Hey Brian, I’m 18 and I’m going full time lawn care/landscaping this year. It’s crazy how much great information is on RUclips because of people like you. Thank you for doing what you do man!
Good luck, I was thinking about doing this myself and I am almost 40, if you start now at 18 and your serious, you could set yourself up for life, go out there and get it!!
This was one of the most requested topics back from our 80K subscriber video! We finally had a nice day in MI and I wanted to do a commercial bid walkthrough to help you guys out! Again these prices are a GENERAL idea and example of what we would charge! The video isn’t exactly what YOU should do, this is just what works for our business! Hope that helps!
Hey brian, great info bro. Love the outro music too. Got a quick question. How do you find the commercial clients that have bids open. You hit the street and just ask businesses? Or do you go to a website and find them?? Thanks for what you do. Pretty amazing.
Years ago, I worked at a commercial building that wanted me to get quotes on lawn care. I had quotes for $75 a week to $600+. The GM hired the service that turned in the highest quote!!! I’m sure that’s not always what happens, but it did in this case. Businesses don’t always want the cheapest quote!
This was an older complex with about 60% of it occupied; they were always late to pay and claimed that they didn’t have the money. I put up with that for two years, as I was just starting my business. No shrubs to trim and about 3 hours of labor for 175.00, but it was every two weeks and mostly crab grass. It's totally my fault for my misery, I should have walked away way sooner.
Guys, remember: We ALL have different markets. I'm in the Virginia/DC Market, what we charge here is not going to jive with a lower populated, lower income area. Brian is spot-on with the Bi-Weekly thing and the Create the LIFESTYLE you want. There's a market and plenty of work for all of us out there. Just gotta get up and GET IT!!!!!!!!!!!
In my market you have to do bi-weekly or you wont have any lawns. Commercial usually will be weekly but not residential. In summer the grass barely grows in 2 weeks.
I’ve been saying this for years we all need to work together. Just like most barbershops in cities meet on prices we should do the same. Good point Brian.
@@dgoodinground not entirely correct. Price fixing is a result of the govt taking control and fixing prices, this occurs in communism. and after a while, once socialism starts to fail, you have 2 options, price fix, or go free market. You are referring to collusion. Active collusion is absolutely illegal, active which means all the barbers in the city activity get together and raise there prices together. This is absolutely illegal, plenty of people are in jail because of convicted of collusion.
I'm 19, and writing up a bid tonight for my first commercial account. This video couldn't have come at a better time. Thanks Brian for this information
@@glenlohane-adayinthelife7361 well... the guy never replied to me, which I thought was abit rough, esp considering it was a large well known company with a rigid tendering process. But in hindsight, I'm glad I didn't get it. I'm over mowing lawns to tell you the truth, its not my calling. I take my hat of to the guys that do this all day every day.
@@glenlohane-adayinthelife7361 thanks mate, yeah i still have about half a dozen yards. i just the ones i enjoy doing + getting out and about is great and its always good to have a chat to the folks. I'm going to try my hand at selling real estate, i still have all my gear, so ill certainty be putting it to work cleaning up these property's to get on the market. I'll see what the next 12 months brings, hopefully nothing like the last 12.
Owner operator here in Michigan. 👋 Yes we all need to stick together and not perpetually undercut each other. We bid very similarly btw, great tips for others!
All estimating is based on production numbers. Meaning I can mow X sf per man hour, edging, trimming, etc. All these numbers can be figured out by time and motion studies. Once you have that info you can price out anything from a .25 acre lot to 10-20 acres. Good content 👍🏼
I really appreciate videos like this. I am currently at 15 residential clients and I want to get mor before I go full time but no one i know owns a lawn business so all my info comes from RUclips and I’m so glad people like you help folks like me and many others who are starting out. I wish everyone the best of luck
Me to man I’m 17 and I started a buisness landscape two years ago we get a lot of mulching and hardscaping but we need more houses to cut grass now there’s so much competition because if you tell client you’ll do for let’s say 50 an acre just an example another business would come and go it for way cheaper is so much competition now a days
Great video Brian! Soooo agree with not shooting under prior company’s bid! It’s happening so much in our area that it’s really affecting ability to accept small commercial property’s. Remember guys we’re not just trying to create cash flow, goal is to create profit!!!
people look at me crazy when i tell them i make $100-$250 an hr with my leather business. watching this bc i want to build my lawncare business and this has been such a great help!
the NUMBER ONE question I have is, Who do you have to talk to in order to get a commercial client? big businesses are more of an entity than a single person, and they never seem to know who handles their landscape maintenance. Also you brought up a good point about working together for our prices. There really is enough out there for everyone, so cutting prices kind of hurts us all. Another thing I've noticed is when I get a new client who just dropped their service and switched to me, they're not looking for a lower price. They're willing to pay the same or even more for someone to really take care of their needs.
Man I haven’t even watched the Video and I already like this video, I’m sitting here with pen and paper ready to take notes. All I can say is thank you , thank you 🙏🏻, love your channel keep up the good work .
I agree with you Brian on the fact that we all should set the pay scale all the same or about the same . here where I live in Warsaw NY there are to many cut throats .I have been in business for about 2 years and have seen so many fly by night company's come and go and they make it harder for guys like us that are trying to make a live doing what we love to do. But my works Speaks volumes about my type of work that I do for the customer.i find your videos very inspirational so thank you for all that you do for me and others in our business.
I'm being real and comfortable saying this because I'm sure I'm not alone...."Got mad love for you bro". This is the best video period. You are 100% correct when you said that you never seen anyone put anything this descriptive out here for us. #MOTIVATION
Times the winter work money x4 if your salting,that’s where the money is👍🏼. I agree 100% with the price raises with the cost of good laborers not bodies,good laborers. Great video lots of good info thanks for sharing.
