How to Price MOWING and WHY NOT to!
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- čas přidán 11. 04. 2023
- WARNING! Watch this before you Mow! #needtoknow #truthmatters #mowing #lawncare #business. #lawncare #equipment #pricing #howtopricelawncare #success
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as a solo operator I don't drop my end gate anywhere for less than $65. I also avoid complicated lawns with lots of line trimming. Mow about 2 yards an hour. not filthy rich but making way more money than working for the man.
Funny how someone will pay 50 bucks for a haircut that takes 20 minutes and a 20.00 pair of scissors but bemoan a guy asking 50 bucks to mow a lawn that takes half an hour and a 10,000 dollar mower
Well said. It doesn't make sense. Do you do other services beside mowing? Whats the most profitable ones for you?
@@Dirtmonkey Its my first year back in the business, I mowed lawns to get through college..I'm a flooring installer/ tile setter...but joint and cartilage issues are making that work too difficult. Goal is full service landscaping business so kinda the wrong guy to ask...I'll get into all of it when I get this industry figured out, just going to take a little time...
Good things take time. Glad to hear your not rushing it and making mistakes. Good for you.
@Tristan Rivers In my experience most people can't come close to the quality of a professional mow in double the time.
And the cost of the equipment is still a factor
I'm literally using this the next time a customer has an issue with an estimate.
This dude is so spot on. Think you want to start cutting grass for a living?
Don't!
For a smaller business I think mowing can be equally as profitable as landscaping. You sell year round maintenance plans that’s include mowing, aeration, pruning, mulch and you have an easy schedule to follow all year. With landscaping you’re driving around meeting people, taking measurement, spending days gathering materials, days cleaning up and dumping debris, running into problems that require renegotiating the price. It might work for a medium or larger company doing a high volume of jobs, but for someone who’s solo or has a couple employees, maintenance work is great and sometimes it’s better to pick the low hanging fruit. When you’re professional about it, chucks in a truck aren’t really your competition.
Yes sir!
I approve this message.
Know your equipment’s limitations and when to say no on a lead. It can be real easy to get in over your head on an account because you bit off more than you could chew with your current equipment lineup
Well said 👍👍👍
I started a year ago after getting out of trucking because someone totaled my truck.
I bought a 30" exmark and a stihl Kombi tool to start.
My first season, I ended up with about 20 bi weekly yards, and I also started doing other jobs too. I ended up doing mostly other jobs, and it got to the point where I barely had time to mow my 10 yards a week.
I chose to buy a dump trailer, and In just my first 3 weeks of having it, I did enough work to pay for it.
I learned to trim small trees, clean out garden beds, property cleanups, and did rock and mulch delivery and installation.
We mow because it’s on my heart. We’ve been blessed with commercial
Con tracts and great residential. We are in a coastal tourist area so we get a fair amount of work in the “maintenance realmm. However, we also usually get first dibs on all concrete and hardscapes. Decks and other light construction projects I can feed my other crew. Be humble with the small
Jobs, do a COMPLETE, thorough and impacting job on the larger one….your name will circulate quite quickly. People tease me because I will be at a homeowners house pruning for what seems like small
Change to the six pallets of block we’re
Throwing next door. But next year, their pruned bushes will look great next to the new patio we do for them. Patience, respect for your customers and peers, take heed and learn from
Whomever you can and pass it on the next. All
Boats rise together and we can all
Command good pay if we’re all doing upstanding work.
Thanks for the info bro. I parole in a few months after being down 15 years and your channel has helped me manifest what my future is going to look like. Thank you!
Dude. This is seriously amazing. God Bless and GO GET EM 🙌
Stay away from drugs man. I have a distant family member not related by blood who has all the skills and smarts to succeed. He'll fly straight for a while and get so much going for him and then get back into trouble with drugs. It's happened time after time.
No matter how bad some days are realize that everyone has bad days and never touch drugs. You don't need them. They can't help you. Find a way through even if it's just you and no one else at times. In dark times you are your own hero.
You can do it I’ve worked with several people who have done times and a lot of them are hard workers. If I had a business of my own I wouldn’t have an issue giving someone a second chance especially if they wanted it.
