how much is the going rate to charge?
- Thread starter fddeano
- Start date
- Status
charlie
Senior Member
- Location
- Indianapolis
brian john
Senior Member
- Location
- Leesburg, VA
Re: how much is the going rate to charge?
That's a loaded question,
type of work,
what do you bring to the table,
trucks,
overhead,
local labor rate,,
union non union,
taxes,
and on and on and on,
That's a loaded question,
type of work,
what do you bring to the table,
trucks,
overhead,
local labor rate,,
union non union,
taxes,
and on and on and on,
B
bthielen
Guest
Re: how much is the going rate to charge?
Does it really matter what the "going" rate is so long as you are satisfied? All too often we concern ourselves with comparing our compensation with others. In my life I have come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter how my colleagues are compensated. Keeping up with the Jones' is unimportant. What matters is whether I am satisfied with what I do and what I get in return.
Charge what you feel is adequate to cover the experience, training, equipment, insurance, retirement, taxes, and other expenses you have and give yourself what YOU feel is fair for YOU. If your price happens to be less than the "average" and the quality of the work you do is satisfactory or better, then you will likely find yourself with an exceptionally busy workload. Of course, you must consider all expenses to stay in business but, price yourself too high, relative to the quality of your service, and you may find yourself out in the cold.
Good luck,
Bob
Does it really matter what the "going" rate is so long as you are satisfied? All too often we concern ourselves with comparing our compensation with others. In my life I have come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter how my colleagues are compensated. Keeping up with the Jones' is unimportant. What matters is whether I am satisfied with what I do and what I get in return.
Charge what you feel is adequate to cover the experience, training, equipment, insurance, retirement, taxes, and other expenses you have and give yourself what YOU feel is fair for YOU. If your price happens to be less than the "average" and the quality of the work you do is satisfactory or better, then you will likely find yourself with an exceptionally busy workload. Of course, you must consider all expenses to stay in business but, price yourself too high, relative to the quality of your service, and you may find yourself out in the cold.
Good luck,
Bob
G
Guest
Guest
Re: how much is the going rate to charge?
In 1994 I worked for a nationwide electrical service company. They dispatched out of Los Angeles area and had crews working in LA area, San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, and Texas.
As a technician I had to buy my own parts. That way I would not steal them. The company billed the customer 5.65 times End Column for the parts. The labor rate was $47.50 per half hour. Most clients did mental math and figured they were paying about $80 an hour when it was really closer to $100. The company also charged a $35 service call fee. The company pulled permits on EVERY job and added permit costs to every service call too. Client paid 1.5 rate for overtime jobs. There was no special weekend or night rate.
Here was the interesting part for me as a technician:
1. I was an employee.
2. I got full medical benefits.
3. I got overtime.
4. I got $35 per hour.
5. I was covered by Worker's Comp.
6. Every job had a permit.
7. Every job was done "right".
8. I got 15% profit sharing on any parts sold and remember the parts were marked up 5.65 times before the 15% was applied. When I was doing my own contracting jobs I added 15% to 20% onto true cost-- but here I was getting 15% on a huge markup.
9. I was able to get pricing at 50% or more off end column from my suppliers. This meant every time I spend $1 on parts I got at least $2 back from my employer. Actually the parts checks were made out to WESCO so I had to buy more parts. That was the point. The more parts I sold the bigger my "truck" stock got. I had the biggest truck stock in the whole country. It was against company policy to use the parts checks for any taxable items (ala TOOLS). I had to furnish my own tools-- but there were bonuses and incentives that resulted in us getting some free tools based on our production.
10. I got 29 cents mileage for every mile I drove and I drove 1000 miles per week.
11. I worked 7 days a week, 16-hours a day. Even with all the driving (basically unpaid) I made a ton of money.
12. I wore a uniform.
13. The girls loved it.
14. I had no life. The company promised to hire extra men but they had a hard time finding too many who would sponsor their own truck stock. I was lucky to be an electrical contractor already so I had the truck, tools, cell phone, truck stock, and enough working capital to make it to the first pay check. Wow!