Great content as always. Really enjoyed this video. Definitely agree with your pricing of that site and reasoning for it. Also agree that we shouldn’t undercut each other. Cost of living goes up every year so why should our lawn prices go down. We as an industry have to think like other trades that continue to increase year after year
Brian... I agree with your focus on medium to small commercials and homes. If you get one or two large commercials instead, they may be gone next year along with a huge % of your business. (You may not be able to fill out that huge hole, and end up with a bad down year as a result.)
I'm so glad you brought up the Industry Standard pricing. I head a saying the other day that stuck with me & I love sharing great sayings!! When ppl. come through and under bid you bye a ton they're "On a Race To The Bottom"!! Hoping all is well, Dirty Jersey out!!
Your wife must be very proud of how smart you are. I mean that as nice as I can say it. Until I saw your back story, I really thought you went to business school just listening to how you speak. Always very informative and professional. Kudos b. Keep it up. I think that is why so many people find your channel. You don't bullshit either. Not afraid of the pros and cons of running a business. Every so often we see glimpse of your personal life. Way to go rock star. Knuckles bro.
Pre emergent granular product instead of weeding would reduce your operating costs and make your business more efficient and professional and profitable
Agree with J and B Lawn Care below regarding avoiding or at least being cautious about signing on with Big Box companies. They almost all seem to hire separate Property Management companies and my experience has been only fair to really terrible with these third-party folks. In one case, I was hired by a guy over the phone for snow & ice management at a VERY large comm-tech company (whose name begins with "V") in my area. I stopped service after they stalled on a $2,000 invoice, and of course they paid up real quick and insisted I resume service. Then they ran up $10k and after chasing everyone in their accounting dept, they directed me to a Property Mgt company in Georgia. Turns out the guy who initially signed my contract was a Virginia SUBCONTRACTOR of the Georgia Property Mgt company, and nobody could tell me how to get ahold of this sub or his company. I persisted for 3 months and got all but $487 of my money. Plus I reported the whole thing to the State Attorney Generals of my state, Georgia, and Virginia (no response, of course). Moral of the story: Make them sign YOUR contract, or carefully read their contract, or do what I now do: refuse work for Property Management companies unless they are local. Oh, and way back at the start of the whole thing -- I insisted that guy on the phone sign MY contract.
Thank man for motivating me to go solo with my dad , this will help me out a lot when ever I get a commercial client . Currently 20 years old and can’t wait to see where I go from here . Greetings from New Jersey the garden state
Brian. Love your videos! . I do tree work in Oklahoma and I wish they would kind of be a little bit closer and competitive because the bids Here can go from $400 to 2000 on the same tree but some people so desperate for work will under cut everybody just to try to keep their workers busy or just stay afloat.
Thank you for taking the time to do that video that was very informative and spot on. I also like the way you think in regard to people in the industry working together to get a better price on the work we do.
Thinking of starting lawn care myself currently employed working in pharma world, gonna try to do both while working fill time until the lawn care takes off end goal is to just run my own and make it successful and healthy love the info you provide and just wanted to say thanks for all the videos
Find out the acreage or square footage of the property first Square footage is very important to have when doing your figures... Whatever your square footage is on any property for example: 15000 square feet... Move the decimal over 2.. turning your square footage into a dollar form amount of 150.00 After you get your dollar figure amount from moving the decibel over two. Divide that number by 2... Which in this case would be $75... $75 for .344 of an acre... Keep in mind this would include all trimming and blowing fees... It at least gives you the rough figure... In some cases you may have extra trimming you might have to charge extra for... But it's easier to justify this way...
By far the most helpful video I've seen yet on here on how to bid commercial. Great job and I look forward to more videos and watching the growth of your company!
I offered to mow my works property after we moved locations. Site is 4 acres with 1 acre of grass around the property. 700ft of steep ditch you can’t use a mower with 1000ft of chain link fence. I quoted $550 estimating a 5hr job. I also blew the parking lot on both sides and picked up nails and trash. Job took 7 man hours in actual work. My boss got multiple quotes after ranging from $175/cut biweekly to $575/cut weekly. Tough to compete with those super low rates so I said let them have at it. I was offering just to make some side money. We’ll see how it goes once they start mowing. A 3 man crew was mowing when we moved in.
This is the 7th time I've watched this, for other reason than your energy. 2 questions: 1. Do you still have this site as a client? Did you scale your quote with your rate increases? 2. Can you do more of these? 😁
Not lawn business just enjoy these vids, I do a 10 k yard $30 and trim, widow lady across street. Weed eater Sundaiwa cost $450 couldn't find cheaper Redmax
Brian, I watch your videos all the time along with Jason Creel, Keith Kalfas, and Stanley “The Dirt Monkey” for advice and sound ideas when it comes to pricing and approaching work. It’s funny that you mention not bidding locations like Lowes, Home Depot, etc because I’m currently in a bidding negotiation for a year round weekly (52) maintenance service agreement with one of those previously mentioned that’s managed by an out of state property management company. My first initial bid was turned down because he said I was too high and they only wanted to pay a fraction of the bid. However, the scope of work is pretty extensive and whole nine yards for full landscaping is what they are requiring. The mowing is not too extensive with just under 3 acres to mow, trim, edge, and blow. I’m not an expert but felt I bid it accordingly. I could use some sound advice from someone such as yourself with familiarity bidding commercially.
Hey Brian thank you for your time this really helped me better understand and how easy it really is to itemize everything for roughly the same size job I’m bidding on.
Spot on !! I am glad to see this video. It really helps the industry standards. Most lowballs are just under educated and do not know what it cost to run a business. Thanks for sharing.
