what is good hourly rate?

[highvolts582]

What is a good hourly rate? I work for my self I charge 75 per hour. When I bid or do things like service upgrades I make out better usually. but Im talking just service call rates. Whats a good dispatch fee? daytime service not nightly emergency.

 

[ptonsparky]

All depends on where you live. $75 may be to low for NJ, middle of the road to high here, and not near enough in other places. Are you living, saving, paying all your bills, customers complaining? What do your local competitors charge? If most of them are at $150, you are low.

 

[jmsbrush]

What is a good hourly rate? I work for my self I charge 75 per hour. When I bid or do things like service upgrades I make out better usually. but Im talking just service call rates. Whats a good dispatch fee? daytime service not nightly emergency.

Find out exactly what your break even is. Then determine what kind of profit margin you want. If your break even is $70 and you want to make 20% profit. Then you need to charge $87.50.

 

[480sparky]

Do you lose saless occasionally because of you're rate? Then you're fine.

Do you get every job you bid on? Then you're too low.

Do you never get a job? Then you're too high.

 

[highvolts582]

Do you lose saless occasionally because of you're rate? Then you're fine.

Do you get every job you bid on? Then you're too low.

Do you never get a job? Then you're too high.

Thats what I go by I like that

 

[jmsbrush]

Basing your prices off of what everyone else, is a sure way to disaster.

 

[electricmanscott]

Basing your prices off of what everyone else, is a sure way to disaster.

Being the guy that is higher than everybody else, even if it's justified, may also be a sure way to disaster.

If you want to be competitive and stay in the game you have to take into account what the market is.

 

[bradleyelectric]

Do you lose saless occasionally because of you're rate? Then you're fine.

Do you get every job you bid on? Then you're too low.

Do you never get a job? Then you're too high.

Do you lose jobs occasionally? You didn't fulfull these peoples emotional need it is easy to blame it on rate though.

Do you get every job you bid on? You might be a great salesman

Do you never get a job? You may want to start using soap and a toothbrush.

You should do a break even calculation and find out what you should be charging.

 

[bradleyelectric]

Being the guy that is higher than everybody else, even if it's justified, may also be a sure way to disaster.

If you want to be competitive and stay in the game you have to take into account what the market is.

If you can't reach your break even point you either need to look at your numbers and see why, get better at sales or find a different source of income.

You can not just use other people’s numbers so you can be in a game.

The trick is to be the only guy they call. When you can do that what someone else charges is irrelevant.

Is this what you are saying?

There are areas of this trade that are competitive bid the OP question I believe is service call rates though.

 

[mdprice55]

I get people that say "are you sure thats enough?" after I invoice them, and then I get people who never call back after we discuss service rates. Talk about middle of the road. And even with this I know that I am lower than 50% of my competition.

Can't please everybody.

 

[Dnkldorf]

Basing your prices off of what everyone else, is a sure way to disaster.

Why's that?

If I make money selling services for say $2200, and I know my competition HAS to sell them for $3500, I can up my price and make more money, and be more profitable.

 

[Besoeker]

Do you get every job you bid on? You might be a great salesman.

To quote a late friend of mine, anyone can give stuff away. It takes a salesman to sell it.

 

[petersonra]

Basing your prices off of what everyone else, is a sure way to disaster.

Its also an indicator of what the market will allow, and you just are not going to get much business if you exceed other people's prices. just the way things work.

You might be better off looking for an under served niche where you can excel and command better prices.

 

[aline]

Good: A good hourly rate is one that covers all expenses, meets your target profit and is in the lower to mid range of the hourly rate in your area.

Better: A better hourly rate is one that covers all expenses, exceeds your target profit and is in the upper range of the hourly rate in your area.

Best: The best hourly rate is one that covers all expenses, exceeds your target profit and is the highest hourly rate in your area.

Which one you'll be able to get is determined by the level of service you provide, your marketing, and your sales ability.

Does your company provide good service?
Does your company provide better service than most?
Does your company provide the best service?

