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OK Sparky 93

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Iridea14Strat
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Electrician
Good morning! It seems as though I have the day off, or at least the moment. I am basically a one man operation, with a nephew as helper, when I need. Otherwise an observer. I'll try to be brief. I was reading through a post, in which someone said, after the first hour, they had a rate of $65. They must have absolutely no O/H. After allowing for 30% give or take to go to taxes, that would leave about $45.50

So I am curious! Those of you in the mid-west, or anywhere. I realize, that it may not be a one size fits all, however, what do you think is appropriate for a contractor to bring home annually?

After maybe 1350 hours at $45, I potentially would bring home $60,750, ( I don't feel this is out of line, and I would like it to be better)
add in 30% for taxes, and I would be just under $65 an hour, without O/H.
 
Bid jobs. You do it right your hourly should be double or three times what your normally hour rate is.
Mine ranges from $125 base to $300 and hr
We have a high cost of living so I will be more than you I presume,
 
A rule of thumb for me is that I should make much more that I would working for someone else. As a self-employed individual there is much more risk than being an employee and way more responsibility. Not sure of your location but the cost of living here is high too. So as AC/DC posted, $125 to $300 is feasible. Rarely do I get near $300. I bid at $140 and actual turns to $120, even less sometimes.
 
AC\DC said:
Bid jobs. You do it right your hourly should be double or three times what your normally hour rate is.
Mine ranges from $125 base to $300 and hr
We have a high cost of living so I will be more than you I presume,
Click to expand...
So are you saying that you charge a different hourly rate if you go to a “service call” vs a job that will take you all day, week or weeks?

In the early days of my adventure, I don’t seem to be super busy. If I am actually in the field 20 hours a week, well let’s just that gets me by. However, my rate for those 20 hours has to be the same, whether it is one 20 hr job or 10 two hr jobs.

Do you guys do differently?
 
OK Sparky 93 said:
So are you saying that you charge a different hourly rate if you go to a “service call” vs a job that will take you all day, week or weeks?

In the early days of my adventure, I don’t seem to be super busy. If I am actually in the field 20 hours a week, well let’s just that gets me by. However, my rate for those 20 hours has to be the same, whether it is one 20 hr job or 10 two hr jobs.

Do you guys do differently?
Click to expand...
It depends on the length of the job. Let's say the first hour of a residential service call is $160, after that, then it can scale down depending on how long it takes. Some guys don't increment down. Some that do smaller one day or less jobs charge more per hour, and on larger jobs that span over several days charge less per hour. I like your way. And sometimes if the job goes faster, you make more per hour than anticipated. And then there's the material % mark up.
 
OK Sparky 93 said:
So are you saying that you charge a different hourly rate if you go to a “service call” vs a job that will take you all day, week or weeks?

In the early days of my adventure, I don’t seem to be super busy. If I am actually in the field 20 hours a week, well let’s just that gets me by. However, my rate for those 20 hours has to be the same, whether it is one 20 hr job or 10 two hr jobs.

Do you guys do differently?
Click to expand...
I charge a flat rate for service work.
Bidding I throw it in my program out pops my number. If I accounted for all items then my labor hours the program spits out is ussaly more then what it actually takes me. Get done faster make more money!!
No different then a mechanic
 
AC\DC said:
I charge a flat rate for service work.
Bidding I throw it in my program out pops my number. If I accounted for all items then my labor hours the program spits out is ussaly more then what it actually takes me. Get done faster make more money!!
No different then a mechanic
Click to expand...
What program do you use?
 
OK Sparky 93 said:
I was reading through a post, in which someone said, after the first hour, they had a rate of $65. They must have absolutely no O/H. After allowing for 30% give or take to go to taxes, that would leave about $45.50
Click to expand...
It's not really accurate to look at what you would make after taxes, if you're comparing to having a job.

Everyone's net will look different from the next guy.

Depending on what types of customer you're working for, your 1,350 hours per year may or may not be accurate.

I think if you're working for end users (homeowners, etc) it might be close. It could be as little as 1,200 paying hours, if you give free estimates and get small jobs.

If you subcontract, you should spend more time on the job - thus, a lower rate is may be in order. But subcontracting usually requires you to bid rather than paying by the hour.

I rarely work by the hour because apparently $1,800 in a day by the piece is easier to digest than $90 per hour + materials

Here's where I am, as a general rule...

Hourly:
End user - $145 for first hour and $120 after. I hate working by the hour, and would rather just tell them to find someone else.

Contractor - $125 first hour and $85 thereafter
I give this rate for one reason - to give the illusion that I work for $85 per hour. I hate working by the hour because I make so much more with flat rates, per opening.
 
Righ you are if I was actually going to pay myself as an electrician ad as an owner I would pay myself $60 an hour. Now if I only happen to work 20 hours a week, most likely everything I do right now is by the hour. Based on those hours for the year, for the week, I’m going to starve. Now I feel as though right now in my second year I will get to that point that I will have enough work to be able to have someone else do it. But I have actually no idea, what the future really holds in store, that is except for death.
 
I have an hourly rate for service and a lower one for 'subcontract' work. I wouldn't land any of my subcontract jobs using my service rates, and I'd go broke using my lower rates for service work. As mentioned already it boils down to time spent on the job. I don't charge anyone by the hour however, just use it to figure how much to charge per task in both my service work and remodels/new construction. I don't know what is appropriate for an electrician to make. I just try to make the most I can? I agree you shouldn't be making the same as an employee unless you are spending a lot of your profits into your business....
 
It seems to me that most places end up spending an hour or two of non-billable time on every project regardless of how much billable time there is. You won't get very far charging $100 an hour for service work if you end up getting paid $200 but spending 4 or 5 hours on the project.

And you are probably not going to be able to charge anywhere near as much for jobs that end up being 50 or 100 or 200 hours as for something that takes an hour. But those larger projects tend to not have anywhere near as much administrative time involved.

Based on what I see with jobs I work on, I don't see how the company makes any money on my time for anything that's less than about a day's worth of work.
 
AC\DC said:
I charge a flat rate for service work.
Bidding I throw it in my program out pops my number. If I accounted for all items then my labor hours the program spits out is ussaly more then what it actually takes me. Get done faster make more money!!
No different then a mechanic
Click to expand...
Willing to share what program you use?
 
petersonra said:
Based on what I see with jobs I work on, I don't see how the company makes any money on my time for anything that's less than about a day's worth of work.
Click to expand...
Can you just elaborate on that? You mean you know what your company charges and compared to your pay it would take about 8 hours of billable time for them to profit?
 
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