Had a total wake-up call about pricing at a job fair in Cleveland

I was at the Northeast Ohio Green Industry Expo last year, just talking to other landscapers at a booth. This guy asked me what I charged for a basic spring cleanup, and I told him my old rate of $350 for a standard yard. He looked at me and said, 'You're leaving at least a hundred bucks on the table, easy.' He broke down his costs right there on a napkin - fuel, labor, dump fees, the whole thing. I went home and redid all my numbers that night. Now I charge a flat $500 for the same service and my profit is way better. How do you guys figure out your rates without feeling like you're asking for too much?

3 comments

3 Comments

veramiller28d ago

That napkin math story is gold. I had a similar moment when a retired accountant friend looked at my books over coffee. He pointed out I was charging for the mowing but not the travel time or the cleanup after, which was costing me like 45 minutes a day. I reworked my whole pricing sheet based on actual clock time instead of just the job. Now I add a flat travel fee for anything over 10 miles out, and it covers gas plus a little extra without feeling greedy.

emery8791mo ago

Happens in every field honestly. We all get stuck in our own bubble and forget what our work is actually worth until someone from outside points it out.

nelson.cameron1mo ago

Last year our dev team spent three months on a feature we thought was huge. A friend who just uses apps asked what it did and I realized it solved a problem nobody actually had. You're right, @emery879, we were totally in our own bubble. It's wild how obvious it seems once someone from the outside says it out loud.