Lawn mower size calculator. How to Charge for Lawn Mowing: Pricing Tips and…

Pricing lawn care services: Lawn mowing pricing formula

In this guide, you’ll learn how to price lawn care services in way that attracts new customers and drives revenue.

Lawn care is an essential part of home maintenance that can’t be neglected. That being said, many people don’t enjoy or are incapable of mowing their lawns.

Running a lawn care business allows you to provide lawn mowing services to those unable to take care of their lawns or who want a professional to ensure their yards are always in the best shape.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to price lawn care services in way that attracts new customers and drives revenue. Keep reading for a lawn mowing pricing formula that’s a sure-fire way to price your jobs right every time. Here’s a preview of what you’ll learn:

Ways to charge lawn mowing services

There are several ways you can go about pricing lawn and landscaping services. The two most popular ways to charge for lawn mowing jobs are calculating pricing based on the size of the lawn to be mowed and by the time it takes to mow.

Let’s take a closer look at both of these pricing options.

By size

Pricing by square footage requires you to take accurate measurements of the lot, which many lawn mowing professionals find to be an inefficient pricing method.

The one exception is if you’re dealing with a larger property that spans several acres. Charging a flat fee per acreage may be more beneficial and save you time when creating an estimate. Adjusting pricing based on the frequency of mowing needed is a common consideration as well.

Otherwise, charging per hour will give you the best estimate and is the easiest method to add to your lawn mowing pricing formula.

Per hour

Many lawn care professionals prefer to price by the hour instead of lot size, as it gives a more accurate estimate of costs.

Depending on where you’re working, you can charge anywhere from 25 to 60 an hour for lawn mowing. As well as accounting for the time needed to mow the lawn, be sure to account for your travel time and equipment prep work when charging per hour.

Of course, pricing is more complicated than figuring out an hourly charge. So, let’s take a more in-depth look at how to price lawn mowing services.

How to find lawns to mow

Whether you’re just starting or have been doing this for years, the bulk of the marketing efforts for a lawn care professional should FOCUS on finding lawns to mow.

But how do you find more lawns to mow? Here are some great ways to do so:

• Promote your business through word of mouth.
• Implement a referral program where current customers can get discounts by referring friends or family.
• Create print materials like business cards, brochures, and flyers to distribute in your area.
• Make a website for your business to showcase your work and list important information, like and locations.

How to price lawn mowing services

Coming up with competitive requires a lot of research and a thorough understanding of both your business and target customers.

However, once you find the that work for you, you’ll:

Follow the steps below to price your lawn mowing services efficiently and accurately every time!

Step 1: Calculate your hourly labor rate

Labor costs are most businesses ’ biggest expense. So, it’s Smart to start here to figure out how much to charge for lawn mowing.

You can find your hourly labor rate per worker and per job by considering these factors:

• The average rate for lawn care services in your area.
• How much you pay your employees per hour.
• Your desired profit margin.

It’s important to note that pricing by the hour does not mean that you have to communicate your hourly charge to your customer.

You can plug your hourly rates into your lawn mowing pricing formula to help you figure out what make sense for your business and present the total to your customer.

Step 2: Check out the lawn in question

You should always check out your customer’s lawn before giving them a quote, regardless of whether you charge by the hour or by size.

Your customer can say they just want their lawn mowed, but once you arrive, you may notice that some extra care is required before you can mow. As a result, additional services need to be included in the estimate you offer them. Offering additional services, such as trimming or edging, for an additional fee is necessary in many cases.

For example, you might discover that what your customer may think is overgrown grass is actually weeds, requiring weed control on top of regular mowing.

You’ll want to inspect the lawn so you can assess its condition and determine what type of treatment it needs. This ensures that you deliver an accurate estimate from the beginning and avoid surprising your customer with extra charges later.

Step 3: Decide how many employees

You know that your labor rate will be the largest factor in determining your lawn care prices, so your FOCUS should also be on what influences your labor rate. In this case, that would be your employees.

