Prairiebank Loans, a small-business funding service in Florence, AZ, shows how landscaping and lawn care companies in Pinal County, AZ can price jobs so equipment payments, crew wages, fuel and overhead are covered: turning monthly costs into an hourly crew cost, pricing residential routes and HOA contracts, and checking a mower purchase before signing.
A crowded field in Pinal County, AZ
Pinal County, AZ had 76 landscaping services employer establishments in 2023, 67.1% with fewer than five employees (County Business Patterns 2023), and 552 landscaping businesses with no paid employees in 2024 (Nonemployer Statistics 2024, a separate program). With that many small operators bidding, a price that leaves out the equipment payment is an easy mistake to make.
How to price landscaping jobs: build an hourly crew cost
The simplest reliable method is to know what one crew-hour costs you, then price every job from that number.
- Add up monthly crew wages, including payroll taxes and workers' compensation.
- Add monthly equipment costs: every mower, trailer and truck payment, plus maintenance and insurance.
- Add monthly fuel and disposal costs.
- Add a share of overhead: phone, software, the yard, your own salary.
- Divide the total by the billable crew-hours you actually expect in a month, not the hours on the clock.
That result is your break-even crew-hour. Every price you quote has to clear it, with margin on top.
An illustrative calculation (invented figures)
A two-person crew costs $6,400 a month in wages and taxes. The mower, trailer and truck payments, maintenance and insurance come to $2,100. Fuel and dump fees are $900, and overhead allocated to the crew is $1,000. Total: $10,400. The crew bills about 130 hours a month after drive time. Break-even is $80 a crew-hour. Pricing at $100 a crew-hour leaves $20 an hour, about $2,600 a month, before the owner's profit.
Now test a new $14,500 mower. If its payment adds $350 a month and lets the crew bill 15 more hours, the new break-even is $10,750 over 145 hours, about $74. The mower lowers the hourly cost. If it adds no billable hours, the break-even rises to about $83 and the margin shrinks.
How to charge for landscaping jobs on residential routes
For weekly mowing, estimate the minutes on site plus a share of drive time between stops, multiply by your crew-hour rate, and round to a monthly price. Routes that cluster in one neighborhood of San Tan Valley or Queen Creek have less drive time per stop than scattered ones, which is a real cost advantage.
How to price lawn care jobs and HOA maintenance contracts
Commercial maintenance bids are usually monthly prices for a defined scope. Estimate monthly crew-hours for the scope, price them at your rate, and add materials. Check the payment terms: if the HOA pays 30 days after the invoice, you are carrying a month of wages and fuel, which is a working capital cost.
Raising prices on existing customers
If your break-even crew-hour has risen since you last set prices, existing customers are probably underpriced. Give notice in writing, explain the change briefly, and apply it at a renewal date for contract customers. Losing a few of the least profitable stops can free crew time for better-priced work; run the crew-hour numbers before and after to see the effect.
The costs that hide between jobs
An hourly crew cost built only from wages and equipment misses the hours and miles between properties. Add them in before the rate is set:
- Drive time between stops, paid at the crew's wage.
- Fuel for the truck as well as the mowers and blowers.
- Green-waste disposal and trips to the supply yard.
- Repairs, blades, line and the downtime when a machine is in the shop.
Spread those across the billable hours of a typical week. If they add a few dollars an hour, the price has to carry them; if a route has long drives between stops, that route needs its own rate.
Lawn care equipment financing: checking the payment before you sign
Before financing a mower or trailer, run the hourly calculation with and without it. If the numbers work, equipment financing spreads the cost over the equipment's working life. If wages run ahead of monthly invoices, a line of credit can carry the gap. The landscaping funding page covers contracts and buying a route, and the Florence, AZ page has county figures. More reading is on the blog.
By Prairiebank Loans · Updated
