How Much to Charge Per Job

When I first started my lawn mowing business, I often wondered how to charge customers. Foolishly, I used a "flat rate." However, I have come up with an equation for deciding how much to charge clients:

($/Hour) X (# Hours spent) + (Expenses) = Cost per lawn

Now, we will break it down. First, figure out your equipment and supply costs per lawn. Let's start with equipment. If you just invested in a new lawn mower or weed whacker, take the cost of your new equipment and divide it by the number of jobs you will do that season. You will also use gasoline. Figure out how much gasoline you use in one mow, and how much that gasoline costs. Put that in the cost per lawn. Using the examples I have described above, place any other expenses you have per lawn into the right side of the equation.

Next, figure out how long it will take you to mow the lawn. You eye might not be as practiced in the beginning. One idea is to give your customer the first one or two mows for free. Then you will know how long it takes you to mow their lawn. Remember to take into account things like hills and ditches that take a longer amount of time to get around.

The nice thing about owning your own business is that you get to decide how much you make. However, if you want customers, don't overcharge. I recommend taking from the profits just a little bit more than your friends who have normal jobs make. I try to make $15 or $20 an hour. But it all depends on the ending cost for the customer.

After you have come up with the cost per lawn, round it to a more comfortable number. Your customers aren't going to want to pay you $23.43 per job. That's just ridiculous. I would recommend rounding it to the nearest 5. For example, $15 or $20.

Well, the mystery has been solved. I bet there are more ways to complicate the equation, but I'm not going to get into that. Have fun, um, deciding how much to charge per job!

Labels: business