Setting the right rates for your lawn maintenance services is a prerequisite if you wish to attract solvent clients and make a margin on everything you do.
However, it can be a conundrum to determine how to charge for your work, particularly if you’re a little entrepreneur who has to balance cost-effectiveness with competitively-priced rates.
So, you can seek for the call: “how much should i charge to mow a lawn?”. Or something like “How much does a lawn service cost?”
So, how to price lawn mowing jobs? Here, we’ll take apart the price diversity of the most widespread landscaping services in our lawn care cost table below, telling what you need to think about finding out an accurate cost for the job.
✅ Different Lawn Mowing Service Pricing Models
How much does lawn care cost? Pricing lawn mowing fairly and competitively comes down to knowing how much lawn care professionals in your area cost. Again, talking about how much lawn care is, you don’t want to price all jobs the same, or you run the risk of losing money. Check out some of the factors that determine the average cost of lawn care.
The following types of lawn care are available:
- mowing;
- aerating;
- thinning;
- fertilizing/weed control;
- mulching services;
- sowing seeds;
- leaf blowing;
- garden cleanup;
- garbage collection.
💰 Per Hour
It is one of the more convenient options. What you charge is a set rate by the hour for every single hour it takes you for the work to complete.
The majority of mowing professionals usually pay between $25 and $60 an hour for their cutting services. For instance, the possible answer on how much does lawn mowing cost, let’s say you charge $50. Assuming it takes you two hours to cut your whole lawn, that gets you around $100 for a medium-sized turf in the US.
The benefit here is you compensate for your time if certain lawns take longer because of difficult terrain. Nor will you have to figure out in advance how long it takes to prepare and tidy up, as with “bundled pricing”. You will instead pay for all of the time you spend on the site.
Paying by the hour can be a smart move for beginning lawn care professionals. This is because at first, it’s hard to estimate just how much time you’ll take to get the job completed. You risk losing money on customers if you rush to move to fixed or design rates if you misestimate how long the projects will require.
💰 Per Square Foot
It is crucial because it is really easy to lose money billing the same rate by every client per sq. ft. at a time when the topography can be vastly varied.
Ensure that you get the hourly rate you desire when you make an hourly estimate based on the square foot. Suppose you want to earn $50 an hour, and a client comes to you with 10,000 square feet of turf. You would need a good sense of how many clock hours it will take you to mow that kind of square footage.
The good thing is that customers like this kind of approach to the lawn care pricing chart. What you’ll like is the fact that you can forecast how long it would take you to do every job, based on how big the grass is, and still get predictable revenue.
💰 Flat Fee
The single fee lets you charge a consistent pricing lawn care price sheet for an entire project. It can operate in several distinct ways.
For one thing, a flat fee is excellent for recurring lawn-cutting jobs. Customers will appreciate the permanence of paying a steady monthly or monthly flat charge for a recurring mowing job. It also lets you set up recurring automatic fees for regular clients.
Once again, getting success in this endeavor comes down to knowing how much you need to make per hour in making the job profitable.
So, if you’re looking for a specific amount of money per hour, you have to know two pieces of information:
- How much work can you do in each hour?
- How many hours the job will take?
The drawback of a flat fee seems to be similar to the drawback of collecting a square footage fee. You might lose money if you are not fully compliant with your estimation. Moreover, you could be losing money day after day if you have set your fixed rate for a big overall size project too small.
✅ Additional Mowing Services to Consider
Lawn care companies that offer premium services may charge more for both hourly rates and labor. Think about adding value to your service by including even more value-added services in your packages.
Here are some service-based strategies to set yourself apart from your competitors:
- use eco-friendly materials;
- offer trash removal, weeding, and fertilizing services;
- install landscape lighting;
- offer insect, disease, and pest control services;
- offer snow and ice removal in the winter.
Don’t forget to encourage loyalty. Most of your income will come from a small portion of your customers, so it’s important to keep them happy.
- offer incentives for customers who order regular haircuts, such as a discount;
- give discounts to regular customers, such as free weed pulling after 20 mows;
- give small gifts (such as a flower bulb) to customers when they reach a certain milestone.
Rewarding regular customers with lower prices helps keep competitors from slipping up with a good deal. Regular customers are also easier to resell, which can be more profitable than constantly recruiting new customers.
💰 Lawn Mowing Pricing Formula
How much is lawncare? Make sure you readjust your rates as the supply and average lawn care price sheet of your area evolve, as your business requirements evolve.
These are a few examples of times when you need to adjust your prices for grass maintenance:
- if you want to target particular neighbourhoods with different populations;
- if you want to add rebates or promotions or discounts as part of your sales marketing strategy;
- seasons change, and get to the point where you are transitioning to a warming job or a snow job;
- from time to time, take a step back and take look at how your businesses are performing.
Next, ask these questions of yourself:
- Have you been making as much profit as you hoped to make?
- Have your expenses increased?
- Has your customer base been growing?
Holding these questions in the back of your mind will prevent your business from falling behind. Commit to making these changes in your lawn mowing pricing formula as well!
✅ Factors Affecting Your Lawn Care Pricing
Turf mowing costs, of course, an annual average of more than $50 per estimate. However, there are several factors that influence this cost, which include:
- the size of the land plot;
- lawn state;
- necessary additional amenities.
Of course, the best method of getting an exact quote is to visit the client to verify what has to be done and to speak to them about fees. But which is the greater?
1. Cost of Labor.
Once again, when you have a team, a big part of all your overhead is wages. You are looking at the total price, based on the hours and hours you need the right people to do the job, when you submit an estimate.
Make sure you put workers on your list of line items to justify what you charge for the job when you present an estimation.
2. Material Costs.
Brand new items and supplies can revolutionize the cost of delivering your lawn maintenance services.
That is how you can estimate the value of your supplies:
- measure the client’s lawn to give you an idea of the precise area;
- figure out how many supplies you will have to buy (e.g., manure, eradicator, liquid aerator, mulch);
- document your costs each time you purchase new consumables – that way you’ll have a better time estimating prices for your upcoming venture.
3. Overhead and Equipment Costs.
Gasoline overhead in a lawn maintenance business is what keeps your current business going – it covers office premises, cars & computers, your responsibility insurance, petrol costs, and advertisements.
A lot of lawn care companies add an additional 20% added to its estimate to account for the overhead costs.
What you also need to do is include the equipment cost as well as the upkeep cost in your total lawn care expense budget.
Certain professional lawn care techs charge double the hourly wage simply due to the fact that their machinery is on the premises.
4. Profit Margins.
After you find out how much a lawn service costs you for each lawn maintenance service, then you will have to consider your desired rate of return so you can cover those expenses and make a margin.
✅ Make Invoices Easily Using Our Template
You don’t have hours to spend making invoices from scratch, and you don’t need to. Use our lawn care invoice template to automatically create and upload a custom invoice for any job. Just add your service information to our invoice generator, and then upload a clean, professionally designed PDF invoice that’s easy to send.
Use Field Complete Software to Organize Your Lawn Care Business
Operating a lawn care service business is hard work. What you need to do is supervise multiple crews, maintain equipment, and keep customers happy! Field Complete Lawn Care Software will help you run your maintenance business better without any extra effort.
Make more money from getting your business by accurately assessing your costs, monitoring pricing trends for lawn care service, and keeping a basic lawn care price sheet so you can price your jobs consistently.
Selecting the best prices for lawn care services is an ongoing process, so be willing to learn by trial and error.
