Handyman-type job calls

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Not really relevant, even if you got a family to support, that's wage related, not overhead related. Nor is any of this relevant to the OP, so I'm gonna stop here.
 
Jerramundi said:
what I call "the magical $150/hr" that some GC's and even some EC's seem to pull out of thin air,
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What if $150 i is the dividing line for me as to whether I go get into something vs work on a project at home? So yes I pull it out of thin air: $149, no thanks, Ill go in the woods with my tractor and chainsaw and grab those few dying ash trees I've had my eye on, vs $151, Ok Ill do the job. Why do you have such a big problem with this?
 
'A spark doth not a biz man make' , was what i was told decades ago, FF to the back 9 of my career ,and boy were they right.......~S~
 
electrofelon said:
What if $150 i is the dividing line for me as to whether I go get into something vs work on a project at home? So yes I pull it out of thin air: $149, no thanks, Ill go in the woods with my tractor and chainsaw and grab those few dying ash trees I've had my eye on, vs $151, Ok Ill do the job. Why do you have such a big problem with this?
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Because pulling numbers out of thin air pisses me off. It's unethical. If your costs justify it, then okay.
 
Just yesterday, I charged $100 instead of $150 for a troubleshoot because I was done within 20 minutes.

The cost of getting there and running a business does not change with how much time is spent on site.
 
Jerramundi said:
Because pulling numbers out of thin air pisses me off. It's unethical. If your costs justify it, then okay.
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me too, I'm always expected to pull numbers out of thin air when they want to know how much something will cost them. If you give them a number that you later find out was low they seem to expect you to honor it anyway, so those off the top estimates anymore are usually inflated just in case. Easier to ask for less later on than to ask for more.
 
kwired said:
me too, I'm always expected to pull numbers out of thin air when they want to know how much something will cost them. If you give them a number that you later find out was low they seem to expect you to honor it anyway, so those off the top estimates anymore are usually inflated just in case. Easier to ask for less later on than to ask for more.
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I NEVER give on-site estimates unless I'm 100% certain of the cost for that exact reason.

Opening prices, when calculated for exact material quantities and not just over-inflated to cover your butt, can vary greatly depending on distance, quality of product utilized, etc.

I always stress that I'll come out for a site visit, introduce myself, and discuss the work for free. I try to limit each visit to an hour. During which time I take measurements, think about raceway runs, etc.

They always ask for a number at the end of the visit and I firmly tell them I need 24-48 hours and I will send them a written estimate. They don't like that and want a number NOW because that's the world we live in. I want everything NOW!

I've had to learn the hard way that you just gotta be firm and insist on taking the time to go home, do a little research, and compose a written estimate with terms and all.
 
kwired said:
me too, I'm always expected to pull numbers out of thin air when they want to know how much something will cost them. If you give them a number that you later find out was low they seem to expect you to honor it anyway, so those off the top estimates anymore are usually inflated just in case. Easier to ask for less later on than to ask for more.
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Definitely easier to ask for less later. Definitely. And looks better in terms of the business relationship.
 
Coppersmith said:
It's better to give your exact price rather than guess high and go low later. If you guess higher than the other guy, there may be no later.
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I agree, they often still want a WAG, to which they later may try to hold you to.

Often they get something like "somewhere between $500 and $1000" in those cases. Then you hopefully have that worst case covered if it should happen. Labor I can usually live with whatever I came up with, even if it ends up involving a little more than I expected, but usually have to mention something about needing to verify price of some item as I don't know for certain what a current price may be.
 
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