And since you wouldn’t be able to grow as quickly without your employees, pricing their labor takes skill.

When you assess a job for a potential client, determine how many workers it will take to complete the job in a reasonable amount of time.

To get your total labor rate, add each employee’s hourly rate to get your total hourly labor rate. Then multiply that by the number of hours the job will take to complete.

For example, let’s say a job takes two hours for two of your employees to complete, and you pay each of them 40 an hour.

40 x 2 employees = 80 hourly rate80 x 2 hours = 160 total price of the job

Remember, 160 does not include factors such as special services, a markup for profit, or overhead as labor costs are only one part of the lawn mowing pricing formula needed to create estimates.

Step 4: Consider special services and materials

Lawn care isn’t just mowing grass. As you know, a lot goes into maintaining a lawn, and therefore, a variety of services that your business could offer.

Additional lawn services include:

You should price each of these additional services separately instead of putting them together in one lump sum. This ensures that you account for all elements of the job.

Not only do these services require different types of labor, but they also require different materials that affect the total price of the job.

Discuss these special services with your customer beforehand to ensure that you’re both on the same page.

Step 5: Don’t forget overhead and equipment

Once you’ve calculated the cost of labor, you will factor in overhead and other costs.

Your lawn care company’s overhead costs may include:

• Administrative staff.
• Office space.
• Vehicle maintenance.
• Other bills (phone, internet, etc.)
• Equipment.

After labor, your business’s second-largest expense is equipment. Just like labor, equipment costs money, so you have to make sure that you’re always in a position to maintain or replace it if necessary.

As a result, factoring in the cost of equipment and maintenance as part of your overhead costs is crucial. You should markup anywhere from 11 – 50% to cover your total overhead costs.

From there, add a markup for profit. Your markup should be based on how much profit you are looking to make from every job and is determined by your other expenses.

Before arriving at a final price, double-check that you’ve included every element of the job in your calculation and have priced any special factors correctly. To give your customer an idea of your beforehand, you can create a lawn care price sheet.

Lawn care price sheet

A lawn care price sheet lets your customer know your in advance and gives you a baseline to help develop accurate estimates for your customers.

To create your lawn care price sheet, you should use a lawn mowing pricing formula to determine your prices.

Here’s what your lawn mowing pricing formula will look like:

Hourly labor rate (# of hours) overhead profits taxes = Total job price

By using this formula, you’ll quickly determine the price of all types of jobs to deliver the best service possible.

Lawn care price based on size

Even though you shouldn’t price based on the square footage of the lot, knowing the size will still help you estimate the total cost of a job.

The price of lawn care is greatly affected by the size of the lawn, which will be an element you use to determine the labor that goes into it.

Now that you know what goes into the costs of lawn care services and your different pricing options let’s nail down how much to charge for your services.

How to Charge for Lawn Mowing: Pricing Tips and Pricing Chart for Lawn Care Pros

Pricing lawn mowing fairly and competitively comes down to knowing how much lawn care professionals are charging in your area. And you won’t want to price all jobs the same, or you’ll risk losing money.

It can take a bit of time to figure out how much to charge to mow a lawn in a balanced way that perfectly serves all parties involved, but we’ve got expert insight to help take away some of the guesswork. Take a look at a few factors that determine the average cost of lawn care and how you should figure out pricing for your services.

How Much to Charge for Lawn Care Services

On average, professionals charge between 50 and 250 for lawn mowing. When it comes to more specialized landscape maintenance costs, like weed control, trimming, aeration, fertilization, and pesticide treatment, most pros charge between 125 and 450.

When customers book complete lawn jobs, they understand they’re paying for both time and expertise. As a lawn professional, your experience can turn lawns into park-like settings using the right equipment, blades, and edging techniques, making your work valuable.

The pricing chart and lawn mowing pricing models further below can help you get a better idea of what’s a reasonable price to charge for your services.

