Replies to This Discussion

PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Graham Parker on February 11, 2012 at 23:19

Hi Andrew

For a start most of these companies have a really bad reputation in the professional Grounds care industry for the simple reason they try and push unwanted products and treatments onto their customers.

A lot of them have never done the training and are just following a schedule.

Therefore I would suggest before you offer treatment ensure you know what you are talking about. Explain to your customers the benefits of the treatments you are suggesting and why they should be carried out and at what time of year is best. Then explian the problems that are being dealt with by the treatments you are reccomending.

Also ensure you have the relevant Coshh certificates. You will need to keep all cemicals in a secure store and keep reccords of everything you do.

On this basis you should work out the time the job will take the cost of the machinery and cemicals you are using and also include the additional cost of your training and extra insurance. I would not worry about what the others charge as you will be offering this to your own clients.

Given the above and if done right and to the benefit of your clients there should be a good profit margin to be had.

PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Andrew Evans on February 11, 2012 at 23:45

Thanks for your advice! have recently received my PA1 & PA 6 so up to date with that!  I have a good knowlage of turf weeds and what needs to be done to controll them! Moss is also a big issue with a lot of lawns so applying a treatment and scarifing will also be undertaken!

Permalink Reply by Lawnman on February 12, 2012 at 11:13

I think your pricing depends on wheher you want to go for volume or niche.  I recently picked up a new lawn treatment customer who had been getting treatments from one of the national lawncare companies, he had been chatting to their operative who said he had 32 lawns to treat that day.   I have never treated more than 10 lawns in a day because I like to spend time both treating the lawn and talking to the customer to make sure I am delivering a quality service. I charge a competitive rate which makes sense to me.

PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Andrew Evans on February 12, 2012 at 17:56

32 lawns is a hell of a lot! Thats when a quality service usaly goes out the door! I would like the high volume but will want 100% of my coustomers to be happy with the service! Was thinking of making up a panphlet to sell this service and hand deliver them to surrounding areas!

PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Adam Pilgrim on February 12, 2012 at 18:53

As has been said before on many and various threads, ignore what everyone else charges, you and only you know how much YOU need to charge.

I would say basically ignore Green Thumbs pricing as it can be erratic and is often based on carrying out operations at seasonally incorrect times of year. I have seen them scarifying and hollow tining in the frost in mid December...

My business ANP Services Spalding provides many lawn care services (www.anpservicesspalding.com), so I know, from experience good lawn care work takes time, spreading products both ways to ensure even coverage, scarifying both ways to ensure even debris removal, using a spring tine hand rake to get to the debris around slabs/paths/edges where the machine can't get, collecting up and disposing of the arisings (many lawn care firms don't do that)...

As has been said before, leaflet marketing normally gives an approx 2% return - what other forms of marketing were you intending to use to 'push' this service?

Are you hiring or buying machines as this is all additional costs???

All things to think about before you start setting pricings....

PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Stuart @ Eco Garden Maintenance on February 12, 2012 at 20:51

Ignore greenthumb. Make sure you are charging a premium on top of your normal internal charging out rate. Do a good job and dont try and do 32 jobs in one day! Thats ridiculous. Even in a 12 hr day that is about one every 20 mins.

PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Andrew Evans on February 12, 2012 at 21:11

I already do leaflet/poscard marketing and have good results from it 2% may sound low but it dose pay off! i get arround 50% of my work from this (landscaping & Gardening)

Will be hiring scarifier & hollow tine to start with to see how it goes!

Most of my treatments will be in liquid form via backpack sprayer ( Berthoud ) Have my PA1 & Pa6

PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Stuart @ Eco Garden Maintenance on February 13, 2012 at 7:56

I pay just under £90 for a weeks hire of a camon LS42 scarifier and the same price for a weeks hire of a camon LA20 aerator. At these prices it does'nt make sense to buy one. I have my own set of hollow tines and solid tines in case one breaks (which they do) and so i can swap and change between them at will. I looked into a pedestrian sprayer but they have a spray width which is too wide for a lot of gardens. I'm sticking with the knapsack for now. Good luck with your venture!

PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Andrew Evans on February 13, 2012 at 18:54

Thanks stuart! It dose make sence hiring equiptment that im not going to use every week, big outlay otherwise!

Permalink Reply by Lawn Care Kit on April 19, 2012 at 14:27

Hi Andrew, I know this is from febuary - how did you get on ??

PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Andrew Evans on April 24, 2012 at 21:10

Most of my current customers have requested me to carry out the extra service of lawn treatments, so yea its going well thanks. Been so busy with other work to really promote this service but will be soon!

Permalink Reply by Lawn Care Kit on April 26, 2012 at 13:12

Good, when your are there every other week they will trust you! If you need any help/advice let me know. I ran quite a large lawn care business for over 10 years with more than 3000 customers & 4 vans, just ask. Take it easy.

Andrew Evans said:

Most of my current customers have requested me to carry out the extra service of lawn treatments, so yea its going well thanks. Been so busy with other work to really promote this service but will be soon!

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