I had a guy last year that was sent by a friend that wanted a yard mowed. I quoted a price of $30 that is my starting price for a basic yard with no hill and no fences no stairs needing trimmed that's for a yard that would have taken me about half hour to 40 min. He still wanted me to give him a price. Told him after going by there it was going to be $40 that was cheapest I could do given the cost of gas and the yard has not been trimmed properly ( at all ) in several months. He thought that was to much he was looking for the little 14 yr old johnny price of like $20 a week. I explained to him for what service I offer the time it would take me to do the job, I couldn't do it as it wouldn't be worth the time it took. Specially since there was 2 fences to trim besides the 3ft hill out front and the stairs! I told him he was given a cheaper price then I normally would have given as he was referred by a friend of mine. I have 2 customers that I have taken care of for approx 5+ yrs now and a 3rd that was a late in the season starter last year that called me to do his yard again this year. I don't do this as a full time job, I do this part time after my 8hr day working street dept for a local small town. I also do some repairs on the side as well as have a craftsman tractor build in progress I started last year. Converting a craftsman garden tractor from being Kohler powered to Kawasaki powered as the original chassis the Kawasaki was on had a rear axle issue, and the Kohler chassis had a non running engine but was gear drive with high and low range. So this is the 2nd tractor I have took 2 to make 1 good one. The other was a simplicity Broadmoor that was combined with a agco-allis that was the same and it has similar issue's. So took the good parts off 1 and put on the other and been using it weekly every year through mowing season with very little issue's other then your normal wear parts going out, like belts.
Been cutting grass for five years solo an little help here and there its time for me to step up my game i have about 40 yards with in 5 minutes from my house
I bid a job for the local school and community park, 12 acres total, I bid on the low side at $700 including trimming, and trash pickup. Only wanted to do it because its across the street from my home and I wanted it to look nice. The guy that won the bid halved my bid running 2 mowers with employees. Don't know how they are making anything at all.
Some of these companies have no clue how to calculate their numbers. Hopefully they do a good job over there so you don't have to see an eyesore.
Stan this video takes me back how you used to do your older video were you would cover a topic in landscaping or lawn care. I like those videos over the new videos where its just about brand new equipment.
Thank you sir. Thats why I am doing more of them. I just did one on How to bid Construct9on. thats a great one for info.
So true. Love the Billy on the corner and Chuck in the Truck analysis. Find something that makes your lawncare business unique. The big thing here is total home care (lawns to changing lightbulbs in the house).
This is great advice, and rings very true no matter which market you’re in. Couple years ago decided to set up my own lawn care business instead of doing a franchise summer painting business.
Mowing might be your in, but build up your skills in other areas. In my market, the fertilizer/weed management/aerating/dethatching are dead.
The money here is in gardening, hedge trimming, and sod installation. But even for that work, there’s a limit to how much people are willing to pay before they’ll just attempt it themselves or pay little high school Johnny to hack it up.
Well said at the end, on giving this valuable information away. All it does is raise prices which helps everyone in the industry.
Preach brothers i’ve been saying the hair cut example for a while i don’t care what anyone says you shouldn’t be doing any lawn for less than $100 i
2nd year here, just the guy who cuts tall grass short and loving it. This video def helps me a lot with pricing things. Looking forward to getting into aerator, thatching and over seeding someday to get me to the next lvl. Thank you for this video!
This is the reason we love your channel. Love the vids
Much appreciated 🙏
I started my lawn business with an Exmark 30" walk behind. Love it and still run it!
Love to hear it 👌
Yeah I have 2 Toro Turf Masters with the Kawasaki engines and they are great. They start on the first pull everything.
I also have a 36 inch Bobcat walk behind for larger properties.
I use a van I can load everything in it. Got Echo blowers and trimmers.
You figured out the algorithm for the ad break! Thank you! Congratulations!
Man I mow about 2.5 acres each week of grass on my property, around lots of landscaping, and about 50 trees. Didn't realize how much I was saving myself by doing by myself. A nice 72" deck Zero turn sure helps out, guess it is worth every penny we spent on it.
