hourly rate for multitrader in Kent

[sakis]

hi, I am trying to work out my hourly rate as there are few months that I am part-time self-employed and I not sure that I am approaching it correctly. I am an experienced plumber, bathroom fitter, and handyman but not experienced on the costing system in the UK. My first question is should I have a different rate depends on the type of job (handyman vs plumbing) I do or to have a universal rate? How do I quote for a full bathroom refurbishment if I do everything myself? A different rate for the time I spend for the plumbing and different for the bathroom fitting, etc?

Moreover, what is a reasonable rate for Kent? I checked online plumbers charge from anything from £50-100/hour not sure about handymen. What is a reasonable price for the above trades in kent? Do you charge a different hourly rate if a job will take a couple of hours and different if it takes a couple of days? And the last question, if I am doing jobs in London should raise my rate to get closer to London prices?

 

[Brambles]

At the end of the day, you need to look at all jobs on a : Labour, plant, materials and overheads (van, phone, insurance, consumables, tool replacement), interest cost and contingency ( for the jobs that don’t go well

After a period of looking at jobs in that way, you will see what your composite rate is to break even, then add on your profit.

I cannot give you a definitive answer on rates, only you can determine that - but as a guide it is not unusual for sole traders to underestimate their overheads.

With respect to London, the costs that always hit us hard are parking charges and the additional time to go off and collect that forgotten or needed part from the local merchants.

Don’t undertake work at a loss - it is never appreciated, either by your partner or the customer

 

[Murdoch]

You won’t get much work trying to charge £100 per hour ......

 

[Scott_D]

Will anyone have a bathroom done on an hourly rate?

 

[OffshoreGas]

hi, I am trying to work out my hourly rate as there are few months that I am part-time self-employed and I not sure that I am approaching it correctly. I am an experienced plumber, bathroom fitter, and handyman but not experienced on the costing system in the UK. My first question is should I have a different rate depends on the type of job (handyman vs plumbing) I do or to have a universal rate? How do I quote for a full bathroom refurbishment if I do everything myself? A different rate for the time I spend for the plumbing and different for the bathroom fitting, etc?

Moreover, what is a reasonable rate for Kent? I checked online plumbers charge from anything from £50-100/hour not sure about handymen. What is a reasonable price for the above trades in kent? Do you charge a different hourly rate if a job will take a couple of hours and different if it takes a couple of days? And the last question, if I am doing jobs in London should raise my rate to get closer to London prices?

You won’t really know until you start quoting for work. You could get a ball park by contacting some local guys doing similar work. The clients you market yourself at has a massive impact on what you can charge.

As others have said I’d expect a bathroom to be a fixed price job. You obviously need an hourly rate to work out what that will be.

 

[king of pipes]

I work on a day rate for bathroom installs like you i do most of the work myself, recently i have had a few health issues so dropped it so i could work shorter days start later finish earlier obviously it took longer and my customer was understanding but i only made wages there wasnt much if any profit in it . Boiler repairs and gas work i charge a hourly rate , as a self employed person you really need to make £200+ a day this is not always achievable and may seem alot to some and not enough to others but you must remember theres alot of expenses to come out of that, work out whats achievable in your area and set your rate slightly above you can always come down pricing is a minefield if you get it wrong i only give estimates now and explain to customers my reasonings behind this it works for me and i am still in business for 9 years now . Good luck kop

 

[OffshoreGas]

A better option is normally to start out with what you actually want to earn. Then you need to work out what percentage of your time will be engaged in productive work. Taking in to account holidays, quoting, training, invoicing, travel between jobs, jobs cancelled at short notice you may only end up charging for 50 - 70% of your time. It costs me about £15/hr to employ a person, if you're on your own this might be a bit higher £20/hr, if your not doing gas it may be a bit lower.

Assume you want to make £40k, and manage to find productive work for 60% of the time:

£40K / (52 * 5 * 0.6) = £256/day or £32/hr (assuming 8hr day)

Add on your £20/hr for costs you need to charge £52/hr + VAT.

This covers costs and wages, realistically you need to be making a small profit to cover things like warranty claims, job over runs, accidental damage, van break downs, new tools etc.

£60/hr + VAT probably isn't a million miles off as a starting point, for big jobs where you know you'll have a couple of weeks of regular work you could choose to knock 30% off this rate.

