I am just too expensive.....

[secret squirrel]

.....And I just don't care.

I had to price a job for a landlord,

Two rads 1 x 600 x 1200 double single convector to replace an existing leaking rad thats way too old (a bit like redsaw). Pipework to be adjusted. TRV to this rad.

The other is a double panel single convector 600 x 700 this is to go into a dining room where there is no rad at present. Feed to be taken from living room rad, drill through wall etc. No TRV just rad valves as thermostat in this room.

Also in price is 4 lengths 15mm and 1 x inhibitor. Not priced in bits and bobs, total price £500.

I'd use K rads which I get off of my local supplier at 75% off list but give customers 50% off. Make a couple of squids on everything else.

Speaking to the tennant they've had a quote for doing the living room rad at £250 but don't know any more than that.

How do I know I'm too expensive, my mate got a call and would do it for £375.

This earns him about £140 less normal running costs and bits and bobs, elbows, straights etc.

My mate who is a superb plumber, fast, accurate etc. Well, IMO he should be charging more. Maybe, I've overpriced it a bit but I'll do an excellent job and take my time but I can afford to do this. I'll book it in for a day and if I take 3/4 of a day I'm onto a winner. If I do it cheap, I'd resent it and rush so I don't feel like a mug.

This just shows the sign of the times. And a free market.

 

[Barry98]

were are own worse enemies , under cutting each other to get the job has de valued the trade tenfold

 

[Guest123]

Too many out there, pricing jobs and not making any profit, just to get the work in. On a lesser extent, there are trainees wanting to build a work portfolio who'll do the work for ridiculously low prices.

The days of making a really good living in plumbing are long gone.

 

[Barry98]

very long gone , need more strings to the bow if your to stay in the game

 

[secret squirrel]

The flip side is I've got a job where the parts are £90 charging £110 and quoted half a day to do it, £100.

The job is changing a bar shower and a set of basin taps. Its in a mobile home, quite a good environment to work in, shower may be a bit problematic for various reasons but will hopefully be done by lunch.

My point is, my mate will work his nads off for not much more lifting rads from the shop to the van blah blah! probably take him the best part of the day. He's genuinely welcome to it.

He quoted someone £300 to change a shower tray but these crap aquaboards up and new instal of a bar shower. He asked me to help and said 'it'd be done in a day and a half' Split the money, maybe done in a day.

I looked at it and laughed! I would have quoted 3 days, it took 2.5 days! I helped for a day and a half but had other work on, the only winner here was the customer.

Trouble its easy to be very cheap and busy but from what I see a lot of these tradesmen, they seem to have little or no quality of life and earn the same as the more expensive guys.

 

[WaterTight]

I'm slow and expensive. Like a high-end prostitute.

 

[WaterTight]

Thing is if you lose out on say 1 out of 5 jobs because you're too expensive you're probably still making at least the difference of that 1 job on the other 4. You can probably pull it off losing 3 out of 5 if your remaining 2 are highly priced enough.

And THAT is the way to do it!

 

[Guest123]

2 out of 3 aint bad.

That's another thread on here by Bod.

 

[Leo21]

I have virtually given up plumbing and only do gas and CH, thee are just to many x factory workers that are a bit handy with speed fit. I also find certain jobs just don't pay. They have to be complicated enough to scare of the above, or be gas related. My seventy year old plumber dad can't believe the change in the trade.

 

[kirkgas]

i appreciate some people are pricing too low, but its all down to what you need/want to earn, if you dont have a mortgage or any debt and choose to keep your prices down thats your choice, same as some who live outwith their means have to charge higher prices to cover their lifestyle and wants, why should the customer pay over the odds because you want to live in a big house, drive a big car and have a big fancy showroom/workshop, when others work perfectly well from their house, its all about personal choice im afraid

 

[REDSAW]

clicked the like for some reason?.

dont forget not everyone is a good business person thats why you have variables in all purchaces.

i would rather do 2 jobs to anothers 4, for the same money!!!!

 

[kay-jay]

im beginning to learn this. i'd much sooner charge more and be less busy. no point working yourself into the ground for a 'normal wage' when this can be achieved with fewer jobs and higher prices. i have been experimenting with this only very recently and have had some very good results, £300 per day for a day long job, £100 for a 90 min job twice.labour only, i used to estimate the time and give a price on that alone irrespective of the knowledge or skill required, so the 300 i would previously have done for £160 and the £100 ones for £60. in short i am starting to price for my skills and knowledge and not just my time.

 

[Barry98]

in short i am starting to price for my skills and knowledge and not just my time.

never a truer word spoken

amen

 

[WaterTight]

Whatever any of us charge it's worth remembering that big businesses dwarf our most expensive efforts. They also best us in every moment of mark-ups, white-lies and hidden charges. And, as I thought about the other day, aggressive advertising. I was pondering the question, "How frequently can I do leaflet drops in the same area before it becomes annoying spam." I settled on once ever 4-6 months - but not without reservations that some might be annoyed! Then I received my weekly Barclaycard balance transfer letter through my letterbox. I've literally received one a week for months. If you were sat round the boardroom at Barclays and said, "Hey buy guys, isn't this a bit too often to be bothering people" I imagine an awkward silence would go round before you were be dragged out by armed guards. The CEO would then light an enormous cigar and ask, "Anyone else think it's too often?"

 

[Guest123]

Get paid your worth, 2 jobs a £100 is better than 4 jobs at £25......don't be a busy fool.

Incidentally, I've got some really terrific people as customers. All bar one have offered to wait until I'm well enough to do their installations for them and I'm certainly not the cheapest out there. The one who couldn't wait, I sympathise with as I was taken into hospital very suddenly and I had most of his bathroom stripped out, so he had little choice especially with 4 kids in the house.It kind of restores my feelings for the general public.