Topbuilder
Mouth breathers need not apply.
A couple years ago I jumped into the stump grinder business with both feet. It seemed like a natural fit, I already had the truck and a couple different gooseneck trailers. I had a shop and all the tools I would need. I worked at a farm equipment dealership for 20 years so I had the ability to make most of my own repairs.
I bought two used Raycos from the same individual. One tow behind and a RG-50. With the purchase I got a 5 minute operating lesson and a 10 minute talk on the business side of the business... How he charged jobs. Not knowing any better, I decided to use his pricing system, which was a standard set up fee + $8 per stump. My first job was 20-30 fresh cut pines ranging from 12 - 30". By the time I completed that job I knew that I had bid the job like a hobby, not enough to feed a machine hungry for fuel , teeth and an ever growing list of expenses...
I left that job headed to another big job. I figured out what I had to make to cover expenses and have something left over. I bid the next job by making mental calculations of how much time it would for each stump x my new "rate". The guy freaked. He was used to paying $8. I walked him over to the bigest stump on the job. (the one in my avatar) It was a 72" pine. I explained to him that stump was going to take me 3 hours, and it was going to cost me $15 in fuel. He was a common sense guy, I had no problems with that job or any job after that.
Have I done every job I have bid? No. Not because I over charge, because there is people out there willing to undercut even if it means they don't make money.
Anyway, I said all that to say this - I needed a way to estimate the valure of a 18" stump verses a 48" stump. I really did not want to use the "per inch" formula I had seen others use. My area would not support pricing like that anyhow. I started with area... a circle is 78.53% of a square. I'm no math wiz but I can deal with that. So a 24" stump is 1.78 x larger than a 18" stump. OK that was shocking. A 36" stump is 4.01 x larger than a 18" stump.
So, if your rate for an 18" stump was $15 then:
24" $26.74 1.78 x larger
36" $60.17 4.01 x
48" $107.04 7.13 x
60" $167.30 11.15 x
72" $240.93 16.06 x
84" $327.86 21.85 x
Does a 48" stump take the same amount of time as a 7 18" stumps? Probably not. When you factor in moving from one to the other and other variables. But it gives me a starting point. When you explain to the customer that 36" stump is not two 18" stumps, it's four 18" stumps they understand the pricing a little better.
I bought two used Raycos from the same individual. One tow behind and a RG-50. With the purchase I got a 5 minute operating lesson and a 10 minute talk on the business side of the business... How he charged jobs. Not knowing any better, I decided to use his pricing system, which was a standard set up fee + $8 per stump. My first job was 20-30 fresh cut pines ranging from 12 - 30". By the time I completed that job I knew that I had bid the job like a hobby, not enough to feed a machine hungry for fuel , teeth and an ever growing list of expenses...
I left that job headed to another big job. I figured out what I had to make to cover expenses and have something left over. I bid the next job by making mental calculations of how much time it would for each stump x my new "rate". The guy freaked. He was used to paying $8. I walked him over to the bigest stump on the job. (the one in my avatar) It was a 72" pine. I explained to him that stump was going to take me 3 hours, and it was going to cost me $15 in fuel. He was a common sense guy, I had no problems with that job or any job after that.
Have I done every job I have bid? No. Not because I over charge, because there is people out there willing to undercut even if it means they don't make money.
Anyway, I said all that to say this - I needed a way to estimate the valure of a 18" stump verses a 48" stump. I really did not want to use the "per inch" formula I had seen others use. My area would not support pricing like that anyhow. I started with area... a circle is 78.53% of a square. I'm no math wiz but I can deal with that. So a 24" stump is 1.78 x larger than a 18" stump. OK that was shocking. A 36" stump is 4.01 x larger than a 18" stump.
So, if your rate for an 18" stump was $15 then:
24" $26.74 1.78 x larger
36" $60.17 4.01 x
48" $107.04 7.13 x
60" $167.30 11.15 x
72" $240.93 16.06 x
84" $327.86 21.85 x
Does a 48" stump take the same amount of time as a 7 18" stumps? Probably not. When you factor in moving from one to the other and other variables. But it gives me a starting point. When you explain to the customer that 36" stump is not two 18" stumps, it's four 18" stumps they understand the pricing a little better.