Estimating landscaping projects can be tricky, even for seasoned pros. There’s a delicate balance between attracting customers and ensuring profitability. Let’s explore some best practices for creating effective landscaping estimates and invoices, covering everything from pricing services to calculating labor costs.
1. Visit the Landscaping Job Site For Research
Begin by visiting the job site with your client. This hands-on approach helps you gather crucial information for an accurate estimate. Assess the area, discuss potential services, and consider suggesting native plants for cost-effectiveness and easy maintenance. Take detailed measurements and use this time to understand your client’s expectations.
2. Create a Landscaping Project Plan That States the Scope of Work
Next, determine the scope of your landscaping project. This is essential when it comes to accurately estimating the costs of materials and labor hours. A detailed landscaping bid is crucial to outline the scope and costs of the project. What is the customer asking for and what will you need to provide? Consider the following:
- Services needed – special landscaping features, pathways, retaining walls, lawn mowing, etc.
- Materials needed – plants, ground cover, mulch, pavers/stone, etc.
- Site measurements
- Design style – will this be a simple or complex project?
- Quality of the current soil on-site
- Quantity of soil needed to be added
- Cleanup of the job site upon completion
- Equipment required to complete the job
- Size of the crew and estimated labor hours needed
The landscaping costs range can vary significantly based on the scope of work and specific features requested by the client.
Learn More: 15 Tips for Getting More Landscaping Customers
3. Estimate Your Overhead Costs
Estimate your overhead costs – all of the expenses that it takes to run your business that can’t be associated with a specific job. Common overhead expenses include office rent/mortgage, utilities, equipment repair and maintenance, legal fees, insurance premiums, payroll taxes, and employee benefits. Calculating these costs helps you set a realistic price for your landscaping services while still remaining profitable. Weekly overhead cost is the amount of money it takes to run your business every week, while hourly overhead refers to the amount needed to cover fixed costs per hour of production. Understanding these costs will help you set a realistic landscaping cost while remaining profitable. Additionally, using landscaping estimate software can assist in accurately calculating overhead costs.
4. Estimate Your Materials Costs
Consider the costs of the materials you’ll need for the job, as this is essential for accurately estimating the overall landscaping costs. This can include everything from:
- Lawn seeding and/or sod installation
- Sprinklers, irrigation, or misting
- Yard grading
- Fencing
- Hardscaping – any landscape construction with wood, brick, concrete, or stone such as pathways, retaining walls, gazebos/pergolas, etc.
- Softscaping – all types of plants including trees, shrubs, flower beds, vegetable gardens, native plants, etc.
- Other material costs such as lighting, mulch, pond installation,
To get accurate material costs, consider using a landscaping pricing guide.
5. Estimate Your Subcontractor Costs
If you are estimating a larger job that’s more than your current staff can handle, you may need to bring in subcontractors from a reputable landscaping company – whether that means hiring a landscape architect for a complex design, arborists who specialize in tree care, carpenters to build a wooden pergola, or general laborers for tear-out, installation and clean up. Determine the average hourly wage for your subcontractors and include that in your estimate. A landscaping cost estimator can help include subcontractor costs in the overall estimate.
Discover the secrets to landscaping business success in 2023! Explore our blog covering 25 landscaping industry statistics to take your business to new heights.
6. Estimate Your Labor Costs
Pricing landscaping jobs involves calculating labor costs, which is an important part of any landscaping estimate. These are the wages you pay for employees who will do the work and can include hourly labor costs, salaries, weekly labor costs, overtime, and the landscaping cost per hour as a key factor. Tracking labor hours accurately is key here – you don’t want to underestimate how long it will take to complete a job, which will undercut your profit, and you want to make sure you’re paying a fair hourly wage as well. Understanding your labor cost can help you budget, plan, and create bids that make sense while still remaining competitive.
7. Add Your Profit Markups and Margins
When it comes to adding markups to your landscaping estimates, there are a few things to consider. Start by determining your desired profit margin before you set your markup amount. It is a delicate balance: Price yourself too low and you’ll lose out on potential profits; price yourself too high and you could lose out on business. Using a landscaping estimate template can help in setting consistent profit markups and margins. Researching your competition can help you set realistic, competitive prices while also helping you gain an overall understanding of the market. Understanding the national and local average pricing will help you better adjust your markups to stay profitable and retain your competitive edge. A landscaping cost breakdown is essential to understand the components of the final price.