If your company provides the best service than you should be entiled to charge the most.
You'll have to be able to demonstrate to the customer that you do provide the best service and therefore your price is justified.

Not every customer wants the best service. Some just want the cheapest price.
You need to decide which type of customer you want and market to that customer.

Your ability to market and sell your company will be a big factor in determining how much you can charge.

Do you want the good hourly rate or the best hourly rate?

Check out the prices in the link below.
I don't think these guys care what everyone else is charging.
Just how much will the market allow? I don't think anyone told these guys how much the market will allow.
http://www.higherfi.com/

 

[jmsbrush]

Why's that?

If I make money selling services for say $2200, and I know my competition HAS to sell them for $3500, I can up my price and make more money, and be more profitable.

Lets say you are making money at $2200. I don't what your profit margin is. Lets just say its 20%. Your break even for the job is $1760.00

2 other contractors in town are doing service changes for $1300.
Are you going to drop your price because of these 2 contractors?

So now your paying $460 out of your pocket for the job. You may not even be aware that you are loosing money because you have a commercial and a residential department that's carrying the weight and you never did a break even assessment.

Maybe you don't have these departments and you just think, this is how it has been and its always going to be the way it is.

Going in blindly and basing your rates off of what someone else is doing, is not smart. It sounds like you know what to charge and that's great.
The op does not.
There were six EC's this year that went under in my town. Should I have followed their pricing strategies and their business plan. Without seeing someones books, it's hard to say if another business is successful and bringing in a profit.

 

[480sparky]

Why's that?

If I make money selling services for say $2200, and I know my competition HAS to sell them for $3500, I can up my price and make more money, and be more profitable.

Only one person priced higher than you? There will always be hacks and side-jobbers more than willing to do the same job for $1200. And there will be scores of them.

 

[aline]

Here's another example of someone who ignored what others were charging for a receptacle. http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=110-439
Someone forgot to tell them how much the market will bear.

How can they charge so much more for a receptacle?
Answer: Marketing

A lot of contractors claim they provide better service than their competition but are afraid to charge even a dollar more per hour than their competion.

Instead they charge less than their competition.

Why is that?
Maybe deep down in side they really don't feel they provide better service and can't justify to themselves that they're worth more.

Charge what you feel your services are worth.

If you feel your services are worth less than your competition's then charge less than your competition.

If you feel your services are worth more than your competition's then why not charge more than your competition?

Is charging less just a way to overcome your lack of marketing and selling abilities?

 

[Dnkldorf]

Lets say you are making money at $2200. I don't what your profit margin is. Lets just say its 20%. Your break even for the job is $1760.00

2 other contractors in town are doing service changes for $1300.
Are you going to drop your price because of these 2 contractors?

If your only making 20% on a service change, you should go back to work for someone, asap.

These 2 contractors you are using as an example probably fully understand what market they are in. The price market. They fill a niche. They understand their customers are nothing but price people. They wouldn't know a piece of romex from speaker wire. They want the lowest price and are not educated enough to understand the diffference in quality work and materials. And I dont think they care. They want cheap.

This is the area these "trunk slammers" live and breed.

They don't need to sell anything but price, and BS.

You, I, and some others here want nothing to do with that market, and are well off leaving those customers to the "trunk slammers".

It's really not their fault that I can't get $2200. It would be my fault for not selling that customer my service. Not the "trunk slammer" in a different market.

 

[satcom]

It all comes down to, do you want to build and operate a business that will grow and provide you with a better living and have real assets built over time. and benifits but away for your golden years, if you just want to play contractor, and have a few extra bucks for worms, then continue looking at the other guy.

 

[Ohmy]

What is a good hourly rate? I work for my self I charge 75 per hour. When I bid or do things like service upgrades I make out better usually. but Im talking just service call rates. Whats a good dispatch fee? daytime service not nightly emergency.

Charging by the hour is tough. You make more when you bid jobs right? So why not bid all of them? A good transition would be to stop charging by the hour for anything other than troubleshooting. Once, you get a feel for biding service calls and repairs, go flat rate on troubleshooting as well.