Your videos like this have helped me so much I have been in the lawn care business for 18 years and just ventured out on my own so I know how to do all the work but pricing is a whole nother ball game thank you so much for the time you put into your videos. God is great....
I have watched a few videos and subscribed after this one. I started a landscape company last year and went full time this season. I'm located in North Alabama myself. Thanks for the tips man. I look forward to more content.
I have a cattle rancher that takes all the leaves I can bring him, cows love leaves. It’s the best way to get rid of them. Just delivered 50 bags (96 gallon bags) no disposable fee for me and no charge to him, works out great.
I hired the same guy for many years. Every year they would come and do one removal about a week before Thanksgiving and then a second and final cleanup the first week in December. They did a great job but of course each year the price kept going up. When the bill started approaching $800 I finally had to stop the service and just do it myself. It's about a 1/2 acre property in MD with a lot of trees.
Per man hour or just in general? I just did a clients halfway season cleanup (only does it twice) and charged him 120 for nearly 2:30 hours of work by myself and he thought the price should be 60
@@The_Ed_Hodgers it's per visit. I'm a solo-operator... so no crew. If I had a crew it would be much more expensive. $120 for 2.5 hours of work is a good deal (reasonable) for the customer. Many customers don't have any idea on the labor involved, cost of equipment that's used and so on.
@@csmlawnandlandscape7619 yeah I had one today that was $155 for 3.5 hours that was a months worth of wet leaves and she wanted the same price as mowing which is $65 bi-weekly and only takes me about 40 minutes.
@@The_Ed_Hodgers Then he should have hired a teenager to do the job. Problem is, that teenager would only have a rake and tarp. Charging $25 per man hour by the teen using a rake and tarp would be over 10 hours of labor and cost over $250. ALWAYS charge per MAN HOUR unless you give a "quote". What I am learning is that it typically takes 45 minutes to an hour per large leaf tree. Best bet is to give the owners an estimate of time but tell them it is per hour from the minute you arrive to the minute you hand them the bill. "We charge $75 per man hour and there are 2 of us workers here so the on-site time is $150/hour. You have 3 large trees and 2 medium trees plus various small bushes and obstacles in the yard. We estimate that it 2 of us will be on site for 2 hours each and take 4 man hours for an estimated $300 total. If it takes longer, you will pay more. If it takes less time, you will pay less." Remember that if you have to dispose of the debris, calculate that time as well as disposal fees into your hourly rate. Not an extra fee. So if you want $80/man hour and know that you can do 8 man hours of leaf cleanup before needing to dump, and that takes 1 hour round trip including drop-off, you need to calculate the man hours into the combined job time. So 8 man hours to do leaves plus 1 man hour to dump is 9 man hours total. 9 hours @ $80 per hour $720 needed to bill. Reverse the numbers for the new required hourly. $720 needed for 9 total hours of work/8 billable hours=$90. Therefore the billing rate is now actually $90/man hour. Cut the numbers in 1/2 if you need $40/man hour or 1/4 if you need $60/man hour. By telling the customer upfront the "estimate" and that the price could go either way, you're telling them that you are fair in pricing and neither of you gets the short end of the stick. Work hard and fast. Remind the client that there is insurance on you, your health, vehicle, equipment as well as property liability. There is also equipment cost as well as maintenance, your advertising, social security payments, taxes and gas. If you charge $40/hour and it cost you $5 to get to the property, then another $5 in fuel for the equipment plus $2/hour in insurance and maintenance cost, you spend $12/hour before making anything for you. Your pay is now only $28/hour and you still need to pay +-30% in taxes netting you under $20/hour. If anything breaks down, you don't have the income to fix it at that rate.