Doing apartment complexes I charge for each building as it’s a separate house. Say there are 20 buildings, and normal you’d charge $50 per yard that size, I’ll charge $45 per building and then add extra for any fields or large grass areas around the buildings. Apartments are BIG money.
Say there are 20 buildings with an “average home sized yard” for example’s sake, and for something that size Id normally charge $50. I would cut them a discount per building and charge $45, sometimes $40. But at $45 per building for 20 buildings, that’s $900. If you have an efficient crew and can get 2-3 of those complexes done in a day that’s $1,800-$2,700 per day. I had 2 full time guys and 1 part time guy. I would bring the part time guy in on apartment days, put 2 guys on trimmers, myself and my most experienced guy on the 2 mowers, and we would get at it. Usually the guys trimming would be done first on those properties so they would grab blowers and have it all blown off by the time I’m finishing the last building. Park the truck somewhere in a central location, then start at one side of the complex and just systematically work through the entire property 1 building at a time. I have cleared $3,500 on apartment days. It took the whole day to do one 20 building complex, one 16 building complex, and one 15 building complex. 2 of them had common areas near the entrance with ponds, all 2 had playgrounds, and I highly recommend apartments for anybody wanting to make more money with less contracts. In theory you could have 1 crew if 4 men do nothing but apartments and have another 1 or 2 crews doing single family residential properties and you could make as much of not more money than some guys running 4-5 crews. It’s not any different than having all those buildings in 1 neighborhood spread out over like 3 streets. Having buildings that close you can knock out A LOT in a day.
Most of the time you can also pick up little 8-12 building complexes pretty easily because small complexes like that the owners don’t like hiring big companies to do them because they “think” it will be way more expensive 🤷🏼♂️
Great video I loved this format and your details on finances provided! Could you tell us how you go about finding commercial sites is it mainly calling property managers? Also side note what landscape conferences do you recommend besides the GIE?
Great video Brian, I bid simulator to what you just what different numbers! I enjoy doing fertilization and irrigation systems, just for fertilization you need a license in order to do it!
Great video. Couple questions, I see a lot of folks charging their (X) amount per yard of mulch installed. What about bed prep, I.E. weeding & edging? It seems like the spring cleanup wouldn't cover that based on the price. Also, what about a delivery fee for the mulch? Industry standard seems to be about $25-$35 per truck load to get the mulch on site. If we as landscapers didn't have trucks to pick up mulch etc, we would be paying the supply yard a delivery fee. I see a lot of guys not charging for delivery and we don't like seeing guys leaving money on the table. Thank you for the great content.
I'm not even in the lawn business and I watched till the end. Fantastic breakdown and smart methodology brother. Nice. I'm just a home gamer with a Scag lol
@@BriansLawnMaintenance Picked up the tiger cat 2 after watching a bunch of your vids last year. I did a video on my channel about a week ago on installing that QwikChute that I saw you were running too. I appreciate all of your vids brother. I run a web design company here in FL and while the industries are completely different, the business skills and the "get paid for the little stuff" principals are critical. It's one of the main reasons small businesses go out of business. Don't be afraid to charge what you're worth. If guys/gals are in business, they need to make sure that the business gets paid as well as the owner-operator.
Good video. With how easy it is to take that plow off I would remove it to save the wear and tear on the front end of your truck when your not expecting snow for a few days. Just a tip
Takes 5 minutes, but I drop it off 15 minutes away. In MI the weather changes on a dime, usually I keep it on if snow is in the 10 day, like it was for us. Snow 4-8" Weds!
So Brian is at $62.50 / man hour basically. Your area, the competing companies and the quality of your service will dictate your rate. I personally look at a bunch of the bigger companies in my area and follow their pricing vs the little guys advertising on Facebook. All depends on the amount of work and the clientele you want to build on
Hey Brian, thanks for all the great content. I’ve been trying to find where you have the link for your commercial bid sheet but with no success. Can you link me to that or direct where to go to get it. Thanks and also thanks for the help with the Kujos, fit great, feel great, and man are they durable. Ordered the boots to for this winter, definitely glad I went up a half size. Thanks again, Kevin.
Way to share that info Brian. You have posted on a few videos of the weeding . It’s nobody’s favourite job . Truth be told it’s pretty high profit for you. Only takes hard work and a pail, you are already on site. The nice thing about many small commercial sites is if you lose one it doesn’t effect like losing a huge site. I’m not into that either. Thanks for sharing .
Totally buddy, 2 great tips. Hey if I’m pulling weeds, I’m totally fine with that! It’s relaxing as hell. If you price it right, it can be even more enjoyable lol 😏
Great video. Pure class brother. I’m 16 years in business and I enjoy listening to your enthusiasm. Great advice with the under bidding each other. It gets old. Enough business to go around. Stop lowering the market. Thx Brian.
Awesome video this is the type of info I've been looking for specially starting this season I've been wanting to get into commercial properties. Thanks 👌
Love your honesty. Many try to act bigger than they really are, you keep it real. A year or two i think both us will be able to do bigger business sites if we'd like. To me it's more of a head ache. And yea sir i average 120 a hr for my crew To make money like I like. We need to do 3 residential lawns an hr with one truck and 3 guys. So my numbers are rite on with you bud, give or take obviously. Thanks brother. You rock bud!!! Ha lol
The big money doesn't have to come from big businesses. Think of residential clients as well for creating a large profit margin. Targeting the right residential customer will often times lead to more loyalty (because those bigger companies often are price shopping and will fire you when someone cheaper comes around regardless of how satisfied they were with your service) and the less client turn over we have the better because it costs money to get new clients. Bigger jobs also take a lot of time in your day limiting you from taking on new customers which isnt a big deal until that business fires you and you had 30% of your workload into that job and you have to scramble to find a whole lot of work to keep your price the same because as use rates on equipment go down, the cost goes up. So hopefully those other 70% of clients don't mind a price increase or you can just eat the lost profit margin. Having those high quality residential clients also allow for a lot of opportunities for diversification into leaf removal, aeration, power seeding, landscaping and more with a wider range of clients to do this higher profit margin work for. Just a thought!
