Would you hire the "Cut Away Debt" lawn service?
Being the money conscious, crazy man that I am I thought it would be interesting to figure out how much it costs to receive this “time saving” service.
Background
I live in an old school neighborhood that is divided into “blocks”. There are no winding streets that connect to other winding streets. Just perfectly spaced streets that contain the same number of lots, street after street.
The lot sizes are all 40 feet by 140 feet. Some people own multiple lots, but the majority just own one lot, their little piece of the “American Dream.”
Measuring the Lawn
I your remember back a few weeks ago I wrote about my do-it-yourself project of installing a new fence. In order to install the fence I had to measure the yard to know how much fence to purchase.
I went a little over board and measured the whole yard. The grassy areas of my lot totals 2,565 sq feet. What does this measurement have to do with a lawn service? Not much, but I thought it would be cool to break down the cost in square feet.
A Quote to Cut the Grass
My neighbor uses a lawn service and has the same lot dimensions as I do. Instead of wasting a company’s time with a quote, I ask her what she pays. $25 per cut. I also asked a person who lives across the street what he pays.
He pays $15 a visit for the lawn service to edge his grass. He cuts the lawn himself, but likes to have someone else edge the lawn. Seems a little crazy to me, but to each their own. I watched the “edging” crew (2 guys) take a total of 4 minutes to edge and blow his yard yesterday.
The Cost of Mowing the Lawn
In Michigan you can count on having to cut the lawn an average of 32 weeks per year. $25 per week times 32 weeks equals $800. Let me repeat that $800. That’s a ton of money.
If we break the cost into square feet, the cost for my yard would be about a penny per square foot. Meaning that it will cost a dollar for someone to cut the equivalent of a small bedroom (10×10). I wish a got a dollar every time I vacuumed a bedroom 
The point is that getting a lawn service is a lot of money. I can cut, trim, and edge my lawn in 20 minutes. That would be like making $75 per hour at the going rate for a lawn service. No wonder so many people are starting these types of businesses.
A new lawn mower will cost between $300 and $400. A trimmer/edger will run $89 to $130. Your ROI for the equipment is half a year or so. Think of all the money that could be saved by doing it yourself.
Now I just need to convince my neighbors to use “Cut Away Debt” lawn service to handle their lawn manicuring needs and I’ll have another income stream. Of course I can undercut the competition and charge $20 and still make out like a bandit.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve been thinking of going into this myself. It might be a great way to earn some additional coin while getting a decent workout at the same time!!!
Kudos to you for going that route!
I think it’s a great way to make some scratch. Go for it. I haven’t started it yet, but picking up some work from the neighbors should be easy
This is indeed a great way to make some money. I used to make quite a bit, but I haven’t done it recently. (Don’t have a garage right now so I don’t really have anywhere to store a mower). My brother in-law (who is still in college) is on track to bring in around 100k of revenue with his lawn business this year. (By the way, $25 is actually fairly cheap. I think his average is closer to $45)
Do you think you’ll do it? It sounds like a great idea! You definitely have an eagle eye for these sorts of opportunities…
I pay someone $40 to cut and weed eat my yard. They quoted that price for any lawn under one acre. I try and go every other week between cuts though in order to save a little bit of money. There would be no way that I could afford $40 per week.
We cut our own. We have a pretty big lawn, it would cost a fortune I’m guessing if someone cut ours.
My father in law mows the neighbors lawns. Once a week usually. Some folks pay him $75 a lawn! Not bad.
But you do have to factor in cost of gas, maintenance of the lawn mower, yearly blade sharpening, etc into the costs. it can get pretty high.
But I would still mow my own lawn if I could. We live in a townhouse complex with a $151 a month dues…. that is crazy high to me. Can’t wait to move out.
Using your math, the equivalent of $75/hr is indeed a nice income. However, you should also account for the costs involved – time spent traveling between jobs, the vehicle costs to do so (fuel, insurance, oil changes, tires, licensing, registration, perhaps a trailer, etc), and perhaps a business license and related business insurances.
Mowing your own includes your time spent getting the mower out from wherever it is stored, fueling it (including remembering to get fuel from the station with your jerry can), changing oil occasionally, bagging the clippings, cost of the bags, and probably the other biggest cost – the time spent actually mowing.
Part of the equation involves calculating what YOUR time is worth to you, which includes whether there is something else that you would prefer to be doing. As with most project, you are swapping time (and, depending on your perspective, headache) for money.
If DIY is still your preference, sharing the costs of one mower with your neighbor (or several) may be an even better RIO, especially if one of the sharees is handy with repairs to the machine for which you can trade for some costs.
Hey Richard S,
I agree that my calculations are anything but perfect. When you are in debt and clawing your way out, extra cash becomes the goal. If you are focused on destroying debt then your time really doesn’t factor into the equation. 30 minutes of web surfing or watching TV are just dumb if you can make some money. The cost of gas is so small that a few dollars will net you many more. Even if gas was a $5 for three yards, it would still be worth it to bring in the extra cash. That cash is what gives people the traction they need to get their debt snowballs rolling.
Nice idea about the sharing a mower.
I hate to admit it, but I also have a gardener who cuts our lawn once a week. However, in my own defense, he’s our friend too. My husband’s been helping him secure more clients and over time, we’ve built a friendship. I’d feel too guilty letting him go! Although the next rental house that is destined in our future, the rent needs to include gardening. I’m kind of tired paying to take care of someone else’s lawn!
Trust me, some of us companies get much cheaper than $25 a cut. And to buy something reliable costs a bit more than $300-$400. Also, unless you’re magically going to have your phone blow up with people wanting YOU to cut their yard, you’re going to spend either (a) a lot of time finding/marketing those customers or (b) a lot of money getting that stuff visible. Also, you’re driving to/from these places, and working around weather, and that makes it hard to work around a full time job. All in all, I’m in lawn care myself so I say… go for it, but you might want to consider how many different places that $20 cut gets chopped up before you get to thinking you’re going to be making $75 an hour. Ha.
Tobias Wolff~ We are made to persist. Thats how we find out who we are.
people always forget to add in all aspects of time. I’m sure you you can cut edge and blow in twenty minutes, your probably not considering landscaping services. So let’s take a realistic approach – 1 hour every four days in the first 2 1/2 months of the season. That’s anywhere from 15 to 20 cuts. so by hiring someone you’ve just picked up 20 hours in 75 days. could you do something to earn more money with that time that you have saved.
What about gas? there is gas for your mower, weedwacker and blower. (it cost) there is cost involved in getting the gas for these things. these items need oil and upkeep or repair(blade sharpening or rplacement, Line for the whacker) as well as storage. do you need hooks to hang things on the wall? maybe you need a shed because the garage is already full.
But my initial point is all aspects of time to do things are never counted. Also, if you go out in March and buy those three items plus gas and then spend the time to do the job, that first year will cost you approx. $1200 – $1500. if you hire someone to do ityou can spread that money out over 2 years.
It boils down to how valuable is your time.