Whats your hourly rate? and how busy are you workwise?

[theanalyst]

ok chaps. I know this gets asked a fair bit (how busy are you) but I would like to see an up to date set of statistics.!

I was thinking of the following info? I have put mine in to hopefully start the ball rolling

sole trader or company : sole trader

hourly rate: £38 (mainly for gas work, reduced to £200 day rate + materials if working for a builder on regular work)

Region: south yorkshire

Business Busyness! factor: 4/10 (eg, Im struggling to keep regular work going. Things are sporadic and a job comes in just as I'm getting concerned..)

Hope other people join into this. If you dont want to put your hourly rate (for some reason,..) then dont!


Anyone got any hot tips on getting work in? I nearly signed up to mybuilder and the other similar one until I read a lot of people saying it was a total con!!

Thanks

ps/ Im doing a big leaflet drop the week after next if its empty of work as it it presently
Not using yellow pages as Ive heard of too many say its a waste of money.

Word of mouth is all I use currently. Unfortunately there's not enough mouths and not enough words it seems!!.
My work is good quality and I do get a lot of recommendations, its just nobody seems to be spending round here!?!

 

[petercj]

£175 for a bathroom suite was just an example of using set prices, which will always need to be qualified with: *from* and : *subject to survey*.

Might be 1980's prices for you, but the competitive price-point in our evening papers for fitting a 3 piece bathroom sweet is £200.

So if price is to be the selling point in such adverts, and you want to get the opportunity of giving a quote, then I doubt the phone will get very busy if advertising from: "£400".

Need also to bear in mind that the OP of this thread was talking about cutting prices to the bone in order to get some work in.

Thinking about it a bit more, I would say an all-in price for a white budget suite with contract taps inclusive of labour would be a better bet. Once over the customer's threshold, quotes could be given for upgrading the suite or the accessories. If times are tight, then maybe take on the tiling work, or take a commission from another tradesman. Same could apply to flooring, and decorating.

You mention overheads, but then there are fixed and variable costs attached to running a business.

If you stay home tomorrow, then you won't need to start up the van, and so you won't incur any fuel costs. But the road tax on the van, the van insurance, public indemnity insurance, any personal pension cover, the cost of assembling your tools and equipment and the maintenance of them, all carry on ticking away as a fixed overhead while you're watching daytime TV.

If you are well established and have the financial resources to say: "sod it, I won't work for less than x pounds per hour", then good for you, but a lot of people out there are not so lucky.

I have every sympathy with anyone who says: "I'm good at what I do ... I always do a good job ... and I'm worth what I charge!"

But if you don't convince new prospective customers of those facts, and you need to work, then unfortunately, there's a very good chance that you will slip proudly and gracefully beneath the waves like the Titanic.

What could be a sadder sight than a plumber or a gas fitter sat at home with no customers to hate? ;-)

 

[theanalyst]

Aint that the truth.

This week so far excluding materials or any other running costs
Cordless drill £190
Van repairs and mot £583
road tax £215
Magnaclean powerflush filter thingy £340
5" core bit £97
Diesel £174

Total £1502

An hourly rate of £62.58 just to cover that lot for the 3 days! but by the end of the week when it is totalled up, it will be over 2 grand This may seem a lot but it is an ongoing thing. Next week it will be some other expense.
I don't charge an hourly rate. Everything is priced.



£175 for a bathroom swap? That is late 1980's prices. Even if you can kick it in in 3 hrs that is too cheap. If the boy was doing a homer i would tell him to take more than that.
You shouldn't just work to live. You need to look to the future when you may not be able to work.
Life and time passes quicker than you think.

and I thought I was having a bad week!!!!

I should have put more clearly about how I price my jobs. I always give a job price to people, most folks demand and expect to know how much it will cost before you start.
If it genuinely cannot be estimated then I give them a ballpark with a built in safety margin for me..

