nice post bernie, but where is up here?. shetland islands $7.50 an hour?.
as charging goes, as a plumbing fraternity we should all stick to our guns when posible, ignoring the immagrant plumbers who only need £2.50 an hour to be the highest paid people in their village. you will never beat them on price-never. all that would do is put yourself on the bread line, if you change your hourly rate to £10
, someone will charge less still.
the people of britain know what they want. i dissagree what bernie says, it is not the cheapest price that counts, not 'down here' anyhow. it's about good local people who do a good job, looks trustworthy, speeks clear english, and have accountability (ie i know where your from) attitude. i have had customers who have bluntly told me that i am not the cheapest, but the other bloke was a right fat scruffy looking slob?
so we chose you.
i am also the director of our family run haulage firm that has been going since the late 70's, see them come and go every year.
the same applies in this sector too. there are french, polish, latvians, nigerians and others in my immediate area, who have landed, bought a van and become a 'bloke and van we move it for £20 an hour' and they seem very busy.
does it bother us?. no. they run around like blue rse flies on a cowboy for little reward acustomed to life where they come from ie work hard for little return- just to survive.
the point is?.
they work say 25hrs a week @ £20 per = £500 pwk between the two of them. they get 250 new customers a year
we do 20hrs a week @ £55 per truck = £1'100 pwk each. we get 1500 new customers a year. and work 60% less for double the money.
does this make sense to you.
moral is - work smart not hard, unless you want to keep working in your 70's.
if there are 2 plumbers in my area who have 15 years exp, who are willing to work on a casual basis for £15ph please contact me as you can do my work for me and give me the remaining £15ph for sitting on my rse i shall be very happy
.