8. Calculate The Final Price
Finally, add up all of your costs to calculate the final price for your landscaping estimate. Be sure to include any necessary additional costs like sales tax.
Using a landscape cost estimate sheet is crucial to document all costs and ensure accuracy in your calculations. Additionally, using a landscaping cost calculator can help ensure accuracy in the final price calculation.
Read More: How to Make an Invoice for Your Landscaping Services
Exploring a Landscaping Estimate Example
Here is an overview of what a landscaping estimate example might look like, helping you understand how much landscaping typically costs. This includes a 10% markup for general overhead costs and a 15% markup for profit margin. Those numbers are built into the final estimate so that all your client sees is the final job cost. To get a better understanding of typical costs for similar projects, you can refer to a landscaping cost guide.
Landscaping Job Estimate
Client: [Client Name] Project Address: [Project Address] Date: [Current Date]
Scope of Work:
- Clearing and preparation of the site
- Installation of a retaining wall
- Construction of a paved patio area
- Installation of a garden bed with plants and mulching
- Installation of an irrigation system
- Seeding and sodding the lawn
- Lawn mowing
- Final cleanup and debris removal
Materials Costs:
- Retaining wall materials: $2,000
- Paver stones for patio: $1,500
- Garden bed plants and mulch: $800
- Irrigation system components: $1,200
- Grass seeds and sod: $500
- Other miscellaneous materials: $300
Labor Costs:
- Excavation and site preparation: 20 hours @ $40/hour = $800
- Retaining wall installation: 30 hours @ $40/hour = $1,200
- Patio construction: 40 hours @ $40/hour = $1,600
- Garden bed installation: 15 hours @ $40/hour = $600
- Irrigation system installation: 10 hours @ $40/hour = $400
- Seeding and sodding: 10 hours @ $40/hour = $400
- Cleanup and debris removal: 5 hours @ $40/hour = $200
Total Estimate:
- Materials Costs: $6,300
- Labor Costs: $5,200
Total Estimated Cost: $11,560
Use RealGreen Software to Calculate Profitable Landscaping Estimates
As you can see, calculating and creating profitable landscaping job estimates can be a complicated and time-consuming process! It can help to use business software that will do the hard work and number crunching for you. RealGreen’s Service Assistant can help you with the estimation process, enabling you to create accurate estimates in just minutes. Additionally, RealGreen’s software includes a landscaping estimate template to streamline the estimation process, ensuring all essential sections such as pricing by the hour or square foot and overhead expenses are properly formatted. Using a landscaping estimate app can further streamline the estimation process. Schedule a demo today to see how RealGreen’s landscaping business software can help your company grow!
FAQs
1. How much does it cost per square foot for a landscaping job?
The landscaping costs range per square foot can vary depending on many factors, including the location of the job, the complexity of the job, the cost of the materials involved, and more.
2. How much does it cost per hour for a landscaping job?
The hourly cost of a landscaping job will be different depending on the location of the job – labor for urban or suburban jobs will likely be more expensive than rural jobs – in addition to materials costs, size, and complexity of the job, equipment required, and the specific landscaping company you choose. Different landscaping companies offer various services, and their rates can significantly impact your overall budget.
3. Is there a formula for landscaping job estimates?
Landscaping estimates should include costs for labor, materials, equipment, overhead, and profit margin. Using a landscaping estimate template can help ensure all necessary costs are included. Once you determine your overhead costs and desired profit margin, you can apply those percentages to your final estimate.
4. How do you calculate overhead for landscaping?
When calculating overhead for landscaping, consider your fixed business costs including rent or mortgage, salaries, legal fees, insurance, equipment costs, etc. Including these overhead expenses is essential for accurately calculating the total landscaping cost. This ensures that all factors influencing the landscaping cost, such as job complexity, yard size, and the average cost per square foot, are accounted for, giving homeowners a clear understanding of how to budget for their landscaping endeavors.
