I'm already licensed for pesticide app. thorough the farm ( I did take the whole course so i can do res. pesticide app. also, but a lot of municipalities here are moving towards banning pesticides within municipal boundries....

I might have a few leads on a few bigger jobs already ( estates , grave yards and a few commercial properties), going to check into it more on monday, a lot of it would be sub contractor work , for a local ( but large) landscape supply company, they do supplies only , NO services, so there is potential for more than just lawn mowing there.

As far as equipment , I have a 25hp diesel kubota garden tractor now, I could use it to get me off the ground. my choices for dealers are kubota, case ih, and JD. Hustler, exmark, dixie choppers etc are not readily available here. even if i brought one in , in the event of a breakdown , parts would not be readily available.


I am still unsure of what to do about rates, I don't want to under/over charge. I read a lot on the forums linked above , but no one really commented on how they arrived at the prices quotes they came up with.

Jayme.

 

Shouldn't the title of this thread be "Anyone Ever Bombed A 25hp diesel kubota garden tractor?"

 

I'm not sure if it's possible , service manual doesn't say anything anywhere about a way to adjust power output. can't find a screw to turn anywhere

 

Im running two john deere 757 zero turners and they have been nice this is the 4th year on them and both have 1600-1800 hours havent been on them this season sence got hurt. The rest of teh crew is taking care of it had to hire a part timer till i get better but tryed a dixie and was disapointed. The thing was fast but the slight lil hill and couldent cut it. the thing slid to bad sideways the deeres lay right on the slops like a dream wouldent change. A yard that takes about a hour for 2 mowers and 1 weedeater to do i charge $95-125 for all depends on how much weedeater use there is. A small 1/4 acre in and out no time $65 ish. Hope it helps

 

ill buy your kubota diesel off of you so you can go buy a zero turn, has to be cheap tho

 

i use to do this with a friend but i got it easy i bought the stuff and he weedeated i mowed with a push mower i charged bout $20 for small yard and $50 for a huge one and inbetween was well inbetween but i did charge $100 for one one thime bug it was freakin huge and she even let us use her 2 riding mowers but yea there is lots of money in that if you can find ppl who can afford it with the economy

 

Went for a drive tonight , checked out some used equipment, and checked out a few of the places I know are looking for someone to do their yard maintenance. I have a couple days off of work next week , going to see if i can drum up some business.

 

i was cuttin about 6 yards last year but i cut back to 3 because a couple were tryin to screw me...im mowin with a small snapper...about a 30 inch....ive got one yard that takes about 30 min at the most and im chargin 25 for it and my biggest yard takes about an hour and a half and im makin 70 on it....just depends on the location as to what your chargin...might talk to some guys who do it full time around you and see what their chargin.....the nicest mower ive seen is a walker...might wanna look into them....bout the same price as a kubota and you can buy multiple decks for the same unit

 

Don't base your fees off what someone else is charging, that's flying blind. Know what your cost are, variable being based on hour or yardage however you want to do it, and what your fixed cost are ie; salary, insurance, taxes, advertising, any payments.

Then add what you want to profit, divide into the amount of work you expect to do and you have your rate. This will constantly change when first starting, so start out higher than you expect and readjust after a while if you need to. It's better to start high than to get a bunch of accounts and lose them if/when you have to up your price with your overhead.

The biggest thing to remember is, salary is not profit. You will have money invested in this, look at what that dollar amount could be doing for you collecting interest, you should at the very least profit more than that.

 

I agreee with matt94 it's variable for everyone i think I have 4 lawns I do on the side on the weekends and I charge $25-30 but i do everything by hand and there's some pretty big ones I do too and it's fun to me so that's another reason why I do it.