Lawn Care Profit Margin Calculator
See what a job really earns once loaded labor, equipment and overhead are paid, and what you would need to charge to hit your target margin.
Pre-filled with a weekly mow on a typical suburban lot. Enter person-hours: two people for 20 minutes is 0.67 hours.
Include drive time
Payroll taxes, workers' comp
Annual overhead / billable hours
Net profit margin
28.7%
$19 profit, on target
Total job cost
$46
Labor (loaded)
$22
Markup on cost
40.2%
Price for 20%
$58
What Is a Lawn Care Profit Margin Calculator?
It costs one job from the bottom up: labor at its loaded cost, equipment and fuel by the hour, your share of overhead by the hour, and materials. Net margin is (price − total cost) ÷ price. Run it on your most common job first, usually the weekly mow, because a small leak there repeats on every stop all season.
How to Use This Calculator
- 1Enter what you charge for the job and the person-hours it takes, drive time included.
- 2Enter the average wage and a labor burden percentage for payroll taxes and workers' comp.
- 3Add equipment and fuel cost per hour, overhead per hour, and any materials used on the job.
- 4Set the net margin you want to make.
- 5Read the margin, the markup and the price that would hit your target. Copy the breakdown for your records.
Example: The $65 Weekly Mow
Three-quarters of a person-hour at $24 with a 20% burden is $21.60 of labor. Equipment at $18/hr adds $13.50 and overhead at $15/hr adds $11.25, for a total cost of $46.35. At $65 that leaves $18.65: a 28.7% margin, or a 40.2% markup. Add another ten minutes of drive time and the same $65 falls to about a 13% margin.
Margin vs. Markup
Margin is profit as a share of the price; markup is profit as a share of the cost. The same $20 of profit on a $100 job is a 20% margin but a 25% markup. Confusing the two is a common way a crew prices a target margin and ends up below it. To hit a margin, divide cost by (1 − margin):
| Target margin | Markup needed | Price on $100 of cost |
|---|---|---|
| 10% | 11.1% | $111.11 |
| 15% | 17.6% | $117.65 |
| 20% | 25.0% | $125.00 |
| 25% | 33.3% | $133.33 |
| 30% | 42.9% | $142.86 |
| 40% | 66.7% | $166.67 |
| 50% | 100.0% | $200.00 |
Where Lawn Care Margins Leak
Drive time left out
Divide your day's drive time across the stops. A route with long gaps needs a higher price per stop or a tighter route.
Labor at wage, not loaded cost
Payroll taxes, workers' comp and paid time off sit on top of the wage. Put them in the burden field.
Overhead nobody priced
Insurance, phones, software, the shop and your own salary have to come out of billable hours. Divide the year's overhead by the hours you actually bill.
Markup quoted as margin
Adding 20% to cost gives a 16.7% margin, not 20%. Use the table below or the target-price card above.
Prices frozen for years
Costs rise every season. Re-run your main jobs once a year and send a price increase letter when the margin slips.
The overhead per hour field is where most owners guess. The landscaping budget template totals a year of overhead for you, and how to price lawn care jobs shows how to turn it into a per-man-hour rate. When the numbers say it is time to raise prices, the price increase letter template writes the notice.