I went up $5 last year on most of mine, $10 on a couple big ones. I felt like that was a big bite, honestly don't see how I can get away with more. In my area people are really hurting because of the economy, last year an awful lot of people went without plowing, heck they just drove on it over and over. Was a real mess all winter but they didn't spend any money. I think this winter will be worse, I'll probably lose accounts as it is without raising prices. And giving them an ultimatum, like they can either pay up or shovel it themselves won't work, because there is always someone who will do it cheaper. I think I work cheap but there's a million plowtrucks around here and when you have a $1000 truck with a gas engine and no insurance, you can work pretty cheap.
I just don't think I can raise my prices this year. I would like to get a couple decent parking lots, my truck is much more suited to lots than it is residentials.
Same thing with mowing, nobody seems to want to pay to have their lawn kept up nice. People are letting everything go just trying to pay for their ful to get to work so they don't lose their house. In fact, the foreclosure rate around here is unbelievable.
I don't know what I'm going to do. It's almost cheaper to stay home, but I've got money invested in the plow and sander. May as well keep wearing the truck out. And who knows, last year we had a lot of snow, this year we may not get much.
One is driving around a nice decked Caddy Escalade........ Wont answer the phone, or the door. Looks like this winter will feature mystery snow, very wet when the temp is near zero....Dang that stuff is hard ):h