The city reached out to me today about gopher removal at a parks soccer field. I feel good about doing gophers and think I can handle the job. There is a lot of red tape to go through and some fees to pay that they will reimburse me for. I think around $300 total. I just am having trouble how to go about quoting it. I have a pretty good number in mind that is high, but dont want to be sold short or passed up because its too high. I guess to throw it out there I was looking at the $400-$500 range, plus they pay the fees. They are net 30

It sounds low to me, JMO

In wealthier zip codes 400-500 might be some guys average jobs, might even be low. So the number in and of itself is not the problem.

Every number should be justifiable.You are going to have x number of hours and x number of miles in the job and know what you charge for each.You should know what you spend on marketing. And your business should supply a profit.

The 300 in red tape fees are easily justifiable. The hours, miles, marketing, insurance, and profit no less so. If you start adding this up you might find 400-500 too low/high or just right.

The only allowance you might give yourself is if you are inexperienced charge what a pro would charge based on what their hours/miles would be and chalk the rest up to education expense.

The only other way you can look at this and go cheaper is if the job turns into the ability to up sell a higher margin product or job. Not talking about selling more hours, either. An exclusion, or an attic restoration-high margin stuff. Probably not likely with a gopher job.

Explain more about the job, what are there expectations
From you? Will it be weekly or monthly trapping? Re occurring
Work? Just population control?

How long do you think this is going to take you to do? If you use an hourly worth of $50 at $500 that is only 10 hours of billable work. Based on what you need to do, this could be one day's worth of work or 10 one hour days. If you've already spent an hour working on this to develop a contract, you're already $50 in the hole (using the $50 hourly worth) and as Bob said, don't forget about equipment, time on-site, travel, vehicle expenses, insurance, advertising, call backs, etc. (This is why most people will have an hourly worth between $75 and $125 per hour).

It is simple to figure out ball park figures once you know your hourly worth as all you need to do is estimate the amount of time required. So a 30 day gopher contract at $50/hr would be something like this:

Site Inspection - 30 min travel + 1 hr x 1 day x $50 = $75
Contract Prep/Submission/Q&A - 3 hrs x $50 = $150
Prep Labor - (1 hr x 1 day) x $50 = $50
Travel - (30 min [15 min each way] x 30 days / 60 min) x $50 = $750
Setup Labor - (2 hrs x 1) x $50 = $100
Labor - (30 min x 29 days / 60 min) x $50 = $725

Total Estimated Project Rate for 30 day project = $1,850

If you're looking at a 7 day project instead just adjust the travel and labor charges so it would look like this:

Site Inspection - 30 min travel + 1 hr x 1 day x $50 = $75
Contract Prep/Submission/Q&A - 3 hrs x $50 = $150
Prep Labor - (1 hr x 1 day) x $50 = $50
Travel - (30 min [15 min each way] x 7 days / 60 min) x $50 = $175
Setup Labor - (2 hrs x 1) x $50 = $100
Labor - (30 min x 6 days / 60 min) x $50 = $150

Total Estimated Project Rate for 7 day project = $700

Its population control. They dont know what/how long they want. They want me to suggest the program.

I was thinking two weeks

If they want population control and are open to your suggestion be thinking about maintenance more a pest control model where you will be coming back as they start to backfill from neighboring space that isn't being trapped.

Around here I can put money on new gophers within 30-45 days depending on the season and the habitat.

If they are open you can lead them to a long term relationship that is solid for you and gives them the constant maintenance they will desire to keep the park useful and in good repair.

Cost the others covered nicely.

Another caveat would be if here are any issues with the two legged users of the park and when you can or are able to do the work if there are any constraints.

There is people who would be using the park. I would be using albano traps and propably setting/checking/moving in the morning to avoid people.

What kind of program would you guys usually run? Two weeks, a month? Maybe Two weeks now and then two weeks later for back fill?

In my area personally most clients would prefer to see me as few times a year as possible. I can do 4 times a year with pocket gophers with most of them which will show some new mounds but ultimately will get to them before they explode.

However if you think about breeding 3+ times of year in climate like yours and mine, those birth "pulses" are what will drive up the action quickly.

Eric and others have some excellent thoughts on the theory and philosophy of why you'd go with certain types of contracts that can steer you in the right direction.

Ultimately you need to know as best you can do they want to see no mounds appear (very difficult and high expense) or so they want you to react when the first mounds start showing (more reasonable but reactive as Eric would say you then have to jump on it) or do they want their staff to say when too many mounds exist and they need a service which you've price at a flat rate per treatment (gives them full control over what they spend and when).

I would make sure you have a "Lost/Damaged/Stolen" equipment clause, That place will be very heavily used, especially by kids.

I'm just not sure how to run it I guess. I think 2 weeks now and maybe 2 weeks in a month

In terms of the time frame a month is probably reasonable for keeping backfill to a minimum.

In terms of the length of each session of trapping, I run them myself 7 days. I do the first check
1-2 days after setting and then the last at day 7 when I pull. Obviously resetting any sprung traps
and removing any catches during that first stop at the 1-2 day mark.

For me 75% are caught in the first 24-48 hours. These days I refer out nearly all pocket gopher
work to pest control companies but I still have a few clients who have wanted to keep me despite
me trying to send them to good folks I know who have the time, desire or business model to check traps.

Industrious and reproductive group of species thats for sure!

Throw Back,

$500 would only be about 2/3 of 1 day, for me.

Price so you can continue to provide your valuable service the following years.

Good Luck

500 seems really low for a park. Around here, and not all of this area is wealthy, that is around what we charge for residential work. If that is going to be the range you're looking at, maybe they could let you advertise there for a year. That would put your name in front of a lot of soccer moms with disposable income, bee and skunk issues.

Should I have them,close the field, or will it be fine,just using Steve's trap in deep tunnels

I just quoted one of these myself recently and had the same concerns for the public view, interactions.

Two things come to my own mind.

1. Dogs love to dig gopher holes mine would easily go down 1.5' even during a basic walk. That's one potential issue in terms of trap being dug up.

2. The other is someone who sees you is curious doesn't want you there doing that.

However closing it if it isn't truly locked out can just draw more attention.

Personally I was planning to set at night and flatten the mounds to remove some of the visual aspect, but I'm paranoid....

Justin, you're not paranoid. They really are out to get you!

There must be days that the field isn't in use. Trap on those days.

It's at a public park, open to use everyday

Pocket gopher or ground squirrel,also called a 'gopher' in some states ? ie: Golden Gopher/ Minnesota