Is that $100/yd for installed mulch include the price of the mulch/supplies? Or just the man hours it would take to install, not including supplies? Great video and info!
One thing you missed is Storm Clean up cost. Do that as a per hour cost. This way if they get hit by a micro burst or tornado they already have a set per hour price to come up and do a major clean up. I was a Volunteer firefighter while I owned my business I would get phone calls on my voicemail just after storms for clean ups just telling me they got hit and go ahead and come clean up.
@@BriansLawnMaintenance that is something I have heard a thousand times before. Including where I grew up. We actually sat in a lower level radar dead zone. They didn't get good data from a lot of the area I grew up in. When I was 19 we got hit by a Tornado Southeastern Wisconsin. Twice that year. The first did little to no damage to structures. The second well I personally seen where it picked up a whole Oak Tree out of a farmer's field, and Transfer it 100yrds to the middle of a parking lot of a Greek monastery. Then lifted touching down 3 more time mainly just damaging trees until it hit a New Renovation of a Super Value Warehouse in Pleasant Prairie. WI. I was at a restaurant 5 miles from there when all a sudden we had hail the size of baseballs. Afterwards when we went outside we found our Jeep wasn't where we had parked it. It had been moved 1 row further and 3 spots south of where we had parked it. Then the fallowing year I was at County Thunder in Twin Lakes, WI when a micro burst tore down the stage with 3 people on the stage. They survived but were beaten pretty badly. The micro burst was the Remains of a long rope Tornado. Being a Firefighter and a Storm chaser I spotted it from the top of the hill 5 to 10 miles west of the venue. That Oak Tree was more than 6 feet in diameter thew the trunk. The Super Value warehouse had 3 or 4 sections of prefabricated concrete walls riped down and the insulation was scattered for 2 miles. So it doesn't necessarily have to hit you to cause a mess for you to clean up.
This video is a little old, hopefully you see it. I see on the break down you have irrigation. Is it out of line or unusual if I was to not provide that given a similar customer? I don't feel like I have that ability.
Respect to you for having the balls to post a detailed video like this, probably why you have 80k+ subscribers
We're an open book brotha. I'm not saying I'm wrong, or right, it is what it is :) I'm still learning too, every single day. Ha! Thanks for the love.
Hey Brian, I’m 18 and I’m going full time lawn care/landscaping this year. It’s crazy how much great information is on RUclips because of people like you. Thank you for doing what you do man!
Hey buddy that’s what it’s all about. Hope the content helps! Keep up the hard work 💪
Good luck, I was thinking about doing this myself and I am almost 40, if you start now at 18 and your serious, you could set yourself up for life, go out there and get it!!
Get it brother... 2020 is your year kevin make it happen, the sky's the limit bud.. hope you have a great season God bless.
Go Get it Kid! Work hard, be honest, and do what you say you're going to do. You'll be fine!
How’s it going for you?
This was one of the most requested topics back from our 80K subscriber video!
We finally had a nice day in MI and I wanted to do a commercial bid walkthrough to help you guys out! Again these prices are a GENERAL idea and example of what we would charge!
The video isn’t exactly what YOU should do, this is just what works for our business! Hope that helps!
Here comes your Snow 4 to 8 inches of it.
Hey brian, great info bro. Love
the outro music too. Got a quick question. How do you find the commercial clients that have bids open. You hit the street and just ask businesses? Or do you go to a website and find them?? Thanks for what you do. Pretty amazing.
Where can we go to get the contract you talked about in this video?
@@bigdogg1206 yes great question. I am finding it hard to get to these commercials as well as HOA's like who do we talk to
Years ago, I worked at a commercial building that wanted me to get quotes on lawn care. I had quotes for $75 a week to $600+. The GM hired the service that turned in the highest quote!!! I’m sure that’s not always what happens, but it did in this case. Businesses don’t always want the cheapest quote!
This was an older complex with about 60% of it occupied; they were always late to pay and claimed that they didn’t have the money. I put up with that for two years, as I was just starting my business. No shrubs to trim and about 3 hours of labor for 175.00, but it was every two weeks and mostly crab grass. It's totally my fault for my misery, I should have walked away way sooner.
Guys, remember: We ALL have different markets. I'm in the Virginia/DC Market, what we charge here is not going to jive with a lower populated, lower income area. Brian is spot-on with the Bi-Weekly thing and the Create the LIFESTYLE you want. There's a market and plenty of work for all of us out there. Just gotta get up and GET IT!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey, how much do you think should be charge on average per hour of labor in VA/DC area working solo?
In my market you have to do bi-weekly or you wont have any lawns. Commercial usually will be weekly but not residential. In summer the grass barely grows in 2 weeks.
T5
I’ve been saying this for years we all need to work together. Just like most barbershops in cities meet on prices we should do the same. Good point Brian.
Price fixing is against the law
@@dgoodinground not entirely correct. Price fixing is a result of the govt taking control and fixing prices, this occurs in communism. and after a while, once socialism starts to fail, you have 2 options, price fix, or go free market. You are referring to collusion. Active collusion is absolutely illegal, active which means all the barbers in the city activity get together and raise there prices together. This is absolutely illegal, plenty of people are in jail because of convicted of collusion.
I'm 19, and writing up a bid tonight for my first commercial account. This video couldn't have come at a better time. Thanks Brian for this information
Best of luck pal!
How did you do Jack?
