Well that was depre$$ing

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why not just stick to the topic and leave the name calling to your children?
I love it when guys here want to tell everybody how they are running their business incorrectly yet not a lot of guys here will lay out their numbers of what they charge.
There should be a reply post from everyone on this board with where they are from and their rates - that would be the most helpful thing anyone here could do. Even if everone here charged the same in their same area - there will always be someone cheaper - I'm not sure you can do anything about that - except keep trying to educate people that need it.

Or just continue with silly responses and don't help anyone at all.

We do a lot of public bidding using the prevailing wages set by the state, at least you know what the other guy has to pay his guys by law, and you can figure your price off of that. (overhead, office expenses, profit, materials, markup, etc). Although competitive bidding can drive you crazy too.
 
Copper

I speak only for me here, but I don't care how any one individual.runs their business. None of my comments are aimed at anyone specific. That being said, if you are proud that you work 24/7 for slave wages and are booked for 6 months solid, goody for you. But don't be proud of it because you are ignorant of the fact that there is a more effective way.
 
Same basic conversation with a guy he was charging 20.00 less an hour that I was. I said you have same basic cost, warehouse, trucks secretary, union bennies ect.

He said I have a truck fee, tool rental, fuel surcharge, minimum hourly and on and on...Sometimes there is more to the story.

His hourly for 8 hours was slightly more than mine.
 
Minuteman said:
I'm in OKC and I charge $75 for a journeyman and $112.5 for a jw & a helper. We are very busy, I hired 2 guys this month.
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My point is, that out here in "fly over country" thing cost a lot less. Gas is $3.60 - $3.75 per. A new 2000 ft/2 home runs about $120,000. Base pay for a JW is $18 - $22.

It just struck me funny that out there in the East Coast, as expensive as it is there, that somebody would be charging about the same as me. :confused:
 
iwire said:
Depending on who your listening to China is putting 7 million new cars a year on the road.
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Yes, that adds to demand (along with India).

Currently we have less than 5% of the world population and use about 24% of the oil. We (USA) have a serious problem on our hands.
 
hardworkingstiff said:
If oil will stabilize, then I would feel better.
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We are finally between the old rock and a hard place. The weak dollars means oil will cost more but a strong dollars makes us less competitive on the world market so we lose even more jobs.

It's one of those cases where the cure may actually be worse than the disease.
 
CopperTone said:
I'm in massachusetts and I charge $75/hr for a lic. guy and $120/hr for a lic. guy and an apprentice.
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I don't mean anything personal but that does seem pretty low.

I'm in the far west suburbs of Chicago and the local handyman charges $125.00 for the first hour, $90.00/hr after that. And he is a jack of all trades but a master of none.
 
Several here think the prices I charge are low. How come I am losing so much work to cheaper guys around where I live. I am flat out told to my face - you're higher than xyz. And I lose bid jobs all the time using our hourly rate factored in.
I know what our costs are, and profit - we're doing fine - a little slow sometimes with work this past year. Believe me, I want to charge more, I'd lose 1/2 the smaller GC's we work for right now if I did. So, tell me - anyone - how much is not too low?
Please don't start in with - it depends on your costs, burden, overhead, desired profit, etc.
Lets assume all small companies have the relatively same amount of overhead and all are competing with each other for work. I really would like to hear from other guys in eastern Massachusetts

company A 1-5 guys
company B 6 -24 guys
company C 25 + guys
 
CopperTone said:
Believe me, I want to charge more, I'd lose 1/2 the smaller GC's we work for right now if I did.
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I see your problem as being the fact that you're putting too many eggs in one basket. That basket is called "working for GC's".
 
mdshunk said:
I see your problem as being the fact that you're putting too many eggs in one basket. That basket is called "working for GC's".
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I agree. When I first started contracting in '03, I was told to focus on one or two things and find my niche. Things did not seem to work that way, and I was all over the map.

Now, we have several interests. Besides the obligatory residential calls, we work for a few GC's, a GC who just does insurance claims, a large manufacturing shop and a few small shops, a few A/C companies call on us, and four property management companies. On top of all that, we have the contract to maintain the metro area tornado sirens (over 100).
 
CopperTone said:
Several here think the prices I charge are low. How come I am losing so much work to cheaper guys around where I live. I am flat out told to my face - you're higher than xyz. And I lose bid jobs all the time using our hourly rate factored in.
I know what our costs are, and profit - we're doing fine - a little slow sometimes with work this past year. Believe me, I want to charge more, I'd lose 1/2 the smaller GC's we work for right now if I did. So, tell me - anyone - how much is not too low?
Please don't start in with - it depends on your costs, burden, overhead, desired profit, etc.
Lets assume all small companies have the relatively same amount of overhead and all are competing with each other for work. I really would like to hear from other guys in eastern Massachusetts

company A 1-5 guys
company B 6 -24 guys
company C 25 + guys
Click to expand...

Maybe you need to look at how you are marketing yourself?
 
CopperTone said:
Several here think the prices I charge are low. How come I am losing so much work to cheaper guys around where I live. I am flat out told to my face - you're higher than xyz. And I lose bid jobs all the time using our hourly rate factored in.
I know what our costs are, and profit - we're doing fine - a little slow sometimes with work this past year. Believe me, I want to charge more, I'd lose 1/2 the smaller GC's we work for right now if I did. So, tell me - anyone - how much is not too low?
Please don't start in with - it depends on your costs, burden, overhead, desired profit, etc.
Lets assume all small companies have the relatively same amount of overhead and all are competing with each other for work. I really would like to hear from other guys in eastern Massachusetts

company A 1-5 guys
company B 6 -24 guys
company C 25 + guys
Click to expand...



I'm not gonna be much help to you because I'm in florida, but our hourly rate on t and m work is 60.00 (130.00 first hour) per man, and as low as 50.00 per man on our large commercial maintenance contracts. There's no way someone can read that and assume we are not earning profits. I too would like to see more replies with hourly rates posted. Most of us understand that every market is different so just spill the beans.
 
CHWflorida said:
I'm not gonna be much help to you because I'm in florida, but our hourly rate on t and m work is 60.00 (130.00 first hour) per man, and as low as 50.00 per man on our large commercial maintenance contracts. There's no way someone can read that and assume we are not earning profits. I too would like to see more replies with hourly rates posted. Most of us understand that every market is different so just spill the beans.
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I guess it is area specific but around here $50-$60/billable hr would just cover livable wages and benefits assuming no non-billable time. Overhead and profit would not be covered by that. Then figure in non-billable time.
 
powerslave said:
I guess it is area specific but around here $50-$60/billable hr would just cover livable wages and benefits assuming no non-billable time. Overhead and profit would not be covered by that. Then figure in non-billable time.
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You tell me that our rates our too low for your market but you don't tell me what rates are not. The point is I'm curious as to what the average profitable rate is in your area. If you don't want to reveal your own, which would be much more interesting, then just reply with "going rates". I have only worked in this state and the only corespondence that I do with out of state contractors is through this website.
 
CHWflorida said:
You tell me that our rates our too low for your market but you don't tell me what rates are not. The point is I'm curious as to what the average profitable rate is in your area. If you don't want to reveal your own, which would be much more interesting, then just reply with "going rates". I have only worked in this state and the only corespondence that I do with out of state contractors is through this website.
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I guess I'm just saying that 50-60/hr would just cover labor in this area. Add in O/H and profit and take into consideration how many non-billable hours you have in a year and you get your number. I know things cost differently all over the country. It depends on what type of work you do also.
 
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