I screwed up today

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celtic said:
You do realize the most you will ever make is about $100,000 ($50x2000 manhours/yr).....BEFORE deductions for pesky things like:
- taxes
- fuel
- insurance
- advertising
- etc etc etc

Probably drops that 100k to in the 40k area - if you're lucky.
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what if he has a helper?
And don't forget he has to pay taxes on the 40k as income
 
ivsenroute said:
It was the 3rd job that I did for this couple. They did not ask for a price, they just aked me to come out and do the work.

Originally they wanted me to add a ceiling fan box where nothing existed and fix some exposed wires in the attic that were not in a box. Other than that there as a breaker that needed to be replaced due to it being the wrong size.

Anyway, my plan was to see where the ceiling fan box was going to end up and where she wanted the switches to go then go get supplies. When I got there she decided not to have the ceiling fan installed so I was left with 2 quick fixes.

I spent 1 hour there and the only supplied I used was one 4-11/16" box with cover.

I charged her $95. which was being nice since she is a repeat customer who did not ask for prices ahead of time.

Yeah I know some of you would have made a million bucks on this but $90. for an hour is good for me. I had another job to go to anyway and got a fulls day work in there.
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Sounds about right to me. We charge $125.00 for a service call (Up to one hour on the job + material @ cost + %25.) Subsequent hours @ $60.00 per. To be honest, sometimes I cut a repeat customer a break if I just have one of my guys swing by and do something that takes five minutes. Keep your overhead in mind (ie: fuel, insurance, vehicle repair costs, licensing fees, etc. etc. etc...)
 
celtic said:
Hopefully...he would charge more than $50/hr for the matched set :D



I sort of took a WAG at that :wink:



You might might to reconsider that number until it does become a full time hobby: Business Owners' Cost Calculator - MasterPlumbers.com

Just a thought.:cool:
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Good site but didn't quite fit my "hobby"...I usually make more staying home and manage my investments. Except this year.:mad:

I think geography, number of employees, overhead, debt might influence your hourly rate significantly. I have no overhead to speak of and try not to travel over 20 min. per day.

I'm usually in the midle of the pack on a bid, which I usually don't do.
 
ohm said:
I have no overhead to speak of . . .
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I used to say the same thing . . .

headless.jpg
 
ohm said:
I guess the law of supply & demand doesn't apply to EC's. If there is no work to be had with normal prices... one should raise them to obtain work?:-?
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You market to obtain work, not adjust your cost of doing business. It is an equation. If you need $4000./ month to cover costs and you figure each customer is worth on an average $400 than you need 10 customers per month (not my numbers or based on reality, just easy numbers to demonstrate with). Given a bad month and you look like your only going to get 8 customers you need to raise the ticket to average $500 per customer, not lower it to $300. Simply put, if your slow raise your rates to cover costs. If price is the driver of your sales, get a new driver of sales.
 
bradleyelectric said:
You market to obtain work, not adjust your cost of doing business. It is an equation. If you need $4000./ month to cover costs and you figure each customer is worth on an average $400 than you need 10 customers per month (not my numbers or based on reality, just easy numbers to demonstrate with). Given a bad month and you look like your only going to get 8 customers you need to raise the ticket to average $500 per customer, not lower it to $300. Simply put, if your slow raise your rates to cover costs. If price is the driver of your sales, get a new driver of sales.
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True, but if you loose 4 customers by raising your rates you've priced yourself out of the market. Good service and low rates beget more customers. 99% of my new customers are word-of-mouth and my $100/year advertising budget is all I need.
 
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