# Another First Commercial Pricing Thread



## Mitragorz (Oct 11, 2013)

I went to this restaurant with my dad and one of my brothers last weekend, and the parking lot was in terrible shape. It was slushy, slippery... And this was well after it had snowed.

I thought it was an independent restaurant, but turns out it's a chain. I'd never head of them before and they just opened, I'd say, less than two weeks ago. The place used to be a diner. Anyway, I want to approach them with a number. Yes, it's late in the season, but I can't see them being satisfied with the service they're getting. And if they're locked into something, there's always next season. I know whoever highest-ranking manager is that I speak to probably isn't the decision-maker, he can pass the message along. And if he says "Ya know, boss... This guy's right. The lot was an accident waiting to happen" who knows, it might work out well. I'm not in the business of stealing peoples' clients, but I wouldn't be considering it if I didn't think that I could do a better job.

This is the lot:










It's around 20,000ft. plus walks. This site is appealing to me because it's, literally, around the corner from where I keep my truck.

It's Long Island and this restaurant is in a prime location.

Hopefully the guy doing it now isn't a member of PS!


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## FreshGrounder1 (Dec 15, 2010)

Wish we could all have nice birds eye view before pricing. I would say $400/push, $150 for shoveling, $175 for salt on lot and walks. Thats $725 for a 2 incher. Not bad, especially if right around the corner from your truck. Although I'm in DC area, so pricing could be off a bit for your area.


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## CowboysLC_DE (Aug 17, 2013)

How many other plow guys have driven by or had a meal there? 5 days is way to long to wait, you should have approached the manager immediately. Im a shy guy, but when there's profit to be made I man up and ask if there is a manager or whomever is in charge.

First thing tomorrow morning.

Michael


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## Mr.Markus (Jan 7, 2010)

FreshGrounder1;1741446 said:


> Wish we could all have nice birds eye view before pricing. I would say $400/push, $150 for shoveling, $175 for salt on lot and walks. Thats $725 for a 2 incher. Not bad, especially if right around the corner from your truck. Although I'm in DC area, so pricing could be off a bit for your area.


I could never sell a price like that for under a 1/2 acre..
Washington? Sounds like a Government worker doing snowplowing....


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## grandview (Oct 9, 2005)

FreshGrounder1;1741446 said:


> Wish we could all have nice birds eye view before pricing. I would say $400/push, $150 for shoveling, $175 for salt on lot and walks. Thats $725 for a 2 incher. Not bad, especially if right around the corner from your truck. Although I'm in DC area, so pricing could be off a bit for your area.


At those prices I'd only have to plow that lot!


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## FreshGrounder1 (Dec 15, 2010)

Leave room to haggle. Is that high for you guys there for a direct contract?, no national PM's taking a cut?


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## CowboysLC_DE (Aug 17, 2013)

I meant to add that comment as well. I'd have this plowed in 30 minutes and 2 guys shoveling it would take 20 minutes.

$400 per push? Are you saying $400 every 2-3 inches? More like $150 or so every 3 inches.

Michael


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## FreshGrounder1 (Dec 15, 2010)

I get that for small fast foods and banks. Remember, we dont get the sales in snow you new england folks get, yet we still have the equipment and overhead to pay for. Guess its supply and demand. With all do respect, stay the hell up there!


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## grandview (Oct 9, 2005)

FreshGrounder1;1741460 said:


> I get that for small fast foods and banks. Remember, we dont get the sales in snow you new england folks get, yet we still have the equipment and overhead to pay for. Guess its supply and demand. With all do respect, stay the hell up there!


The way you guys got stuck in traffic it probably melted before you got there.


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## jrs.landscaping (Nov 18, 2012)

FreshGrounder1;1741446 said:


> Wish we could all have nice birds eye view before pricing. I would say $400/push, $150 for shoveling, $175 for salt on lot and walks. Thats $725 for a 2 incher. Not bad, especially if right around the corner from your truck. Although I'm in DC area, so pricing could be off a bit for your area.


So $3475 on a 12" storm?

I'd bid $8k for seasonal

Most likely they're happy with their service because the contractor is most likely cheap.


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## Mitragorz (Oct 11, 2013)

FreshGrounder1;1741446 said:


> Wish we could all have nice birds eye view before pricing. I would say $400/push, $150 for shoveling, $175 for salt on lot and walks. Thats $725 for a 2 incher. Not bad, especially if right around the corner from your truck. Although I'm in DC area, so pricing could be off a bit for your area.


http://www.bing.com/maps/ Microsoft has the best "Bird's Eye" maps. They're not satellite images, they're taken from airplanes with 5 ot 6 hi-res cameras then stitched together. I used to fly for an outfit that supplied those images to Microsoft. They've got images of most areas, but not all.

That seems like a lot of money to me. Are you charging that $150 for shoveling each time you do it? I know you'll shovel each time you show up to plow, but are you charging $150 each time you do it?