@@glenlohane-adayinthelife7361 well... the guy never replied to me, which I thought was abit rough, esp considering it was a large well known company with a rigid tendering process. But in hindsight, I'm glad I didn't get it. I'm over mowing lawns to tell you the truth, its not my calling. I take my hat of to the guys that do this all day every day.
@@jackheinemann8780 Well, good that you know it's not for you. That's a gift. Hope you find something that you dig.
@@glenlohane-adayinthelife7361 thanks mate, yeah i still have about half a dozen yards. i just the ones i enjoy doing + getting out and about is great and its always good to have a chat to the folks. I'm going to try my hand at selling real estate, i still have all my gear, so ill certainty be putting it to work cleaning up these property's to get on the market. I'll see what the next 12 months brings, hopefully nothing like the last 12.
Owner operator here in Michigan. 👋 Yes we all need to stick together and not perpetually undercut each other. We bid very similarly btw, great tips for others!
All estimating is based on production numbers. Meaning I can mow X sf per man hour, edging, trimming, etc. All these numbers can be figured out by time and motion studies. Once you have that info you can price out anything from a .25 acre lot to 10-20 acres.
Good content 👍🏼
I really appreciate videos like this. I am currently at 15 residential clients and I want to get mor before I go full time but no one i know owns a lawn business so all my info comes from RUclips and I’m so glad people like you help folks like me and many others who are starting out. I wish everyone the best of luck
Me to man I’m 17 and I started a buisness landscape two years ago we get a lot of mulching and hardscaping but we need more houses to cut grass now there’s so much competition because if you tell client you’ll do for let’s say 50 an acre just an example another business would come and go it for way cheaper is so much competition now a days
How is your business doing today
Great video Brian! Soooo agree with not shooting under prior company’s bid! It’s happening so much in our area that it’s really affecting ability to accept small commercial property’s. Remember guys we’re not just trying to create cash flow, goal is to create profit!!!
And wealth ✅
@@BriansLawnMaintenance Amen. I'm in a time capsule. Go Bucks!
people look at me crazy when i tell them i make $100-$250 an hr with my leather business. watching this bc i want to build my lawncare business and this has been such a great help!
the NUMBER ONE question I have is, Who do you have to talk to in order to get a commercial client?
big businesses are more of an entity than a single person, and they never seem to know who handles their landscape maintenance.
Also you brought up a good point about working together for our prices. There really is enough out there for everyone, so cutting prices kind of hurts us all. Another thing I've noticed is when I get a new client who just dropped their service and switched to me, they're not looking for a lower price. They're willing to pay the same or even more for someone to really take care of their needs.
The Office Manager
Brian thanks for taking the time to share your subject knowledge. This is very helpful for new owner/operators. I'm inspired, keep up the good work 👍🏾
Thanks Brian,
This was the most useful video on lawn care that has ever been created. Very much appreciated
Wow thanks pal, I’m honored.
Probably the best commercial pricing video on RUclips. Love it!
Hey thanks pal. I really hope it helps 👍
Thanks for the tips! I like your attitude, yes we are competitors today but tomorrow we may need one another.
Man I haven’t even watched the Video and I already like this video, I’m sitting here with pen and paper ready to take notes. All I can say is thank you , thank you 🙏🏻, love your channel keep up the good work .
You bet pal!
I agree with you Brian on the fact that we all should set the pay scale all the same or about the same . here where I live in Warsaw NY there are to many cut throats .I have been in business for about 2 years and have seen so many fly by night company's come and go and they make it harder for guys like us that are trying to make a live doing what we love to do. But my works Speaks volumes about my type of work that I do for the customer.i find your videos very inspirational so thank you for all that you do for me and others in our business.
I'm being real and comfortable saying this because I'm sure I'm not alone...."Got mad love for you bro". This is the best video period. You are 100% correct when you said that you never seen anyone put anything this descriptive out here for us. #MOTIVATION
Haha thanks pal 💯
Times the winter work money x4 if your salting,that’s where the money is👍🏼.
I agree 100% with the price raises with the cost of good laborers not bodies,good laborers.
Great video lots of good info thanks for sharing.
I tried to budget $2K for snow 1500 for salt. It’s probably more I agree. 👍💪
Great content as always. Really enjoyed this video. Definitely agree with your pricing of that site and reasoning for it. Also agree that we shouldn’t undercut each other. Cost of living goes up every year so why should our lawn prices go down. We as an industry have to think like other trades that continue to increase year after year
Amen pal
Ooof..... Say that again in 2023 😮
Brian... I agree with your focus on medium to small commercials and homes. If you get one or two large commercials instead, they may be gone next year along with a huge % of your business. (You may not be able to fill out that huge hole, and end up with a bad down year as a result.)
That’s another nugget, yep! If one account makes or breaks you, that’s never a good business model, imo.
I'm so glad you brought up the Industry Standard pricing. I head a saying the other day that stuck with me & I love sharing great sayings!! When ppl. come through and under bid you bye a ton they're "On a Race To The Bottom"!! Hoping all is well, Dirty Jersey out!!
So true and so good. Thx brother!!
Appreciate the transparency here Brian! I was surprised with the numbers tbh! Have a great 2020 season 😎
Your wife must be very proud of how smart you are. I mean that as nice as I can say it. Until I saw your back story, I really thought you went to business school just listening to how you speak. Always very informative and professional. Kudos b. Keep it up. I think that is why so many people find your channel. You don't bullshit either. Not afraid of the pros and cons of running a business. Every so often we see glimpse of your personal life. Way to go rock star. Knuckles bro.
Hey thanks buddy that means a lot
Pre emergent granular product instead of weeding would reduce your operating costs and make your business more efficient and professional and profitable
Preemerg for garden beds? What product do you use?
