If you don’t charge an average of $75/hr you are not covering your overhead and making money to live on. $50/hr is breakeven (tractor pmt, truck pmt, implement pmt, business and truck insurance, repairs, maintenance, fuel, and profit, less taxes) if you are cutting full time. Averaging $100/hr is more practical which if you price by the job and not the hours, you can get. Those that charge $50/hr won’t be in business long or will have to cut corners to feed themselves. Don’t undersell your services or drive the prices down in your area.
Thanks for the video. It’s helpful. I recently bought a 3038e for my landscaping business. I got the rotary cutter. I added bush hogging to the services I offer on my website and my Google business profile. Got contacted by a guy to hog a lot he owns here in Pinellas county Florida. He said the guy he’s been using is retiring. I had no idea what to charge. So I told him I normally charge $100 an acre. He said the lot is 2.5 acres so I told him $250 and he agreed.
Diggin' the videos man. Good job. Gonna be picking up a 5075 here soon for a small farm I'm trying to close on. You're inspiring me to video log the life on a tractor for my boys to watch when they're older. Excited to get my two year old in the buddy seat and ride along. I'll be looking back at your videos for ideas for sure. Alright Sir, just wanted to commend you on the channel and your content. Good bye for now from the great state of Texas.
How are you getting the jobs? I have even been going as low as 50-60hr and customers just don’t respond. I’ve been using HomeAdvisor and it seems they go with cheaper bids.
@@louisw565 A lot depends on where you're located in the country. One of the first things customers say to me is that I'm the only one that would come out and give them an estimate. After that they usually end up telling me that of the few quotes they did get mine was the lowest. The area I'm in is populated with people that have pretty good incomes and own decent sized lots, 5-10 acres. They don't want to buy equipment or just don't care to fool with it so they hire it out. Are you offering anything other than bush hog work? I always show up on any job that I know has a gravel driveway with my tractor and cutter and my land plane. I get a good bit of driveway work too and I advertise it. Facebook has been my number 1 source for customers.
@@justkeepingitreal7768 thanks for the feedback. Area of Tx I’m in seems like I’m not having any luck with mowing jobs so far. Recently moved here so I don’t know a lot of the folks with property just yet. Tried running a fb ad. Haven’t got any bites yet. Well got one to go spread some dirty and level an area. There’s another guy in the area that has lived in area already up in running. Gonna keep at it.
@@louisw565 your comment says it was 6 months ago now, thinking of starting my own tractor service in Florida. How has your business grown over the past 6 months? Any suggestions?
Probably should charge for the tractor flat rate plus your time. $150 for the drive to and back plus use of tractor, implement and gas. $40-$60 per hour minimum. $75 an hour would be reasonable. In my opinion he got it half price. If you did it twice a year then you could do $200-300. That means you doubled your clientele. Just my $.02. I don’t own a tractor and I live in California where everything is expensive. Making a bit of profit will ensure you can pay for repairs and maintenance.
That sounds about right!! Prices have went way up for everything. This video is over 3 years old. My last bush hogging job about this size I charged $450
I was at a guys house grinding stumps. He has a lawn service and does the banks around and he has had it for about 15 years. He got a call and it was the bank. They was doing the yearly stuff and ask him how much is he going up this year. Wow I thought how nice that would b. He said they expect him to go up every year and he goes by what the gov. Says u know what I mean. U need a blower to clean your equipment
Some places up north with unions mandate the wages… that’s what that sounds like to me…. I have heard of people with dump trucks, they have to pay the drivers half of what the truck makes…. You can’t afford to stay in business with big brother telling you what to do!!!
David Mashtoler Oh my Goodness Frost... our first frost is mid October...We’re getting down into the 50’s at night... still in the mid 80’s during the day.
@@davidmashtoler7207 If you move a lot of hay all the time or pallets, stuff that you need to keep level, then you'll love it...I dont see the need in spending the extra money. We had one on a 6 series tractor when I was younger...they are big and bulky, and they block a lot of visability. Also, I dont always want my loader to self level, like if Im doing dirt or gravel work. I think there is a pin you can pull and move, and keep them from self leveling. but, why buy one if your not gonna use it. haha!!
I usually ask the property owner to start with, most land owners have a good idea. Then I time it. I can usually mow about two acres an hour with a six foot mower... There is also some websites you can use if there is no other way to find out.
@theweekendfarmer7513 maybe that's what it was, sounded like the motor rpms shot up and the transmission wasn't grabbing. Been there done that, isn't no fun!
That works for some jobs. It doesn't work this job. This job took about 3 hours, $150 would be too cheap. Ive always charged $200 for this job, that's also too cheap. I like Harris Tractor Service's formula, $45 an acre for everything under 15 acres. This job is about 6 - 7 acres. 6 acres at $45 an acre = $270. that's more in the ball park. If I was doing 2 acres and it took, 1 hour Chris L's formula would work better. So it can vary from job to job.
So you tell your customer you charging them $45 hr or do you just give the flat rate once you’ve done a estimate on your loading and time actually cutting?
@@jth030966 thanks. So 8 acres $360. Do you alter price if it’s really thick and all? I’ve also been advised to charge like $60 for travel to and from job. To basically add it into the job. Not sure if folks are willing to pay it for cutting but other small jobs they have when I move dirt.
@@louisw565 i don't charge a trip fee if its within 25 miles of my house but there is a 2 acre minimum. And on pricing if its just grass as long as its below around mid waist or shorter the price stays the same if it gets taller than that or a bunch of small saplings i will charge more i try to figure at mowing at least 3 mph if evan if I mow at 5mph if i look at it and think i will have to mow slower i will up charge i usually mow around 3 to 3.5 acres per hour and over time mowing different places i now pretty close how long it will take to mow sometimes you make really good and sometimes i will be a little short but the longer you do it the better you will get at judging your time it takes just for instance you pull up to a job thats 5 acres that is waist high i can mow it in a hour in a half i would charge 45x5=225 but if the same job is head high i would say i could mow at around 2 mph that would be for me about 2 acres per hour it would take around 2 and a half hours to mow so i would charge a extra hours worth of mowing and like i said i bid everything based of of mowing 3 acres per hour i hope i explained that and not confused you
@@andrewtestin9080 They had them at the John Deere dealer... First time I had seen them. I made them give me one when I bought the 5075e. I would like to have a couple more myself!!!
Price, per hour - and per acre - HAS to vary, with size of tractor/mower, and height of what being cut... Then, there’s the difficulty, to figure in also - cutting saplings, or around low clearance trees, or on hills/through ravines - is much more time consuming. So, need to have a target $/Acre - AND, a target $/Hour - Along with a minimum for both. If you’re Too cheap, you eventually go broke - Too expensive, same result, only more obvious and sooner. It’s a balancing act, in a way - But, if done right, it’s a win-win, for both you and your customers...