We offer free estimates for new landscape projects. Like anything free, these estimates are a loss leader to get new work, each consultation and estimate can take 1-5 hours or more of our time, equaling about $200-500 and up.

One frustrating thing about this process is that many people take this time for granted, or are not responsive when we send out our estimates. A colleague of mine summed up his feelings on the matter- “You were worth several hours of my time, surely, I am worth 5-10 minutes of yours.”

This too has long been a pet peeve of mine (see this post from 2010). Yet, sometimes people to acknowledge the work we put in. Last year a prospective client gave me a $250 restaurant gift certificate for my time, even though we didn’t win the job. Yesterday, I got this delightful note following a consultation: