LAWN MOWING HOW TO CHARGE (SECRETS REVEALED)

[@FloridaTurfPros]

www.turfprosacademy.com is a mirror image of the business model Jonathan used to build Florida Turf Pros. If you're looking to start your own lawn care business, or if you feel like your lawn care business should be more profitable than what it is, this is the course for you.

[@techevar]

Johnathan, as always you are spot on! I remember when I first started my lawn business I thought I would compete by undercutting everyone! LOL... Boy do you quickly learn that this is not a cheap business. It's cheap to get into but not cheap to sustain.....You also learn your time is valuable you should never give it away for free.

[@waylonratcliffe]

Felt like a video game! Very cool Jonathan!

[@TRYtoHELPyou]

This video was the best I've ever seen from you, it's really really good. Tks for sharing this!

[@Mark-zi2og]

Thanks for sharing Jonathan, indeed pure gold for sure.

[@mattfischer7835]

Great video. I appreciate you showing that the American dream is alive and well. I would like someone to do a video on cost per hour to operate different equipment. (Specifically mowers) It definitely isn’t the most important metric but still something that needs to be addressed. A ) $1800 21” commercial mower costs significantly less to maintain, fuel, repair and eventually replace. B)$ 9,000 36” stand on mower would cost a lot more to repair, maintain, fuel and replace etc C) $18,000 72” soft ride would be way more per hour. So this can be an extremely important variable. Assume they all make $100 per man hour. The guy with the 21” is absolutely destroying the competition on paper.

[@carolmitchell49]

Let's look at this a different way. The larger mowers will mow more property per gal. of fuel. The bigger mowers will mow much more property per man hr labor, not even close. Guy with a push mower will not be able to get $100. per hr. because he can't be that productive. The larger mower will mow more acres per man hour of labor, much more.

[@adrianchan410]

jackpot

[@adrianchan410]

@@carolmitchell49 around 80 an hour. but thats not that bad considering the freedom of less gear.

[@heliocastillo3909]

Great Video Sir, I have a question I have these types of yards in my local area but it takes me longer since I use a line to divide the yards on each side. Should I charge for that extra time that it takes me to get the line divided from my customer?

[@upscalelawncaremonroe408]

Great topic my friend!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@Cleanest5thgen]

Correct he is showing you the billable per man hour rate. Say a lawn takes 15 mins at 50/cut every 4 cuts you are going to be billing that customer 200 that’s one man hour. If you have a 2 man crew that’s 100 per man hour. Every lawn care company needs to account for and only expect productivity to be at about 80% due to wasted time, shop time, drive time. So if you have an 8 hr day most likely only 6-6.5 are billable at that per man hour rate. The rest is overhead. This is just a formula to help estimate the property accurately. Not a formula to figure out what your going to bring in in revenue for the day.

[@TurningBlades]

Thanks for the great content! Here in Flagler county, Fl., it seems every customer wants and expects a $25-35 cut when the yards are 1/4 acre with a vinyl fence and plenty of edging. Takes me 30-45 per yard solo. Seems like I should be at $40 on most yards but the area is accustomed to $30 cuts. Is this just my jaded perception as I’m just starting out on my own with 15 accounts so far. Thoughts?

[@FloridaTurfPros]

It's hard to make good money on 25-35 dollar yards... I would say increase a small segment of your current lawn accounts prices by $5. See how much push back you get. If no push back, increase another segment by $10. Keep testing until you get push back, then raise all your clients to right before you get resistance... All new clients price at the new price point.

[@bige5188]

love the content brotha! Thank you!

[@FloridaTurfPros]

You're welcome, Glad you enjoy it!

[@toddjeffrey7536]

Do you charge for weedeating grass from sidewalks and driveways (concrete/asphalt)? I understand a spot or two, but some of the driveways are taking 15 to 20 minutes.