CowboysLC_DE;1741450 said:


> How many other plow guys have driven by or had a meal there? 5 days is way to long to wait, you should have approached the manager immediately. Im a shy guy, but when there's profit to be made I man up and ask if there is a manager or whomever is in charge.
> 
> First thing tomorrow morning.
> 
> Michael


I should've. When I saw it, I thought to myself "I think I could do a better job than that." but I wasn't seriously considering going after it. The more I thought about it, the more I thought that it's worth a shot. But I've been up in Boston for the past few days, so there wasn't much I could do from up there.



jrs.landscaping;1741482 said:


> So $3475 on a 12" storm?
> 
> I'd bid $8k for seasonal
> 
> Most likely they're happy with their service because the contractor is most likely cheap.


I like the idea of seasonal pricing for commercial stuff. I'm sure there's some bean counter high up in an office somewhere who's loving a cheap price, but we all know you get what you pay for.


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## 32vld (Feb 4, 2011)

I do not do commercial. Though living on Long Island there can be a winters with not much snow fall. So I can not comment how much that job should go for. Though LI is a high cost of living area.

Since 1995/96 we average 37" a year. Highest 1995/96 94.9 inches. We have had total snow fall in the single digits 3 times. 4.3" was the lowest year total.

Since 1996 we have had only one year where we could of plowed every month from November through April. The site I am getting my records from only gives snow fall by the month (Example: January 20" total you have to guess was that one storm that month or two 10" storms) not the date so the best I can estimate is about 4 snow falls a season where there is enough snow fall to go out and clean.

If you only go out with a 2" trigger during that time there was 20 snow falls under 2". Remember my totals are based by per month not storm. So there could of been a month total of 4.5". I can not tell if that was one storm or three 1.5" events. So I assumed it was one event.

Since 1995/96 there have been 56 snow falls (by counting the number of months that had snow falls) where there was more then 2".

We had one year where there was never enough snow to use a plow.
Two years where you would of only used your plow once. We had 9 years where we exceeded our average season snow fall of 37" 9 times.

Now I have lived here since 1961. So I am making estimates here based on that site and my many years observation. So we have about 3 to 4 snow falls that would give us work a season.

How many of you would you by a plow if you only would do your accounts 3 to 4 times a year?

I know some people here only get $30 a push for driveway in upstate NY. Down here people in areas that have money pay $300 per push.

So when other people here think that is high compared to what the get. Keep in mind that a person can sell there house here for $500,000 and buy a better house on a bigger plot in many areas of this country for $250,000.

Can anyone on here that gets up to 20 plowable snow falls a year think they can make enough money if you only had 3 - 4 plowable snow falls a year?

Would it be worth your while to spend the money on a truck and plow?

At 3 - 4 snow falls a year how long would it take for you to pay off your truck? Pay off your plow?


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## CowboysLC_DE (Aug 17, 2013)

Most guys/gals already have there trucks, they may need to put $1,000 into shocks and strobes. A new plow will run you $4,000 to $6,000.

The way I look at it is, your either in the business or your not. Don't have one foot in the door because you end up doing a bad job and giving the industry a bad reputation.

Michael


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## Mitragorz (Oct 11, 2013)

Well I went in this morning to speak with a manager, and he was in total agreement that the lot was a sloppy mess. He said that it was a friend-of-a-friend kind of thing, and they had to make phone call after phone call to get him to come back and clean it up. He wants me to email him a proposal and he'll send it to the right person. Now to draw up a proposal...


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## maxwellp (Feb 16, 2013)

FreshGrounder1;1741446 said:


> Wish we could all have nice birds eye view before pricing. I would say $400/push, $150 for shoveling, $175 for salt on lot and walks. Thats $725 for a 2 incher. Not bad, especially if right around the corner from your truck. Although I'm in DC area, so pricing could be off a bit for your area.


http://www.findlotsize.com/

One birds eye view for you.


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## maxwellp (Feb 16, 2013)

FreshGrounder1;1741446 said:


> Wish we could all have nice birds eye view before pricing. I would say $400/push, $150 for shoveling, $175 for salt on lot and walks. Thats $725 for a 2 incher. Not bad, especially if right around the corner from your truck. Although I'm in DC area, so pricing could be off a bit for your area.


Wow I need to move.
I could plow that in 30min. 
Do it all with the hand work in a hour. 
$150
$100 salt


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## Mitragorz (Oct 11, 2013)

I managed to make up something that resembles a proposal. Would any of you be willing to take a look at it and give some constructive criticism?


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## JimMarshall (Jan 25, 2013)

Sure. I'll PM my email address


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## rcn971 (Jan 28, 2011)

To the guys that are saying $150.....that's just nuts! Just add your costs up. I don't know about NY insurance rates but here in NJ average cost for plowing liability is around $4k for the first truck. Then factor in your fuel, salt, and labor costs and you are making no money to be on call, married to site for the whole winter. To those that say they can do it for less than the company that has multiple trucks out so they are not paying a driver....is your time not valuable? Why leave the extra money on the table instead of in your pocket?


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