@@samuelmckinley6327 teflon. Less expensive than snapshot
Agree with J and B Lawn Care below regarding avoiding or at least being cautious about signing on with Big Box companies. They almost all seem to hire separate Property Management companies and my experience has been only fair to really terrible with these third-party folks. In one case, I was hired by a guy over the phone for snow & ice management at a VERY large comm-tech company (whose name begins with "V") in my area. I stopped service after they stalled on a $2,000 invoice, and of course they paid up real quick and insisted I resume service. Then they ran up $10k and after chasing everyone in their accounting dept, they directed me to a Property Mgt company in Georgia. Turns out the guy who initially signed my contract was a Virginia SUBCONTRACTOR of the Georgia Property Mgt company, and nobody could tell me how to get ahold of this sub or his company. I persisted for 3 months and got all but $487 of my money. Plus I reported the whole thing to the State Attorney Generals of my state, Georgia, and Virginia (no response, of course). Moral of the story: Make them sign YOUR contract, or carefully read their contract, or do what I now do: refuse work for Property Management companies unless they are local. Oh, and way back at the start of the whole thing -- I insisted that guy on the phone sign MY contract.
Thank man for motivating me to go solo with my dad , this will help me out a lot when ever I get a commercial client . Currently 20 years old and can’t wait to see where I go from here . Greetings from New Jersey the garden state
Brian. Love your videos! . I do tree work in Oklahoma and I wish they would kind of be a little bit closer and competitive because the bids Here can go from $400 to 2000 on the same tree but some people so desperate for work will under cut everybody just to try to keep their workers busy or just stay afloat.
Thank you for taking the time to do that video that was very informative and spot on. I also like the way you think in regard to people in the industry working together to get a better price on the work we do.
Hey Brian! This video was incredibly informative. Thank you man! I know this videos take alot to make. I know we all really appreciate it!
Hey you bet buddy thanks for the kind words
Thinking of starting lawn care myself currently employed working in pharma world, gonna try to do both while working fill time until the lawn care takes off end goal is to just run my own and make it successful and healthy love the info you provide and just wanted to say thanks for all the videos
Awesome!
How's it going now man? Same boat here
Brian brill info as usual. Landscaper here in Ireland with a deep thinking channel😊.
Find out the acreage or square footage of the property first
Square footage is very important to have when doing your figures...
Whatever your square footage is on any property for example: 15000 square feet... Move the decimal over 2.. turning your square footage into a dollar form amount of 150.00
After you get your dollar figure amount from moving the decibel over two. Divide that number by 2... Which in this case would be $75...
$75 for .344 of an acre... Keep in mind this would include all trimming and blowing fees...
It at least gives you the rough figure... In some cases you may have extra trimming you might have to charge extra for... But it's easier to justify this way...
I needed a video like this just breaking things down thanks!
By far the most helpful video I've seen yet on here on how to bid commercial. Great job and I look forward to more videos and watching the growth of your company!
Install price is on par
But almost all commercial expect previous years to be removed to prevent buildup.
That's surely 200yd!
I offered to mow my works property after we moved locations. Site is 4 acres with 1 acre of grass around the property. 700ft of steep ditch you can’t use a mower with 1000ft of chain link fence. I quoted $550 estimating a 5hr job. I also blew the parking lot on both sides and picked up nails and trash. Job took 7 man hours in actual work. My boss got multiple quotes after ranging from $175/cut biweekly to $575/cut weekly. Tough to compete with those super low rates so I said let them have at it. I was offering just to make some side money. We’ll see how it goes once they start mowing. A 3 man crew was mowing when we moved in.
Loved this one Brian! Hope you'll do more of these types of videos in the future! Looking forward to the next one!
This is the 7th time I've watched this, for other reason than your energy.
2 questions:
1. Do you still have this site as a client? Did you scale your quote with your rate increases?
2. Can you do more of these? 😁
Thank you for the breakdown! This helps out. I fully agree on let all raise our price together instead of undercutting each other!.
Brian in order to get better lawn quality and the need for more cuts. I recommend just adding a treatment of plug aireations.
Great video Brian, I love how you keep your videos simple and practical!
Hey 3rd grade was the last year I aced. I try to teach at that level for guys like me 😂😎
This was very helpful please post more videos. Thanks 🎉
Not lawn business just enjoy these vids, I do a 10 k yard $30 and trim, widow lady across street. Weed eater Sundaiwa cost $450 couldn't find cheaper Redmax
Brian, I watch your videos all the time along with Jason Creel, Keith Kalfas, and Stanley “The Dirt Monkey” for advice and sound ideas when it comes to pricing and approaching work. It’s funny that you mention not bidding locations like Lowes, Home Depot, etc because I’m currently in a bidding negotiation for a year round weekly (52) maintenance service agreement with one of those previously mentioned that’s managed by an out of state property management company.
My first initial bid was turned down because he said I was too high and they only wanted to pay a fraction of the bid. However, the scope of work is pretty extensive and whole nine yards for full landscaping is what they are requiring. The mowing is not too extensive with just under 3 acres to mow, trim, edge, and blow. I’m not an expert but felt I bid it accordingly. I could use some sound advice from someone such as yourself with familiarity bidding commercially.
Sometimes those big sites pay crap!
Golden tips in this one! Thanks Brian!! 👍
Awesome video! I’m just starting out and got my first plow this year! Thank you so much for taking the time to make this!
Glad I could help!
Hey Brian thank you for your time this really helped me better understand and how easy it really is to itemize everything for roughly the same size job I’m bidding on.
Spot on !! I am glad to see this video. It really helps the industry standards. Most lowballs are just under educated and do not know what it cost to run a business. Thanks for sharing.