I got into this as a side job because my personal yard is 3 acres of hell. Misewell have commercial equipment and have someone else pay for it all/make money Instead of paying someone to mow it.
In 1993, we charged $130 a month and up. For a mow, blow go with 2 guys 25 minutes. This was in Orlando with 42 mows a year. The same lawns in 2003 were $60 a month from other companies with 3 guys. I could not compete anymore and sold out. I miss the work though.
I'm in Spring hill fl, do you want to get back in? I have a landscape service business
@@johnnyboi5088 In Florida, there is not enough money to make it worth the effort. If I lived up north, maybe.
Here in nw arkansas i measure by sq ft and charge accordingly. We also do speing cleanups, fall leaf removal, weed control/fertlization and backflow valve testing and repair. You have to diversify the things you do because there are those people out there that will mow for $20.00 and you are at $50.00. It sucks but that is the reality. You said it very well Stan.
The challenge of extra services when you are starting out is when to actually do them. Even if you only mow 3 days a week so that you can do other jobs the other two days if something goes wrong and it takes more than 2 days (or 4 days if you give up your weekend) then you have to explain to the customer why you are taking 3 days off.
Love this channel. You guys rock
Just getting into mowing this year will have to do a bit more planning
Loved the video. Thanks for all the info. Definitely got me thinking of a few things to improve my buisness!
Happy to help 👊
Thanks for the great advice I started professionally in 2020 I like getting my own Lawn equipment and go not waiting on others
That’s the way to do it 👌
Stan love the videos brother, really helps me get a better prospective!
Hope so 👍
I will give a mild discount if the potential client is near/neighbor to an existing client.
But I don't give a 2nd thought about people who think I'm expensive. They typically call me back when the "cheap guy" breaks something OR the neighboring lawns we mow are pristine in comparison. You can't lose money you didn't have!
Stan one thing I totally agree with if contractor's know how to bid properly yes they may lose jobs but they will make same profit doing less work. Plenty of work to go around just because your busy doesn't mean your making a profit
about a year after i started mowing, i bought a commercial 21 inch mower,( i started at 10 years old) I bought it from another landscaping compagny, and got a blower from them. I am slowly growing up. I do stripe, since my mower is quite heavy and grass is somewhat soft here. I slowly learned how to do trimming, and about 3 years ago, i started doing aeration in the fall. This spring is my first year of doing dethaching. So, i am 17, i started when i was 10, i bought a commercial unit mower, toro 21 inch. I'm still doing strong btw. but yeah, i always have trouble with pricing
That’s awesome man! Sounds like you’re getting it down. Keep up the great work 👍
Excellent video , very informative ! Great job !
Thanks Andy! Glad ya enjoyed
Had a customer where I would spend at least 30 min cleaning up after a dog. Just couldn’t get myself to motor through it and track it home. Think I should have charged the same amount for cleanup as mowing. I may not have not got the job but I wouldn’t have lost money.
I definitely agree with everything said in this video. There's very little room for error when you factor in the risk/reward aspect of everything. We've been lucky to have enough things go wrong early on to learn from, but not put us out of business. Everyone starting out makes the same exact mistakes when pricing, even if they go into it hearing that pricing can make or break them early on. What happens is they get discouraged when they get turned down often early on, not realizing that they aren't going to turn most of those estimates into clients either way. They think $30/hour sounds good from a wage standpoint, but fail to see the total cost of doing business may equal that amount per hour before hiring someone. I was that way as well initially, but luckily I acquired more work than I could handle early on (probably from my pricing) and I started to see how quickly you could start going in the opposite direction when I had to account for payroll. I was lucky to have enough in my savings (from my previous jobs) to make up for my early ignorance, but it definitely wasn't fun to see my life savings disappear that quickly-just to fund my job. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't change those experiences for anything 7 years down the road, from starting with a push mower and a little chevy s10, but I feel like I could have started doing any other type of business and been miles ahead. If you can make it primarily doing lawncare as a legitimate business, I believe you can succeed in just about any business. You'll already be accustomed to that often intense struggle, so definitely branch out in other ways-doing more profitable work. If you do almost anything else as efficiently as you need to in order to profit in lawncare, you'll be ahead of the game.
