Customize The Lawn Service Business Estimate Form
Select the lawn service estimate form and start customizing it. It would be best if you personalized all areas of the landscaping business estimate template. You must tame the estimate form template like how lawn care service givers tame the lawn. Make the template yours! Do not leave an area untouched. If the estimate form template does not scream your company name in the minds of the clients, then you have not fully tamed or customized the template well enough.
Lawn Service Cost Estimator By Brand
Many brands, like Lawn Doctor and TruGreen, do not publish prices online. This is because what youll pay can vary so significantly based on the condition of your lawn, its size and where you live. Heres a look at what youll pay with two different popular brands:
- TruComplete Lawn Plan: $780 per year.
- Scotts LawnService: $650 per year.
How Do You Choose The Right Lawn Care Provider For You
You may never know by looking at someone that they are going to provide high-quality lawn care services, but you can certainly improve your chances in a few easy ways. The first thing you can do is ask for recommendations. Talk to family and friends and other people who hire someone to mow their lawns.
If they like the job they are getting from their lawnmower, then they will be happy to recommend them. Whats more, many lawn care professionals are only too happy to receive referrals from their loyal client base.
If you dont know anyone who hires someone to take care of their lawns, then look online. Check out online reviews for local lawn care companies and find out what people are saying about specific people, companies, and franchises.
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Competitor Analysis: What Do Other Lawn Mowing Businesses In Australia Charge
If your prices are lower, youll gain a reputation for being the budget choice which means plenty of work, but you should be certain youre covering your costs. If youre charging too much, the average client may quickly dismiss your services and you may find yourself struggling to fill the books.
A competitor price analysis can reveal the middle ground in terms of pricing your service. This analysis is especially helpful if youre relatively new to the business. However, its not enough just to copy the going rate.
If you arent running the numbers for your individual costs, you may find yourself making a loss or charging more than you need to. A lower price can help you get a foothold as a new business, but if youre consistently losing money, you wont be able to keep operating for very long.
At the very least, researching what your competitors charge will help you come up with a price list that suits your level of expertise but also wont turn away potential clients.
You will most likely adjust your pricing as you gain more experience in the lawn care industry. Going through a learning curve is normal, and you may make mistakes along the way.
Quick Videos On Lawn Care Pricing
Jonathan Pototschnik, Lawn Care Millionaire and co-founder of Service Autopilot, has recorded a quick lawn care pricing video to help lawn care business owners just like you.
In this short video, you’ll discover the basics of lawn care pricing:
- How to look at your lawn care services
- Why you cant copy your top competitors
- How to fix your lawn care pricing strategy
Now, without further ado, here’s how to create the best lawn care pricing strategy and maximize your profits…
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How To Price Tree Services
Tree inspections, pruning, removal, and other tree services tend to be expensive.
Like other green industry services, tree service pricing falls under the time = money rule.
Tree removal can cost anywhere from $75 to $3500+. Plus, you have to know your operational costs and an estimated time for removal in order to give a proper bid for tree-related jobs.
Since tree removal can be such a complex and careful job, experience is important to give a fair estimate.
As a result, you should consider positioning your business for premium services.
After all, many tree service clients are looking for premium services because they want to hear three little words: Licensed and Insured.”
Also, dont forget to upsell your clients! To name a few:
- Pruning
- Hauling and disposal services
The Reality Of Your Market And What It Means To You
Theres a funny thing about lawn care. While you dont want to compete on price thats to say you dont want to be the lowest priced guy out there you will certainly have to be competitively priced.
This means that youll want to close customers on the idea that youre competing with other landscapers on the quality of your service. However, what you need to know about lawn care customers is that they dont have much tolerance for price variations.
If the average price for an average lawn in your area is $35, then youre going to want to stay within $5 of that. Sure, there will always be idiots out there who say theyll do it for $20 but what those customers quickly find is that these low-ballers do a low-ball job of it.
Its funny how so many people will gladly pay more for quality for clothes or when they go out to eat, yet in this business, not so much. Its just a mindset, really. Yet as long as youre diligent and give them a fair bid, youre bound to do very well.
Pricing is one of those critical elements that tends to run a lot of newbies out of the business. Its not a matter of guesswork you need to have a formula for pricing.
Thats true for cutting grass, snow or leaf removal, fertilization, weeding and so on. Lucky for you, there is a way to do this that allows you to be accurate and plan for future revenue and growth as well.
