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jmshiller

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With the new year at hand, the econ on the mend we are thinking of charging a bit more per hour for T&M work. Also considering a truck fee. So, just wondering what the competition is getting. Located in SW Florida and we have been stuck arounf $55 - 65.00 per hour.
Thanks in advance.
 
You need to charge whatever is necessary to pay the bills, employees, and have enough left to pay yourself and have some for business growth. If you want to charge $10.00/hr for labor, then add all kinds of other fees to come up with the bottom line go for it, or you could just have an established bottom line of say $60, $75 or $100 per hour and no extra fees. Some customers will like it if it is simple. Others will balk at $100/hr, but if you charge them the same amount over multiple line items, they will say nothing.

My wife and I recently bought new kitchen appliances. They had a sign where we bought these "Buy a turkey get free appliances".

So we spent something like $3400 on a ten pound frozen turkey and got a refrigerator, range, dishwasher, and microwave all for free.

All depends how you look at it.
 
I might suggest reading some of the books from Michael Gerber, Ellen Rohr, and whoever they recommend.

As I have been in business for only two years, these writers, and others, have been changing my way of business and my understanding of it. They are good reads, really get you to thinking and understanding the psychology of pricing, from the consumers end and the business owners as well.
 
Up here in Gainesville FL
Some people charge a trip fee of $20 figures as 20 minutes to get there. Hourly rates range from $45 to $90 (for the first 1/2 hour)
You might cover travel time starting when you acknowledge you are on the way.

I determine hourly rate when i start getting those weird calls. Like two in the morning calls demanding a definite price on rewiring of a house because they just heard what my rate was from someone. Or asking if I needed a hack saw or pliers or wire, yes they want to supply the materials also. Next day I raise the rates till they go away.

Its the supply and demand curve. You can stay busy and work all day or work 1/2 the time and go fishing and make the same amount of money. :happyyes: $20 at 40 hours a week or $40 for 20 hours same difference except the fish.
 
jmshiller said:
With the new year at hand, the econ on the mend we are thinking of charging a bit more per hour for T&M work. Also considering a truck fee. So, just wondering what the competition is getting. Located in SW Florida and we have been stuck arounf $55 - 65.00 per hour.
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

ellen rohr, "bare bones biz plan"..... download it off her web site, and take a weekend to do it.
seriously. it's important. as silly as it sounds. suck it up and do what her $10 plan suggests.

http://www.barebonesbiz.com/catalog/the-weekend-biz-plan/

like many of us, you are doing it backwards. you are looking at what trunkslammers are charging,
and figuring out how to compete with that.

yesterday morning, i'd had an email from a customer i do odds and ends for, needed 4
ballasts changed in an office building. i did it on the way to what i had planned for yesterday.

$125 for the first ballast, and $100 for each additional one. did them, sent the invoice from
my cellphone, the check was in my mailbox this afternoon..... excellent folk to do business
with. 24 hour turnaround.

that's not how you price your work tho. you need to know your operating costs, *for real*,
and then look at how much you want to make, and how many hours are available to make
that happen in a year, and THAT tells you what you need to be bringing in the door per
billable hour.

my amount i need to bring in the door? about $128 per billable hour. i'm low overhead
which is why it's so low. on some threads on here discussing this stuff, most people
doing flat rate pricing were closer to $200 per hour. just hazarding a guess, $175
an hour would be more what you need to be getting, however you structure your pricing.

right now, i'm busy, and hoping the stuff i have quoted doesn't all hit at once. since
halloween, i've taken thanksgiving day off. i'm taking off sun, mon, and tues. then
rocking for another two months. those four months should give me a net taxable
income of about $90-105K.

i'm a one man band in a van, in a state mired by depressed construction
and unemployment.

about the only difference between now and this time last year, is doing ellen's
biz plan. if i can do it, so can you.

you are in florida, and jim brush is there..... check out his web site.

http://www.electricalflatrate.com/

i've spoken with him on the phone, and he's smart.
you'd do well to contact him.

good luck, be honest, and don't work for free.
 
T & M post

T & M post

Thanks for the post, looking for more and hopefully in SW Florida. My experience is 35 years, but most in the Seattle area. Keep busy down here but would really appreciate feedback. But I will check out all of these post.
 
Florida is a tuff market, a whole lot of retired electricians that will work for next to nothing for something to do. We get electricians for what we pay helpers elsewhere down there. I guess that's the price you pay to live in a warm climate!
 
If you view them as your competition, then they are.

Stop looking at the cutthroat people as competition.

Coke is the biggest name in soda, followed by Pepsi. If you can get a generic can of soda from Walmart or the grocery store for at least half the cost, why are Coke and Pepsi in business?

Because they are better. They give you an experience that the other brands just can't.

That needs to be you. Instead of just finding where the bar is at, seek to raise it. Let the others try to play catch up, as you set the standards.
 
A lot of good info so far. From my experience, what I see is that most electricians seem to cut each others throats with respect to hourly rates. Now plumbers - they stick together. You can't get a plumber up here in northern NJ to change a washer for less than $125/hr. Some contractors associations in my area publish a "suggested price list" that they issue to their members. It's meant to be a guideline so that members know how to price their jobs and be competitive. The price for a 200 amp service upgrade might be priced somewhere between $2800-$3200. If you want to shave a few $$ off the price to get a job so be it. What I can't understand is why someone would price the same job at $1600 and leave all those $$ on the table :slaphead:

Another thing that I've noticed is that there are many electricians out there that know the Codes (fairly well or to some degree), can make proper wire connections, can run and bend conduit, and overall can make a job come out looking great. They've been trained well in their trade. However, most have no experience at all being in business for themselves and often fail because of insufficient work or being under-capitalized

Anyway, I would suggest that you join a contractors association, at least for a year or two, and get some of your information there. It's OK to ask the question you did here in the Forum but I doubt you'll get an honest answer from any of your local competition.

Just my opinion.
 
Electrical flate rate

Electrical flate rate

I looked at the electrical flat rate pricing program suggested. It looks interesting and affordable. Many contractors currently use Quick Books. How would this program interface with Quick Books?
 
Greg1707 said:
I looked at the electrical flat rate pricing program suggested. It looks interesting and affordable. Many contractors currently use Quick Books. How would this program interface with Quick Books?
Click to expand...

i went away from quick books. i didn't need all the bells and whistles. someone on here suggested neatworks,
and i've been using it for three years now... went to the iphone -> cloud scanning solution. works well.
dumped quickbooks.
 
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