How to Price Landscape Jobs Like a Pro 

Landscaping companies that stay busy but never seem to build real wealth usually have a pricing problem. The culprit, more often than not, is pricing that doesn't account for the true cost of doing business. It's one of the most important skills a landscaping business owner can develop, and one of the most commonly underdeveloped.

The good news is that pricing isn't that complicated once the right framework is in place.  This guide covers the key factors that affect job cost, how to calculate a real hourly rate, which pricing models work best for different types of work, and how to use your numbers to sharpen estimates over time.

Key Factors When Pricing Landscaping Jobs

The wrong pricing almost always starts with an incomplete picture of the job. Walking the job site, talking with the client, and documenting what the work really needs is is the only way to build an estimate that holds up.

Client expectations shape the scope in ways that aren't always clear from the start. Before writing an estimate, ask direct questions:

• What does a successful outcome look like for you?
• Are there specific materials or plants you were thinking of?
• Do you have photos of jobs that you like?

Site-specific conditions matter just as much. Property access, soil conditions, slopes, drainage issues, and any features that create risk or slow crews down all affect labor hours, equipment costs, and whether subcontractors will be required. None of that shows up in a photo.

Labor is the largest cost in any landscaping job, and the most likely to be underestimated. The most dependable approach is to build estimates from real numbers. Break each job into specific tasks and assign crew hours based on your records. How many hours does it really take a two-person crew to install 50 plants in good soil? How many labor hours does a bed renovation of a 250 square ft usually need? Tracking this kind of data consistently is the basis of accurate pricing for future landscaping jobs.

When calculating total labor cost, employee wages are only the starting point. Payroll taxes, workers' compensation, health benefits, paid time off, and other employee-related expenses belong in the calculation, too. Landscaping companies that only factor in hourly wages are systematically underpricing their work.

Unproductive time also needs to be accounted for. Drive time between jobs, loading and unloading, and equipment downtime all consume crew hours that aren't directly billable but still need to be covered in pricing landscaping work.

A landscaping company's hourly labor rate needs to be calculated from your business costs, not benchmarked from a competitor, and not based on gut feeling. Start with total labor cost per hour (wages, payroll taxes, and benefits), add a proportional share of overhead expenses, then add the desired profit margin. That number is the floor. It's the minimum billable rate the company has to hit to stay in business.

Here's how to get there. Determine total annual labor cost for a crew, including employee wages, payroll taxes, and benefits. Estimate total productive billable hours (total available hours minus drive time, downtime, and non-billable time). Divide the total annual labor cost by billable hours to get the base labor rate. Add the allocated overhead cost per hour. Then add the target profit margin as a percentage of the total.

Market research on what competitors charge is useful for understanding the market, but it should never replace this math. What a competitor quotes tells you nothing about whether they're actually making money on that work. Landscaping companies that price based on their own costs and adjust as those costs change are the ones that tend to still be around a decade later.

Overhead is every cost that doesn't belong to a specific job but must be recovered by the revenue those jobs generate. Many landscaping companies undercharge because they've never added it all up. Small businesses can underestimate overhead expenses, and it quietly kills profitability over time.

Monthly overhead expenses include:

• office rent or facility costs
• vehicle payments and fuel cost
• equipment payments and equipment repair
• business insurance premiums (general liability, commercial auto, workers' comp)
• software
• marketing
• administrative wages
• legal fees
• professional services
• internet bills and utilities.

Add these up monthly, then annually, and divide by billable hours to get an overhead rate per hour.

One approach is to set a target overhead percentage. If overhead runs 20% of revenue, every estimate includes a line item that captures 20% to cover those fixed costs, regardless of job type. Tracking weekly overhead cost as a habit keeps that number current and prevents surprises at the end of the season.

Business insurance deserves extra attention. Premiums might be different based on the types of work a landscaping company takes on, and the cost of the right coverage needs to be reflected accurately in overhead rather than absorbed into margin.

Every landscaping estimate should account for four primary cost categories: labor, materials, equipment, and subcontractors. These are the direct costs that determine whether a job is profitable before overhead and margin are even factored in.

Labor is crew time at the fully loaded hourly rate (wages, payroll taxes, benefits, and unproductive time included).

Material costs are every product that goes into the job, priced at actual purchase cost, not catalog price. Many companies apply a standard markup on all the materials used, which is completely ok and worth building into the landscape estimating process consistently. One thing that catches companies off guard: material costs shift throughout the year. Tracking them monthly and updating the materials price list at least quarterly keeps estimates accurate and prevents margin from quietly eroding before anyone notices.

Equipment costs should reflect either the rental cost or a realistic depreciation and maintenance rate per hour for owned machinery.

Subcontractor costs (irrigation installers, arborists, electricians) belong in the job cost with a markup applied for coordination.

Permit fees and disposal fees should be included wherever they apply. Disposal costs in particular are routinely missed on jobs involving excavation or demolition. Rounding estimates up slightly rather than down builds a small buffer for the minor surprises that almost always arise on similar jobs. Plan for them!

Pricing Models and Landscaping Pricing Strategies

No single pricing model fits every type of landscaping work. The right pricing strategy depends on the job, and the companies that match the two correctly protect their margins far better than those that apply one approach across the board.

Hourly pricing works best for service calls and jobs where scope is variable. It transfers scope risk to the client and protects the landscaping company when work takes longer than expected.

Flat rate pricing is better for installation and design-build projects with a clearly defined  scope, and works well for recurring maintenance visits where the property and expectations are already well understood.

It gives clients cost certainty and rewards efficient crews.

