Re: Labor Pricing
I have a small contracting business here in Northern Ca, rural area 18000 people in our town. I am the only elect contractor who have employees and am promoting a progressive business. I charge $ 65.00 per hour for commercial work and 52.80 for residential, why the odd hourly charge? you ask, that is how tight I have been tracking the rate to my overhead. This is a great retirement area and I have to deal with other contractors who are semi retired and charge 40 per hour, at hte same time they dont have work comp overhead and here in Ca it is the highest in the country, they dont even have liability insurance, I know because being a small area I hear the work thy wont bid on due to no insurance cert provision. I used to try and bid against these in my way electricians now if I find out during the bidding process they are bidding it is easier not to waste my time, if I do bid the customer ends up thinking I am trying to gouge them, and I personaly am tired of explaining that the bids are apples and mine is an orange, then I'll look at the job after these yahoos are done and it is a joke the workmanship is very poor, the materials are less than, it is sad the customer doesnt know the paid their hard earned money and the job might work for now but later try and upgrade or change something, then they find out they cant get there from here. My other complaint is General Contractors wiring everything and here in Ca it is OK, I worked with the State Contractors Board to site a concrete contractor who had some loser woking for him who had done some elect somewhere and before I knew it I was bidding against them, I tried to get the only wholesale house in the area not to sale them materials as the dont have the licsense to do the work, but they are to worried about sellig $ 1000 dollars to this loser and I am spending $ 300.000 per year, so I am having the bulk of my material shipped from almost 100 miles away at a much better price, it just forces me to be more organized an think ahead. Does any of this sound familiar and does anyone have any advice. Frustrated in Norhtern Ca