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Avoid Lawn Care Price Increases During Selling Season
The worst time to raise prices is when all of your competitors post ads and try to steal your clients.
Try to raise prices only near the end of or after your mowing season. As a good general rule of thumb, many lawn care owners increase their prices during the end of summer or beginning of fall.
The only exception here is for no-profit or low-profit clients. In which case, feel free to raise your lawn care prices on these zero or minimal profit clients whenever.l
Know Your Time & Your Business
If youre a one-man lawn care operation its simple, how much do you need to make per hour on average to put food on the table and keep your business running? Shouldnt be hard to estimate.
Once you have a few employees or subcontractors it gets a bit trickier to estimate cost. Now you have other mouths, benefits and most likely a few federal or state-mandated costs associated with having employees. You likely now have more equipment and those additional costs as well.
Despite the number of mower operators to multiply the hourly cost by, you also need to remember travel time is important as well. You cant just not pay your people for that time, so your hourly on-the-job cost should reflect that or have an out-of-service-area trip charge by distance.
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Download Your Free Lawn Care Estimate Template Now
Alright, youve got it downloaded, heres how it works:
Theres room for six services on the estimate. In the table on the right, you input the relevant square footage amount. If all your services work off of turf square footage, this number could be the same all the way down the column.
There are tables on the second worksheet that compute your rate from what you provide in the Client Size table.
All of the service rates are added up and the total is the bolded number at the bottom of the column.
Annual Yard Work Prices
In general, the yearly cost ranges from $700 to $2,600. What youll pay changes based on where you live and the size of your property. For example, if you live in a temperate or cold climate, you probably dont need a pro to come by from November through March. This cuts down dramatically on the overall cost. If you live in a warm climate that needs frequent maintenance with no breaks throughout the year, youll pay more.
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How Lawn Love Works
Lawn Love customers can manage all of their lawn care or snow removal services online. Simply schedule a service with the push of a button and well send over a local professional. We partner with vetted, independent lawn care contractors who have years of experience caring for everything that grows outside the home.
All payment, scheduling, and service reviews are completed from within the Lawn Love platform. If any issues occur with your service, Lawn Loves dedicated customer support team is here to assist you. We also offer a total satisfaction guarantee.
Two days after your service has been completed, well process your payment. We accept all major credit cards.
Property Size And Condition
Lawns of different sizes take different amounts of time to mow, which is why property size is a vital factor in determining pricing. You should take time to measure each lawn scrupulously before giving an estimate. This step is critical because more often than not, lawn jobs are recurring, and you dont want to cheat yourself in the long run.
Measuring the area in person also gives you a chance to assess the site, another critical factor in pricing. Not all lawns are created equalnot even two lawns with the same square footage. Certain yard features make mowing more challenging and increase the time needed to maintain the yard, such as:
- Sidewalks
- Pools
- Play structures
You should also pay attention to the condition of the property. Things like brush that needs clearing require more time , as do mowing lawns on hills, which are more challenging.
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How To Raise Your Lawn Care Pricing Without Losing Great Clients
No one and I mean no one wants to pay more for anything.
Youre raising my prices? My yard didnt get any bigger, so why should it cost more?
The stubborn client is every lawn care business’ worst nightmare. As a result, many lawn care business owners are afraid that a simple lawn care pricing increase will bring out the worst in people.
And it will
if you dont do it right.
- How high is too high?
- What number should you aim for?
- When should you raise prices, and how frequently?
Use these 5 simple steps to properly raise your lawn care prices without losing your best clients.
The Standard Bidding Unit The Man Hour
In order to take the big mystery out of bidding for jobs, were going to help you to create a standard unit of measure.
Something that you use as a guide whenever you price a new clients weekly lawn mowing visits or a shrub pruning job for example.
The biggest key behind this unit is having a fairly good understanding of how much time something is going to take.
Thats the tricky part at least in the beginning. But thats what your first 10 customers are really for they allow you to get a good feel for the work and how to gauge the amount of time a lawn or other project will take. A little later on, Ill go into some ideas thatll help you better guestimate your time and how to really hone your instincts so you can be right on the money.
Now I know that Ive mentioned before that thinking of yourself as an hourly employee is no longer acceptable. Youre in business now, and its not how much money you make per hour, its how much your business makes per hour. Its a subtle difference but its an important one. The difference between an hourly wage and a man hour can mean tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars to you.
The reason that you use the man hour as your basis or as your standard unit of measure is that this will always be your basis.
