Price Landscaping Jobs
Many home and business Find Land Owners (UK) want to enhance the appearance of their property with landscaping. Small jobs may only be do-it-yourself projects. However, for most major landscaping projects, most owners rely on professional landscaping companies. One very important aspect of running a business of this sort is learning to price landscaping jobs. Many landscaping companies either do not acquire the job due to overbidding or lose money because they've under-bid a job. It is possible to affordably price landscaping jobs for customers and still earn money.
Contents
Steps
Access the Area that Needs to be Landscaped
- Travel to a landscaping site to get a view of the area and learn what potential client wants.
- Take accurate measurements of the length and width of the area to be landscaped.
- Make notes of areas that receive shade and sunlight to determine the appropriate types of plants needed for the job.
- Design the area with landscaping in place.
- Make a rough sketch of the area to be landscaped.
- Make labels for each type of plant used and the dimensions of the area.
- Calculate the cost of the mulch for the landscaping job.
- Use the measurements of the area and multiply the length times the width either in feet or meters.
- If you are working in feet, multiply by 0.166 (giving you 2 inches depth of mulch). Multiply by 0.0508 if using meters.
- Divide the answer in feet by 27 to convert cubic feet to yards (the unit in which mulch is sold). No division is required if using meters, because mulch is typically sold in cubic meters.
- Multiply your total by the cost of each cubic yard or meter of mulch to determine how much the mulch will cost.
- Determine the cost of plants.
- Tally the type and amount of each plant used in the landscaping project.
- Multiply the cost of the plants by the number of plants you'll need.
- Determine the price of extra materials.
- Allow for selling cost.
- Once you know how much the materials will cost, you can determine what you need to charge the client.
- In most cases, multiply the landscaper’s cost by 115% to determine the selling cost.
- Add in the expense of labor.
- Determine your time on the landscaping job comparing the needs of this job with previous jobs.
- Calculate the cost of labor by multiplying the hourly wages by the number of man-hours.
- Add all expenses together for a bidding price.
- Subtract the bidding price from the company cost to determine profit.
Tips
- Write an itemized bid for the potential clients rather than one single total. Clients like to see how their money will be spent.
- Give the potential clients sketches of the landscaping project so they can make changes before you begin.
Warnings
- Never guarantee a bid for more than 30 days in the event of an increase in the cost of materials.
- Be certain the client understands the bid does not include maintenance and up keep of the landscaping once it is complete.
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Sources and Citations
- http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/prof/msg0600042814883.html
- http://en.allexperts.com/q/Landscaping-Design-724/2008/1/Landscape-Design-Pricing-1.htm