Independent LawnMowing Contractors Of Australia Forum
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Thread: Hourly rate increase

  1. #46
    Senior Member geoff's Avatar
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    Default Re: Hourly rate increase

    to run a business sucesfully and to cover the overheads and make a decent living a lot of the rates revealed on here are so undervalued ... to run a dollar a minute good luck to you and i wish you all the best as that was what the rate was 10 years ago.....yes the private forum has cricket noises because the value of the forum has dropped to a all time low in my view..back in the day the forum was full of great stuff and bullsh1t but it was a great talking and learning forum....the techincal aspects of machines is brilliant on this forum ..apart from that not much more unfortunaltly...

  2. #47
    Senior Member BeetleJuice's Avatar
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    Default Re: Hourly rate increase

    The more people that come into this business the lower the rate becomes with competition.Forums train newbies on how to get started then they compete up against existing long term rounds

  3. #48
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    Default Re: Hourly rate increase

    I remember many years ago having a discussion with a lady and saying I charged $30 p/h which I believed was about the same price as Jims she told me she worked for Jims and they recommended their guys charge at least $40 preferably $45 p/h. I put my prices up, if I hadn't heard that I would still have been charging much less than Jims and had no idea how cheap I was and how much more I could earn. Now we have forums to give us some idea of pricing and how much we can charge,
    Anything Ian says may or may not be garbage, it may also be his own opinion or it may not be his opinion at all, it may just be something he felt like stating anyone following his advice does so at their own risk and may be doing something Ian would actually advise against.
    And if you don't like what Ian has to say use the ignore function if you don't know how ask i will gladly tell you

  4. #49
    Member Macka's Avatar
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    Default Re: Hourly rate increase

    The more people that inflate there rates the more people will join the industry, and fail. 80% of businesses fail within their first 18 months

    its a low income industry.

    the charge out rate looks great to the new guys but isn't what you get to keep, or what you can get in all areas.

    One weeks work, A $50 a hour charge out rate may mean you do 25 hours onsite work for $1250

    Annual expenses maybe 25K = $500 a week

    leaving $750

    Extra time hours: Travel, book work, maintenance, shopping, research etc. 15hours a week

    total hours worked for the week 40. $750/40h= $18.75 per hour * less income tax

  5. #50
    Junior Member Cut'n Ya Grass's Avatar
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    Default Re: Hourly rate increase

    Thats a great password! I have emailed Dean for one
    Out there giving it my best shot

  6. #51
    Junior Member Cut'n Ya Grass's Avatar
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    Default Re: Hourly rate increase

    everyone was new once Beetle. Cut us some slack
    Out there giving it my best shot

  7. #52
    Senior Member BeetleJuice's Avatar
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    Default Re: Hourly rate increase

    These figures $60,$70,$80 per hour are achievable only in a select areas in most cities,These are the regular long term customer and contractor jobs,i have met these guys that are in the right spot making good money.Not easy for any other contractor wanting to break in to those areas.
    Last year i spoke to my account asking him how's my turn over comparing others he has on the books,his reply was not much different,no one is doing exceptionally good/better that others.Just the area we work in and competition.

    So how well is the rest of Aust doing in comparison..Easy answer..just look at the selling prices and turn over in the for sale section.It's self explanatory

  8. #53

    Default Re: Hourly rate increase

    There are many ways to run a business and make a profit.
    What is profit to one may not be to another.
    What one needs to live on is often quite different to what another needs.
    While anyone can do this business not everyone lasts in this business.
    Is the glass half full or half empty?

    I started as one of these newbies many years ago. I did have a little experience with "Local Mowing" but information was still very hard to come by.
    It seems we all want this information to keep our business thriving but don't want to share it with anyone else in case we lose business or we have to compete a little more.