 

[oz-plumber]

Work out a rate that you would be happy with.
Add 20% and see how you fare.

 

[Scott_D]

What is your rate now?

 

[SimonG]

In bathrooms, I plumb, I install, I plaster, I tile, I build stud walls, I do joinery, I do flooring.
I leave the electrics to the electrician.

A bathroom is an estimate.

Materials plus 30%
Labour. No of days i think it will take and generally add a day x daily rate.
Then i add a couple of hundred for stuff not covered in above normally referenced as the f!@$ factor on the spread sheet.

I take a deposit of the materials plus the 30% two weeks before starting.
An interim labour payment at the end of week 1 with the balance immediately on completion.

As most of the bathrooms I do take two weeks or just over, this system works for me.

But I dont value my time differently for different activities.

 

[sakis]

You won’t get much work trying to charge £100 per hour ..

yes I was thinking the same not sure how the survive
[automerge]1582760343[/automerge]

A better option is normally to start out with what you actually want to earn. Then you need to work out what percentage of your time will be engaged in productive work. Taking in to account holidays, quoting, training, invoicing, travel between jobs, jobs cancelled at short notice you may only end up charging for 50 - 70% of your time. It costs me about £15/hr to employ a person, if you're on your own this might be a bit higher £20/hr, if your not doing gas it may be a bit lower.

Assume you want to make £40k, and manage to find productive work for 60% of the time:

£40K / (52 * 5 * 0.6) = £256/day or £32/hr (assuming 8hr day)

Add on your £20/hr for costs you need to charge £52/hr + VAT.

This covers costs and wages, realistically you need to be making a small profit to cover things like warranty claims, job over runs, accidental damage, van break downs, new tools etc.

£60/hr + VAT probably isn't a million miles off as a starting point, for big jobs where you know you'll have a couple of weeks of regular work you could choose to knock 30% off this rate.

thanks for the advice it was what I was thinking to charge but then we work out that when I am taking big jobs as bathroom refurbishments it would be unreasonable to charge 400+ for a days work. I have been charging 200 which works out only £25/hour. I guess these type of jobs give you the security that you are working full time which you may not be in other situations but my partner thinks that I am underestimatin my pay
[automerge]1582760632[/automerge]
daily rate is £200, my hourly. depends a bit on the type work and location. for something small that will take 30min e.g fixing a fan at my neighbour's kitchen I will take £20 if I have to travel will be £40 an hour if it is more handyman type of work and £60 of plumbing

 

[OffshoreGas]

yes I was thinking the same not sure how the survive
[automerge]1582760343[/automerge]

thanks for the advice it was what I was thinking to charge but then we work out that when I am taking big jobs as bathroom refurbishments it would be unreasonable to charge 400+ for a days work. I have been charging 200 which works out only £25/hour. I guess these type of jobs give you the security that you are working full time which you may not be in other situations but my partner thinks that I am underestimatin my pay
[automerge]1582760632[/automerge]
daily rate is £200, my hourly. depends a bit on the type work and location. for something small that will take 30min e.g fixing a fan at my neighbour's kitchen I will take £20 if I have to travel will be £40 an hour if it is more handyman type of work and £60 of plumbing

Personally I think £200/day is low if self employed. I don’t know what your overheads are but think about what you’d get paid working for someone.

For a start your entitled to 28 days paid leave, so you need to knock £20 off your £200/day to start.

Then you’d get sick pay, which youre also entitled to as a parent. I normally expect to loose 1 week a year for each employ (Dr’s, dentists, sick kids, bereavement etc. So you need to knock 5 days pay off. That’s £5/day.

Most employers provide a van/fuel and the more expensive tools. I figure this to cost about £30/day.

Normally your employer would cover any minor accidental damage, mistakes, misquotes etc. That now has to come out of your pocket. Hard to put a figure in this but I normally plan for 10% of the job. So deduct maybe £15/day.

Everyone’s entitled to a pension that’s min 4% of what you earn from memory. So take off £8.

Could you find work with an employer for what’s left (£122/day)? I think you could in most places. Why take the extra risk for the same money?

The other big difference is unpaid time. You’ve had to visit the property, speak to the owner, measure up, identify materials, produce a quote etc. That half day would be paid by an employer, obviously it’s not if you’re self employed.

