How mowing and grounds contracts are bought
Most commercial mowing is bought as a round, not a job. A strata manager wants every complex on their books cut on a cycle. A facilities manager wants a business park's lawns, verges and car park islands kept to one standard all year. A property manager wants vacant rentals kept tidy until the next tenant moves in. The person who signs is rarely the person who walks the grass, so what they are really buying is reliability and fewer complaints, not one good cut.
The size of the buyer changes how it is bought. A small strata firm or a single retirement village usually asks two or three local contractors to quote and picks one. A facilities management company may need you registered in its contractor system before it can use you. Councils go to tender: recent council mowing tenders in Victoria, Queensland and the Northern Territory were all let as schedule of rates contracts, some running for several years. If council work is on your list, our guide to winning council work covers how those tenders run.
This page is about recurring mowing and grounds care. If you also do builds, turf laying and garden makeovers, the landscapers page covers that side of the work.
How the work is priced
There are three common ways to price a round, and buyers will often tell you which one they want.
- Per visit or per cut. A set price for each service at each site. Simple to check against an invoice, and common for small strata complexes and vacant rentals.
- Per site per month. One figure that covers an agreed number of visits across the year. Some contractors average the fast summer growth against the slow winter months so the manager gets the same invoice every month, which is easier to put in a budget.
- Schedule of rates. The usual format for councils and large contracts. The City of Knox, for example, tendered its open space mowing as a rate per mow cycle for each part of the contract, at seasonal frequencies, with a separate rate per square metre for extra work and variations.
Whichever you use, write down what a visit includes: mowing, edging, trimming around trees and posts, blowing paths, removing clippings, and picking up litter before you mow. Council tenders spell these out line by line, and private buyers judge you on the same things even when they don't write them down. Then say what is extra, such as hedging, weed spraying, storm clean-ups or green waste removal, and how you charge for it.
Safety, chemicals and checks
Buyers will ask for your ABN, public liability cover with a current certificate of currency, and workers' compensation if you have staff. Larger buyers add a site induction, safe work method statements and registration on a compliance system. Roadside and verge work brings traffic management into scope: one recent Northern Territory council mowing tender listed traffic management and WHS risk management alongside the mowing itself.
Weed spraying is where the rules differ most between states. In NSW, the EPA requires a ground applicator licence for most paid spraying to control weeds, but it lists ground and garden maintenance as an exception, and says training may still be needed. Other states set their own rules, so check with your state regulator before you add spraying to a quote. If a buyer asks how you manage chemicals, a short written answer on what you use, who is trained and how you keep records is usually enough.
Mowing at a strata complex or retirement village means working around residents, cars and pets. A line in your quote on how you handle flying debris, slopes and noise hours answers the questions before a committee asks them.
How to win the round and keep it
Start with geography. A round of sites close together is worth more than scattered ones, because travel time eats the margin. Pick the suburbs where you already mow, and look for the strata managers, property managers and facilities managers who look after sites there.
Then make it easy to say yes. Offer to walk the site and quote in writing, with a clear scope and the price format they prefer. Strata quotes often go to a committee of owners, so plain wording travels further. The strata managers page explains how those decisions are made.
Keeping the work comes down to the same few things every month. Turn up on the scheduled day, or tell the manager before you don't. Send a short note or a photo after each visit so they can answer an owner without driving out. Raise problems early, such as a broken sprinkler or a dying tree, because that is what a manager remembers when the contract comes up for review. Once you have looked after a site for a few months, ask for a reference.
Curlew writes to the strata managers, property managers and facilities managers in your area on your behalf and passes on anyone who wants to talk, though it can't promise replies.