strangers on an internet forum what he should charge for a job when he's not bringing anything to the table other than labor. When someone is hired to do a job, but they have no equipment and minimal skill (as evidenced by the asking a forum what to charge), they are closer to being an "employee" than they are to being a contractor.

 

[Hay Dude]

I'll bet you're not using your client's mowers to do those contracts though, are you? . Correct me if I've misunderstood, but I think you may be missing the part about the person in question having no equipment. His girlfriend, who clearly has no idea what she's talking about (no offense intended to the OP) is asking strangers on an internet forum what he should charge for a job when he's not bringing anything to the table other than labor.

The give the client a final $ number for the job.
Whether it’s $10,000 or $50,000.
Just give them a number. Don’t give away your “internal” estimating data away to anyone, especially a customer.

When someone is hired to do a job, but they have no equipment and minimal skill (as evidenced by the asking a forum what to charge), they are closer to being an "employee" than they are to being a contractor.

I have done many a job where I did not own the equipment needed. In fact, I recently did a huge job, cleaning up almost 100 large fallen/partially trees with a rented excavator. Only thing I owned was trucks & chainsaws.
Never treat yourself like an “employee” when you have a business. You treat yourself as a company owner doing a job for a customer and planning to do more.
If the OP is “one and done” then I guess it’s not as crucial, but for anyone who plans to stay in a cutting/clearing business for a length of time, I would stay away from hour or acre bids.

 

[BlueKnife]

The give the client a final $ number for the job.
Whether it’s $10,000 or $50,000.
Just give them a number. Don’t give away your “internal” estimating data away to anyone, especially a customer.



I have done many a job where I did not own the equipment needed. In fact, I recently did a huge job, cleaning up almost 100 large fallen/partially trees with a rented excavator. Only thing I owned was trucks & chainsaws.
Never treat yourself like an “employee” when you have a business. You treat yourself as a company owner doing a job for a customer and planning to do more.
If the OP is “one and done” then I guess it’s not as crucial, but for anyone who plans to stay in a cutting/clearing business for a length of time, I would stay away from hour or acre bids.

I certainly get what you're saying, and I agree, in general. It's worth pointing out that renting equipment for a job is quite a bit different than simply being hired by someone to run their machine. The OP's boyfriend may very well be looking to start a "business", or, perhaps, he's someone who's being hired one time to run someone's machine to brush hog a property. I get the distinct impression that it's the latter in this case, but, we'll never know for sure unless the OP decides to enlighten us.

 

[Hay Dude]

Once you give away your “hour” or “acre” rate, you are stuck with it.
Then you have to justify raising your rates to your customer when they ask why you increased them when you have realized you aren’t making enough. That can send your customers off looking for lower rates from others.

I actually DO price by the hour “internally” in my estimating process, but don’t reveal to the customer.

Let the customer guess what you are charging. He/she can take your price, guess the number of hours you are there and figure it out for themselves.

The more complicated and varied the overall job, the better for your profits.

X $ for mowing
Y $ for chain sawing
Z $ for brush cutting around fences

Gives you more chance to make money than “$25 per acre”.

 

[ssgp2]

Once you give away your “hour” or “acre” rate, you are stuck with it.
Then you have to justify raising your rates to your customer when they ask why you increased them when you have realized you aren’t making enough. That can send your customers off looking for lower rates from others.

I actually DO price by the hour “internally” in my estimating process, but don’t reveal to the customer.

Let the customer guess what you are charging. He/she can take your price, guess the number of hours you are there and figure it out for themselves.

The more complicated and varied the overall job, the better for your profits.

X $ for mowing
Y $ for chain sawing
Z $ for brush cutting around fences

Gives you more chance to make money than “$25 per acre”.

I agree. However, my 2 largest customers actually want an hourly rate for mowing (for their books, I assume). They know I'm more expensive than some others because my brush hogging looks more like I used a finish mower and have no problem when I have to raise my rate, which has happened only once in 5 years. I NEVER charge by the acre.

 

[airbiscuit]

*** I actually DO price by the hour “internally” in my estimating process, but don’t reveal to the customer.
The more complicated and varied the overall job, the better for your profits.
X $ for mowing
Y $ for chain sawing
Z $ for brush cutting around fences

Gives you more chance to make money than “$25 per acre”.

That is a sound approach for estimating/quoting. I'm not sure the OP has enough experience to quote the whole project accurately. That's why I suggested they do it in "parcels" so they don't get too far over their skis.

If they bid the whole gob, there are 3 possible outcomes:

1. They lose their shirt (it takes waaaay to many hours to do the job
2. They come out about right (happy contractor, happy customer)
3. They make a killing

 

[big bubba]

yes to above, bidding by job given OP's description & experience, very likely he'd lose his shirt. what works for Hay Dude may not be in the interests of those getting started. charge by the local hourly rate subject to change for OP from job to job.