- 1). Measure or estimate the dimensions of the area you'll be mowing. Use a measuring wheel or tape measure to obtain exact distances, or estimate the distances by walking along the outer edges of the lawn and counting your steps. Since the average person's stride is two and a half feet long, multiplying the number of steps by 2.5 can give you a rough estimate of the distance in feet.
- 2). Multiply the length of the area to be mowed by its width to calculate the square footage of the area. If the lawn you'll be mowing is 200 feet long and 100 feet wide, the square footage of the lawn will be 20,000 square feet (200 x 100 = 20,000).
- 3). Divide the square footage of the area to be mowed by your mowing rate per hour to estimate how long it will take to mow. For example, if you've determined that your mower can mow 12,000 square feet in an hour and your current job is 20,000 square feet, you can plan to spend about an hour and two-thirds or an hour and forty minutes on the actual mowing (20,000 / 12,000 = 1.67).
- 4). Add to your estimated mowing time the additional time it will take to do required edge trimming, weed-eating, trimming around trees or obstacles, moving lawn furniture or children's toys, or blowing grass from walks or driveways. Also add the time it will take you to travel to and from the work site.
- 5). Multiply the total number of hours you've estimated the job will take (including all the extras) by the hourly rate you've decided to charge your customers. For example, if you've decided to charge $50.00 per hour and you've calculated a job's total time requirement as six hours, your final charge for the job will be $300.00 ($50.00 x 6 = $300.00).
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