Hey Jason, Had a great mowing season here in NC.Thanks for your Guidance and helpful tips. I had to defend you on a video that another RUclipsr posted on here about Guards on Trimmers. They didn't say your name but anybody that watches Lawn Care Videos knew who they were talking about.I hope you have a good Holliday Season and I will be watching and learning more about this buisness that I Love. Thanks AJ
Hi 👋🏼 not new to the channel but just gotta say if i was doing this cleanup on this specific property on video. I would pile al leaves close to the water, pack up my stuff up get the truck ready, come back out with blower and blow all the leaves into the lake
I'm in the same region as you. (Georgia) and I notice I like MY lawn mowed every week, but some of my customers only want every other week, which is fine, but I'm curious... Here in the southeast, do you recommend weekly or biweekly to your clients?
4-5x regular mowing price I can usually make it back in three to four weeks with all the clients included. Add more time for rain or snow interference.
One of my customers has 30 walnut tree on 3/4 of an acre takes my by myself about 20 hours to leaf blow I charge 25$ per hour but the 50/1 has gone up to 26$ per gallon so I'm not really making much this last I manually raked them on to a tarp and pulled because of gas prices it's a lot more physical but I was done 5 hours
It's difficult to include the price of dulping into the bid , I live in a retirement town so most people are on a fixed income, so the inclusion of the dump fees can be the difference between landing a job or sitting in the easy chair
The thing with being self employed is that we don't need the job if it doesn't meet our requirements. If you would insist that I pay out of pocket for disposing of your leaves, I would pass all day every day.
Tough one but here it goes. Assuming you borrowed $200k at 6% for 30 years your P&i is $1,800/month payment. Taxes estimated at $250/month, insurance estimated at $250/month and $200/month for maintenance/heat/ac. Your cost to live in that house is $1800+250+250+200=$2,500/month. Add in monthly vehicle & insurance at $500, gas at $500, food at $1000, health insurance at $500, cable, phone, internet at $500 and misc at $500 you get $6,000/month needed to live. This is assuming a single person with no other person to help pay bills or to cause more expenses such as food, cloths, healthcare, daycare etc. So you need $6,000/month after taxes to live and taxes are +-30% needing a rounded $8,500 per month pretax average. Plus the cost of running a business at say $1,500 more per month totaling $10,000 needed month for 12 months. So now you need to bill out $120,000 per year. Depending on where you live determines the number of months you have billable hours. I'm in New England so we have about 26 weeks of mowing and another +-9 weeks on either end of the season for clean-ups and stuff, 35 weeks total. $120,000/35=$3,429 per week needed billing. Spend 10 hours per week on the road to and from jobs and 40 hours per week actually working, you bill 40 hours per week. $3,429/40=$85.73/hour billing rate minimum needed using the above numbers. The above numbers give no savings what-so-ever unless your actual numbers are less. If your numbers are more, you need to charge more/work more/hire an employee to get more billable hours. Don't hire anyone until you are working at least a solid 55 hours per week and know you can expand. Or hire a part timer until you get more biz. Hope this helps.
I blow the leaves in from the edges, then use my Cub Cadet lawnvac to mulch/bag the leaves. I have been able to sell the mulched leaves as garden mulch😀. For whatever reason(s) i highly dislike using a mower to bag or mulch leaves. i'll do it if i have too though. Did you get a new camera Jason?
I love leaf cleanups. I get to dump on my property and charge for it, so its very profitable for me :)
Your videos like this have helped me so much I have been in the lawn care business for 18 years and just ventured out on my own so I know how to do all the work but pricing is a whole nother ball game thank you so much for the time you put into your videos. God is great....
Thanks for watching
I have watched a few videos and subscribed after this one. I started a landscape company last year and went full time this season. I'm located in North Alabama myself. Thanks for the tips man. I look forward to more content.
I hope it goes well with your new business
@@lawncarelife Thank you sir.
I have a cattle rancher that takes all the leaves I can bring him, cows love leaves. It’s the best way to get rid of them. Just delivered 50 bags (96 gallon bags) no disposable fee for me and no charge to him, works out great.
