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We have a number of fairly large contracts as well as very small gardens. I am not sure how large the site is, but judging from your post Darren, you already have the skills to price up the work. Only you know your costs, the pace you and your staff can work, the equipment you have/need and the logistics of the site(s). I would assume that you already have the necessary insurance(£10m is usual) and you will need to provide Risk Assessments etc. VAT registration could be an issue, although if you have 5 staff, you may already be in the 'VAT Club'
The best advice I could give would be to give yourself time to sit down and think clearly about the project - not hours....days! If there are Specs, then you are half way there, but if not, split it into sections to work out the pricing. The fact that the company wants YOU, puts you on the front foot so make use of that. Ask for a 'walk-about' meeting, find out EXACTLY what they expect - you may even be given a 'guide price' if you are lucky!
Don't go in too cheap just to get the job, while under pricing a £1K pa garden won't cause you too many problems, doing the same when dealing in tens of thousands definitely will!!
This is a friendly site!...Mostly.
You'll get plenty of detailed advice and I'm only repeating much of Colin's advice so I'll give you my simple two-penneth.
1. Break it all down into tasks (after a walk round with the site agent so you know what they're looking for) e.g. cut edges of lawns, trim hedges twice a year, cut lawns, keep beds weed free etc etc. Brainstorm it to death. Include tidying leaves and pruning. Anything!
2. Work out the cost of completing each task per visit. So cutting grass would be £x/visit. Trim edges would be £y/visit. Multiply each task's cost by the number of times you would complete that task per year (so grass maybe 20/year, hedges maybe only twice. That will give you the total cost per annum. Divide it by 12 and you can present a monthly fee to them.
What is critical is you understand your costs. So you may know that it'll take you 2 hours to cut the lawns. In your hourly rate are you covering your accountant fees, insurance, equipment/vehicle maintenance, NI, advertising costs, training, profit margin etc etc? To give you some idea, the first £70 I earn every day is to pay for all those things, the next £100 is for the staff and then at about 4 in the afternoon everything I earn is mine!! ha ha
Good luck and keep us informed
I like that last bit Neil! The lads were dragging their feet a bit at 3 one afternoon, so we sat down for a quick cuppa and I explained that as there were 4 of us, to split the day into 2 hour segments - then guess who's segment is the 3 - 5pm bit ..............and how about if we swap round!
fell on deaf ears though I assume!
However got the contract again for next year so it turned out well.
There is a thread on here about another big grass cutting job that did not go so well. 175 houses for a housing association I think it was.
Keep your eyes open
There's also quite a long thread about cutting 20 acres. Not exactly the same but many points still valid made in the thread.
http://landscapejuicenetwork.com/forum/topics/cutting-20-acres-on-a...
Struth, all those numbers would scare the bejesus out of me. More than one way to skin a cat though. I'd do as Chris suggested and work out how long you think each area takes to complete or more importantly how much (according to your pricing structure) each area will cost to complete. I'd be steering them away from this by the metre nonsense but if they insist then you can then divide the total cost per area by the number of square meters to give them a per metre cost.
Trouble with by the metre costs is its usually because the client is focused on the bottom line only. Be wary and don't try to hit some 'Googled' figure. Price it as you see it.
Thanks for the feedback guys , This is what I have to price to , is this normal for these type jobs ? and how do a work out per meter guys ? it is a 7 month contract from April till October ish.
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