So how do you figure this out?
Well, lets start with your $5,000 per month salary or $60,000 per year. At a regular 40 hour per week job, you can figure out your yearly salary by multiplying your hourly wage by 2,000.
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How Often Should You Hire Someone To Mow Your Lawns
The million-dollar question is: how often should you mow your lawns? Or, how often should you get someone in to mow your lawns? There are many deciding factors in this question. It can depend on where you live, your climate, the weather conditions for specific days, weeks, and months, and how neglected your lawn has been in the past.
Lawns tend to thrive in spring and summer, so weekly or fortnightly is a common request by homeowners. In the colder months of the year, monthly is even more common. Lawn care service providers will often inform you of their schedule requirements and what they recommend for your lawn.
Even if youre on a set schedule, you should also feel confident to call your local lawnmower to see if they can squeeze you in more often, or for a one-off cut in-between.
The frequency of their services can also depend on your lawns height. If it has been some time since you last mowed the lawns yourself, and they are now overgrown, then it can many regular lawn mowing sessions to bring them back to a manageable standard. If you cut them down to a reasonable height in one go, you may be damaging your lawns beyond easy repair.
When you make contact with your chosen contractor, talk to them about your lawn height. They can then be more accurate with their pricing and outline how they can combat the problem for a picture-perfect yard.
Add The Company Logo On The Estimate Form
Most business documents only require a monochrome company name or logo on the paper to save the money they are supposed to spend on the color palette. If you want to attract more customers, one trick is to add color to your business logo or name. Adding color gives an assumption that you are taking time to give out quality documents to your customers and not some half-baked and ordinary estimate form presentation. Place either the company logo or the company name on the uppermost part of the paper.
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We Hope This Article Helped You Learn About How To Quote Lawn Mowing Jobs For Your Business
Are you a lawn care or landscaping provider looking to join the Plowz & Mowz fleet? Well handle the quoting for the lawn mowing jobs we send you through the app and youll instantly see what each mowing job pays you for your time. Visit our provider sign-up page for more information on how we can help you grow your business.
How To Quote The Customer
Once you have looked at all these things, it is time to give a quote to the customer. If they are standing in front of you, the best thing to do is to provide them with a verbal quote there and then. If you are quoting based on time, do not tell the customer this. They will expect a discount if you end up getting a better time and they will not offer you more if it takes longer. Note their reaction. Did they looked surprised and then you didnt get the job. You dont want this to become a common occurrence. It may be a sign that you are quoting too high if this is happening a lot.
When you get home, send out a text to everyone, who did not accept your quote that day. Dont be pushy. The text should read something like thanks for the opportunity to quote on your lawn. Here are the details of the quote, so you have a copy for your records. Now you get to have a second bite at the job. You could also use this text to reduce your price a bit if you have been thinking all day that your quote may have been too high. It can happen to the best of us. Because you gave them a verbal quote, then they will most likely assume they heard you wrong, or you gave the incorrect price.
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Cost Of Winterizing Your Lawn
Depending on where you live, you may need to winterize your lawn for the harsh winter weather. Winterizing your lawn will ensure the lawn your worked so hard to keep healthy and beautiful does not die from the first snow, and can also prevent dead spots or the unappealing brown spots that we all see too often at the beginning of spring.
The average cost for winterizing a lawn is about $400, but the price can vary drastically depending on where you live and the size of your lawn. If you have a lawn care provider you can ask them about their winterizing process and what your lawn would need, or you can find a lawn care professional today to take on the job.
Diy Or Hire A Lawn Care Expert In My Area
When youre trying to find average lawn care pricing in New Zealand, you might start to wonder whether its a task you can tackle yourself. However, can you really put a price on convenience? Actually, you can, and youd be surprised at how little difference there is between hiring someone to mow your lawns, and doing them yourself.
You can put a reasonably hefty price tag on your time. Any time you spend mowing your lawns is time youre not spending with your family and friends. You also have to find a lawnmower for sale thats reasonably affordable, and that process is not easy either.
Once you buy the mower, you have to purchase fuel for it, pay for tuning costs, and servicing as well. If there are any mower repairs, then you have to do these too. And what about storage? The average property size is only getting smaller, which means that fewer people have garages and tool sheds in which to put their mower. No one wants to end up with a lawnmower in their laundry or living room.
It all sounds like a bit of a hassle, doesnt it? It might be easier to find someone in lawn care to hire who can do the job without you having to lift a finger.
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