The customers got a H-U-G-E estimate upfront and paid a lot for their work but they got first-class work and it was all done under a permit. I loved it! I did burn out within a year due to the lack of manpower and the excessive hours and workload.
My employer spent one million dollars a year with PacBell Yellow Pages. You might note that many of the electrical ads in the phone book (especially the one-page ads) go to a disconnected number. Many electrical contractors go out of business before the book is even published. The company I worked for would pick up all those DEAD phone numbers. This meant if you called a dozen of the full-page ads you would reach the company I worked for on at least six of the ads. The company could bid against itself. It was mostly EMERGENCY service work. 99% of the customers did not bat an eye when we presented them with a fat estimate up front. We had a price book that listed the marked up price of every item in the WESCO price book. That way the customer knew we had consistent pricing.
Moral of this story: If you charge too little the customer may not be happy and you get screwed. If you charge a lot you can make the customer happy. If the customer still is not happy at least you did your best and you don't get screwed. 99 times out of a hundred the customer did not even flinch at paying $40 for a GFI outlet. They might even say "I've seen those at Home Depot for $8" to which we would reply "actually we pay about $4 for them but we are in this business to make money. When you need us we will still be here in business because we can afford to stay in business". Then they signed the estimate.
I did set a company record in a 16 hour shift with two helpers I landed a $45,000 estimate on a Sunday at a hospital-- got there at Noon with all the power down and the generator broken-- started at 2 P.M. Sunday and finished it at 6 A.M. Monday. The hospital owner put it on his Amex card. The Amex pre-auth took about 45-minutes as the owner was out-of-town and had to be called first by Amex.
[Note: Interesting thing about a power failure at a hospital: Main panel Zinsco Main Breaker fries and causes diesel generator to kick in; diesel smoke from generator goes in open windows and triggers smoke alarms; smoke alarms shut down diesel generator. My first job was to get the generator up and running as maintenance did not know what to do. The fire dept. was there with portable generators and life support. I got the generator fired up and the fire dept. left but was on standby. The fire dept. would not allow me to proceed with the main panel replacement (800- amp 3-phase meter/main-combo stand-up) until I procured a BACKUP generator for the generator!].
The client's hospital office manager signed off on the job and complimented me by saying "the patients never felt any anxiety during this whole process. Thank you for bringing calm to our hospital, and order to our chaos".
End of rant. Your mileage may vary. Charge whatever you want. The customer will say yes or no. If you are bidding jobs, forget it unless you have a "system" or lots of volume and low overhead. Everybody is good for one bump. Give them a price that you can live with. If they balk, then you blink. If they bump you, throw them a bone and then say "please sign here so I can get going".
Damn Zinsco breakers, but they made me money! Damn backstabbing. Damn bus over-spray and contamination. Damn Federal Pacific breakers! All junk, all money makers.
[Note: This rant was spell checked prior to submission with: ieSpell ]
In 1994 I worked for a nationwide electrical service company. They dispatched out of Los Angeles area and had crews working in LA area, San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, and Texas.
As a technician I had to buy my own parts. That way I would not steal them. The company billed the customer 5.65 times End Column for the parts. The labor rate was $47.50 per half hour. Most clients did mental math and figured they were paying about $80 an hour when it was really closer to $100. The company also charged a $35 service call fee. The company pulled permits on EVERY job and added permit costs to every service call too. Client paid 1.5 rate for overtime jobs. There was no special weekend or night rate.
Here was the interesting part for me as a technician:
1. I was an employee.
2. I got full medical benefits.
3. I got overtime.
4. I got $35 per hour.
5. I was covered by Worker's Comp.
6. Every job had a permit.
7. Every job was done "right".
8. I got 15% profit sharing on any parts sold and remember the parts were marked up 5.65 times before the 15% was applied. When I was doing my own contracting jobs I added 15% to 20% onto true cost-- but here I was getting 15% on a huge markup.
