Q & A Decoding Estimates for Construction, Landscaping and Lawn care #1

but what I'm going to do is talk about ways that you can tackle bidding when you're not familiar with it know if you don't learn on the job and you just walk away you go yeah well you know I guess I lost money on that and you forget about it you're gonna keep repeating the cycle over and over and over again Cisco with Solano landscaping in Milwaukee Wisconsin on the line today say had everybody Francisco morning guys and he's got three questions about bidding so let's get into him Francisco what are we going to be looking at today process for cutting down trees trees okay I'm not a tree removal or tree trimming company but what I'm going to do is talk about ways that you can tackle bidding when you're not familiar with it so before we get into it I need to know the level of familiarity you guys have with tree trimming and tree removal okay have you done it before yeah with the furnace custom down who's pretty familiar with cutting down trees she just doesn't know how to charge them he doesn't do it oxidate does do it you're there how has he done it in the past what formula has he used for bidding the tree removal do you know Lincoln stick method alright and that actually is a place where a lot of people start is that your dad in the background yeah hey how you doing good hey thanks for reaching out appreciate it the the Lincoln stick method is a fine place to start but when you do a Lincoln stick Francisco what you need to do from that point is you need to analyze your numbers see you've already cut some trees down you've all you already know hey I charge $400 for this tree it took me how many hours did it take you four hours if it took you four hours you guys can go I made I made a hundred dollars an hour so there is a way that that is a fine place to start what I want to talk about is how you go into the bidding when you're unfamiliar with the work and some of it is guesswork some of it is going out and trying find out what other people are doing in your area to come up with the numbers that they're coming up with and then applying that to the real world so when you're doing this job that $400 job we go back and it took you ten hours you know I only made $40 an hour because I charge $400 I need to up my bid on the next job so every job that you come into you should be looking at your numbers analyzing where you come up did you come out good did you come out too low did you come out ahead and then taking it to the next level and refining those numbers so every area is different it doesn't matter if you're in Milwaukee Wisconsin Mendota Heights Minnesota if you're in San Francisco if you're in Austin Texas those numbers are gonna vary but what you that that doesn't mean that you still can't tackle these jobs what it means is you've got to take the time to look at how you came out on each job should only have to get to three jobs under your belt and yes you are going to lose on some jobs those jobs are fine because you'd never technically lose you always learn now if you don't learn on a job and you just walk away and you go yeah well you know I guess I lost money on that and you forget about it you're gonna keep repeating the cycle over and over and over again but the reason I put out so many videos I put them out for you guys I put them up for me too the videos that I produce on how to bid mulch how to bid this how to bid that when I go up and I'm gonna bid these jobs those are reminders to myself about those projects I'm learning from them you're still their guy okay so I'm learning from every time I bid a job whether it produced a video or I don't produce a video I'm still making sure that I take notes I'm still referring back to them I have every bid that I've ever done and I'm going back through and I'm comparing them from one job to the next in fact I actually use that as an excuse when I'm coming up with numbers because when you weren't hardscaping excavating landscaping there are not going to be any two jobs that are exactly the same square footage is change conditions change there's a lot of different things that a lot of factors that go in there but I can use them as guidelines for my next jobs going down the road that make sense Francisco beautiful thank you just basic pricing for sprinkler installation [Music]