When you’re new, lawn care pricing can feel like wandering in a jungle. How do you know how much to charge to mow a quarter acre, half acre, or full acre? What if the lot is muddy, has a lot of trees, or the client wants you to weed their garden beds, trim their hedges, or aerate?

There’s a lot to know but take comfort. We’ll prune it down to a simple formula to price your lawn care jobs, get more customers, and make good money in the process.

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See our complete lawn care pricing chart for detailed pricing estimates for every service, from mowing to aerating to pest control.

Easy lawn care bidding formula

An easy formula to price lawn care jobs is $40 per hour, plus materials like seed and fertilizer. Figure one hour per quarter acre to mow, trim, and blow, but add time for long drives, lawns with lots of trees or other obstacles, and hassles like a homeowner who only lets you mow at certain times.

For example:

• • Quarter acre: 1 hour x $40 per hour = $40 per cut
  • Half acre: 2 hours x $40 per hour = $80 per cut
  • Three quarters acre: 3 hours x $40 per hour = $120 per cut
  • Full acre: 4 hours x $40 per hour = $160 per cut
  • Modifier: Add time for extra services like bagging leaves, or for extra obstacles or challenges.

Pro Tip: You can charge as much as $80 per hour in upscale areas, but take time to assess the market in your area.

1. Learn from the market

When you’re new, the first step in knowing how to bid lawn care jobs is to learn the going rate. Do a Google search for lawn care near you, and look for lawn care door hangers and flyers in your area. Note the price range, and adjust your hourly rate based on what you see.

2. Adjust your prices for each lawn

A quarter acre should take you around an hour to mow, but adjust for factors like trees, fences, ponds, difficult access, or a homeowner who wants you to bag their clippings. Use any of those to adjust your base price. So — a quarter acre lot with ten trees and a muddy backyard might take an extra half an hour. That bumps your base price of $40 up to $60.

3. Track your time

Once you get rolling, do yourself a huge favor and track your time. 90% of lawn care business owners won’t do this, but the 10% who do will have a much more profitable business. It’s simple: tracking your time creates a gut-level feel for how much time a new lawn will take, and how much you should therefore charge.

4. Don’t haggle

As a new lawn care business owner, you’ll save endless frustration and money if you set your prices and stay firm. It’s far better to lose a job than fight to keep a customer who drains all your time and energy for peanuts. If someone wants to haggle, grit your teeth, say goodbye, and put that time into finding someone else who’s happy to pay you for good work.

Pro Tip: The customers who try to talk you down in price will rarely be happy with your quality of work, no matter how little they pay. Move on.

How to bid commercial lawn care jobs

Submitting a bid for commercial lawn care jobs can be complex, but the formula is simple. Plan to invoice $40 to $80 per hour, depending on your location, plus materials. Commercial clients will usually want a yearly bid, so multiply your hourly rate by the acreage by the number of cuts per month and year. For example:

• Quarter acre: 1 hour per cut x $40 per hour x 4 cuts per month x 5 months = $800 per year
• Half acre: 2 hours per cut x $40 per hour x 4 cuts per month x 5 months = $1,600 per year
• Three quarters acre: 3 hours per cut x $40 per hour x 4 cuts per month x 5 months = $2,400 per year
• Full acre: 4 hours per cut x $40 per hour x 4 cuts per month x 5 months = $3,200 per year

How to write a bid for a commercial lawn care job

Writing and submitting bids can be a bit more involved, because purchasing specialists often need documentation of all costs and services included in the bid. A written bid should convey all the details about your offer, including:

• Cost per hour
• Services:
  • Mowing
  • Trimming
  • Blowing
  • Aeration
  • Weed control
  • Watering
  • Pest control
  • Cleanup
  • Mulching
  • Leaf removal
  • Dethatching

• Materials and supplies:
  •  Gas
  •  Seed
  •  Fertilizer
  • Pest control treatments
  •  Mulch
  •  Flowers
  • Shrubs

The easiest way to make a lawn care bid is to use a lawn care app with custom estimates built in.

Pro Tip: Don’t be afraid to charge $2,400 to $4,000 a year for a commercial lawn care contract. One lawn care pro we spoke with worked for a big facility that spent $5,000 on employee appreciation trophies for a single brunch. They can afford to pay for lawn care.

Create quick lawn care bids with GorillaDesk

You can create fast custom bids and estimates with GorillaDesk. Just enter your services and let the software add prices, send custom bids, and change them into invoices with just a few clicks. GorillaDesk is the full-featured lawn care app that can trim your workload, tame your appointment book, and handle your billing. See our lawn care bidding guide for more info.

GorillaDesk is the highest-rated lawn care software on top review sites like Capterra for good reason. Our exemplary customer service chats with you in an average of three minutes, and our interface is legendary for its ease of use and full-featured power. Call for a free demo today.