You don’t have to work too yard for the perfect lawn

Lawn Mowing Pricing Chart

Providing a pricing chart is one way to break down your costs for potential customers. That way, they can look at the chart and consider their lawn care needs and budget. Convenience is the name of the game here.

The lawn care pricing chart below is an example of how you might want to break down lawn mowing costs by lawn size and typical mowing time.

Different Lawn Mowing Service Pricing Models

You’ll need to price each lawn care job based on its individual factors. For example, it’s perfectly acceptable to charge a premium for larger, complex, or time-consuming jobs. Just make sure you’re transparent about your pricing model when you provide an estimate.

The first step to deciding how to charge clients is determining how much you need to make per hour across all jobs. That doesn’t mean you’re actually charging by the hour. It just means that you have an idea of the hourly breakdown that makes a job worthwhile.

You’ll need to know how much each job will bring in per hour while factoring in your overhead costs, even if you charge a flat or project-based rate.

Per Hour

An hourly rate is the most straightforward option when you’re charging someone to mow their lawn. This model means you’re charging a set rate for each hour it takes you to complete a job.

Lawn mowing per hour for most pros sit between 25 and 60, and much of this variation depends on experience and specialized offerings.

Let’s say you charge 50 per hour. The average lawn in the United States is somewhere around 10,000 square feet. If it takes you two hours to mow the entire lawn, you’re looking at 100 (50 multiplied by 2).

The benefit here is that you’re compensated for your time if some lawns take longer due to complicated terrains. You also don’t have to try to work out how long prep and cleanup times will take ahead of time like you would with a package price. Instead, you’ll be charging for all the time you spend at the property.

The type of lawn mower you use to mow the lawn can play a major role in the total mowing time, so also factor in your lawn mower type. A push mower will take more than twice as long to get through an acre than a riding mower. Larger yards could take many hours to mow with a small push mower.

Charging by the hour can be a Smart move for new lawn professionals. This is because it’s hard to estimate how long it will take you to complete a job at first. If you rush into flat rates or project rates, you risk losing money on clients by underestimating how long projects will take.

Per Square Foot

Some lawn care professionals prefer to charge by square footage. They may use aerial footage of properties when creating estimates to get a feel for how complex the job will be. The complexity of a project is important because it’s very easy to lose money by charging the same rate per square foot for each customer when terrain can vary wildly.

Make sure you get your desired hourly rate when creating estimates based on square footage.

Let’s say you want to make 50 per hour and a customer with a lawn that’s 10,000 square feet contacts you. You’ll need to have a really good idea of how many hours it would take you to get that much square footage mowed.

Now let’s say you know it takes exactly two hours to mow 10,000 square feet. You should charge 0.50 per square foot to reach your goal of making 50 per hour.

The perk here is that customers love this no-nonsense approach to lawn mowing pricing. Plus, you’ll like that you can enjoy predictable revenue.

However, the problem with charging by square footage is that it doesn’t account for special circumstances. For example, you could run into a situation where a specific 10,000-square-foot lawn takes you an extra 30 minutes due to hilly terrain. Unfortunately, you’ll have to eat that extra 25 in labor if you didn’t take a look at the property first to increase your price per square foot.

That 25 loss may not seem like a big deal; however, you can lose hundreds per week if you miscalculate several times.

Flat Fee

A flat fee allows you to charge a single price for a complete project. Charging with a flat fee can work in a few different ways.

First, flat fees are great for recurring lawn mowing jobs. Customers will appreciate the consistency of paying a flat monthly or weekly rate for regular mowing. This also allows you to set up auto payments for recurring customers.

Additionally, you might want to provide flat fees for larger projects to make it easier for customers to budget for the job.

Again, being successful with this comes down to knowing how much you need to earn per hour to make a job profitable. If you’re looking for 50 per hour, you need to know two things: how much work you can do in each hour and how many hours the job will take.

