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Even though pricing determines success, many businesses don’t know how much to charge for lawn mowing.
Because when you know how much to charge for lawn mowing, you’re able to simultaneously maximize profits while continuing to scale and serve more clients.
We created a complete pricing guide that includes how much to charge for lawn mowing using:
There is a very simple answer to every single one of these questions, but it really depends on your:
This is why you should NEVER copy your competitors’ pricing. You will lose money.
Plus, there's a decent chance that your competitors copied their competitors, and they’re losing money right now.
The ONLY way to properly price your services is to know your numbers.
So, you must ask yourself: “How can I maximize my profits AND the value I give to my clients?”
This is called “The Pricing Sweet Spot.” This magic number allows you to make your clients extremely happy and puts a healthy amount of cash in your pocket after every job.
Time tracking is the core of pricing, and you’d be surprised at how many lawn and landscape professionals don’t track their time.
Get a stopwatch, and start tracking the time it takes for you to complete a job or specific types of services.
Alternatively, you can easily log time tracking using Service Autopilot—way simpler than using a stopwatch.
It's one of the most streamlined ways to easily track the time you've spent on jobs while also storing all of your job information in one simple place you can access from anywhere.
Take this example:
Property A takes 25 minutes to mow. Property B takes 45 minutes to mow.
If you charge the same price for B (45 minutes) that you charge for A (25 minutes), you are paying your client to mow their lawn.
Knowing your average time spent on jobs is key to knowing how much to charge for lawn mowing.
Instant invoicing
Better scheduling
Manage your clients and employees all in one system
We say, “never copy your competitors”… but this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t research what others are charging.
Knowing your market allows you to see who is the most successful in your area and figure out what sets them apart.
Familiarize yourself with potential clients in your service area.
Find out what services they want… and what they are willing to pay. This will give you a good idea of how much profit you should aim to make.
Your lawn care business costs money to run. Everything you do, from sunup until sundown, drinks some of your revenue.
These costs include:
For example, it’s crucial to factor in the cost of materials and transportation.
Add up all of these costs and you'll have a baseline dollar amount that must be made on every job to break even.
By the way, you can easily find this information using Service Autopilot.
But here’s the good news – because you know you get to keep every dollar after this number.
The key is to figure out what the perfect profit margin should be…
Many lawn care companies use this strategy and wonder why they still aren’t profitable.
That’s it.
Many of your competitors never test their prices, which is why it feels like much of the green industry constantly undercuts itself.
In a lot of instances, businesses are afraid to talk to their clients or track data to figure out where they can make more money.
However, you can do better.
Make pricing part of your culture!
Do all of these things, and you'll be well on your way to becoming a richer, happier lawn care business.
Raising prices can feel tough and scary but it doesn’t have to be.
Here are a few tips you can use to increase prices without losing your best clients.
There's zero risk in raising prices on unprofitable clients.
First off, if you lose them, you don’t actually lose any money.
Secondly, it allows you to test on a smaller group.
This gives you some valuable feedback before you roll out pricing to a larger audience.
The worst time to raise prices is when all of your competitors post ads and try to steal your clients.
Try to raise prices only near the end of or after your mowing season.
As a good general rule of thumb, many lawn care businesses increase their prices during the end of summer or the beginning of fall.
When you want to increase prices across the board, you need to tell your clients WHY.
Write them a letter:
You can steal this Price Increase Letter Template inside this article to help get you started.
A good letter will build trust, increase your reputation, and most importantly, it will encourage your clients to stick around, even when your prices go up.
Here's the thing, the best lawn care businesses will never beat lowballers on low pricing, and you don't want to.
However, there are at least seven ways to eliminate any competition from cheapskates and lowballers:
Cheap work attracts cheap clients. Which means, lowballers aren’t really the threat some lawn care business businesses think they are.
In general, lowballers come and go quickly, so it doesn’t pay to compete on their level.
If you follow our blog, you will hear this again and again: “Premium” is the best strategy for most lawn care businesses.
After all, premium services will bring in premium clients, which means premium profits.
Make your business unique, and differentiate yourself from the competition.
People should see the quality in everything you do—your performance, your customer service, and your prices.
Estimates can be a pain because you have to:
Then, after all of that, you might not even win the bid. What a waste...
However, there’s a faster way and better way using the best lawn care software.
When you choose Service Autopilot, you'll have the ability to unlock tools like Smart Maps to measure properties from anywhere.
Get precise property measurements to find the gross, net, or turf square footage so that you can create highly accurate estimates—without ever leaving the comfort of your desk.
Give estimates while you're on the phone with clients to improve your closing rate and capture clients more quickly with timely estimates.
Plus, you can utilize Service Autopilot's rapid route optimization to increase your route density—instantly saving you money and increasing your profits.
Instant invoicing
Better scheduling
Manage your clients and employees all in one system
Tree inspections, pruning, removal, and other tree services tend to be expensive.
Like other green industry services, tree services fall under the “time = money” rule.
Tree removal can cost anywhere from $200-2,000+.
Plus, you have to know your operational costs and an estimated time for removal in order to give a proper bid for tree-related jobs.
Since tree removal can be such a complex and careful job, experience is important to give a fair estimate.
As a result, you should consider positioning your business for premium services.
After all, many tree service clients are looking for premium services because they want to hear three little words: “Licensed and Insured."
Also, don’t forget to upsell your clients! To name a few:
Since the best clients care about lawn care businesses being licensed, bonded, and insured, they're willing to pay more for your services.
Plus, mistakes happen and just one lawsuit can break your business.
In other words, you have zero excuses to avoid it, and you NEED to get your lawn care business licensed, bonded, and insured BEFORE you service another property.
Plus, if you're licensed, bonded, and insured, you can easily charge more for your lawn care service.
After all, the best clients don't want to hire a lawn care business that doesn't protect itself.
Lawn care pricing strategies can make or break your business.
For many lawn care businesses, they feel like it’s a case of trial and error… but it doesn’t have to be.
When you use the lawn care pricing strategies given to you in this article, you can:
Now, you know how much to charge for lawn mowing by using this complete guide and calculator.
Begin taking advantage of these strategies today to start scaling faster and boosting profits TODAY!
Originally February 26, 2019 7:00 AM, updated August 20, 2024 2:45 PM
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