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How about cutting your own lawn or a relatives/friend and see how long it takes to do the job. You maybe able to get a rough idea on amount of time spent on cutting a certain area of grass. It might give you a better eye then, looking at a lawn and thinking well that's twice the size of my lawn at home, so it will take x amount of time so i will quote x amount of £'s.
I would imagine that our first customers are going to spread all over the place and not 8 houses all set up nicely next to each other. So maybe only able to do 5-6 jobs in a day instead of 8.
I'm going to price per job. For working out the price on a basis of £12.50 to £15.00 per hour.
All the best and lets hope we all get plenty of work.
i charge one regular client, freind of neighbour -on sick £10 as its quick !!
and extra to cut hedge / weed etc £20 p/h but i must stress i work hard !!
time to chat - free brew always nice (bonus)
commercial can be ok (private /small ) not morrissons or council - 3 month wait/credit i think
It allowed both me and the client the opportunity to asses what would be a fair price per cut for the season. Again, honesty and trust comes into it and the client would soon know if you were trying it on.
If the grass is dry on the day then allow for over-run for damp days and take a view on what might be a good +/- price.
I would say that £12.00 per hour and maybes even £15.00 per hour is too cheap for your rate and the supply of the machine and the fuel, wear and tear etc.
Be mindful that there are a lot of small businesses in this and other industries that go out of business, the most frequent reasons they fail is because people do not know how to properly price their services.
They end up costing too much and cannot get any work or more frequently, they under price their service and cannot keep up with the expenses of operating the business.
The first step in pricing your service properly is making sure you can cover your expenses. If you underbid you may not even cover your expenses, let alone make a profit!!
If you are planning on working 5 days a week, that equals 20 working days in a month. Assuming that you work for say 10 months of the year that’s 200 work days.
Work out what you think your total expenses for the whole year will be and divide this by 200. This will show you what costs you to operate your business each working day. This is the amount of money you need to earn in each work days just to cover your expenses.
If you work for 6 hours a day (that’s actual working / billable time) you can then work out your hourly rate to break even. So once you have walked a property and figure it will take you 30 minutes you should know what to charge not forgetting to add your profit margin in! When you first start off you may only have 3 or 4 clients per day if you are lucky and you may not be able to cover your expenses until you get about 10.
To give you an idea, my prices work out at around £1 per minute cut rate. Typical lawn charge £20 which includes edging up (with strimmer) and blowing, waste removal etc. We can manage 15 - 20 lawns per day per van (two man team).
Yes small one man operations do charge less but they usually want cash and have no insurance or waste carriers licence. Just remember it cost money to bank a cheque.
When quoting for lawn cutting be mindful if it will be a one off job or regular work.
Personally I always charge more for the 1st cut and then discount the price thereafter. The number of times I have quoted for regular mowing and spent hours on the1st cut for the client to say they will call me for the next cut!
Bottom line is don’t be afraid to walk away from a job.
Sorry if it is a bit long winded reply or teaching you to "suck eggs" I hope it is of help and more than happy to share my "experiences" and helpful tips.
I would offer the following based on the way I have proceeded with private customers without written contracts
In addition to the advice offered you need to consider what happens in adverse weather conditions.
Last year was very wet and there is a tendency for some clients to only expect the grass to be cut in optimum conditions and will therefor try and turn you away. Transversely in previous years the weather has been so dry there has been no real growth as the lawns take on the colour of a desert. Again, the understandable reaction of the client is, "I do not require my grass cutting".
Although I was aware of these problems when quoting for a seasons lawn cut I felt I would disadvantage myself if I raised the fact that, If I turned up to cut the grass, then I would require payment.
What I did instead, is hopefully establish the fact that I do a good job, arrive when I should etc, generally establish a good relationship with the client. If that same client then infers that you should miss a cut due to weather conditions then it puts one in a better position to explain that it is your living etc and if they value your services hopefully they will provide you with alternative work for the time normally taken or you cut the grass regardless.
Unless you make it clear from the start It can and will happen so it is worth preparing yourself for that eventuality.
Even though I now have a full client base I still employ the same strategy for the odd replacement client. I try to gain replacement clients within a very local area and have not ventured to gauge the reaction of strict employment criteria when quoting. Maybe it would be accepted by most. I just don't know. Maybe some people who cut grass Know that they will be turned away and accept it.
Anyway, I wish you every success.
This has been a major problem over the last few years with the grass cutting. Two years ago it was so dry in the summer I found that my guys were being turned away from cutting and at the worst we were down by 75% on cutting. Last year was too wet!
I always quote on the basis of regular cutting 18 - 20 cuts for bi-weekly or 30 for weekly cutting. I explain that we may cut a few times more or less based upon the conditions. Most clients now understand that the price they pay is based upon a set number of times particularly when you point out that in May we were taking away three ton bags of waste and took four times as long to cut the lawn than in the summer. If they want a pay per cut price then it carries a 150% mark up.
One way around this problem is to get the clients to pay by monthly standing order over say a 9 to 12 months. This way you get paid and if you can't cut the lawn at least spend 20 minutes doing a little tidy up (edging, blowing the drive and patio etc.) or of course cut weekly when you can to ensure that you get the number of visits in plus the lawn will benefit from it and you because you are not struggling with knee high grass at the peak of the growing season!.
For our on account clients, this year we have introduced a system that the client has to give us 48 hours advance notice if our service isn't required or we will still attempt to cut and charge them. Lost too much money on lock outs and no cut requests that we can't continue to be the nice guy and say "no problem we will try coming back next week" - We run a business and have set costs!
But the real key is to ensure that all lawns get at least two or three feeds per year - Not only will the clients have a stunning lawn but it helps to ensure you get the right number of cuts in over the year plus of course the additional revenue. I have however been known to give free feeds away a small loss but happy clients and lots of grass to mow. A win win.
The problem I have is that a lot of the OAPs don't like paying by SO or on a monthly basis.
I agree that the SO option is great for cash flow and I will this year hopefully have sufficient number on this scheme to cover my basic monthly running costs.
The only down side is doing all the extras you mentioned - you start off doing a little extra for free and before you know it it's gets to be a big job! I therefore always offer a large discount off any additional jobs that they may require. Of course the odd quick freebie is always undertaken as good customer service.
Likewise I love the Etesia just the shame about the engine noise on them :-)
Sandra ,Sweetpea Garden Care
I can`t wait for this weather to sort itself out and spring arrive, then we can all get out cutting and earn some money!!
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