Pricing Lawn Care and Landscape Maintenance Services and the various prices for such services can be a challenge to the shopper. Especially if you are after the lowest price lawn maintenance only and are not considering quality or accountability. Below is a guide that may be of help to you when choosing a company to do your residential or commercial grounds keeping.
Landscape Maintenance represents a significant expense to you. I am offering a way for you to save a significant amount of money while maintaining your outdoor property to the level of beauty of your liking.
Many lawn or landscape maintenance companies and services fall short because they either underbid and do not do the tasks to the level and expectation of the customer or they overbid and charge the customer an exorbitant amount of money over the fair market cost of such services, protecting themselves in case of the worst case scenario as far as labor needs (a heavy growth year, a high fertilization need year, a heavy leaf or pine straw cleanup year, etc). Very few are on target at fair market value for labor.
Fixed price bidding is a faulty method! If you are currently paying a fixed price for landscape maintenance, this solution is for you!
THE Solution to your grounds keeping needs is the Busy Bee Lawn Care Hourly Rate Agreement:
Cap on Hours – Initial agreement starts with an estimated number of hours needed for that month. For your particular landscape management needs, I will propose we start with a cap of ever how many man hours in the first month you need and adjust that monthly hourly cap up or down from there and on an as needed basis.
No matter what the approved cap is, you are only billed for the time spent working on your property, not the max cap hours unless all of those hours are needed. Billing is done on the 28th of every month by email or mail.
Materials are only billed if they are used – sometimes you may need things like lime or post emergent herbicide. Other times you may NOT need these things. If you do not need them, you are not billed for them. If you do need them, as a customer of Busy Bee, you will enjoy the least amount of markup in the industry; we receive discounts on materials and are not in the business of up selling materials. Where materials are concerned, you will be presented with a fixed cost on materials and installation of those materials before those materials are installed. You will have the option of installing or not installing those materials.
Our workers work fast using only the best power equipment available, we are dependable, professional, exercise a high level of customer service and communication and most importantly attentive to the time spent on the job.
Price breaks (or “rebates”) are sometimes given at the discretion of Busy Bee depending upon the economy, fuel prices, etc. Also, often times in the slow season (winter), we have a surplus of labor on our hands – I offer my customers specials on labor in times like these for any extra projects you may want us to tackle. If we can afford to give you a break, we will certainly pass that savings on to you!
We only do what needs to be done, when it needs to be done paying attention to the condition of the grass, the season, the variances of nature, your budget, etc. This applies especially where grass is concerned: Mowing the grass too often for the sake of “earning the keep”, for example, can be very bad for the grass (or bushes, etc). Bagging instead of mulching every single time is definitely bad for the grass. If your current crew is showing up every week or 2 weeks on the dot to mow the grass they are potentially doing a disservice to your lawn (does it look weak, sparse, stressed?). Our goal is maximum beauty and health for the plants while maintaining a neat, even appearance. We do also realize that your budget may not allow “the full package” so we will accommodate your tolerance in that regard.
If this agreement does not meet your needs or does not work out for some reason, all you have to do is have a new contractor come in – you have no risk involved and no contractual obligation to Busy Bee. We’ll even help you find a new contractor!
This worksheet below is designed to help you find out if you are paying too much, too little, or just the right amount of money for your yard work, grounds keeping, lawn care, or any other physical labor related to landscape maintenance.
Fill in the blanks below, then tally up the number you get. Compare that dollar amount to the amount that you are currently paying. Keep in mind that this calculation is for labor and not materials (fertilizer, mulch, flowers, etc):
How many hours per month and how many workers does it take for your current service to maintain your property? If, for example, you observe 2 workers working for 1 hour, that is considered to be 2 “man hours” of labor __________
What are you currently paying per month for landscape maintenance? $_________
What amount of money is being spent on materials every year (divide that number by 12)? Annualization of the materials cost is important because large install costs like pine straw, mulch, flowers, or fertilizers do not occur in even amounts every month. If you do not know how much is being spent on materials, you should! Companies sometimes double their cost for materials and pass that expense down to you! Subtract that monthly materials cost from your total bill:
$_________
Divide the amount of money on the bottom line by the amount of time they are actually spending working on your property. Example: Total bill is $1000/month. Subtract $100/month in materials. Then $900/month divided by number of hours spent, say, 13 man hours. The total that you are paying, then, for labor is an exhorbitant $70/man/hour!
Busy Bee Lawn Care charges $40/man/hour – Take the hours spent and multiply it times $40. That is what your charge would be with Busy Bee Lawn Care.
• If that dollar amount that you are currently paying equals the dollar amount you calculate below, then your current service is probably fairly compensated, content with the account and doing a good job as a reflection of them being content.
• If you calculate that your current landscape maintenance company is spending a significant amount of time less than what you are being billed for, then they are probably very content with the contract, doing a super job, showing up on time, etc. The downside, though, is that you as a customer are paying that much money in excess of the market value of a fully equipped landscape maintenance crew. Here is where you can save a significant amount of money by switching to a company who is geared towards an hourly rate and not a fixed rate “bid”.
• If, you come up with a dollar amount that is significantly more than the dollar amount that you are currently being charged, your current service is underpaid and you are probably dealing with shortcomings as a result (they are not trimming bushes like they should, not fertilizing, not taking care of debris removal, etc). Take a look at the situation: are your grounds being kept up to your liking? Is your current service reliable? Is your current service employing illegal labor in order to make ends meet? Do you find yourself switching from service to service every year because they are not meeting your expectations? These things happen as a result of the landscape, lawn care, and grounds keeping company “under bidding” or not charging enough money to give you good service. How long can a company in that position last? They won the “bid” but are they delivering? Where landscape management is concerned, you truly do “get what you pay for”.
Busy Bee Lawn Care Customarily
Charges $40/man/hour
Busy Bee Lawn Care – Professional landscape maintenance, lawn care, and grounds keeping charges the customer an hourly rate for as little or as much grounds maintenance as you want or can afford. You regulate the level of beauty and maintenance from the cost standpoint, we manage the grounds. Low maintenance calls for low hours which results in a low cost. High maintenance would merit a higher cost. Our hourly price, nevertheless, is calculated given the current “lowball” market price plus the current “high” market price, then dividing by two; we charge the average, correct market price for Columbia, S.C. for fully equipped, seasoned, licensed and insured legal American, professional workers. We work fast, take few breaks, and keep up with our time to the minute, billing you by email at the end of each month. Our level of communication and customer service is unmatched.
Give me a call, email, text, or invitation to “bid” and let’s find out how much money I can save you in 2009!
Thanks for considering Busy Bee Lawn Care as your “worker bees”!
Ash
Mr. Ashley Brooks
Owner/Operator
Busy Bee Lawn Care, LLC
Based in Columbia, S.C.
www.BusyBeeLawnCare.com
(803)331-5323