I use the hourly rate as a basis for cost estimate but then factor in the other aspects like
-do i want this job? (if its crawling around soil pipes I add more)
- is it heavy work (lots of lifting) if so a big ££ addon
- does it require a repeat visit to complete? (eg 1st,2nd fix bathroom), addon ££
- Do I have to buy special tools to complete it? (eg a massive sds bit for example), ok well it goes on the cost..etc

I think Im going to start offering cheaper boilers as an option (Im a vaillant authorised installer so do mainly vaillant) to be even more competitive , people just seem to be so tight!! maybe Im just having a bad month...



and £175 for a bathroom swap is ridiculous.
I wont charge any less than £600 even if its a straight swap because there's always a pita somewhere waiting to ruin your day. Plus cost of flexi's, bathframe wood if needed,and then lugging all the bits about which for me is the most annoying part of the job!

 

[petercj]

Sorry mate. Thought this was the right place.



petercj

Some very wise advice there and some food for thought. Im currently having a decent website built but this will take a good few months until I get search engine traffic though it will look good for people to be able to go online and see my work before calling.
I know that I always look at a companies website before getting quotes for work in...!

There's a senior position in business development that has opened up in my outfit, if you want it its yours however I can only pay minimum wage until it takes off ..>!!!

Hey, thanks for the offer!

The job title does sound very tempting, but I'm afraid the salary just doesn't cut it.

Just as a matter of interest, does the term "senior" apply to the position in the company, or the age of the employee?

Also, does "transport provided" mean that the job comes with a bus pass?

;-)

 

[Foodface]

You have to have an idea of how much on average you need to be charging per hour for your services, your hourly rate should be determined by your overheads. People who do not have a grasp of this go out of business because they are too cheap and thus do not cover their costs, like wise if you are too expensive then you go out of business cos no one can afford your prices.

Likewise I've gone for jobs and been nicked at the post because my overheads are more than the cowboy who doesn't have appropriate insurance or accreditation, but thats the nature of the game we're in. See what your competitors are doing, if you are higher in cost then cut down on overheads and your hourly price. If not stick to your guns.

It sounds like you are on the right path as it is to be honest though.

 

[PatchettPlumbing]

Having just gone into this field, I have done well to get on with 2 local estate agents to manage any property that they currently let.

I have devised my price list based on job prices, so X amount for a boiler swap, central heating fitting etc etc. I will only use hourly rate for leak finding or maybe issues finding problems.

 

[petercj]

Having just gone into this field, I have done well to get on with 2 local estate agents to manage any property that they currently let.

I have devised my price list based on job prices, so X amount for a boiler swap, central heating fitting etc etc. I will only use hourly rate for leak finding or maybe issues finding problems.

Good for you LukeFR - be it commercial or domestic custom, most people are going to be more interested in the bottom-line price than the hourly rate. Agreeing to an hourly rate alone is to write a blank cheque, e.g. two hours at £50 an hour is a better deal than someone who charges £40 p.h., but takes an hour longer to do the job.

When quoting set prices in adverts, flyers, etc, you always need to protect yourself by including the words: "from", and: "subject to survey", but delivering what you promise as often as is possible is one of the best ways of building a good reputation.

A trend that seems to be emerging on this and other threads is that people new to the sector are often better prepared for the current competitive market than many of the more experienced people who are still thinking in terms of the market as it was during the 90's.

The skills shortage that was triggered by the Margaret Thatcher Government in 1989/90 when they closed the Manpower/Skills Training Centres (who trained up some really good tradesmen) has now run its course, the 'supply' shortage in gas and plumbing trades having peaked in the 90's.

The long-term effect of this market dynamic is now aggravated by the fall off in demand due to the current recession.

People who ignore the above will most likely be out of business within the next couple of years. It will be 'out with the old, and in with the new', in many cases. Which is what happened in the recession of the 70's.

When people talk about the benefits of the market place for making industries "fitter and better", it usually has me shouting "BS!" at the TV. Particularly when it comes from the mouths of college boys from millionaire families who don't know what a carton of milk costs, and couldn't run a bath, let alone a business. But unfortunately, they've persuaded the masses to let them run the country .... into the ground.

The next few years will see a substantial number of very good tradesmen go bust. Which will have a financial cost for the the economy, and also the collective skills base of the country - not to mention the sheer human misery that people and their families often incur when personal finances collapse.

Such a waste of human potential.

Luckily, I'm not one of those who might be so affected, but I do feel for those who will be.

But anyway, good luck to you Luke, you sound well prepared for the current market place - and I wish you every success.