The number behind every estimate
What should your landscaping crew-hour rate be?
A simple way to turn overhead and real crew capacity into a rate you can explain—and build into every job price.
Price from the inside out.
Start with what your business needs to earn, then let your sellable hours do the math.
Calculate your floor
One rate. Four honest inputs.
The result is only as good as your assumptions, which is why every input is written in plain English and easy to change.
Insurance, office, software, equipment, and other shared costs.
Only hours you can actually sell—not travel or idle time.
Leave room for weather, holidays, training, and slow season.
Your intended profit margin after overhead is covered.
Your recommended rate
$104.17
per crew-hour
1,440 annual billable hours
That is the capacity your overhead has to be spread across.
It covers the overhead you supplied across the billable capacity you supplied.
It leaves your target profit margin after that overhead is covered.
It does not include job-specific labor, materials, travel, or tax—price those separately.
Formula: annual overhead ÷ annual billable crew-hours ÷ (1 − target profit fraction).
Make it useful next week
Want a second set of eyes on your rate?
Leave your details and company size. We'll follow up with a practical way to pressure-test this number against real jobs.
Get the follow-up for your crew