[@nomowworrieslawncare]

This makes sense but what gets me is the following. Say you work an 8 hour day. You avg 2.5 lawns an hour (solo) and your avg lawn price is $40. Thats $100 an hour. Now each lawn is only say, 20 minutes, but because drive time, and basic time waste (I.e parking the truck, setting the gate down, walking to the mower, trimmer, etc) you’re only able to do 2.5 lawns an hour. But you’re saying, you’re making ‘$150’ n hour on that lawn. Sure, for that 20 minutes you’re on that property, if you were to keep up that work/minutes for an entire hour, but you’re not. Perhaps, start calculating the time from one house to the next, because that’s the real dollar per hour. Unless you plan on paying you or your guys per yard, and not hourly, then this method makes sense. Hard to explain over text what I’m getting at. Hopefully it makes sense though.

[@LLC_Turf_Pros]

You have a point but he has already explained what he’s doing here over and over. It’s about route density as well. If you focus on getting as many lawns in an area and spend the least time as possible doing the job, you are generating the said hourly rate for work on the property. Remember your clients are paying you for work on the property. Just as a person pays a lawyer for their service. If they charge $300/hr but have a 10min phone call you’re not billed $300. You would be billed $50. You are only assigning a rate on your work that you are being paid for. The reason you want it high is to cover your down time between jobs and all overhead.

[@nomowworrieslawncare]

@@LLC_Turf_Pros I suppose. But If you have correct pricing to begin with and you’re paying per hour, then my comment is still valid.

[@jaybones7492]

Thanks for sharing this info!😊

[@FloridaTurfPros]

You’re very welcome

[@stevef.9659]

We get your point but he's analyzing each individual property excluding travel time or all of the other things like replacing trimmer line, apiece of equipment that won't start and the list goes. Start with each individual property first, then expand out from there but keep everything separate for analysis first before you start lumping them together if you want to get a handle on time management and how it affects your business.

[@FloridaTurfPros]

Excellent comment. Couldn’t have said it better myself.

[@LuisRivera-vv4qy]

Do you get the payment before you start on the lawn or after?

[@AaronHenderson-d6t]

Thanks for all the great info! So if there’s two guys on the property, would you just double the time for this formula?

[@FloridaTurfPros]

Correct, or what I do is just divide by 2 at the end (or how many employees are on the job) this will give you per man hour

[@AaronHenderson-d6t]

@@FloridaTurfPros Thanks so much! Love the channel!

[@BobbyBowker]

That 36 is working hard.

[@andreabond3501]

Haven’t seen a Gravely stander before how do they stack up against a Toro or Scag or John Deere

[@FloridaTurfPros]

I think all commercial mowers are good enough quality to not worry too much about comparisons… that being said, I’ve been very happy with my Gravelys

[@paulreints2279]

I work solo, for now. I need $50/hr to feel like I'm doing something worthwhile. I have horrible route density so I waste half my day driving. If I can get route density I'll double my productivity & make plenty of money. I just don't know how to get my customers' neighbors to sign up... even though every one of my customers is happy with my work. It's frustrating how slow my route is growing.

[@lawncommander]

$50 is not enough shoot for at least $80 and grow from that if you dont value yourself others want eather. What are you doing for marketing

[@paulreints2279]

@@lawncommander I raised my rates this season on several customers from $40 - $50, on easy, 1/4 acre lawns & I do a professional job. Noone complained. In my market (Southern WI) I'm in the middle, not the cheap service provider but not the top tier guy either. I know my price is a little low but my work is spot-on. I haven't advertised hardly at all. I have a website, it sucks & I have only landed about ten customers in two years from it, but I have the domain name & my business has a great logo & name I created (Lawn in Order). Every customer mentions they picked me based on the name! So I know if I get a good website the sky is the limit, but I'm not sure how to build a website lol. I used to be a cop so the name just came to me one day & I've enjoyed the work ever since starting. I just need to get a handle on marketing the solid brand I guess.