• Mowing time: 55 minutes
• Trimming: 15 minutes
• Edging: 10 minutes
• Blowing: 10 minutes

Say this is a 90-minute job. If you need to make 50 per hour to be profitable, you’ll have to charge at least 75 for the entire project.

The downside to the flat fee is similar to the downside of charging per square footage. You may lose money if you’re not totally on the ball with your estimate. What’s more, you could be losing money day after day if you’ve charged a flat rate that’s too low for a big project.

Additional Mowing Services to Consider

Lawn care companies that offer premium services can charge more both hourly and per job. Consider adding value to your service by bundling even more useful services into your packages.

Here are a few service-based strategies to set yourself apart from the competition:

• Use eco-friendly materials.
• Offer waste removal, weeding, and fertilizing services.
• Install landscape lighting.
• Upsell with insect, disease, and pest control.
• Offer snow and ice removal in the winter.

One of the most important strategies to keep in mind is treating returning customers very well. You shouldn’t forget about rewarding loyalty, as most of your revenue will come from a small fraction of repeat customers.

• Offer incentives for clients who book regular mowing, such as 5 off per week.
• Provide discounts to repeat customers, like free weed pulling after 20 mows.
• Give small gifts (like a flower bulb) to customers once they’ve reached a certain milestone.

Rewarding loyal customers with lower helps keep the competition from swooping in with a deal. Loyal customers are also easier to upsell, which can be more profitable than always pursuing fresh leads.

Give your grass the full salon treatment

What to Consider When Charging for Lawn Services

When you decide on the price per hour needed to be profitable, make sure you’re accounting for all necessary costs, from lawn size to overhead.

Here are some crucial lawn mowing business costs to consider:

Overhead

When you run a lawn business, you must factor overhead and operational costs into your price per hour. Start by actually determining what your monthly overhead adds up to based on your expenses. Your overhead includes everything from equipment costs to monthly premiums for business insurance.

Next, determine how much of that total cost for overhead you need to factor into each job. You can do this by essentially dividing the overhead amount by the average number of jobs you book per month.

Taxes

Equipment purchases and rentals, miles driven, depreciation, wages to employees, and payments to independent contractors are all tax-deductible. In fact, almost every business expense is tax-deductible, including phone and internet bills if you’re using them for your business. Be sure to keep detailed records so you can get the most deductions come tax time.

Weather

If you live in a colder climate, you already know that landscaping notoriously has a low season in the winter. Unfortunately, many of your overhead costs related to maintaining vehicles, owning equipment, and keeping insurance will still apply when the calls aren’t coming in. You may need to bake costs related to the slow season into your rates during peak seasons.

Try to winterproof your lawn care business by providing services that go beyond mowing.

Here are some services that can keep you afloat when mowing demand slows:

• Draining sprinklers
• Dethatching lawns
• Wrapping trees in burlap
• Planting bulbs
• Seeding
• Mulching/pine straw
• Pressure washing

Many landscapers also offer plowing and sidewalk shoveling. Clients who don’t mow their own lawns often prefer not to shovel their driveways. It’s possible to turn summer regulars into winter regulars every time it snows.

Location

of goods and services vary by state. That means you have to price your services by the regional average instead of the national average. If you work in an area with a consistent climate, you can charge less because you don’t need to buy equipment that’s compatible with all four seasons.

However, the flip side is that mowers and trimmers are likely to get worn out faster in places where mowing is necessary for most of the year.

Labor

If you have a crew, a big portion of your overhead is wages. You’re looking at the total cost based on the number of hours needed times the number of people needed when providing estimates.

When you deliver estimates, make sure you include the number of workers in your itemized list to justify what you charge.

Find the pros who can pamper your lawn and make the neighbors jealous

How to Calculate Lawn Care Pricing

Lawn care pricing can be complex to calculate, but once you choose the calculations that work best for your business, you’ll have rates that accurately reflect your work. Here’s how you can calculate your lawn care prices:

Choose a Method

Again, there are three main pricing methods for lawn care services: by the hour, by square footage, and by flat rates.

