Written for landscapers and lawn care routes, grounds maintenance contractors, tree services and arborists, irrigation, hardscape and fencing installers, and landscape firms that sell snow and ice work, in any US state.
The short version
- Build a site-specific plan for every commercial bid.Include the scope map, tasks, frequency and number of visits, with enhancements and snow priced alongside, plus references from similar sites.
- Confirm every endorsement the contract asks for.Before you sign, have your broker check that additional insured status, primary and noncontributory wording and the waiver of subrogation are on your policy.
- Add yearly increases and track renewals.Write an annual CPI escalation into every multi-year price. Put renewal dates on the calendar, and check your state's rules before relying on automatic renewal.
Residential growth comes street by street: a Google Business Profile, neighborhood apps, door hangers on the streets you already serve, and upsells such as aeration and overseeding, mulch, lighting and irrigation checks. Commercial growth is different. Property managers, HOAs, office parks and retail centers buy through bids, and a bid has to carry the paperwork as well as the price.
What a commercial bid needs
- References from similar sites.
- A site-specific plan: the scope map, tasks and frequency, the season and the number of visits.
- Enhancements and snow priced alongside the maintenance.
- Terms: an annual CPI escalation, a weather clause, prices for extra work, and net 30.
- Certificates of insurance that match what the contract asks for: additional insured status for ongoing and completed operations, primary and noncontributory wording, and a waiver of subrogation.
A missing endorsement surfaces after a claim, and an uninsured sub's payroll lands on your workers' comp audit.
Public grounds work
Federal grounds contracts carry wage determinations
Federal grounds maintenance contracts over $2,500 carry Service Contract Act wage determinations. As of Oct 2026.
41 U.S.C. 6701 and following
State and city bids are the other public route. Federally funded installs over $2,000 can carry Davis-Bacon prevailing wages, so read the wage terms before you price the labor. As of Oct 2026.
Keeping the account at renewal
Automatic renewal in New York
For service, maintenance or repair contracts, an automatic-renewal term is unenforceable against the client unless you serve written notice personally or by certified mail at least 15 and not more than 30 days before the client's deadline to give notice of cancellation. Renewal periods of one month or less are excluded. As of Oct 2026.
N.Y. Gen. Oblig. Law 5-903(2) to (3)
Other states have their own renewal rules, so check yours before relying on an automatic renewal. Put every renewal and escalation date, every notice window and every certificate of insurance expiry on the calendar.
Reviews and claims
Fake and bought reviews
The FTC's rule on fake reviews and testimonials, effective October 21, 2024, bans fake or bought reviews, reviews conditioned on being positive, and suppressing bad ones, with civil penalties per violation. As of Oct 2026.
16 CFR part 465
Ask every happy client for a review, never pay for a good one, and reply once, factually, to a bad one, without the client's address or photos of their house. For example, if a client complains about the sod 3 weeks after a $4,200 drought-season install, reply once with the agreed watering duty and offer a check visit, and never trade a refund for taking the review down. Text marketing needs prior express written consent under the TCPA.
Claim 'licensed and insured' in a bid, a proposal or on your website only with the license number and current certificates to back it.
Asked in Greymill
1. Insurance. "Pretty sure" is not enough. Endorsements are add-ons to your policy, and a missing one only surfaces after a claim.
Ask your broker to confirm both are on it: additional insured status for ongoing and completed operations, and the waiver of subrogation.
Check your subs' certificates too, or an uninsured sub's payroll lands on your workers' comp audit.
2. Price. $52,000 flat for three years prices year three at today's costs.
Write in an annual CPI escalation, so the price rises each year with the consumer price index.
The bid also needs a site-specific plan (scope map, tasks, frequency, visits), enhancements and snow priced alongside, and references from similar sites.
Ready for me to draft it, escalation clause included?
Ask it about your own business
Paste this into Greymill with your own figures, and Sales & Quotes works it through for your business.
I run a landscaping or gardening business in [state], in the US. I want to bid on maintenance for [an HOA, office park or retail center] with [acres or sites] and these requirements: [paste the insurance and scope requirements]. Draft the bid with a site plan, enhancement and snow options and an escalation clause, list the insurance endorsements I need to confirm with my broker, and set renewal reminders for my existing accounts.