His points about why mowing pays less than hardscaping is valid...but hardscaping is also one-time work that makes a big difference...mowing is a regular service. Also, hardscaping is harder work. Running a trimmer takes some effort but running a zero turn is really not that hard. Lawn mowing is also low-stress money. Mow, blow and go. Stop here, mow for 45 minutes, get $50...stop there, mow for 35 minutes, get $50...stop here, mow for an hour, get $60. Some bigger $ can come from cleanup jobs, trimming hedges, trimming up trees. But the problem with internet advice is that location effects all aspects of a lawn care business.
Great information. Much appreciated thanks.
Thanks for being here
Thanks for the info - great content!
Nutty man, when he pointed, like "I get $_/hr for this piece of equipment."
I get $150-200 an hour with a bucket and trowel as a tile guy. I'll just stay in the AC sticking down squares.
Lawn/snow is my monthly base price. I only mow one day per week, adding in dog poo and fertilizer. Took three Yeats to build my ideal customers in a tight route. Trees and landscape is my bread and butter. No matter what your doing, focus on attracting your ideal customers
Wait, lawn guys wait till the end of month to bill customers?
That's nutty. Have them pre-pay for a said number of cuts. That way your expenses are paid, money in hand for the help. No chasing down payment or "card declined."
Have them pay upfront.
I have a home in California that the lot is 9500 sq feet, house is 2600 sq feet, pool with hardscapes no lawn in backyard, corner house so I have 2 sides that need mowing in front yard. My gardener comes every week all year, mows front lawn, trims bushes, blows hard surfaces clean. He charges 130 dollars a month and spends about 20 to 30 minutes each week. Usually there are 2 workers who show up each week.
install a minimum price is a super helpful.
100% honesty in this one.
The best policy.
Love the video and all the info, thank you!
I like the idea of using mowing as an entry way into other more profitable jobs but I’ve had a mostly opposite effect.
I get a lot of mowing customers ask me to do other jobs but don’t want to pay anywhere near what the work is worth. For example, I mow a yard the pays $60 per mow. The customers asked me for an estimate on some landscape work. Nothing big just creating a flower bed around their back patio and along the back of the house. Edging and rock. They didn’t like the estimate amount but offered to pay me $20 an hour….
So they don’t bat an eye at paying $60 for 30 min of mowing every week but then only want to pay $20 an hour for a more difficult job. I’ve had this happen a few times and thought I was pricing too high but I asking around I learned that I definitely was not.
Didn’t mean for post to be so long but basically I’ve got to the point where I tell customers I don’t do anything other than mow cause people just don’t want to pay enough for the other jobs.
Great knowledgeable video!
Hope it helps
Great video!
Great advice 👍💪
👌👍
Nice one Stan. 👍👍🏴🏴
Thanks man
Great advice at 9:20
Midwest is $125 Acre/ with a tight route density.
Further drives charge a Fuel Surcharge.
I screwed up on my first dethatch job last week. Bid 50 dollars and halfway thru I knew I screwed up. Did another later that day for 50 but it was less than half the size. Had a neighbor come and ask about dethatching his yard and bid it at 110 for the same size as the first one.
Great advice Stan! Go get me and God bless
Thank you sir and same to you!
You are 1000% Right 😜👍
Thank you sir. What have you found to be your most profitable service?
@@Dirtmonkey If it snows in New Jersey I like the White gold. Landscape projects , Grass is just to keep the money coming Until you're fine Some landscape jobs. 😜💰🤑 My name is Willie 😜
I don’t worry about Chucks in trucks. Sure some people hire them but sooner or later their business closes because they aren’t charging enough. Not only that but they won’t do anything during winter time and you come all year long trimming bushes doing mulch keeping their property nice. You’ll always make money.
Labor went from $15 to $25 over the period from when I started to now. I wouldn’t have started at all or invested in the equipment. It requires too much time spent on a loss leading lawn mowing to get book of business with “full service” accounts that aren’t net 60 or 90. It is the same risk either way and I would’ve had the same payment and higher residual value equipment had I selected mini skid or mini ex. Higher value work too. No pessimism working to make the shift!
here to help
Very helpful video! Our first full week of mowing is going extremely well! I remember watching your channel when Alex first started, WOW, has he grown! Good for him!
