Fixed Prices

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adamants

adamants

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new zealand
I am all the way down in New Zealand, and have been toying with the idea of fixed pricing. it is very different down here, and i haven't found 1 place that does it, so where do i start?:confused:
 
adamants said:
I am all the way down in New Zealand, and have been toying with the idea of fixed pricing. it is very different down here, and i haven't found 1 place that does it, so where do i start?:confused:
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This puts you in a great position. The first one in the area to flat rate price based on a proper rate -based on analysis of overhead, level of desired profit, level of desired quality of life, and a business plan that provides for a good advertising base, comes out the huge winner. Google flat rate electrical pricing and you will find some pretty good places to start learning.
 
you guys are so lucky over there. you can go to a website pay over $2500 and your pricing books are done and sent to you! we have to start from scratch and do it all ourselves. I used to think cutomers were stupid when i would tell them i dont know how much to wire a powerpoint! I now see how powerful it is to know exactly how much it is to do that job. as for charge out rates. i am charging $50 per hour and i thought that was good! I used the old, find out what everyone else was charging and go midfield, what a huge mistake. I have just found out 2 contractors new prices $65 and $85 per hour! I just done a calculator for charge out and i should be charging $89 per hour! I dont know how to get away with that! I am thinking that fixed pricing is the way to introduce this and conceal my wage increase. any help with this would be great. I know there is a lot of software out there, but it is all america specific. nothing like nz at all!
 
Adamant(s) I don not really believe in Flat rate pricing (in USA) or your fixed rate in NZ, I have heard stories of charging elder single ladies upwards of $200 to change a faulty switch, to me you might as well grab their purse and run.

If you have access to American versions maybe you could build the NZ version and find your niche and make gobs (thats alot) of money depending on how motivated you are?

I assure you that people do not realize what monetary figure is required to operate a business, that is not continent specific!

Good luck!:smile:
 
barbeer said:
Adamant(s) I don not really believe in Flat rate pricing (in USA) or your fixed rate in NZ, I have heard stories of charging elder single ladies upwards of $200 to change a faulty switch, to me you might as well grab their purse and run.
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it very easily would cost us $200 to send a tech out to troubleshoot and replace that switch...should we take a loss because of her age?

should someone charge $500, or $1000 or more to spend 15 mins onsite and change a switch, you might have a case...

but i think that you are letting emotions get in the way of clear thinking...
 
barbeer said:
Adamant(s) I don not really believe in Flat rate pricing (in USA) or your fixed rate in NZ, I have heard stories of charging elder single ladies upwards of $200 to change a faulty switch, to me you might as well grab their purse and run.

I assure you that people do not realize what monetary figure is required to operate a business, that is not continent specific!

Good luck!:smile:
Click to expand...

apparently the last paragraph includes you too. you cannot base your price on your perception of the customers financial state. find your cost, add your profit, and charge a consistent price for your services.
 
barbeer said:
Adamant(s) I don not really believe in Flat rate pricing (in USA) or your fixed rate in NZ, I have heard stories of charging elder single ladies upwards of $200 to change a faulty switch, to me you might as well grab their purse and run.

If you have access to American versions maybe you could build the NZ version and find your niche and make gobs (thats alot) of money depending on how motivated you are?

I assure you that people do not realize what monetary figure is required to operate a business, that is not continent specific!

Good luck!:smile:
Click to expand...

I have read lots on this forum were some have a 2 hr min lets say 2 hrs@98/hr plus parts that seems to come close to upwards of 200.00
 
adamants said:
I am all the way down in New Zealand, and have been toying with the idea of fixed pricing. it is very different down here, and i haven't found 1 place that does it, so where do i start?:confused:
Click to expand...

