What should a teenager charge to mow a lawn?
Usually $20 to $50 per yard depending on lot size and region. Better test: are they clearing $15 to $25 an hour for their own time?
Young FoundersMost teens charge somewhere between $20 and $50 per yard, and the honest answer is that it depends heavily on lot size and where you live.
A small city yard that takes thirty minutes is a different job than a half acre that takes two hours. So the useful way to think about it is not per yard, it is per hour. A teen should be clearing at least $15 to $25 an hour for their own time, and if the price does not get there, the price is wrong.
The best research method takes one question. Have your teen ask two neighbors what they last paid someone to mow. That number is truer than anything online, because it is what a real person in your actual neighborhood handed over.
National averages for lawn care assume an insured adult with a truck and a crew, so treat those as a ceiling rather than a target. A teen with a borrowed mower is cheaper than a company for real reasons.
Two things that raise the number. Including trimming and edging rather than just cutting, and being reliably on the same day every week. Both are worth more to a customer than a lower price.
One thing worth doing. Quote the month rather than the visit. A lawn needs cutting weekly in season, so it is already a subscription and almost nobody sells it that way. Four cuts at $30 quoted as $120 a month is the same money with far less selling.
More on pricing: how much should your kid charge.
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