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 figuring out how long the piece of equipment can be used for in total and how much it will cost you to replace it.
Howard wrote on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum “I’m wondering if there is a good way to calculate how much it costs you to run your mower, blower, etc (any gas powered equipment). That way you can calculate how much your actually making on the job.”
Sherman: “There are many different ways to figure it out, and many might not agree with my method, but it works for me and if there is a better way, then I am all ears.
Anyhow what I do is this:
1st/ Figure out how many hours each pc of equipment will run per tank of fuel,your total hours times your average fuel cost = run time cost
2nd/ figure out your maintance cost for each pc of equipment (i do this based on a weeks worth of work) blades, line, oil x 1.25 x total used = total maint. cost for the week
Add these 2 figures then divide by total run hours and you have your cost per hour. Then add in your man hours cost, this is what it cost you per week to run.
Now add the income of all your accounts for the week, divide this # by the total # of hours run and the diffrence is your profit or lost.”
Join in on this discussion further at the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum.