Alex has really taken off. He is a smart dude. Hows your summer schedule looking? All booked up for mowing with good accounts?
@Stanley "Dirt Monkey" Genadek 5 days a week, roughly 54 extremely good contracts. Being 3 years into my hopefully long career in the green industry, I've learned alot, and still have alot to learn!
I just started doing some jobs on my own I have a guy I work with and I help him on jobs he shows me how to do things and the ropes to lawn care concrete and that stuff and I’ve been getting my own jobs now for brush removal im 16 and been doing good on my own already looking at buying some bigger and better equipment
As a start up, thank you!
Awesome! Hope this helps . And best of luck!
My wife and I charge 135-150 an hour. I base that off of LMNs software. 82/hr is cost, 108 hr is breakeven. some profit on top for the business. We do everything from joes next door to 15 million dollar homes owned by the rich and famous. Wed like to do just the high dollar homes but it as we say around here "wait your turn". The other companies have to piss the customer off for them to go in search of someone new since money isnt a problem for them. They want it done right and they want to be catered to and they pay a premium for it. Average basic mow, spring fall clean aerate and detatch on a 1 acre property is about 5k a year on the fancy stuff and the average person wants to pay less than half that if they go for it at all.
good info
Thank you!
You are more than welcome 🙌
I started excavation demo but I’m thinking of this for some extra money
Love the videos
Thank you sir! Whats new for you? How are things going?
First mow of the season today here in Binghamton NY, unfortunately never snowed this winter. Very unusual.
We finally have spring ourselves here. Still snow up north but sunny and 80 in the cities. Have you ever had a winter without snow in New York? I have never heard of that
Here in vt we had ton of snow atleast where I am
Had a blizzard here in Buffalo. 3’ of actual snow, 5’ of drifts… but the temperature didn’t go below 10. I don’t mow as a part of my business.
I'm 50 years old. Been here my whole life. First year I never plowed. Usually we get feet and feet. 2 years ago in December 4 feet in 10 hours. But Usually plow 15 to 20 times a season.
GEEZ. That is a really weird winter then.
Would recommend Mike Andes to anyone wanting to learn more about running a successful Lawn Care Business He Has helped us a lot Also miss the listen whale you work series was a lot of golden nuggets in there Rock on Stan
that’s what i use. i have a 52 inch john deere stand on and a 36 inch Hustler super S stand on mowers
I mow and landscape and I also clean carpets.
With lawn maintenance you can look at it and tell how much do you need as far as the chemicals go that you have to measure the square footage
Not everyone can eyeball an area like that. I can but I know others who prefer to measure. Both ways work but measuring is precise. You must have been doing this awhile to get good at eyeballing an area? it takes practice
As soon as I started getting into lawn care I knew I needed to get the other see so I bought an aerator for $300 bucks and a dethatcher for $350.
I’ve made so much money with them even though this is my first season of having them.
I don’t plan on being in this industry forever and eventually want to move to a more profitable business but for now this is going well and plan on continuing it for the foreseeable future.
so have the aerator and dethatcher been your best money makers on a per job basis for you then?
@@Dirtmonkey I’d say yes.
It’s a hard job so even though homeowners can do it they don’t want too.
I also charge $150hr for spring cleanups so it’s also a very good money maker.
Made $900 on one house today alone because it was an absolute nightmare of a property.
@@Dirtmonkey also a big fan of you!
I’ve been watching you from the beginning of my business and don’t regret it at all.
@@2Years2Farm Is that $150 per man hour? $150 per person, per hour?
@@grandifloralandscaping $75 per man hour but there is almost always two of us so it’s $150 per hour.
I'm starting a land service company doing everything from mowing and landscaping to land clearing/ forestry mulching in looking at the grass hopper stand on you should do a video on them
Ive got a lot of equipment review videos but not on a grasshopper. Land clearing and forestry mulching should be very profitable for you. Its a specialty service.