By the Hour

Charging by the hour ensures that you’re covered in the case of unforeseen circumstances, like difficult terrain. Hourly rates can increase your profits, but they can also price you out of the market if you use a low-quality lawn mower to tackle a large property.

For land greater than an acre, you might want to invest in a rear-engine riding mower or a tractor riding mower.

By Square Footage

If you’re confident in your mowing time, you can also choose to charge by square footage. Doing so is a straightforward process that makes it easy for customers to budget for the total cost, but it can result in a loss of income if you miscalculate the lawn’s complexity.

By Flat Rate

Lastly, choosing a flat rate can be perfect for capturing recurring customers who like the consistency of a simple package. Similarly to charging by the square foot, flat rates can underestimate the time it takes to mow a lawn.

You may want to choose a combination of methods to calculate your prices. Charging a flat rate for different property sizes may help customers feel like they’re getting the best rates for their lawn sizes.

Consider All Expenses

Once you’ve chosen a method for calculating your prices, you’ll also need to consider any additional costs that might pop up. This will help cover any surprises like tall grass, sloped land, rocky terrain, and more. It’s also important to include the costs of common add-ons for lawn care services, including:

• Fertilization costs: 75–400
• Aeration costs: 0.10–0.35 per square foot
• Yard cleanup costs: 190–1,000
• Tree trimming costs: 200–750 per tree
• Reseeding costs: 0.10–0.20 per square foot

Create a Pricing Package

With all of your cost factors and your charging method in place, you can finally stop watching the grass grow and start creating the perfect package for your lawn care business.

Customers like options, so consider the numbers you came up with and create different packages that fit within your price range to give your customers a choice. It’s also a good idea to compare your calculations to other lawn care services in your area to make sure your are competitive.

Keep your lawn lush and green

Charge the Right Price for Lawn Care to Grow Your Business

As a lawn care professional, charging the right price is essential to making a profit and growing your business. Use these tips to determine how much to charge, when to upsell customers, and how to stay busy year-round.

Sign up for Angi Ads today to get leads actively looking for lawn care services in your local area. From helping you manage leads to accepting payments, Angi is a lawn care professional’s secret weapon.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it profitable to start a mowing business?

Starting a mowing business can be profitable if you manage your business wisely, calculate costs accurately, and invest in time-efficient, high-quality equipment. With good customer service, you can lock in loyal customers who invest in weekly lawn care services that turn your business into a successful one.

Lawn care businesses can earn anywhere from 40,000 to over 100,000 per year depending on how you operate, but you’ll need to factor in the cost of equipment to determine your actual profit margins.

How many miles per hour can you mow?

Depending on your lawn mower type, you can mow anywhere from 2.5 to 13 miles per hour (mph). A simple push lawn mower will take the longest to mow at 2.5 mph, which is just under the average walking pace. Riding mowers can go significantly faster. Rear engines come in at around 5 mph, tractors come in at just shy of 8 mph, and zero-turn mowers come in at the fastest speed of 13 mph.

How to determine the size of the lawn area for the robotic lawnmower?

The most important key figure of a robotic lawnmower is the area output. If this does not match the actual lawn area, the robotic lawnmower may not be able to mow the entire area in the specified time. The result: The lawn is not perfect and unevenly cut. So how do you correctly determine the area for the robotic lawnmower?

Manufacturers of robotic mowers specify the area output for individual models. This tells you what area your device can mow in a certain time under ideal conditions. Perfect cutting results can only be achieved if the specified performance matches your garden. How do you find out how large the area of your own garden actually is?

The size of your own garden is important for selecting a suitable robotic lawnmower model. However, the calculation is not always very simple. The first variant works classically by calculating individual areas:

Common lawn shapes and their formulas for calculation

Of course, not every garden has an ideal shape, so it may be necessary to divide the garden into individual areas. This works best if you make a sketch of the garden first.