[@garyp1930]

​@paulreints2279 20 bucks by me there all cheap.. What kind of fertilizer do u use

[@paulreints2279]

@@garyp1930 local landscape supply store mixes their own brand for contractors. It's as good as Scott's and 2/3 the cost.

[@Pepper-rn4hh]

Humm, what about overhead and the replacement of vehicles and equipment. Insurance?

[@markadkins9290]

Impressive

[@lowballerlawncare7961]

So, if I plan to charge $50 per man hour and I have 3 guys working, I need to be sure I'm making $150 per hour, is this correct?

[@Money_era]

Do you bag grass clippings. Or just discharge them

[@FloridaTurfPros]

Discharge. Warm season turf grasses usually do not require bagging.

[@JayMoungMUSIK]

Golden! Subbed

[@FloridaTurfPros]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@curbappeallawncarellc4263]

The real struggle is always seems to be that there are alot of people who are like you only spent x time here why am i paying this price. Whats the best way to work around that? People seem to not think on the business side of things.

[@jeffballard1427]

How do you figure your day rate

[@FloridaTurfPros]

Your day rate should be the highest number your market will support before you start losing most of your bids. The only way to arrive at this number is to price job higher and higher until you hit a ceiling.

[@andreabond3501]

Scag 30 and Toro 30 and 3 Honda 21’s

[@ovojosh7038]

Hey Johnathan, I remember a couple years back you said you would rather use an edger instead of a string trimmer on your yard because there just better. Just wondering what changed? Did you just have get better with the stringtrimmer or is it just that much more productive?

[@FloridaTurfPros]

I use an edger 90% of time. I didn’t have one on my truck for this vid. Edger is way to go.

[@ovojosh7038]

@@FloridaTurfPros ok thanks Johnathan, I just struggle with this string trimmer to edge and was wondering is it worth the time to put in practice with it. THANKS I'll just stick with my edger

[@Zeroturnlawncare]

Good video

[@FloridaTurfPros]

Thank you

[@Michael-ye2se]

Why does the lawn already look cut and edged

[@latestartadventures]

Do you charge and bill you customers weekly? Or monthly? I have looked for a video of how you do your billing but cant find one. I am in South Florida and the norm is pro rated pricing over 12 months and billed monthly. I feel like this drives the price down in my area.

[@FloridaTurfPros]

I bill per service.

[@latestartadventures]

@Florida Turf Pros Thanks, and thanks for all your great videos! So each service you have to process a payment or do you have it automated somhow?, for example, if you have to process payments each week/daily Your business can't run without you? Thinking something happens or vacation etc.

[@radiantlawnmaintenance]

Nice 💯

[@biglav6048]

Is this a 36 stand on?

[@FloridaTurfPros]

yes

[@MagicSwizzle]

It’s crazy that people actually pay 200 a month to get their laws cut. Doesn’t that seem wild to anyone else. Even utilities don’t cost that much. I feel bad charging so much really.

[@ESP12345]

It’s not crazy actually. Gas today isn’t cheap anymore and the whole business runs on gas. Also there are so many expenses to run the business or any business in general. 200 a month comes down to the $50 each week but bedsides just mowing the yard you also have bush/hedge to trim.

[@ESP12345]

You literally cant make any profit if you charge low. If you want to charge low then you would have to let customers know your service will be half assed. And some ppl don’t care if it’s half assed as long as the grass looks cut

[@BrewReview]

Think about the Insurance, gas, equipment fees, routine equipment maintenance, invoicing and backend paperwork, planning routes, costs associated with advertising, time spent doing actual labor, correspondence for additional services to better prep a customer for future services... it's a business. $50-60 per service doesn't at all seem far fetched to me.

[@kersey333]

Where is the grass? I only see dirt

[@rdblawnandlandscaping1613]

Than why does everyone say to run. I know it’s all about speed in this game but you want it to look good.

[@wecutgrasslawncompany9445]

👍🏽

[@CindyTeague-x6p]

I notice most of you guys use these types of machines that’s you stand on , is there a reason ?