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Good evening all

I operate as a sole trader and throughout the cutting season  I use an alternate week on/week off diary to provide fortnightly lawn cuts so that I can utilise the off week for one of jobs and small landscaping projects.

i have been self employed for the last 6 years and whilst the  very predictable small garden (typical new build type) for a mow blow and go visit is easy to price (I give a price per visit quote but for my own reckoning, I base small lawns on £1 per minute) and profitable when stacking enough up in a local area, the mid to larger size lawns have always ended up with one of two scenarios....

1. I give the customer a price based on what I could be earning on small lawns and they walk away

2. I base the price on  a "typical hourly rate" as defined by the many cost calculator websites out there and I end feeling like I'm working for nothing!

I know the easy answer to this is just to target the small profitable gardens, but I have a hard earned reputation within my area, which tends to have a lot of mid to larger size lawns gardens and I get many word of mouth recommendations for beautiful gardens and decent owners who's gardens I would like to take on, if the price is right of course!

I run a Honda HRX 21" for mulching and smaller lawns and a Lawnflight Pro 553 for larger/rougher lawns.

i have done some leaf collect and tidy work over the winter for a customer whom I would be happy to work for again but they are asking for a quote for fortnightly cuts throughout the cutting season for a 1000sqm lawn.I provided a cut/hoover up of the remains leaf matter which took 2 hours including collecting without any edge strimming.There are around a dozen trees or stumps to navigate, a couple of border edges and a fence around the whole perimeter to strim up to. Based on my £1 per minute, I'd be quoting £140 per cut, but this seems a bit excessive?

any thoughts or experiences welcome....feel free to take the p1ss so long as you make me laugh too.👍🏻

Rich