👍Great Video
Thanks man 👊
jobber is awesome
Good video
Glad you think so 👍
Many variations in the question. If you have a annual contract, like in Florida your mowing year round , but in seasonal states with winters this will change. I share as hell would never be able to charge $2 a minute or $120 a hour to cut some grass. But I do drink Bud light, because now it’s cheaper, cheers
I'm a one man crew doing about 55 properties a week and I charge $2.50 a min on most of my places that accounts for driving, the commercial property it's $200 an acre but I also do snow removal mulch weed n feed decks patios and retaining walls as well. The problem around where I live and do majority of my work is it's hard to get the hard scape jobs because there's so many companies that specialize in just that in the area
here is how you cancel your competition, they don't clean up after themselves very well, dirt and rocks and rocks in the grass, and dirt spilled in the grass, you bring it back to a finished job by not making that mess to begin with and tearing up their yard with all those machines just worried about the hardscape, getting paid and getting the hell out of there. you are the one stop shop who isn't a 1 and done no cares, you're there to continue caring for their property. no hardscape company will compare to that.
I bid lawn care at the same rate as carpentry. Up to the customer if they want to pay.
i double the mow price for aeration. triple for dethatching, requires more cleanup. im just one man crew, but where i live it gets super hot(but its dry,nice) i never see kids working. over the years ive seen some groups/solo's come and go, i never see the bigger companies on residential yards. year 8 started today.
Something to think about, but the industry average for aeration is mowing price times 3 or 4. Otherwise there’s no way to justify owning the machine, it just sits there for most of the year. It’s a specialty service, so make sure you charge appropriately for it.
His 1-2 dollar a minute is fair for a beginner but the way i see it when you can knock out big properties fast its more of 100 hr for 1 guy or 150 hr for 2 guys I knock out average size yards in 30 mins and its always about 50 bucks or a property that takes 1 hour to like an hour and half 100 bucks as a 1 man operation that kinda money is awesome I can get 500 bucks a day doing smaller properties or like 700 on bigger ones
I been charging a dollar a minute cutting by myself for 5 years and it works out that I make 400 ish per day
Stan the man.👍🏻🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
👊👊👊
Another point is reliability. In other words will the contractor maintain a steady schedule with the customer and should conditions change to advise the customer of that change in a reasonable amount of time. This also depends what kind of customer you have as far as residential or commercial contracts are concerned?
Dependability, reliability are super important! We always get an influx of clients in July when the guys they hired stop showing up cause it got too hot for them.
This is awesome. I’m literally thinking about doing this for side money.
😂
Come in low low. And just do a few a week to keep me busy. I do not need to work but I’m getting bored being a house husband.
Burn me up in the comments lol
I didn't know we had that one 😂
Awesome content, thank you. what is the website that shows average hourly rates?
Another way to charge is per square foot. Essentially the same as per acre though. The hardest part for me is knowing how long a job will take.
I got the same problem, sometimes I’ll think it’ll be easy for say an acre, I end up trimming 2/3 of the time I’m there and mow for the last 1/3. I’m slowly getting down to understanding trimming time, undulations in the lawn, etc etc and time consumed by each feature in a lawn.
We've been operating for 3yrs now.
Grounds MAINTENANCE only.
We don't do "hardscape"
Lawncare
Mulch
Seed
Bushes
We made 13k yr 1
28k yr2
On track already to push for 120k this year 😮
2 people.
We charge
0.004-0.008$/sq ft residential
And 45-80$/acre (trimming changes scale)
With my 2008- 52" wright stander, we're cutting & trimming about 3acres/h
woah- year 3 sounds like it will be a killer season for you. Thats epic!
Those prices are extremely low - what part of the country are you in?
@@grandifloralandscaping no trimming apparently
@@grandifloralandscaping south western Ontario. 🇨🇦
Idk how Stanly buddy says he's charging 160+ per acre
We can barely get 45 😆
@@Dirtmonkey that's the plan!!
Don't need fancy equipment, *shows hand* when that is your resumé.
