Planit - first off, welcome to the boards!
Next, I believe that many of the folks here will tell you that the cost of their machines (
skid steers more specifically), run around $5-10/hr. That's purchase, maintenance, repair and resale. We tend to rip up our tires faster than anyone here, and that helps put us closer to $10/hr. Compare that to what you pay a laborer, including taxes, unemployment, worker's comp, and the skid steer will seem cheap.
And a skid steer will never call in sick. Or complain. And it'll move a tri-axle of soil in an hour. It'll move a skid of pavers to the backyard in 180 seconds. It'll allow you to place 4,000# boulders with no more than one person. And all that for $10/hr.
And an intangible - it'll open up doors for other work you couldn't tackle before, because you didn't have the machinery (like moving 4,000# boulders
).
I'm not a big fan of the minis, mainly because access isn't as much of an obstacle as lift capacity - we must be able to lift a 3200# skid of pavers or block with our machine. A mini might still do the work of 2, but a skid steer will likely do the work of 3,4 or 5.