 

[Murdoch]

thanks for the advice it was what I was thinking to charge but then we work out that when I am taking big jobs as bathroom refurbishments it would be unreasonable to charge 400+ for a days work. I have been charging 200 which works out only £25/hour. I guess these type of jobs give you the security that you are working full time which you may not be in other situations but my partner thinks that I am underestimating my pay

daily rate is £200, my hourly. depends a bit on the type work and location. for something small that will take 30min e.g fixing a fan at my neighbour's kitchen I will take £20 if I have to travel will be £40 an hour if it is more handyman type of work and £60 of plumbing

You need to realise that unless you are working full days £25 / hour is way below what you need, and as for a 1/2 charge of £20 ..... just don't charge so little. One you have paid tax and NI and your overheads its simply not worth doing the work ............

 

[king of pipes]

See we have opened up a can of worms here it really depends how you want to trade over price yourself then in the long term no one will employ you, you go over the VAT threshold then your another 20% more than a sole trader, its a balacing act you earn well on some jobs and less on others but as the guys have said there alot that needs paying for out of that earning before you turn a profit . Kop

 

[OffshoreGas]

See we have opened up a can of worms here it really depends how you want to trade over price yourself then in the long term no one will employ you, you go over the VAT threshold then your another 20% more than a sole trader, its a balacing act you earn well on some jobs and less on others but as the guys have said there alot that needs paying for out of that earning before you turn a profit . Kop

Realistically I don't see any point in being self employed if you're charging less than £250/day, deduct benefits and operating costs and you're better off as staff bellow this. In a busy year 8hrs x 5days x 50wks that's £62.5K. The threshold for VAT registration is £85K. You can't supply much in terms of materials or labor for £22.5K.

You can only set a price which you're happy to work for which reflects the true cost of doing business. There will always be someone willing to do a job cheaper.

 

[JKG]

As others have said you need to be getting at least £250 per day.
You need to be charging more than £20 for a half hour job there is s a lot to take into consideration. The time it take to travel to and from that job just for starters

 

[king of pipes]

Agreed offshore but some of us just cant get £250 a day every day in the areas we live and work , in a city maybe but rural areas on the east coast no way, your right i try not to buy any bathrooms ,boilers or supply anything other than basic plumbing stuff my customers pay for that upfront then its not seen as part of my turnover this keeps me below the £ 85,000 threshold, i am now at a time in life where i dont need to earn loads i would rather avoid the vat crap, and not pay 40% on my hard earned. Works for me as all i earn is mine i dont employ others so i please myself what i do definitely wouldn't work for anyone as a employee again. Cheers kop

 

[OffshoreGas]

Agreed offshore but some of us just cant get £250 a day every day in the areas we live and work , in a city maybe but rural areas on the east coast no way, your right i try not to buy any bathrooms ,boilers or supply anything other than basic plumbing stuff my customers pay for that upfront then its not seen as part of my turnover this keeps me below the £ 85,000 threshold, i am now at a time in life where i dont need to earn loads i would rather avoid the vat crap, and not pay 40% on my hard earned. Works for me as all i earn is mine i dont employ others so i please myself what i do definitely wouldn't work for anyone as a employee again. Cheers kop

I don’t doubt for a minute you know your business very well. Sounds like we’re at different stages of life, being a bit younger and poorer I‘m more willing to put up with the hoop jumping.

I live in a fairly deprived rural area but even here there are people willing to pay a fair price for reliable, competent people who turn up and solve their problems for them.

 

[king of pipes]

Alot of my customers are offshore workers or ex workers they have been hit hard one of my friends has even had to sell his home and downsize at the age of 67 hes screwed really a case of living beyond your means for years, i have others who sub to shell set up their own little companies pay themselves minimum wage their salary gets paid through a agency tax avoidance in a way ? good luck if it works for them, i am working for a guy who works for Worley you will know who they are , they bought out a local company to get a foot hold in the wind sector which is really big here now on the east coast but its not the same as gas and oil and will never employ the volume of men as gas and oil . I do ok pay myself the maximum before the 40% tax theres more to life than chasing a few quid i am luck enough to be able to pick and choose my jobs and have 80 + boilers i look after . Regards kop