Real Hourly Rate Check for Lawn Mowing

Your week

What you invoice in a normal weekBefore anything comes out. Use an average week, not your best one.

Hours on site mowingGate to gate, every lawn added up for the week.

Hours driving between jobsFor the whole week. 75 minutes a day over 5 days is about 6 hours. Add loading up, fuelling and dump runs. Nobody pays you for these, but you still work them.

Hours on everything elseQuoting, invoicing, chasing payments, answering the phone, fixing gear, sharpening blades.

Running costs, % of what you invoiceFuel, repairs, insurance, phone, vehicle, gear wearing out. Mine sit around 35 to 40%.

Tax set aside, % of what you invoice10% is a safe number to put away. Your accountant can give you the real one.

What you really earn

$23

an hour in your pocket, across every hour you work. After running costs and tax.

$60

an hour on the invoice. The number most people think they earn.

$45

an hour you bring in across all your hours, before costs

8.3

hours a week nobody pays you for

$750

take-home for the week

■ Mowing 75% ■ Driving 19% ■ Everything else 6%

Between $45 and $60 an hour across all your hours. Put prices up on your cheapest lawns first.

What would fix it?

Take-home an hour you wantWhat you'd want to earn an hour in a job, after tax.

$1,663

a week you'd need to invoice, same hours

+11%

on your prices to get there

Don't know your hours?

Track one normal week. Put the free Toggl app on your phone and tap a timer for mowing, driving and everything else. Most people are shocked how much of the week is driving and paperwork. That's the time this calculator is built to show you.

Now check each lawn

The price calculator tells you what each lawn should cost, and the capacity calculator shows how many you can fit once the driving is tightened up.

Try the price calculator Try the capacity calculator

Not open yet? Working out this number is day 5 of the free 28-day challenge.

Working hard for not much?

How I raise prices without losing customers, tighten a route so you drive less, and get paid on time. It's all in my Skool group, with 350+ lawn care owners working the same numbers.

Join the group free