How to Price Your Lawn Care Services Profitably in 2026 (Avoid the Underpricing Trap)
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What is the under‑quoting problem and why does it trap lawn‑care businesses?
Hello and welcome to the Green Industry Podcast, your go-to guide for building a more profitable and thriving lawn care and landscaping business. Your host, Paul Jameson, is the author of five best selling books, including Cut That Grass and Make That Cash, and his latest, Level Up Your Money. All available on Amazon and Audible. Now, get ready for more expert insights and practical strategies. Strategies to boost your business and level up your life. Here's Paul Jameson.
Welcome back to the show. Today we're gonna talk about pricing and what the legitimate companies out there are charging. this day and age and why you're probably underquoting and uh how to get your prices up to where they should be. That's what we're gonna Chat about on today's program. I'm Paul Jameson. I started my first lawn business in 2011. Back then I didn't know Diddly Squat about business. Definitely not about the uh insider information in the lawn care business. Meaning, what are people charging? Per yard of mulch installed? What are they charging per bale of pine straw uh installed? What are they charging per mow edge trim blow and on specialty services like tree pruning and tree removal and uh flowers and furt and squirt
All of those things. I did not understand that. In the early years of my business and as Mistakes were made and the numbers weren't working, meaning I had too much month left or yeah, too much month left at the end of the money, meaning where's all the money and I still have all these bills, I quickly realized actually it wasn't so quickly. It took years, but I realized that my prices were too low. Because when you run a lawn care business, really any business in home services, but I'm familiar with lawn care and landscaping You have big costs, right? You have your labor cost, which is more than thirty dollars per hour now when you calculate your employees' wages, the taxes that you're paying on them, the insurance, the benefits, all of that stuff, if you add it all up per employee per hour.
The average for the legitimate lawn care companies, landscaping companies, it's thirty to fifth four probably thirty to forty dollars per hour. I I mean some companies even probably forty five dollars per hour when they really got premium guys. Then you got all your trucks, your mowers, your fuel, your equipment, your fur you know, you have to actually buy the fertilizer, the mulch, the pine straw, the plants, all of this stuff Cost money. And so if you're underquoting, it's it's absolutely disastrous. So we're gonna talk about today what I have collected um from different markets of what folks are charging. I'm familiar with the Atlanta market and the Tampa market. In a little bit. of um some of the other markets, but um I've I've had a lot of friends in this industry and I I ask a lot of questions like, hey, what are you guys charging per bale of pine straw installed?
What are you guys charging per yard of mulch installed? What do you charging per maintenance? And I I feel like I have enough of a scope of what's going on out there in the different markets because folks in in Mississippi and Arkansas They they charge a lot less than folks in you know, places like New York City, Metro New York City and and and and Metro Los Angeles. And there's just there's different markets that have different pricing. So we're gonna talk about it on today's program. Um, before you set your prices. I think it's important that you don't do any guessing, but that you do you do math. So you know what your labor is. Uh you know, obviously if you have employees, you know what they cost you per hour.
You know what your yards of mulch are for you to purchase and have delivered. You know what the pine straw costs are for you for long needle pine straw in your neck of the woods. You you know, obviously fuel fluctuates, but you know approximately how much it costs to fill up your trucks every week, every month. You know, your overhead, you know, your job or subscription if you have a CRM, your call reel subscription if you have call reel, your bookkeeping if you're using the landscaping bookkeeper.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the under‑quoting problem and why does it trap lawn‑care businesses?
0:03–5:24
2
How do you calculate true labor costs for a lawn‑care crew in 2026?
5:24–9:45
3
What should I charge for weekly mowing, edging, and blow‑down services?
9:45–22:37
4
How much should I price mulch installation per yard in today’s market?
22:37–27:44
5
What is the average price per bale of pine straw and when should I waive delivery fees?
27:44–35:22
6
How can I effectively upsell tree pruning, landscaping installs, and flower planting?
35:22–40:05
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Green Industry Podcast
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