9. I was able to get pricing at 50% or more off end column from my suppliers. This meant every time I spend $1 on parts I got at least $2 back from my employer. Actually the parts checks were made out to WESCO so I had to buy more parts. That was the point. The more parts I sold the bigger my "truck" stock got. I had the biggest truck stock in the whole country. It was against company policy to use the parts checks for any taxable items (ala TOOLS). I had to furnish my own tools-- but there were bonuses and incentives that resulted in us getting some free tools based on our production.
10. I got 29 cents mileage for every mile I drove and I drove 1000 miles per week.
11. I worked 7 days a week, 16-hours a day. Even with all the driving (basically unpaid) I made a ton of money.
12. I wore a uniform.
13. The girls loved it.
14. I had no life. The company promised to hire extra men but they had a hard time finding too many who would sponsor their own truck stock. I was lucky to be an electrical contractor already so I had the truck, tools, cell phone, truck stock, and enough working capital to make it to the first pay check. Wow!
The customers got a H-U-G-E estimate upfront and paid a lot for their work but they got first-class work and it was all done under a permit. I loved it! I did burn out within a year due to the lack of manpower and the excessive hours and workload.
My employer spent one million dollars a year with PacBell Yellow Pages. You might note that many of the electrical ads in the phone book (especially the one-page ads) go to a disconnected number. Many electrical contractors go out of business before the book is even published. The company I worked for would pick up all those DEAD phone numbers. This meant if you called a dozen of the full-page ads you would reach the company I worked for on at least six of the ads. The company could bid against itself. It was mostly EMERGENCY service work. 99% of the customers did not bat an eye when we presented them with a fat estimate up front. We had a price book that listed the marked up price of every item in the WESCO price book. That way the customer knew we had consistent pricing.
Moral of this story: If you charge too little the customer may not be happy and you get screwed. If you charge a lot you can make the customer happy. If the customer still is not happy at least you did your best and you don't get screwed. 99 times out of a hundred the customer did not even flinch at paying $40 for a GFI outlet. They might even say "I've seen those at Home Depot for $8" to which we would reply "actually we pay about $4 for them but we are in this business to make money. When you need us we will still be here in business because we can afford to stay in business". Then they signed the estimate.
I did set a company record in a 16 hour shift with two helpers I landed a $45,000 estimate on a Sunday at a hospital-- got there at Noon with all the power down and the generator broken-- started at 2 P.M. Sunday and finished it at 6 A.M. Monday. The hospital owner put it on his Amex card. The Amex pre-auth took about 45-minutes as the owner was out-of-town and had to be called first by Amex.
[Note: Interesting thing about a power failure at a hospital: Main panel Zinsco Main Breaker fries and causes diesel generator to kick in; diesel smoke from generator goes in open windows and triggers smoke alarms; smoke alarms shut down diesel generator. My first job was to get the generator up and running as maintenance did not know what to do. The fire dept. was there with portable generators and life support. I got the generator fired up and the fire dept. left but was on standby. The fire dept. would not allow me to proceed with the main panel replacement (800- amp 3-phase meter/main-combo stand-up) until I procured a BACKUP generator for the generator!].
The client's hospital office manager signed off on the job and complimented me by saying "the patients never felt any anxiety during this whole process. Thank you for bringing calm to our hospital, and order to our chaos".
End of rant. Your mileage may vary. Charge whatever you want. The customer will say yes or no. If you are bidding jobs, forget it unless you have a "system" or lots of volume and low overhead. Everybody is good for one bump. Give them a price that you can live with. If they balk, then you blink. If they bump you, throw them a bone and then say "please sign here so I can get going".
Damn Zinsco breakers, but they made me money! Damn backstabbing. Damn bus over-spray and contamination. Damn Federal Pacific breakers! All junk, all money makers.
[Note: This rant was spell checked prior to submission with: ieSpell ]
- Status