Competitive Pricing

[Prime Design]

Hi guys,

For most of my electrical career I've worked under somebody as a mate or subcontractor. I'm now with Napit and in a position to venture out alone. One thing about the electrical industry is there is always someone willing to lend support if I'm having trouble navigating through the regs and osg, all of you guys on here have been a great help. I never panic when it comes to knowledge because its all in the green book.
However, there's no definitive guide on pricing!! Everybody prices differently. I've been told to take my expenses into account, but I may price myself out of a job if the next electricians expenses are less than mine. Recently I was going to charge a client £150 for a 9 circuit CCU upgrade. The person I got advice from said I should be charging £25 a circuit, so I did and got the job!!!! That's £75 I could have missed out on.
I get my bread and butter from a subcontracting firm who do council maintenance and we have a schedule of rates so pricing is easy. Can we not get together on here and come up with our own rates that we can refer to?
Eg:
CCU upgrade £25 per circuit
Gas/Water bond £10 per metre
Install socket £50 (£75 with fused spur for appliance isolation)
Now I know its common for one man to undercut another man to win the job but at least they'll be some sort of guidelines for beginners like myself.

If the above is not a good idea can any of you suggest a method of pricing that has been successful for yourselves?

Thanks for taking time to read this, all advice and contributions will be appreciated.

 

[Octopus]

Where are you in the UK, location and prices matter!

 

[Prime Design]

London

 

[Octopus]

Which part of London - the wild east end or the affluent west?

I doubt many people on here will openly publish their pricing and why don't you update your location to say London?

 

[telectrix]

london? hammer the soppy southerners. charge £60/hour min.

 

[trev]

I too doubt many will give you their pricing policy on an open forum however-
The amount you need to earn/number of hours you intend to work (+a few quid for profit)= hourly rate
Then
Hourly rate (only you can work this out) x the number of hours estimated to complete a given task +materials +mark up = job price

 

[Prime Design]

North West London @ Murdoch...
Ok so maybe not everyone is willing to publish their prices, I was just trying to think of a way which will help everyone earn a good living. For example you call a few cab stations and ask for a price to a certain destination and they all give you the same price. Why can our industry not have a similar system in place?

Trev I use a similar method and I guess Telectrix £60 an hour is fair (I love Telectrix, he's always there to hold my hand hahaha). But then is the same method effective if the job is going to take a month or too?

While I have your attention (if you're willing to share even more) how did you guys bring the work in when you were new to self employment like me?

 

[atm84]

Why have you chosen the company name Prime Design, it sounds like a printers.

 

[Prime Design]

I chose that name because I believe I offer a prime or first rate service. As an electrician I have to design the circuit before I install it. I didn't want anything electrical in the name because I eventually want to be the director of a firm who offer more than electrical services. Plus at the time I was watching Transformers and we all know who the leader of the Autobots is hahaha

 

[PEM]

I'm not surprised you got the job at £225 for a 9 circuit CCU in London!!! I presume materials were on top?

Far too cheap in my view for London.

 

[Guest77]

I'm not surprised you got the job at £225 for a 9 circuit CCU in London!!! I presume materials were on top?

Far too cheap in my view for London.

Yup £750.00 more realistic for London, his price is around 30% of what it should have been lol

 

[Prime Design]

Yes materials were on top, and can you imagine how I'd be feeling right now if I did it for £150. This is why I need you guys in my life hahaha

 

[Prime Design]

OMG!!!! £750??? Is that including cert?

 

[joe.ninety]

I'm not surprised you got the job at £225 for a 9 circuit CCU in London!!! I presume materials were on top?

Far too cheap in my view for London.

Yeah, got that right. But he WAS going to charge £150 FFS.

Jesus wept, even Bosnian Bill and Polish Pete charge more than that.

 

[joe.ninety]

Yup £750.00 more realistic for London, his price is around 30% of what it should have been lol

Sorry, but now you've gone from the sublime to the ridiculous. £500 is nearer the mark, £600 with bonding if you're lucky.

 

[Guest77]

Sorry, but now you've gone from the sublime to the ridiculous. £500 is nearer the mark, £600 with bonding if you're lucky.

lol

 

[Prime Design]

...And here was me thinking I was getting it right!!! I'm glad I decided to write this post now

 

[Prime Design]

Still £500 is more than double (angry face)
Well I have certainly learnt a 'valuable' lesson. Thanks for that

 

[R G]

Its amazing how we have all trimmed our prices to be competitive , In Norfolk you would have trouble getting £200 for a board change here , with London economy now kicking off the rate would be twice that I should imagine , all my work used to be in London area and was o/k until 5 years or so ago , but some places its quite hard and you have to compete as well. I would charge what you are happy with taking into account all you're expenses and allowing for holiday , sickness etc so I would charge 30 per cent on top of what you see as a profit making margin ..

 

[Guest77]

400-500 for a split board with a test and 12 month warrenty is the going rate for a distribution board change by an competant electrican around here, you can add 150-200 on that in london, so joe.ninety saying 600 ish is probably correct, I would agree with him with his comment to be honest.