More for landscaping and gardening in the US
- Pricing a crew hour and a mowing stop so the drive time is paid forBuild your rate from a burdened, billable crew hour, then price each stop by the minutes on site plus the minutes driving to it, because route density is where the margin is.Read the lesson
- Making it through the winter when the mowing stops and payroll does notLate-winter payroll, equipment and materials come before the first spring payments, so smooth your income, take lawful deposits and line up credit in the fall.Read the lesson
- Do I charge sales tax on mowing, and who needs a 1099 from me this year?Whether landscaping is taxable depends on the state and on whether the job is maintenance or an improvement, and the 1099 threshold changed for 2026.Read the lesson
- Can my crew spray the weeds, build the patio and dig the irrigation line without a license?Pesticides, installs, irrigation and digging each have their own state or local license or notice rule, and in California an unlicensed contractor cannot sue to collect.Read the lesson
- Snow contracts, plant warranties and lien waivers: the clauses that leave you holding the billSnow and ice work brings slip-and-fall suits that name both the owner and the contractor, where the contract, the trigger and the log decide who pays, and installs carry four clauses of their own to fix.Read the lesson
- Paying crews a day rate and bringing in H-2B workers without owing back wagesLandscaping is not agriculture, so crews are owed overtime even on a day rate, and H-2B adds wage, hours and travel duties of its own.Read the lesson
- A trench, a power line or a crew member down in the heat: what to do on the dayTrenches, overhead lines, heat and mowers on slopes each have strict rules, and so does reporting when someone is hurt.Read the lesson
Open the interactive lesson · Every landscaping and gardening lesson · What Greymill knows about the trade
Sources
The primary sources behind this lesson, checked Oct 2026.
- 16 CFR part 465 (Winning work, growth and exit)
- 47 CFR 64.1200(a)(2) (Winning work, growth and exit)
- 41 U.S.C. 6702; 40 U.S.C. 3142 (Winning work, growth and exit)
- IRC 453(i) (Winning work, growth and exit)
- IRC 1202 as amended (Winning work, growth and exit)
- CSLB active versus inactive; B&P 7071.6(a), (c) (Insurance and risk)
- Tex. Lab. Code 406.002, 406.033 (Insurance and risk)
- DMV Types of Insurance and minimum liability requirements (Insurance and risk)
- 16 CFR 429.0, 429.1 (Contracts, consumers and getting paid)
- Bus. and Prof. Code sec. 7159(d)(8) (Contracts, consumers and getting paid)
- Gen. Bus. Law sec. 771; Lien Law sec. 71-a (Contracts, consumers and getting paid)
- General Obligations Law 5-903(2) to (3) (Contracts, consumers and getting paid)
- sec. 713.015; sec. 501.201 (Contracts, consumers and getting paid)
- Bus. and Com. Code sec. 17.41 (Contracts, consumers and getting paid)
- OFLC H-2B filing notice (The calendar: H-2B, payroll, pesticide licenses and snow season)
- Due dates (The calendar: H-2B, payroll, pesticide licenses and snow season)
- IRC 7503 (The calendar: H-2B, payroll, pesticide licenses and snow season)
- Due dates (The calendar: H-2B, payroll, pesticide licenses and snow season)
- 1904.32(b)(6) (The calendar: H-2B, payroll, pesticide licenses and snow season)
- Bus. and Prof. Code sec. 7140 (The calendar: H-2B, payroll, pesticide licenses and snow season)
- 29 U.S.C. 255(a), 216(b) (Hard cases: money, CONTRACTS and PEOPLE)
- 29 U.S.C. 216(b), 255(a) (Hard cases: money, CONTRACTS and PEOPLE)
- Texas Property Code 53.021(4); actual parties and work dates require construction-counsel review (Hard cases: money, CONTRACTS and PEOPLE)
- 20 CFR 655.15(b), 655.20(j)(2) (Who must sign off and deliverables: us house style)
- 29 CFR 1904.39(a); California 8 CCR 342(a), controlling state case (Who must sign off and deliverables: us house style)