subject: Lawn Mowing Company Quoting Guidelines [print this page] Congratulations on the start of your new lawn care enterprise. You must be wondering how to go about approaching your first bid right?
There are no definitive success formulas for bidding the right amount and it definitely pays to follow your instincts in this regard. Moreover, experience is the best teacher and soon you will start becoming proficient in the task of bidding successfully.
This article offers a few guidelines in the case of pricing methods to be adopted in the lawn servicing business.
Most starters in this field make the mistake of bidding low just to procure business. But invariably they have to put up a great effort to meet even the basic expenses in their business. Finally, when they increase their rates many of the customers who had patronized the business exclusively due to the low rates, back off. Under-pricing also affects the general industry, working adversely with common interests and resulting in unhealthy competition.
Low pricing should be resorted to only initially, as you try to get a foothold in the industry. You can offer the first couple of clients a good deal to build up on your experience and confidence levels.
You should also take care not to overprice as you risk losing customers who may employ some other company who is more reasonable.
If you own a reputable and established business offering quality service, it would do you well to provide your services at a premium rate. In fact, your confidence over your ability and knowledge alone could land you up with many projects.
Deal with prospective clients directly and check out their lawns thoroughly before submitting your quote. You can also get them to sign up for other lawn related service that you offer by getting them impressed by photos of your earlier projects.
Determine current market rates before placing bids. This way you will have a definite idea about the rate per square foot of lawn to be serviced.
Commonly, rates are calculated by multiplying the total area of the lawn in question by the average market rate/square foot. Any profit required should be added to it.
The property to be serviced should be measured accurately and any particular features in the land which may consume more effort from your part should be noted in particular.
Prepare a general price list based on varying lawn sizes for the benefit of customers and mention other services you offer on the price chart itself.
Another professional and quicker way of pricing a lawn job is to charge by the hour.
You need to draw up a rough estimate of the time taken by your staff to service a lawn of the given proportions.
The final price can be obtained by multiplying time taken by the cost of labor on an hourly basis with the addition of a required profit.
You can decide upon your hourly charges according to the local pricing range in your locality.
Customers tend to feel deceived when you finish your work well before the time frame you had projected so this can be one setback to hourly charging.
A successful lawn service business depends on accurate pricing and bidding.