Excellent video, very helpful for someone like me who is just getting into commercial accounts. Thanks for all your help!
Doing apartment complexes I charge for each building as it’s a separate house. Say there are 20 buildings, and normal you’d charge $50 per yard that size, I’ll charge $45 per building and then add extra for any fields or large grass areas around the buildings. Apartments are BIG money.
Say there are 20 buildings with an “average home sized yard” for example’s sake, and for something that size Id normally charge $50. I would cut them a discount per building and charge $45, sometimes $40. But at $45 per building for 20 buildings, that’s $900. If you have an efficient crew and can get 2-3 of those complexes done in a day that’s $1,800-$2,700 per day. I had 2 full time guys and 1 part time guy. I would bring the part time guy in on apartment days, put 2 guys on trimmers, myself and my most experienced guy on the 2 mowers, and we would get at it. Usually the guys trimming would be done first on those properties so they would grab blowers and have it all blown off by the time I’m finishing the last building. Park the truck somewhere in a central location, then start at one side of the complex and just systematically work through the entire property 1 building at a time. I have cleared $3,500 on apartment days. It took the whole day to do one 20 building complex, one 16 building complex, and one 15 building complex. 2 of them had common areas near the entrance with ponds, all 2 had playgrounds, and I highly recommend apartments for anybody wanting to make more money with less contracts. In theory you could have 1 crew if 4 men do nothing but apartments and have another 1 or 2 crews doing single family residential properties and you could make as much of not more money than some guys running 4-5 crews. It’s not any different than having all those buildings in 1 neighborhood spread out over like 3 streets. Having buildings that close you can knock out A LOT in a day.
Most of the time you can also pick up little 8-12 building complexes pretty easily because small complexes like that the owners don’t like hiring big companies to do them because they “think” it will be way more expensive 🤷🏼♂️
Your videos are awesome dude top of the line
New sub, just getting started on my journey. Thanks for this man!
You got this!
Awesome video helps out a lot. Another good topic would be how you run your payments and pay employees.
I didn’t hear a thing you said. All I could focus on was that GQ beaming in the sunlight 😍
Shine bright like a diamond 💎😎😂
Great video I loved this format and your details on finances provided! Could you tell us how you go about finding commercial sites is it mainly calling property managers? Also side note what landscape conferences do you recommend besides the GIE?
Check our more recent videos about getting new clients and our marketing video, we touch on all of this!
Great video Brian, I bid simulator to what you just what different numbers! I enjoy doing fertilization and irrigation systems, just for fertilization you need a license in order to do it!
Great video. Couple questions, I see a lot of folks charging their (X) amount per yard of mulch installed. What about bed prep, I.E. weeding & edging? It seems like the spring cleanup wouldn't cover that based on the price. Also, what about a delivery fee for the mulch? Industry standard seems to be about $25-$35 per truck load to get the mulch on site. If we as landscapers didn't have trucks to pick up mulch etc, we would be paying the supply yard a delivery fee. I see a lot of guys not charging for delivery and we don't like seeing guys leaving money on the table. Thank you for the great content.
You would price accordingly for both those services and fees yep, those are extra if and when needed 👍
I'm not even in the lawn business and I watched till the end. Fantastic breakdown and smart methodology brother. Nice. I'm just a home gamer with a Scag lol
Haha well thanks! What SCAG you run?
@@BriansLawnMaintenance Picked up the tiger cat 2 after watching a bunch of your vids last year. I did a video on my channel about a week ago on installing that QwikChute that I saw you were running too. I appreciate all of your vids brother. I run a web design company here in FL and while the industries are completely different, the business skills and the "get paid for the little stuff" principals are critical. It's one of the main reasons small businesses go out of business. Don't be afraid to charge what you're worth. If guys/gals are in business, they need to make sure that the business gets paid as well as the owner-operator.
Somehow i missed this video when it came out. Totally agree with everything you said in the video.
Favorite video Brian I recently entered a bid like this for a apartment complex
Hope you get it and at a fair price!
Brian, great video(s) ! Thanks for being real and straight forward. ✌
You bet pal
I think your advice should be used throughout. No company should price compete with their "competition", ever. They are all in it together, right?
Good video. With how easy it is to take that plow off I would remove it to save the wear and tear on the front end of your truck when your not expecting snow for a few days. Just a tip
Takes 5 minutes, but I drop it off 15 minutes away. In MI the weather changes on a dime, usually I keep it on if snow is in the 10 day, like it was for us. Snow 4-8" Weds!
Brian's Lawn Maintenance I hear ya from WI lol never know 😁
Shoot I charge $40 an hour and people think that’s high.
So Brian is at $62.50 / man hour basically. Your area, the competing companies and the quality of your service will dictate your rate. I personally look at a bunch of the bigger companies in my area and follow their pricing vs the little guys advertising on Facebook. All depends on the amount of work and the clientele you want to build on
Don't be afraid to charge what your worth! 👍
On commercial properties how would you bud the shrub and tree trimming
Thanks for a great video Brian. You always have helpful content!
Awesome video Brian, ty for the help!
Great talking points!you Rock in the lawn and landscaping business!Brian……keep pushing!
Thanks pal
Sir…thank you!
You help us new guys so much. Thank you! You & keith kelfas are awesome!
Hey Brian, thanks for all the great content. I’ve been trying to find where you have the link for your commercial bid sheet but with no success. Can you link me to that or direct where to go to get it. Thanks and also thanks for the help with the Kujos, fit great, feel great, and man are they durable. Ordered the boots to for this winter, definitely glad I went up a half size. Thanks again, Kevin.
Yep! www.LawntrepreneurAcademy.com!
