Commercial mowing. Anyone here do it?

bbuckler said:
Wow. We only get $35 a yard here
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I had one quote me for my around an acre lot. All easy mowing, no landscaping, no flower beds, 2 trees in the yard that are easy to mow around. Only no push mower required, and maybe 5 minutes of trimming with a weed eater. He said 150 a week. I told him he was full of it, and he said I get it every day for yards smaller than yours!

Only reason I considered paying someone is that I was working out of town M-F then home Sat Sun. I didn't want to cut grass when I was home I wanted to see my family. But 600 a month to have someone cut my grass was crazy.

I know the lady down at the bottom of the hill pays another company 120 and her lot is around 1/2 acre.
 
I do some here, not enough to get rich nor require a new machine every year like many comerical guys here do.
I started with a Simplicity 6517 with a 48 inch deck. One lawn took 4 plus hours to do.
Upgraded to a ExMark ponieer S series60 inch fab deck. I will not mow less than 4 inches, do not pick up toys tools or tree branches. is the home owners job tgo do that. they know what day I am going to be there by the schedule I 've made up. it is adjustable mow every 4 days when the grass is growing like crazy in the spring because I do not like clumps. when the grass slows it is once every 5 days and this past year July and August during the drought never did stop and walk around to make sure the grass had not grown.

I will not start the mower and unload for less that $50.00 Per mow, Never trim and alwasys aim the clippings away from walks and flower beds. I mower over the clippings to mulch them real good too.

The 4 hour lawn now takes 2.75 hours and I get 150.00 per mow on it. The also have lots of exposd Pine tree roots whick slows me down and there the deck is set at 4.5 inches.

They are happy always have given a bonus check when i come in late Sept. to mulch leaves and do the last mow of the season.

I hate photobucket where most of my pictures are.
Been slowly getting them moved.
:D Al
 
When I was a young boy back in late 70's, early 80's, I had a great lawn/landscaping business where I had 30+ lawns to cut every week. It was between ages of 13-18, all through local newspaper ads word of mouth and those grocery store bulletin boards with your ad and cut out phone # tags. I did everything, cut grass, did flower beds, weeding gardens, storm windows, eave troughs, leaf raking, snow blowing, house siding washing...the whole package.

First year borrowed my dad's AMF lawn tractor and push mower, 2nd year bought my own tractor, mower, weed eater and 4-wheel wagon to carry it all. By the end, I had enough cash saved up to pay for my first 3 years of university including apartment and food, books, beer, so you can imagine how much I made. It was awesome. I ended up with a big bank account, a great work ethic and responsibility, as no one needed to tell me to get my lawns done after school. Had my wagon rigged up with rear lights to safely get home in dark in the fall when days were short, many times with a wagon load of leaves or clippings to our own compost pile at home.

I think if a person is smart and doesn't overextend themselves with fancy equipment/truck, there is money to be made. Lots of money. And it is cash-ola! And if you can do all the jobs, gardening, eaves, snow blowing...there are a lot of older people needing that work done by a reliable trustworthy person.
 
I did this as a side business for a while, the people drove me nuts. Some demanded that I had a mulching mower while others detested mulching and demanded it bagged.still others refused to let me mow the lawn if the grass was less than ankle deep or whatever the town's threshold was to begin issuing fines. They didn't care about how much harder that made it for me.
At one point I was up to about 18 yards a week, went to one 55+ trailer park and things were fine, got my 1st call to a customer in another who suggested that I put a flyer in the office because they have problems getting people to offer to mow, when I went to the office to ask if I could I was asked for a copy of my insurance showing that I have$1M or more worth of insurance, and wouldn't be able to work in that park until I brought my proof in that they could keep on file. I haven't been back.

Then I would get the occasional call from someone who needs their yard done because their mower decided to quit. I'd mow,and couldn't resist asking to see their machine which usually had something stupid simple wrong with it that I was able to fix easily, then they didn't need me to mow any more.
 
poncho62 said:
"I did this as a side business for a while, the people drove me nuts."

My experience exactly. Did it on the side for 2 years. Never again.
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It very well could be what happens with me if I pursue it. With needing to buy a mower anyway I figured it might be worth a shot since I already have all of the other equipment.
 
I have my rules, I do not clean up the kids toys I either do not mow if a lot scattered or mow around if a few. Do not mow grass shorter than 4 inches, I chose when I mow not the property owner, If they want it mowed on a friday it gets mowed every Friday. I do not clean up down tree branches that is a extra fee I mow around them.

I will never bag clippings so if you want that done hire some one else.

It is all on a sheet of paper I hand them to read before they sign a Non binding contract.

:D Al
 
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