There is software avaiable to make up your own pricing sheets.If you could post a basic discription of like say run a dedicted 15 amp 240 v volt circuit open access I will build a sheet to show you.
 
electricguy said:
I have read lots on this forum were some have a 2 hr min lets say 2 hrs@98/hr plus parts that seems to come close to upwards of 200.00
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Yes it comes to $200, but it is only $100 per hour, what if you need to make $135 or $165 and hour? Would you stay the entire 2 hours? If not, it would seem to me that you are "cheating" your customer, by disguising your true hourly rate. If you want to charge by the hour, be my guest, but don't bill out 12 hours in an 8 hour day, that looks like you are cheating someone. I would be very upset if you charged me for two hours and only worked at my home for 50 minutes.

Also, what many fail to understand is that by charging by the hour, you inherently limit how much money that can be earned by each technician. No matter how good they get, they should only be billing 8 or so hours a day. In fact, the better that they get at their job, the less money you make as an owner. They will get the job done quicker, and charge less. Not only does this limit revenue, but as they get better at their job, it increases your cost. There is more travel time between jobs, the tech of course wants more $$ because he/she is better, you must increase you advertising because your technician now needs more calls today. When you charge flat rate, the better your tech gets, the more revenue they can bring in. The expense also increase, but the revenue is covering those expenses.
 
adamants said:
I am all the way down in New Zealand, and have been toying with the idea of fixed pricing. it is very different down here, and i haven't found 1 place that does it, so where do i start?:confused:
Click to expand...

If you feel that you can't purchase a flat rate manual and adjust it for NZ, then you will have to start by making a list of each task that you are expected to perform. Next, determine the average cost of material for each and every one of those tasks. Then determine the average estimated time it takes to perform that task. Then it's all up to arithmatic. Material cost+ (time x hourly rate)= selling price. That is assuming that your hourly rate accounts for all of your overhead and profit and the non productive time of your electricians.

You can do it, but it will be a long process. Also, written record of your process of determining what each job costs, so you can explain the process to your electricians in case they run across a task that is not it your book, they can price it themselves.

good luck
 
adamants said:
you guys are so lucky over there. you can go to a website pay over $2500 and your pricing books are done and sent to you! we have to start from scratch and do it all ourselves. I used to think cutomers were stupid when i would tell them i dont know how much to wire a powerpoint! I now see how powerful it is to know exactly how much it is to do that job. as for charge out rates. i am charging $50 per hour and i thought that was good! I used the old, find out what everyone else was charging and go midfield, what a huge mistake. I have just found out 2 contractors new prices $65 and $85 per hour! I just done a calculator for charge out and i should be charging $89 per hour! I dont know how to get away with that! I am thinking that fixed pricing is the way to introduce this and conceal my wage increase. any help with this would be great. I know there is a lot of software out there, but it is all america specific. nothing like nz at all!
Click to expand...

Tip #1. Look into a database product like Filemaker. You can customize that sucker into pretty much any format and program you like, given time and effort. You will still need to figure out true costs of each task though if you do it that way.

Tip #2. Once you complete Tip #1, you have a reproduceable product you can sell to your home market, since nobody else down there has something like it. You stand the possibility of surpassing your "flat rate electrical" business income by becoming a software vendor, and no sore back and blisters on the hands.
 
electricguy said:
There is software avaiable to make up your own pricing sheets.If you could post a basic discription of like say run a dedicted 15 amp 240 v volt circuit open access I will build a sheet to show you.
Click to expand...

run a 10amp 230volt powercircuit open access.
materials 10m cable, 1 flushbox, 1 double powerpoint, 1 hours labour, vehicle charge etc.
 
"you guys are so lucky over there. you can go to a website pay over $2500 and your pricing books are done and sent to you! we have to start from scratch and do it all ourselves"


You wish the $2500 and the books are done, to get the proper data to update your base plan on spending $300 to 600 a month, on updates to keep it up to date.

Reason we use the Aya scheduling software and have our own data base that we update with current vendor pricing, we pay the $150 and that is it, they are great at customer support, and you can update everything in the base without buying espensive modules plus updating them every time the price book seller wants to buy baby shoes.
 
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