Electrician and a business man

[OK Sparky 93]

Walk into a bar…..

Going into my 3rd year. I’ve been surviving. Working at growing my circle to have more word of mouth.

I’m not single, but I am the major bread winner. And if I was single, I possibly would have to charge more, to enjoy the fruit of my labor.

I am a one man shop at the moment, due to not having enough work to keep another busy. On occasion that extra pair of hands would be nice, but hard to find.

If I had a guy in the field, and he was a good hand then I would want to be able to pay him even when it was slow. So he doesn’t walk.

If service work billable hours are about half the year then labor and burden are probably close to $95,000.
Based on that, $95/hr
I figure what I want or would like and I may be way off. This just an owner’s salary or compensation, whatever. If allowing for 1000 hours @$50 $50,000 no tools.

Is that to much, I don’t know. If it worked out to be a great year and you had more than 1000 billable then you salary goes up.

Based on those numbers I am at $145 and I do t have any OH figured.

At the moment I am below $20k for the year. But some one ran into aged truck and totaled it. I have to replace.

I could squeak by and have a total bring of say $40k, but why.

So far $145 to pay me the owner and to keep and pay an employee.

Add in my OH and I am at $165
Nonprofit my salary is not profit.

And the net profit at the bottom of the P&L
Is not my salary. (Although in my case it is one and the same.

Am I wrong?

Suppose that I take my gross revenue and figure it to increase for the next year, allow for a 10% profit.

Year 1—- $169,000 figure 10,000 for the next year.
$179000 @10%= 17,900/1000 billable hours = 17.90/hour

Now I am at an hourly rate of $182.90

Round it up round down. $180-$185

Or charge less. Either way I still have to pay for the truck. It is an expense, it should covered and I don’t think that it should all come out of profit.

So let’s say that it was even possible to get a truck that wasn’t loaded with miles and falling apart for…..and you have to make a payment. $800/month. $9600/ year/1000

$9.60 an hour. Round it all up and you are at $200/hr for service work.

If you are bidding jobs that will keep you busy for a month or so, I can see being 1/2 of that.

How would you do it?

 

[LarryFine]

I am a one man shop at the moment, due to not having enough work to keep another busy. On occasion that extra pair of hands would be nice, but hard to find.

If I had a guy in the field, and he was a good hand then I would want to be able to pay him even when it was slow. So he doesn’t walk.

I'm also a one-man shop. I had a couple of crews of two years ago. I love electrical work and I hate contracting. I'd love to partner with someone who is the opposite.

Where are you? Your location baffles Google Maps.

 

[OK Sparky 93]

Oklahoma City. I think we’d have a long commute.

 

[AC\DC]

Are your bid jobs at your hr rate??
My hourly is a lot lower than if I bid it. But I get a lot of word of mouth and small jobs have led to some big jobs.
My bid hr usually come to $200-400

 

[AC\DC]

I to have problem with jumping gap of having enough work to have employees, no one wants to wait a month for me to justify hiring some one. And this month has been slower enough for me. But not someone else’s

 

[OK Sparky 93]

Honestly, I have been under the assumption that when bidding you need to be the low man. If I believe that I actually needed $175, $190, $220 an hour based on a $1000, that if I am going to give a quote for a complete out the door price I would I would be higher than that hourly rate?$200-$400 is just labor right?

And if you are going to do the job by the hour do you have a price not to exceed and most likely you and the customer are keeping track of the minutes for everything?

 

[AC\DC]

My hourly work is just for service work, unseen issues. If I know what I have then it’s bid, unless I feel generous and tell them it’s going to be cheaper for t&m.
Either way my time is round up off to next hour and is charge for permit time. I am ussaly the middle rage guy sometime the high.

I just quoted a 110 foot overhead quad plex 200 amp new riser on both ends $4200
The expensive guy quoted 10k was laughable.
But he has 3 employees so he doing something right.
Though he got a bad repor in down for screwing people.

That hr is with profit from materials also.
Only had one bid job were I was equall or less than my normal hr rate

 

[OK Sparky 93]

how did you base your hourly rate?

How many annual hours is it based on?

And if that service work (unknown) is all you had, it provides you with a livable income?

Is that $200-$400 residential work only?

 

[AC\DC]

Livable is a debatable concept. Most American overspend including me, but yes I think this year I only will net 50k from salary and profit.
Had a 30k truck and building repairs of 30k that was unexpected. Year before was about 110k net

 

[zbang]

OK-
I kinda sounds like you need to spend some $$ on a couple of hours with a real accountant, they're likely to see or know something you don't.

Also, more bid work or more service?
More residential or commercial? How much specialization? (Some do mostly resi solar, or mostly new construction, or mostly pools. I knew one guy that just did UPSs, and he kept busy.)
Do you have connections with local equipment dealers for referrals?

 

[OK Sparky 93]

Are your bid jobs at your hr rate??
My hourly is a lot lower than if I bid it. But I get a lot of word of mouth and small jobs have led to some big jobs.
My bid hr usually come to $200-400

AC when you are bidding the seen job vs the hourly for the unseen, and you say it works out to be $200-$400. Are you using labor units and your normal hourly rate, and you just happen to beat the clock giving you the larger hourly rate, or some other method?

 

[OK Sparky 93]

Also do you guys do jobs other than large commercial, in which the customer is adamant about supplying materials?

 

[AC\DC]

I hate taking my time, if its T&m or bidding I going to do as fast as I can while still making it look good. Hence bidding is awesome cause ill do it fast and make more, Not so much on T&M since I not stretching time. Plus bidding program give me set hours it is suppose to take. So my normal hours x bid labor amount plus overhead, plus material increase= cost plus10-15% profit on top of that. Then keep track of my hours while doing job. Take away material cost and then divide how many hours I actually worked plus a couple extra for waisted time and I get about $290 usually