Northeast Landscaping / Snow removal

by a searcher from Keene State College

3 years ago

Does anyone have experience pricing landscaping and snow removal work in the northeast? 

I know this isn't a search question but there are several landscape operators on here that may have some insight.

Primarily talking about snow; is it best practice to price per sq ft, per inch, per storm or some combination of this on a seasonal contract? I've seen massive estimate swings from a few thousand dollars to $100k to plow a few of my apartment properties for a season. Most folks won't even give me an estimate or require that they have a year contract for landscaping too. 

With the density of resi & comm apartments and warehousing in my specific location, this leads me to believe there has to be a demand for a responsive, data-driven snow removal business. Will continue to research this market...

2 likes
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7 comments

investor from University of Notre Dame

We were involved with the Winter Services team in Milwaukee which only does larger commercial snow removal - think Amazon distribution centers and corporate headquarters, malls, etc. Contract mix is more art than science and technology investments can help with pricing/bids. You have to decide what you want to be/focus on because residential vs commercial is obviously different and do you want to compete on price and volume vs high touch/demanding customers. Ron above said the mix/options well and you can basically build in a hedge. We spoke to a gentleman who ran his entire business on per push and he had a $2 million EBITDA year and the next was $9 million - that was the pure variable model but he was fine with that. I would also add look very closely at SALT pricing. Its a huge input/material cost and can be very variable if you don't have the scale to lock in pricing.

3 years ago | like reply | 1 like

investor from University of Notre Dame

This is great. Thanks Greg.

3 years ago | like reply | 0 likes

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