Way to share that info Brian. You have posted on a few videos of the weeding . It’s nobody’s favourite job . Truth be told it’s pretty high profit for you. Only takes hard work and a pail, you are already on site. The nice thing about many small commercial sites is if you lose one it doesn’t effect like losing a huge site. I’m not into that either. Thanks for sharing .
Totally buddy, 2 great tips. Hey if I’m pulling weeds, I’m totally fine with that! It’s relaxing as hell. If you price it right, it can be even more enjoyable lol 😏
Great content. It’s funny how I’m looking at picking up a few commercial properties this year too
Trying to be one step ahead of you guys 🤓
Fire video, Brian! Really helpful!
Great video. Pure class brother. I’m 16 years in business and I enjoy listening to your enthusiasm. Great advice with the under bidding each other. It gets old. Enough business to go around. Stop lowering the market. Thx Brian.
Amen buddy!
Hey Brian, I gave this video a like before I even watched it. Thats how excited I am
Hot diggity! I feel ya ha! 30 days and we’ll be back at it!
Awesome video this is the type of info I've been looking for specially starting this season I've been wanting to get into commercial properties. Thanks 👌
Pure Gold!!! Thanks for all the tips Brian! 👍
thank you for your videos! they are helping grow my side business
Thanks! was really helpful keep up the good work
Thank you so much for this type of videos it really gave me an idea of how to bid shout out from nj
Do you have a video on how you find and approach new commercial clients ?
Absolutely LOVE these kinds of videos
Really appreciate the video man thank you so much extremely helpful keep them coming
Love your honesty. Many try to act bigger than they really are, you keep it real. A year or two i think both us will be able to do bigger business sites if we'd like. To me it's more of a head ache. And yea sir i average 120 a hr for my crew To make money like I like. We need to do 3 residential lawns an hr with one truck and 3 guys. So my numbers are rite on with you bud, give or take obviously. Thanks brother. You rock bud!!! Ha lol
That’s awesome to hear 👍
The big money doesn't have to come from big businesses. Think of residential clients as well for creating a large profit margin. Targeting the right residential customer will often times lead to more loyalty (because those bigger companies often are price shopping and will fire you when someone cheaper comes around regardless of how satisfied they were with your service) and the less client turn over we have the better because it costs money to get new clients. Bigger jobs also take a lot of time in your day limiting you from taking on new customers which isnt a big deal until that business fires you and you had 30% of your workload into that job and you have to scramble to find a whole lot of work to keep your price the same because as use rates on equipment go down, the cost goes up. So hopefully those other 70% of clients don't mind a price increase or you can just eat the lost profit margin. Having those high quality residential clients also allow for a lot of opportunities for diversification into leaf removal, aeration, power seeding, landscaping and more with a wider range of clients to do this higher profit margin work for. Just a thought!
Thanks for the video Brian!
I just send my contract to a Hilton Hotel will see what happens 🙏this would my first commercial account!
Best of luck my friend!
It is a really nice form...thank you Brian
Another great video and very professional, thanks
Great video Brian lots of knowledge
Is that $100/yd for installed mulch include the price of the mulch/supplies? Or just the man hours it would take to install, not including supplies? Great video and info!
We have the whole break down on the mulch video linked on the end card. It’s a solid 15 minute video 👍
@@BriansLawnMaintenance Watching it now, thanks!
We're about 125/yd including materials
One thing you missed is Storm Clean up cost. Do that as a per hour cost. This way if they get hit by a micro burst or tornado they already have a set per hour price to come up and do a major clean up. I was a Volunteer firefighter while I owned my business I would get phone calls on my voicemail just after storms for clean ups just telling me they got hit and go ahead and come clean up.
We don’t really get that here.. if we did we would just quote an hourly rate or a lump bid on cleaning up a disaster like that. Great tip though.
@@BriansLawnMaintenance that is something I have heard a thousand times before. Including where I grew up. We actually sat in a lower level radar dead zone. They didn't get good data from a lot of the area I grew up in. When I was 19 we got hit by a Tornado Southeastern Wisconsin. Twice that year. The first did little to no damage to structures. The second well I personally seen where it picked up a whole Oak Tree out of a farmer's field, and Transfer it 100yrds to the middle of a parking lot of a Greek monastery. Then lifted touching down 3 more time mainly just damaging trees until it hit a New Renovation of a Super Value Warehouse in Pleasant Prairie. WI. I was at a restaurant 5 miles from there when all a sudden we had hail the size of baseballs. Afterwards when we went outside we found our Jeep wasn't where we had parked it. It had been moved 1 row further and 3 spots south of where we had parked it. Then the fallowing year I was at County Thunder in Twin Lakes, WI when a micro burst tore down the stage with 3 people on the stage. They survived but were beaten pretty badly. The micro burst was the Remains of a long rope Tornado. Being a Firefighter and a Storm chaser I spotted it from the top of the hill 5 to 10 miles west of the venue. That Oak Tree was more than 6 feet in diameter thew the trunk. The Super Value warehouse had 3 or 4 sections of prefabricated concrete walls riped down and the insulation was scattered for 2 miles. So it doesn't necessarily have to hit you to cause a mess for you to clean up.
or simply put into your contract storm clean up not included.
I used to cut an apartment complex run by a property management company. Never again!
Lucky! Still lots of snow here!
4-8" Wednesday! I knew this was coming.. had to shoot the video when we could, ha!
Great content!
Thank you, Brian! Great video!!
Your video was really good.
Thank you! God bless.
Updated Yardbook video and office tour video please!
Coming this week! As long as I can film and edit lol, 4-8” of snow coming!! Gonna be a busy week
@@BriansLawnMaintenance can't wait. Everything ready for the snow
This video is a little old, hopefully you see it. I see on the break down you have irrigation. Is it out of line or unusual if I was to not provide that given a similar customer? I don't feel like I have that ability.