Now I never knew cows ate leaves
I hired the same guy for many years. Every year they would come and do one removal about a week before Thanksgiving and then a second and final cleanup the first week in December. They did a great job but of course each year the price kept going up. When the bill started approaching $800 I finally had to stop the service and just do it myself. It's about a 1/2 acre property in MD with a lot of trees.
I charge an hourly rate for leaf clean up: $60 per hour for weekly clean up, $75 per hour bi-weekly or one time leaf clean up $125 per hour.
Per man hour or just in general? I just did a clients halfway season cleanup (only does it twice) and charged him 120 for nearly 2:30 hours of work by myself and he thought the price should be 60
@@The_Ed_Hodgers it's per visit. I'm a solo-operator... so no crew. If I had a crew it would be much more expensive. $120 for 2.5 hours of work is a good deal (reasonable) for the customer. Many customers don't have any idea on the labor involved, cost of equipment that's used and so on.
@@csmlawnandlandscape7619 yeah I had one today that was $155 for 3.5 hours that was a months worth of wet leaves and she wanted the same price as mowing which is $65 bi-weekly and only takes me about 40 minutes.
@@The_Ed_Hodgers Then he should have hired a teenager to do the job. Problem is, that teenager would only have a rake and tarp. Charging $25 per man hour by the teen using a rake and tarp would be over 10 hours of labor and cost over $250. ALWAYS charge per MAN HOUR unless you give a "quote". What I am learning is that it typically takes 45 minutes to an hour per large leaf tree. Best bet is to give the owners an estimate of time but tell them it is per hour from the minute you arrive to the minute you hand them the bill. "We charge $75 per man hour and there are 2 of us workers here so the on-site time is $150/hour. You have 3 large trees and 2 medium trees plus various small bushes and obstacles in the yard. We estimate that it 2 of us will be on site for 2 hours each and take 4 man hours for an estimated $300 total. If it takes longer, you will pay more. If it takes less time, you will pay less." Remember that if you have to dispose of the debris, calculate that time as well as disposal fees into your hourly rate. Not an extra fee. So if you want $80/man hour and know that you can do 8 man hours of leaf cleanup before needing to dump, and that takes 1 hour round trip including drop-off, you need to calculate the man hours into the combined job time. So 8 man hours to do leaves plus 1 man hour to dump is 9 man hours total. 9 hours @ $80 per hour $720 needed to bill. Reverse the numbers for the new required hourly. $720 needed for 9 total hours of work/8 billable hours=$90. Therefore the billing rate is now actually $90/man hour. Cut the numbers in 1/2 if you need $40/man hour or 1/4 if you need $60/man hour. By telling the customer upfront the "estimate" and that the price could go either way, you're telling them that you are fair in pricing and neither of you gets the short end of the stick. Work hard and fast. Remind the client that there is insurance on you, your health, vehicle, equipment as well as property liability. There is also equipment cost as well as maintenance, your advertising, social security payments, taxes and gas. If you charge $40/hour and it cost you $5 to get to the property, then another $5 in fuel for the equipment plus $2/hour in insurance and maintenance cost, you spend $12/hour before making anything for you. Your pay is now only $28/hour and you still need to pay +-30% in taxes netting you under $20/hour. If anything breaks down, you don't have the income to fix it at that rate.
Hey Jason,
Had a great mowing season here in NC.Thanks for your Guidance and helpful tips. I had to defend you on a video that another RUclipsr posted on here about Guards on Trimmers.
They didn't say your name but anybody that watches Lawn Care Videos knew who they were talking about.I hope you have a good Holliday Season and I will be watching and learning more about this buisness that I Love.
Thanks AJ
Great video, thanks so much for the tips. I'm still learning . Thanks
Can you give update on current pricing , details what/how to charge ? Thx!
Great information Jason. Most of our customers just want it away from the house and fence, mulched up. Which I have no problem with.