Calculate lawn area with Google

It is easier and faster to calculate your lawn area with Google Maps. With the range finder, the tool offers a really handy way to measure your own plot.

• First, enter the desired address in Google Maps.
• Right-click on a point at a corner of the property and select Measure distance.
• Now click once around the lawn. To make the line more precise, you can also add more points afterwards.
• Finally, you can easily read the result. In addition to the circled area, the distance is also displayed. This is particularly useful for directly determining the approximate length of the boundary wire required.

The area output of the robotic lawnmower. suitable for the lawn area

Manufacturers initially specify the maximum area output for robotic mowers. This value indicates how much area the device can mow in a certain time under absolutely optimal conditions. In practice, however, these conditions are rarely achieved as factors such as complex garden layouts, slopes, weather conditions or even the type of lawn influence mowing times.

Accordingly, there is a second value with the recommended area output, which is significantly below the maximum performance but in many cases corresponds to reality. If you want to determine which area output the robotic lawnmower needs to mow your lawn in a desired mowing time, proceed as follows:

• Determine the weekly operating time of your robot in hours. For example, if this is 6 a day, but Sunday is excluded, you will arrive at 36 hours a week.
• Determine how many hours the robotic lawnmower should be in use according to the manufacturer in order to achieve the specified mowing output.
• Calculate the lawn area of your yard.
• Put the numbers into the following formula:

Lawn area in m² / planned mowing time in hours x assumed mowing time of the manufacturer = required area output (according to the manufacturer).

In the above example, this would make the calculation as follows:

1,250 m² / 36 hrs. x 120 hrs. = 4,166.67 m²

For an area of 1,250 m², you would therefore need a robotic lawnmower with an area output of around 4,200 m² if the robotic lawnmower is only to be used 6 hours a day.

Important terms when determining the area performance

In addition to the area output, there are other key figures that are important for the overall performance of the robotic lawnmower:

• maximum operating hours per day. This figure tells the maximum time the robotic lawnmower can spend on the lawn per day minus charging times.
• mowing capacity as area output per hour
• mowing cycle: During this time, the device mows the entire lawn once.
• cutting width: The larger the cutting width, the larger the area the robot can mow with each pass, i.e. the more efficient the device is.
• battery run time: the larger the battery, the longer the mowing time. This also shortens the total time it takes to mow the entire area once.
• mowing speed: the speed of the robotic lawnmower in km/h.

Calculating the lawn area is an indispensable requirement when purchasing a suitable robotic lawnmower. An even cut is ensured only if the model is powerful enough to mow your lawn in the desired time.

Turf Calculator | Measure Your Lawn

When buying your new lawn use our simple guide OR our Easy Turf Calculator (below) to calculate how much you will need.

Any supplier of turf, will also assist you in helping calculate the amount of rolls or slabs you need to cover a specified area – but here are some easy methods to follow.

Square and Rectangle. Calculating the area for a square or rectangle is very simple. Get the overall width and the overall length of the square or rectangle, multiply the two and the result is the area for the square or rectangle. For example, a Square: 6m (wide) x 6m (length) = 36m 2 For example, a Rectangle: 6m (wide) x 4m (length) = 24m 2

Circle. To calculate the amount of lawn you need in square metres (m 2 ), measure the radius of the circle and multiple the (radius x radius) x 3.14. For example, radius of 5m (5 x 5) x 3.14 = 78.5m 2

Triangle. Calculating the area for a triangle is done by getting the overall width and the overall length of the triangle, multiply the two and divide by half and the result is the area for the triangle.

Shapes. The area of a shape can be determined by simply breaking the shape into a set of squares, rectangles or triangles. Find the individual area and add them to give you the total area of the shape.

TURF CALCULATOR

Enter in the dimensions of your yard in our Easy Turf Calculator (below) to calculate the m 2 you may need for your yard. If you need to add multiple shapes click on Add a section and an additional calculation will be included.