How to Price Landscaping Job in 7 Steps

The landscaping industry can scale at a 4.5% CAGR in the next few years. The industry in the United States is currently estimated at $115.6 billion in 2022.

The competition in the industry is rising, and multiple contractors are trying to manipulate the price of landscaping services to entice clients toward their business.

But competing on the price can shrink your profits. Unlike other industries, the landscaping industry price varies on the client’s request. 

Not understanding the client requirements can increase the job’s complexity, increasing the overall operational cost and shrinking your profits.

So, try understanding how to price landscaping jobs beforehand to avoid trouble and stand out from others.

Let’s dive deep into understanding the nitty-gritty elements essential for estimating landscaping jobs.

What is a Landscaping Quote?

A landscaping quote or estimate is a professional document representing your client’s pricing and cost breakdown of the requested landscaping project.

The document provides a complete overview of the services, hours, and workforce required to complete the task and gives a brief idea about the total expense of the landscaping project.

Creating a landscaping quote involves detailed steps to help you achieve higher client conversions and deliver optimized estimates that fit the client’s budget.

You must ensure that your landscaping quotes are competitive and can help you earn decent profits to sustain yourself in the industry.

Look at the seven steps to price and quote landscaping jobs.

7 Steps to Price and Quote Landscaping Jobs

1. Brief about the job

Before kick-starting the estimation process, you must understand the brief about the client’s request and the scope of the project.

Contact your clients using a reliable communication channel and ask them a few basic questions that can help you gain more clarity before the estimation process:

• Is there a time constraint?
• Where is the job site?
• What is the measurement of the yard?
• What material to use?
• Do you have any special requests?
• What landscaping services do you want?
• Are there accessibility issues or safety hazards at the site?

Answering these specific queries can help you estimate the landscaping jobs and quote a reasonable price for your customers.

You can also advise your customers to add or remove different specifications in the landscaping service request based on your experience in the industry. It can help the clients understand that they are associating with professionals in the field.

You can also focus on upselling your customer’s different landscaping services to boost your profits and help the clients solve different problems that they were unaware of.

2. Budget inquiry

You are limited to delivering the desired landscaping results to your clients within the specific budget. You must ask them about the budget allocation to deliver a quality estimate to help you convert the client.

Once the client assigns you the budget and their requirements, you can decide to offer them professional landscaping services that can satisfy all the conditions.

The residential landscaping project has a different budget than the commercial landscaping jobs because of the complexity and scale of the project. You should calculate the price based on the type of project you have.

3. Consider the labor costs

The overall labor cost is considered a core aspect of pricing the lawn care and landscaping job. You must calculate your labor cost by multiplying the industry-standard rate with the total number of hours required to complete the task.

You can choose hourly vs. fixed landscaping pricing options based on your project scope, presence, and expertise.

Fixed pricing is ideal when you have industry experience and a crystal clear idea about the project requirements, but if you have the slightest doubts about the project scope and the client requirements, you can choose the hourly rate.

It can have less pressure on your on-ground team to deliver results faster and help you create a smooth workflow.

Also, if different dynamic situations arise during the project completion, an hourly-based price strategy can help you get an edge over the counterpart.

• Calculate the total project completion hours

  You must determine the total hours your team requires to complete the assigned landscaping task. To get a specific data point, you must multiply the total employees required for the work with the total hours.

  For example, if four people can take 30 hours on the job, that’s 120 labor hours.

  You can also use professional tracking software to help estimate the hours your team takes to complete the landscaping task.

• Calculate labor cost per hour

  You must calculate the labor cost per hour, which includes salaries, payroll, expenses, and insurance you can spend on your employees for smooth business operation.

  Calculate the monthly expense for your on-ground employees, and then calculate the hourly rate based on the total hours an employee works for your business in a month.

  You can also cross-check the national average hourly wage and add a percentage of workers’ compensation, sales tax, and benefits.

  Choose one method and multiply that labor hour with the hourly labor cost to help you get the overall labor rates.

4. Material costs

Once you understand the client’s requirements for a specific landscaping project, you have an idea about the material list that can help you complete the specific task. You must add the specific price of the landscaping material used in the project.

You can purchase basic landscaping materials like floodlights, compost, cement, lawn turf, timber, landscaping rock, and fertilizer in bulk so that you can get great discounts from the manufacturer or wholesaler.

You can provide your clients with these landscaping materials at the best prices compared to the retail stores to minimize their time and effort for procurement of the required landscaping material.

Balance the overall estimates with quality material pricing to deliver your clients the best landscaping job estimates.

5. Overhead

Consider the overhead costs that can help you achieve a more accurate and precise estimation number. 

You can include equipment repair, vehicle expenses, taxes, legal fees, advertising, equipment cost, office rent, internet bills, business insurance, employee and vehicle insurance, and other tools to calculate a better estimate.

Including the overhead cost can enable you to cover your expenses with finesse and book your profits for sustainable business operations.

You can include non-billable overhead costs like employee training, holidays, traveling time, and important business aspects to achieve an accurate and blanched estimation.

6. Consider subcontractor fees

You can handle multiple landscaping projects simultaneously if you decide to delegate your selected services to a subcontractor. 

Hiring a subcontractor is a great strategy used by different landscaping contractors to scale their profits, impact, and presence in the industry.

You can include a subcontractor if the landscaping project is large in scale and you have a small team to handle the requested operations. The subcontractors can assist you in completing the landscaping project and offer you a lower service price to help you earn decent commissions.

Ask for a detailed quote from the subcontractor based on the project requirements to estimate an accurate client’s quote.

7. Add your markup

The final step in the landscaping cost estimation process is to determine your profits and add a specific percentage to the project’s overall estimate.

The profit margin is closely linked with the markup, which is the total sales revenue minus the labor, material, and overhead cost.

The higher the margin percentage, the more the total profits. You can gain more capital if you decide to include a higher profit percentage.

While a markup amount is a total value, you add to the cost once you calculate the overall cost. You can also add a markup to the individual segments of your estimation to help you get a better final result.

Add up the Total Values for Final Cost Estimation

Once you get your landscaping company’s accurate expense cost and a brief idea about the markup and profit margins, you need to add up the total for finalizing the estimate.

Use professional software to help remove the manual estimation and deliver your modernized and latest automation results. 

Similar to your estimations, you require a powerful field management software that can help you with the invoicing process during the completion of your landscaping job.

But out of hundreds of software in the industry, you don’t want to waste your time and effort to filter out one for your landscaping business.
So, our team did the hard work for you and selected a professional software that can help you with invoicing and providing your tailored field service management solutions.

FieldCamp Can Simplify Your Landscaping Job Processing

A professional field service software, FieldCamp helps you with smooth invoicing process for your landscaping work. Landscaping workers can quickly generate invoices based on the services and products offered to your clients using the mobile application.

The software also helps secure payment processing, providing your client multiple options to pay for your landscaping service digitally.

The software is not limited to the invoicing and payment processing features; it can help you manage your daily landscaping business reports, assist you in job scheduling and dispatching, and help you run a profitable business.

You can complete your commercial and residential jobs with finesse and ensure that your employees reach the landscaping site on time.

Access the FREE 7-day trial to transform your landscaping business.