That's my kind of customer
Hi 👋🏼 not new to the channel but just gotta say if i was doing this cleanup on this specific property on video. I would pile al leaves close to the water, pack up my stuff up get the truck ready, come back out with blower and blow all the leaves into the lake
Echo pb 9010T backpack blower for the win 🏆 🙌
I'm in the same region as you. (Georgia) and I notice I like MY lawn mowed every week, but some of my customers only want every other week, which is fine, but I'm curious... Here in the southeast, do you recommend weekly or biweekly to your clients?
I pile my leaves up in a pile to create good soil to add to some gardens.
4-5x regular mowing price
I can usually make it back in three to four weeks with all the clients included. Add more time for rain or snow interference.
Thanks Jason for the update and information I Needed This 💯
Good video, thank you Jason you're a good man
I have told customers that I charge by the hour , however long it takes
How can u find out what per man hR in your area
One of my customers has 30 walnut tree on 3/4 of an acre takes my by myself about 20 hours to leaf blow I charge 25$ per hour but the 50/1 has gone up to 26$ per gallon so I'm not really making much this last I manually raked them on to a tarp and pulled because of gas prices it's a lot more physical but I was done 5 hours
You're not charging enough. Try mixing your own gas. It's easy with the Stihl bottles. You'll work yourself to the bone for pennies.
Great info
It's difficult to include the price of dulping into the bid , I live in a retirement town so most people are on a fixed income, so the inclusion of the dump fees can be the difference between landing a job or sitting in the easy chair
The thing with being self employed is that we don't need the job if it doesn't meet our requirements. If you would insist that I pay out of pocket for disposing of your leaves, I would pass all day every day.
Great video
HAPPY NEW YEAR SIR 👍🤓🇺🇸
Happy new year
How much do you need to make and profit each year if you had just bought a house for 200,000 USD
Tough one but here it goes. Assuming you borrowed $200k at 6% for 30 years your P&i is $1,800/month payment. Taxes estimated at $250/month, insurance estimated at $250/month and $200/month for maintenance/heat/ac. Your cost to live in that house is $1800+250+250+200=$2,500/month. Add in monthly vehicle & insurance at $500, gas at $500, food at $1000, health insurance at $500, cable, phone, internet at $500 and misc at $500 you get $6,000/month needed to live. This is assuming a single person with no other person to help pay bills or to cause more expenses such as food, cloths, healthcare, daycare etc. So you need $6,000/month after taxes to live and taxes are +-30% needing a rounded $8,500 per month pretax average. Plus the cost of running a business at say $1,500 more per month totaling $10,000 needed month for 12 months. So now you need to bill out $120,000 per year. Depending on where you live determines the number of months you have billable hours. I'm in New England so we have about 26 weeks of mowing and another +-9 weeks on either end of the season for clean-ups and stuff, 35 weeks total. $120,000/35=$3,429 per week needed billing. Spend 10 hours per week on the road to and from jobs and 40 hours per week actually working, you bill 40 hours per week. $3,429/40=$85.73/hour billing rate minimum needed using the above numbers. The above numbers give no savings what-so-ever unless your actual numbers are less. If your numbers are more, you need to charge more/work more/hire an employee to get more billable hours. Don't hire anyone until you are working at least a solid 55 hours per week and know you can expand. Or hire a part timer until you get more biz.
Hope this helps.
I charge $125 for men hour
I blow the leaves in from the edges, then use my Cub Cadet lawnvac to mulch/bag the leaves. I have been able to sell the mulched leaves as garden mulch😀.
For whatever reason(s) i highly dislike using a mower to bag or mulch leaves. i'll do it if i have too though.
Did you get a new camera Jason?
Roll tide Roll
Has anyone ever mentioned that you fav Tom Brady?
Yes, but I do not throw a very tight spiral
look like you need same extra help
$65
What’s up with the faces
Unfortunately, that is what gets people's attention on RUclips, so I am told. I think it is ridiculously as well
@@lawncarelife gotcha