Either way, include change-order terms in every proposal so that when scope changes, the price can change too.

For companies with a strong reputation in high-end residential or specialty work, the market will usually allow rates above the average. That's not accidental. It's the result of delivering consistent quality over time and building a client base that values it.

Seasonal or annual maintenance agreements at a set monthly rate are worth considering for recurring work as well.  They simplify billing, create predictable revenue, and tend to improve client retention. Per-square-foot pricing is worth testing for uniform services like commercial mowing or mulching where conditions are consistent across similar jobs.

Competitive Pricing and Market Research

Understanding what competitors charge is useful, but it should only inform positioning. Your data should always be the starting point. Request quotes from competitors, review their websites, and stay connected with peers. The goal is to understand the range of rates in the market and the quality differentials that come with them.

The most profitable landscaping companies don't win on price. They win on quality, reliability, and the client experience. When those things are delivered consistently, price becomes much less of an obstacle. Charge what the work is worth and focus on attracting clients who recognize that value.

Profit Margins and Markup

Landscaping profit margins and markups are not the same thing, and confusing them is a more costly mistake than most business owners realize.

Markup and profit margin are not the same number, and mixing them up leads to underpricing. Markup is added to cost to arrive at a price. A 15% markup on $1,000 in job costs gives you a $1,150 price. But that $150 profit is only 13% margin, because margin is calculated as a percentage of the final price ($150 divided by $1,150), not the original cost.

That 2% difference might not sound like much on a single job. But for a landscaping company doing $1 million in annual revenue, pricing to a 15% markup instead of a 15% margin means leaving roughly $20,000 on the table every year.  

Over five years, that's $100,000.

That's a truck, a piece of equipment, or the capital to hire a key person. Many landscaping companies have been doing this for years without realizing it, which is one of the reasons a busy business can still feel financially tight.

For residential landscaping work, a 10 to 20% net profit margin is a reasonable baseline. Commercial and design-build work may justify higher margins given complexity and risk. The key is setting margin targets by job type rather than applying a single number across everything. Installation, maintenance, and enhancements each have different cost structures, and tracking margin by type is what reveals where the pricing strategy is working and where it isn't.

Creating Quotes and Presenting Landscape Pricing

A professional, itemized estimate builds client confidence and protects the landscaping company when questions come up later. Build a standard quote template that breaks the job into labor, material costs, equipment costs, and subcontractor costs. Customers don't always need to see every line item, but having that detail internally ensures nothing gets missed.

Include change-order terms in every landscaping proposal and contract, clearly stated and not buried in fine print. When clients understand upfront that scope changes affect the total cost, that conversation is much easier if it comes up later. Adding optional upgrades to proposals is an underused strategy that increases average job value. A base proposal covers what the client asked for, and a clearly described upgrade option (premium plants, lighting, irrigation) gives them a path to say yes to more. Many do, and it doesn't require any additional selling!

Job Cost Tracking and Using Data to Improve Pricing

The best cost estimates come from the best data, and good data requires discipline in the field. Crew members should record hours against specific jobs daily, not estimated at the end of the week. Material purchases should be assigned to specific jobs at the point of purchase. After every project, compare estimated costs to actual costs and look for patterns. Did labor consistently run over on a particular service type? Are disposal costs regularly missed? These patterns, caught early, are what sharpen future estimates.

Use historical data to refine standard benchmarks for common tasks, flag job types that consistently miss profit targets, and investigate whether the pricing, the estimates, or the operations need adjustment. Reviewing and updating pricing templates at the end of each season captures changes in labor costs, material costs, overhead expenses, and insurance, and keeps accurate pricing in place as the business evolves. The companies that do this consistently don't just price better. They get harder to compete with over time.

Essential Tools for Accurate Pricing

Building those habits is a lot easier with the right software. Platforms like Aspire and LMN connect estimating, time tracking, material costs, and landscape job costing in one place, so the data collection that used to require significant administrative effort happens as a natural part of how the business operates. Crews log hours from the field, material purchases get assigned to jobs at the point of purchase, and actual versus estimated comparisons are available without anyone having to chase down the numbers. 

Additional tools like Bobyard and PropertyIntel can help automate and streamline building estimates by making take-offs simple. 

One thing worth doing regardless of which platform a company uses: maintain a shared, cloud-based materials price list that both estimators and field staff can access. When those two groups are working from different numbers, even good systems produce inaccurate estimates. Keeping that list current is a small habit that closes a gap that quietly costs money on job after job.

Review and Monitor Profitability

Pricing is not a one-time decision. Schedule a monthly profit margin review: compare actual margin to estimated margin by job type and look for trends. Update pricing templates each season to reflect changes in labor, material costs, overhead expenses, and insurance. Train the staff who collect job cost data on why accurate input matters. When crews understand that their time records directly affect future estimates, buy-in tends to follow.

The companies that do this math consistently, refine it with real data, and adjust pricing as costs change are the ones that grow sustainably and stay competitive year after year.

About The Grow Group

Led by Marty Grunder, The Grow Group is a premier coaching and education firm for landscape professionals. We provide innovative events like our annual GROW! Conference, peer groups, and real-world resources to help landscaping business owners and their teams succeed. Everything we teach is based on what we know works because we test it ourselves at our "living laboratory," Grunder Landscaping Company, the business Marty began as a teenager and still leads today.

We don't just share theories and ideas. We share tactics we used at our own landscaping company this week that we know still work. Our team brings more than 95 years of combined field experience to everything we do. Whether you're trying to grow your landscaping business or get better control over it, we can help get you where you want to go.

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