Though.. a 32in stander would be nice 😅 (gf won't let me buy one 😤)
Landscape management isn't low skill. It is an art for high-end landscapes
What? Wait a second, just like 4 days ago you guys were in some sort of arctic storm buried until 300 feet of snow, few days later yall in short sleeves and mowing lawns. That's nuts.
Minnesota for ya
Price per minute really varies with size and speed of mower.
Keep teaching the lawn care community how to price brother, That would benefit all of us. We are the lawn care family and landscaping.😜👍👍👍💲💰
Haha you know it buddy!
@@Dirtmonkey Stanley What up, I was just talking about Mike Andy Nice guy But when it comes to reality his prices are too low , Lawn care industry is 20 years behind with the prices of mowing lawns. I remember back in the days Used to mow lawns for 30 bucks To 40 bucks Minimum , For a property that's 5000 ft² . And these guys are still doing it for the same price 20 years later. This is and issue that we have to fix. Everything is going up Even 2 stroke oil. 😜👍
The Wright is back up! What broke on it?
I run my own lawn care business. $300 crafstman pushmower. $100 Worx blower, $100 Worx weed trimmer and I charge roughly $40/hr. The problem most make is buying those $10k 0 turn mowers that destroy lawns, buy $500 gas mowers that steal lawns a 1/4" at a time, and need big trailers and build up so much overhead that can be avoided, especially by the smaller crews. Now I'm not looking to build an empire, just pay my bills, enjoy my life, and spend more time with my family. I get to pay my bills working half a week, and as my business keeps building, my income keeps growing up until I have a good solid work week, and then maybe I'll consider buying another lawn mower, trimmer, etc. and hire out another person and build from self employed into business, but inbetween $320/day time 5 day work week is $1500 net weekly which even after taxes is more money then I have made working for anyone else in my life.
That is not including all the upcharges and extras that come up through the season that makes stupid money. Hedges I can make $100/hr easy, gutters are quick money, mulch can easily pull $40/hr. My slow work day is 2 hrs long and I make $120 and that includes all drive time.
Lawn Care Empire's are not profitable. But 1 man/2man business has a lot of potential.
Personally I'm in it for the passion. I love taking customers from big companies with 0 turn mowers, charging them the same amount as that big company to run my push mower over their lawn and make it the most beautiful lawn on the block so that the neighbors ditch their big 0 turn company and pick me up as well.
Personally I can not charge people rediculious amounts of money for something so simple. My bread and butter is my $20 lawns. Take usually 15-20mins and when you can get 3-4 on a street/block then you can get 3-4 an hour, $60-$80/hr with overhead that equates out to a few bucks and hour is unbeatable.
Good video stano we should collaborate on some paver projects!
Hit me up!
I love all your content and videos that you put out and they have been a huge help to me! But I don’t know whether I agree nor disagree. Yes, it’s a good starting off point to other avenues and yes it is relatively inexpensive to get into but I also teaches you, Marketing, salesmanship, hard-work the value of a dollar and all other aspects of running and operating a business so once you make that switch to hardscaping that knowledge is already there. I started out 16 years ago just mowing and now offer and do 6-7 other services on top of it. I also didn’t start out with a fancy and expensive setup like you recommended and I have gotten Customers from business owners who tried doing it that way and couldn’t handle it. I now have a $25,000 rig. Bidding depends on the clients you’re trying to reach and the area you are working in. Commercial is different than residential, but I never really thought of the acreage and mowing just straight open lots though.
Apologies to the pros out there but I'm looking to be "Chuck with a truck". I'm looking for a retirement gig to have some spending cash. My thought is 10 yards at $60 per which would gross me $600 per week with about two hours per day including travel time. I'm getting too old to be planting trees.
just started 2 years ago with a 61 and a 36. did the buying used mowers and now starting to realize that now everything is breaking (except my 2500 duramax that hasn't let me down yet) is it worth the fixing everything run it this year or buy new? my goal by the end of the summer is 120 full service accounts. spring summer fall winter
How do you find the acreage of just the turf?
and yet in the uk more lawn care than you can shake a stick at but no end of work the problem is finding the workers no one wants to do it
Can you link on the description the rout app?