I am looking to make a couple extra bux this summer. I want to offer a lawn service to people around my area. My family recently bought a really nice John Deere ride on mower and I bought a cheap small trailer.
I am making a flyer right now and am wondering how I should charge people.
I want to offer a monthly service where I come twice a month and but the lawn as well as a single cut service.
How much should I charge for each?
I was thinking flat out charge $25 for single and $40 for monthly service? Does that sound right or should I do it by size of lawn.
If I do it by the size of the lawn what should I say on the flyer?
I cut grass all through middle and high school. I only charged by the cut as going by the month was very risky. If you have a very wet summer, then of course the grass will grow very quickly and you would end up having to cut it 3, 4, or even 5 times a month. My basic charge was $20 which would be for about a 1/2 acre of grass to be cut. I never went the flyer route, just basically got more jobs by word of mouth and it seemed to work well for me.
Ok, this will show a bit of age here, but when I was a youngster, I cut grass at $10 for a normal yard with normal growth. If they agreed to let me cut it weekly, then it was $10 the first time, and $7 each week after that for the rest of the summer.
Bigger yards, or overgrown yards got special pricing based on what exactly I was looking at.
Oh, and for the record, I could do a yard in roughly 40 minutes, bagged and all, with a mower that had self propel. My first real job at 16 years old paid minimum wage which was $3.25, so when I was mowing yards it was either that, or less than that. Not bad money at all for a kid doing an easy job.
I have no idea what the going rate is nowadays though.
Yes doctor, I am sick. Sick of those who are spineless. Sick of those who feel self-entitled. Sick of those who are hypocrites. Yes doctor, an army is forming. Yes doctor, there will be a war. Yes doctor, there will be blood.....
Ive been mowing lawns the past 7 years... this year me and my brother are doing it together, we have two 36 inch mowers and about ten jobs right now, going to try to double that.
Ive always charged 20-35 for a lawn depending on size or time it would take to mow.
Also, make sure you double cut when you mow, it looks a lot nicer.
wow...$25-$30 per lawn, that's a lot of dough. When I was a kid I made $5 per lawn, and that included front and back and raking and bagging the grass (didn't have a mower with a bag on it). I'm not even that old, I'm starting to think I was undercharging.
price should vary by the circumstances--size of the lawn, whether you are bagging or mulching, and other services performed.
basically, i'd charge by the time it took to cut the first time. some hourly rate prorated by 15 minute increments. subsequent cuts will cost the same. when i was doing it with a push mower i'd charge in the neighborhood of 15 an hour. i might bump it up a little bit if they had a nasty hill or something like that. you could call around to the big companies and see what rates they charge.
on your flyer you should emphasize that you are committed to providing a quality service. a lot of these big lawn mowing places hire workers that dont really care too much about what they are doing. show up with a note book. ask them exactly what they want and write it down. most people would gladly kick in a few extra bucks if you provided good service.
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by Spiegs1106 » Thu May 25, 2006 10:02 pm 
