Archive for the 'Operational Costs' Category

Stand firm on your lawn care prices.

When you first get your lawn care business started you tend to be more desperate for work. You also are unsure of your costs and what you should charge so you tend to waiver a lot on your prices.
Over time as your lawn care business is around longer, you build up more confidence because you [...]

Telling lawn care customers your hourly rate.

When you are bidding jobs for lawn care or landscaping projects, should you let your customer know how much you are charging them per hour or should this be something you keep to yourself and simply bid on the job as a whole? That is a question that was brought up on the Gopher Lawn [...]

Is it really worth the hard work? How much can you make?

Are you considering starting your own lawn care business but aren’t sure if it’s worth all the hard work? That is what one new entrepreneur was interested in knowing on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum when he asked “I am wondering how many accounts can you solo guys average per week? What can one [...]

How to turn my low profit lawn care business around?

Do you find yourself in a situation where you are running your lawn care business yet you feel after paying bills, you have no money left for a salary? That is the subject of a question asked on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum. A new business owner wrote “I started my biz 2 years [...]

How to beat underpriced lawn care businesses.

Have you noticed more lawn care business owners in your area starting up? Do you find they tend to try and compete solely on price? Is it difficult for you to make a profit on lawn care when others are offering to cut lawns for $15? If so, here is some great insight from the [...]

How to charge bi-weekly lawn care customers.

When a lawn care customer decides mid-season they want to save money and only have you mow their property every other week, how should you handle this or even bill this? This was a dilemma that was presented to the members of the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum. The member wrote “I’ve had this weekly [...]

How a new lawn care business owner went from 3 to 20 customers in 3 months.

Nothing helps us learn how to be successful than to hear stories from those who have found success and then ask them how they did it. A new lawn care business owner shared with us his story on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum on how he went from 3 to 20 lawn care customers [...]

The problem with discounting your landscape projects.

If you think by offering to do a landscape project for cheap will make the customer more appreciative, think again. One of our Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum members offered a customer a really good price on two jobs and he found himself running into problems. Here is what he said.
“I’m about to lose my [...]

GopherHaul Snow Plow Estimate Calculator now available.

If your lawn care and landscaping business performs snow plowing and is desperately trying to create estimates that bring the same percentage profit on small or large jobs, here is a tool for you. The GopherHaul Snow Plow Estimate Calculator is available for use on your personal computer.

Should I raise lawn care prices mid-season?

Many times when a new lawn care business gets started, they tend to under price their services. In order to jump start their lawn care business, they figure if they undercut the aver price to mow a lawn, they will quickly fill up their customer base. While this tends to work for an initial jolt, [...]

How to charge for landscaping maintenance?

It’s important to find a niche when you run a business. Some business owners in the green industry focus on cutting lawns, some focus on hardscapes and some on pondscapes! But what if you want to focus on landscape maintenance only? How should you charge for such a service? That is a question put to [...]

Lawn Care Marketing Return on Investment Calculator now available.

The Lawn Care Marketing Return on Investment Calculator is now available for use on your desktop. If you liked using it online, here is your chance to now own it and use it without needing your internet connection. The great thing about this investment calculator is that it will help you figure out if your [...]

Out of lawn care and into dog waste disposal.

Starting a lawn care business and getting a bunch of commercial grade equipment can be quite expensive. One of my friends from the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum wrote and told me how he got out of offering lawn care and now specializes in dog waste disposal. He wrote ” have shot down the lawn [...]

Profit markup lesson from an outdoor power equipment dealer.

We are always having great lawn care business discussions in the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum and to miss a day of the latest posts is to miss a chance at reading some real quality information. This discussion started off on the topic of dealing with customers. From that it morphed into a profit markup [...]

How to price residential snow plowing jobs.

With winter here and a lot of people losing their jobs, many are looking for ways to make money and offering snow plowing or snow shovelling services is a great way to get started.
I was contacted by a new lawn care and snow plowing business owner and he asked “I have always wanted to start [...]

Why your lawn care business needs to charge more.

Your lawn care business needs to charge more. Check out this discussion I had with a lawn care business owner who just recently restarted his lawn care business after having to previously shut his doors because he was lowballing and not charging his lawn care customers enough.
Ernie wrote “Hey guys you probably remember me “Ernis [...]

Compare your lawn care prices and see how you can improve!

How much do you charge to perform lawn care service? This has got to be one of the most common questions I have seen appear on the GopherHaul Lawn Care Business Forum. It is a very important question too. If you don’t know how much the average lawn care business owner is charging for standard [...]

Entering your lawn care business overhead costs into the GopherHaul estimator.

With the GopherHaul lawn care business software online estimator, you are empowered. In this discussion I will show you how to enter your overhead costs of running your lawn care business so you can create a lawn care estimate which will provide you with a % of profit you desire.
We often talk about how little [...]

A bad way to start your lawn care business.

I am lucky enough to interact with many new lawn care business owners who are just getting started. Most of the time they seem to ask two questions. How do I get commercial accounts and how do I figure out how much to charge to mow a lawn. Let’s look at this example.

Snow plow estimate calculator.

Trying to figure out how much to charge for snow plowing can be pretty tough. If you charge too much, you won’t get any jobs. If you charge too little you won’t make any profit. Now it is important to keep in mind what the going rate for snow plowing services is in your area [...]

Lawn Care Marketing Return On Investment Calculator

Before you spend a dime on any landscaping or lawn care marketing make sure you play with the figures before you enact your plan. Use this new Lawn Care Marketing Return On Investment calculator to see how much money your marketing campaign will bring you, before you go through with it. You never know, you [...]

A quick way to calculate the cost per hour of operating your equipment.

When you are trying to estimate a lawn care job, you need to know which equipment you will be using and how much it costs you to operate that equipment per hour. These calculations will give you a bare bones figure. You might also want to include the lifespan of each piece of equipment, by [...]