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How much do you charge per man hour? And what is your minimum charge not matter how small the lawn is?
Thanks,

I charge by the job. Man hours play into it at $50
No matter how small the job is I charge $50.00 for under 30 minutes

Carscw said:

I charge by the job. Man hours play into it at $50
No matter how small the job is I charge $50.00 for under 30 minutes

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Hey thanks so much for responding. So you apparently are running a two man crew? And for those $50 lawns how many square feet are the lawns? It can be gross property square feet or lawn square feet either is fine but please specify.

Conn0r33 said:

Hey thanks so much for responding. So you apparently are running a two man crew? And for those $50 lawns how many square feet are the lawns? It can be gross property square feet or lawn square feet either is fine but please specify.

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For me square feet has very little to do with bidding and mowing a yard. I bid a yard based on how long it will take me to complete said lawn. Lots of trimming time has way more to do with it. Mowing is fast and easy trimming in much more lengthy. $ 1.00 a min $25.00 minimum charge. Except I have one customer that I only charge $20.00 and I hate doing that yard. And don't forget blowing.

BlazNT said:

For me square feet has very little to do with bidding and mowing a yard. I bid a yard based on how long it will take me to complete said lawn. Lots of trimming time has way more to do with it. Mowing is fast and easy trimming in much more lengthy. $ 1.00 a min $25.00 minimum charge. Except I have one customer that I only charge $20.00 and I hate doing that yard. And don't forget blowing.

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Well I'm not exactly charging by square feet either. Im charging based on how long the job will take me but I know based on square feet how long it will take me.

BlazNT said:

For me square feet has very little to do with bidding and mowing a yard. I bid a yard based on how long it will take me to complete said lawn. Lots of trimming time has way more to do with it. Mowing is fast and easy trimming in much more lengthy. $ 1.00 a min $25.00 minimum charge. Except I have one customer that I only charge $20.00 and I hate doing that yard. And don't forget blowing.

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I also do not think about square feet.
I have my base price and goes up if there is a lot of trimming. Or extra edging like side walks.

I think how or what you charge depends on the type business you're running and what services are being offered. Basically $1.00 a minute is the going rate. I include mowing, trimming, edging and clearing things off in my price quote/bid. Hedges, Flower beds etc are extra charge.

We cut a lot of big stuff area wise.

We try to get $50 for the first acre and $40 to $45 per acre if it is a larger are like several acres.

We very seldom cut anything smaller than $40 unless we are doing a favor for somebody or possibly a senior citizen or veteran ect.

Excessive weed eating costs extra.

If we bid individual prices per hour for things and some times we are asked to:
30 HP Kubota 4wd tractor with front end loader. With operator $50 per hour regardless of what it is doing (bush hogging, dirt work with loader and box blade, pulling 50" tiller, discing.............) with a 2 hour minimum. If we have to haul it very far we charge for that as well depending on how far.

Pickup with dump trailer with operator $50 per hour.

If I take tractor and box blade to a job and haul dirt with pickup and dump trailer by myself I only charge $50 per hour since I can only operate one at the time and haul the tractor in the dump trailer......

Zero turn with operator $45 to $50 per hour with operator.

Hand held equipment, (chainsaw, weedeater, ect.) $30 per hour with operator.

I charge per sq ft of lawn. Charging per hour makes me want to take my time where as per sq ft makes me hustle to move to the next lawn.

Brownieboy said:

I charge per sq ft of lawn. Charging per hour makes me want to take my time where as per sq ft makes me hustle to move to the next lawn.

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When we say charge per hour. We mean when you bid the job you figure in the hourly rate. You don't tell the customers you will charge $50 per hour.
If you think the job will take one hour you charge $50 per person working. So you bid $100

Mowing I like to get 50-55$/hour. Sometimes it's a little lower if I am push mowing (21 or 30" mower). The profit margin is good at these prices. I am fully insured and have commercial equipment.