I make $95.00 and hour!! Yippee!!

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electricmanscott

electricmanscott

Senior Member
Location
Boston, MA
So I spend the day doing some miscellaneous work for this woman. It's one of those...while your here.....and can you just look at this....and This light stays on all the time since I replaced the "sockets"...etc.

I wrap up and hand her the bill for about a grand with my time and material broken out.

X hours @ $95.00
Materials $xxxx

Her respose...WOW you make $95.00 an hour!!

Of course I said no I don't which was met with a look of huh? it says $95.00 an hour.

I say yes it does say that, but I do not make that and then proceeded to list all the places that money goes. She got the point and wrote the check and I went on my merry filthy rich way. :D
 
electricmanscott said:
She got the point...
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That says a lot right there. At least she didn't hassle you beyond that and wrote the check. Most people can understand that contracting is an expense laden business. Those that don't can call the sidejobbers instead. ;)
 
At least your smart enough to charge what you need to get ahead, i had a big discussion with my boss this morning, and I'm tired of listening to what he can and cant charge... time to move on... the big kicker is that and this is his words... " at least I get a raise ever year" I almost started laughing out loud...
 
To soften the blow to the HO's...you should drop your rate to $94.99 or increase it to $95.99 ...people like to see .99?...they know they are saving money.
 
stickboy1375 said:
Ai had a big discussion with my boss this morning, and I'm tired of listening to what he can and cant charge... time to move on...
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Yeah, that's the problem...you CAN charge $95 an hour for your services...actually, for a small business, you HAVE to (I've run the numbers.)

As someone else has said here (I forget who so my apologies) some decide how much profit they want and they charge accordingly for it. Others let their customers decide how much profit they should make.
 
electricmanscott said:
So I spend the day doing some miscellaneous work for this woman. It's one of those...while your here.....and can you just look at this....and This light stays on all the time since I replaced the "sockets"...etc.

I wrap up and hand her the bill for about a grand with my time and material broken out.

X hours @ $95.00
Materials $xxxx

Her respose...WOW you make $95.00 an hour!!

Of course I said no I don't which was met with a look of huh? it says $95.00 an hour.

I say yes it does say that, but I do not make that and then proceeded to list all the places that money goes. She got the point and wrote the check and I went on my merry filthy rich way. :D
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In our state we have to give the customer, a written contract for jobs over $500

You will always, invite an argument, every time you list, labor and material for a homeowner, they don't want a story on what ir costs, they just see the $95 and they know that is more then the they make.
 
Scott, you are really raking it in. I remember when you were only making $92/ hour.

Stickboy, are you saying you are leaving your job?
 
peter d said:
Yeah, that's the problem...you CAN charge $95 an hour for your services...actually, for a small business, you HAVE to (I've run the numbers.)

As someone else has said here (I forget who so my apologies) some decide how much profit they want and they charge accordingly for it. Others let their customers decide how much profit they should make.
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no idea;).....
 
A Blue moon ?

A Blue moon ?

I just dropped the bride's Car off for service, the piece of mind is priceless, & all else will be paid for!
Congradulations, You hit the high of the your bell curve....Enjoy!
 
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j_erickson said:
Scott, you are really raking it in. I remember when you were only making $92/ hour.
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I still only make $92.00 sometimes. This was outside of my "$92.00 zone" so I charge more for gas and whatnot.

I have to go now. I must get to the post office to change my address 'cause I'm movin' over to easy street! :D
 
cadpoint said:
I just dropped the bride's Car off, the piece of mind is priceless, & all else will be paid for!
Congradulations, You hit the high of the your bell curve....Enjoy!
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cadpoint, i thought we discussed trying to have your posts make sense to someone besides you...:D
 
emahler said:
no idea;).....
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Ooooppps....it was you. :D I sort of remembered right after I posted it was either you or satcom. So yeah, it was E, he gets the credit for that pearl of wisdom. Listen when he speaks, all you youngun' contractors. :)
 
satcom said:
You will always, invite an argument, every time you list, labor and material for a homeowner, they don't want a story on what ir costs, they just see the $95 and they know that is more then the they make.
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I don't totaly disagree. But I have had just as many arguments when I just hand over a bill for a thousand bucks with no real explanation.

This work was basically come do this...oh and while your here.....and from a couple hours it goes to all day, with the "meter" running.

I am comfortable billing jobs like this this way. I don't mind explaining where the money is going. It's better than them asking why $1000.00? and me answering 'cause I said so. Which actually would be way more fun. :grin: Or maybe "Shut up and look at my new truck..."
 
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satcom said:
In our state we have to give the customer, a written contract for jobs over $500
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You live in a rule heavy state, but you already know that.:grin:

In this area very few people do contracts for small jobs, and lets face it $500 is a small job at this point.

A roofer I hired had a contract with a value around $6,000, The mason I hired for $1900 was a handshake.
 
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