As with any business, you must be competitive in pricing in order to get jobs and accumulate a list of clients. This is even more true when running a service oriented business such as lawn mowing.
There are several ways to determine your rates. One would be to call some of the lawn care professionals in your area and see what they charge. Another, is to call surrounding towns, cities, parish or counties and make comparisons.
Some people charge rates for lawn mowing based on the size of the lot. Others charge by the hour. Most though, nearly always factor in what kind of work they’re doing and whether or not they’re using their own equipment.
For instance, just mowing a lawn using the clients equipment would be a lesser charge than providing the tools necessary to complete the task. On the other hand, lawn mowing and weed eating would be a different charge than just mowing. Other tasks such as hedge trimming, sidewalk trimming, bagging leaves and/or grass cuttings would all increase the rates associated with your lawn mowing service. Still other factors involved in determining rates for lawn mowing would be the clientele you solicit.
For example, business owners would pay more than homeowners. Though they oftentimes have volunteers for such tasks, churches are more than likely to pay as well as other business owners.
Yet another consideration in setting rates for your lawn mowing services would be the neighborhood you’re targeting. Again, doctors, lawyers and other professionals will be willing and able to pay more than your average blue collar worker.
One thing to keep in mind when figuring your rates is the old adage “you get what you pay for.” People that pay high dollar rates for lawn mowing, expect a high dollar job.
In researching rates for lawn mowing, I discovered that the national average is $36.78 per hour.
Landscape Management has a chart that tracks lawn mowing rates relevant to the size of the business. For example, a business that makes less than $100,000.00 per year on average charges higher per hour than a business that makes over $5,000,000.00 in annual income. For more information on this and other important issues, visit Landscape Management’s website at: http://www.landscapemanagement.com.
While visiting Amazon.com, I did a search on books about lawn mowing and came up with over forty titles! Books like “How to Make Big Money Mowing Small Lawns” by Robert A. Welcome and “Start Your Own Lawn Care Business” by Eileen Figure Sandlin, lead me to believe that lawn mowing is a very lucrative business.
No matter how you go about setting your rates for lawn mowing, remember that lawn mowing is a business. It is important that you keep adequate records of your income and expenses for income tax purposes!