    Starting to sound a bit like we are in the USA!! >> DT eat your heart out

  9. #54
    Senior Member Chris B's Avatar
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    Default Re: Hourly rate increase

    When you guys say hourly rate.. Do you mean just at the job? or including driving around etc?
    If just at the job, I seriously think most should be $100+++ (Melbourne metro at least)


    Another variable is how quick / efficient / organised / quality of machines etc...
    For example person A could do a $50 lawn in 30 minutes
    while person B is taking an hour
    or even person C @ 45 mins

    Hourly rates:
    Person A = $100
    Person B = $50
    Person C = $66.67

  10. #55
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    Default Re: Hourly rate increase

    I remember well when I first started thinking I must have rocks in my in head 4-5 lawns a day and exhausted and no way I could make anything like I had in my previous job, so glad I hung in there now I'm just wishing I could get back to 4-5 and have a break for a while
    Anything Ian says may or may not be garbage, it may also be his own opinion or it may not be his opinion at all, it may just be something he felt like stating anyone following his advice does so at their own risk and may be doing something Ian would actually advise against.
    And if you don't like what Ian has to say use the ignore function if you don't know how ask i will gladly tell you

  11. #56
    Senior Member Chris B's Avatar
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    Default Re: Hourly rate increase

    haha I remember thinking wow I'm really gonna have to do a ****load of jobs to make this worthwhile! Then I realised I was looking at things the wrong way

  12. #57
    Member of forum jd's Avatar
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    Default Re: Hourly rate increase

    As usual, I tend to agree with Ian.
    If i was starting out i would go on the low side just to get work and it sure beats sitting at home. But your rate just depends on so many variables. Particularly where you live in Australia (country/city). Your financial position; we're all at different stages of our lives.
    I used to always quote on jobs but some days i find it hard to get my head around working out the quote so i'll just give a rate of $60. If it looks to be a couple of hour job i might quote. If the customer seems genuine, it looks a good job and is nearby, you can always say 'try me out for an hour at $60 '. Most people will say fine, keep going.

    But if you've been in the game for a while, chances are you know your territory. I'm not going to tell you are wasting your time and should be charging $80. If your patch is $45/hour, that's what it is.

  13. #58
    Senior Member BeetleJuice's Avatar
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    Default Re: Hourly rate increase

    Quote Originally Posted by Chris B View Post
    When you guys say hourly rate.. Do you mean just at the job? or including driving around etc?
    If just at the job, I seriously think most should be $100+++ (Melbourne metro at least)


    Another variable is how quick / efficient / organised / quality of machines etc...
    For example person A could do a $50 lawn in 30 minutes
    while person B is taking an hour
    or even person C @ 45 mins

    Hourly rates:
    Person A = $100
    Person B = $50
    Person C = $66.67
    I remember a few years ago wanting to buy another round in a different area,i met the guy selling it on site amongst 2 other customers he had in the same street.The guy selling it has had this round for 7 years and off he goes edging,cutting blowing and no idea how much time he wasted from beginning to end,not only that his rate was $30ph.
    Now this guy including an another 13 year round belonging to a relative,both had the same problem.No initial training in actually having someone standing there showing them and correcting lost wasted time.
    Some guys would think "you gotta be joking" what for lawn mowing.Now that's one thing you can't learn on a forum and watching some youtube vids on "how to" can make it even worse.

    Once you find out how and with the right equipment you'd be amazed what the difference is in time

  14. #59
    Senior Member Chris B's Avatar
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    Default Re: Hourly rate increase

    99% of all those mowing business' I see for sale don't seem very profitable at all

    I agree if you're just starting out , you might not get the super high hourly rates - but if you can still do a good job, there's no reason to charge any less that what an experienced operator is charging - otherwise you lose on the hourly rate and you still get paid less for the job. At least you can get quicker .. much easier than putting up prices

    Sometimes I have bad days where seems like I get nothing done and don't earn as much - driving around quoting, going to bunnings etc etc... but there's no way I'm gonna let that happen on a job if I can help it

    look at mobile phone plans... $10 a month with a cheap provider, or $100 with Telstra - different ppl want different things and pay accordingly

  15. #60
    Junior Member Cut'n Ya Grass's Avatar
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    Default Re: Hourly rate increase

    Well said South East Mowing. I understand the trepidation in sharing, however, surely it is fine to ask people and then members can choose to help or not to help. PM's are probably not a bad solution for some?
    Out there giving it my best shot

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