desperate help on Pricing

[steffan]

Hi, I am in a bit of a hurry and promised my customer I will get back to them asap...
However, I'm in a bit of a situation... I have been asked to refit a pizza shop, which is due to open soon. Unfortunately I have only ever worked in domestic and industrial areas, so im in need of a little advice...

could someone give me a rough idea of what i should be charging....

ther a are a number of circuit which need to be installed...

3 lighting circuits
3 ring mains (10 sockets on each)
2 radials going to heaters in the main shop
1 very large 10mm cable to be used for an industrial oven (wattage not known)

The lighting in the main area is done via a suspended ceiling, however, there are no tiles or lghts currently in place.

I have estimated the costs for this ceiling to be around £1000, for materials only, is this normal for commercail installs?

since I am used to working in domestic areas, I am unsure what to charge, I will need a new CCU and all work will need to be tested properly.

I have estimated this all at about £4000, am i cutting myself short here? whats the normal price for a shop fit?

 

[plugsandsparks]

I price, based on time and materials. Figure out what bits you need and how much they cost , then how long its going to take to do it against your hourly rate. Only apply contingency once and you should be there or there abouts.
Being VAT registered will help

 

[Knobhead]

Check on the oven, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find it’s 3 phase.

 

[Short Circuit]

I agree with tony, the oven could well be 3 phase. Pricing anyjob is a nightmare, but as P & S says, work out materials, add about 10% for your effort collecting them etc - i always add something for extra bits, on a job like that i would be adding a further £60 to cover bits and pieces you wont have put on the price,ie fixings, tie raps - you'd be surprised how quick they add up! Time is the hard one to figure out, but go through the job in your head and think how many days it takes and charge a daily rate - what ever you think is a good rate for your area!

A lad i know with the DNO says pizza shops are notorious for their cut out fuse to be blowing all the time as they use far too much with adding extra pizza ovens - if you are designing the job, you will need to know max demand as the customer will come back to you when he has plugged loads of stuff into those 30 skts and his big oven is on then it goes dark and he cant trade! Check the DNO fuse size and work to that!

 

[ebow72]

I think this has been posted before, but might give you a starting price at least...hope it helps.
Electrician Prices - Estimates of the cost of electrical jobs

 

[dingledong]

i dont understand this if he has done domestic and industrial
1 he'd know about 3 phase industrial
2 lighting and power domestic
3 he's done pricing before surely

i think this chap is another chancer who's going to give it a go

am i to cynical

 

[Wazzajnr]

1 very large 10mm cable to be used for an industrial oven (wattage not known)

How do we know it is 10mm without knowing the wattage??? and if you've done industrial, i am surprised that you would class this as "very large"

That said, there's been some good advice here. Just get on the websites to price up your materials. (I normally price them based on the more expensive suppliers then once i've won the job take a BOM to another supplier and try to get as much disc as poss)
Then once materials are priced, have a best guess at how many hours you will spend then add a few for good measure because it will always take longer than you expect!!
Maybe you are a chancer, maybe not but i guess we all have to start somewhere

 

[Guitarist]

To be honest, why offer to price up a job when you have no idea about pricing. If I'm not sure how long a job will take, I add up materials (plus a %) then tell the client that I will work as fast as I can to a high standard. If that's not good enough I walk away. As said before, 10mm is NOT a very large cable....

 

[RISElectrical]

As guitarist said, if unsure you could always give a materials price and a day rate and then explain to the client that you will do it as quick as possible while maintaining standards, or as another option maybe price for worse case, say 10 days but then offer client a discount for early completion? Usually I would just price it and have done, if you lose a little you'll know for next time, that's where experience comes in. Or just work on a day rate if client is willing.1 other option is why not get someone more experienced in this work to work with you if possible, lots of sparks looking for work at the min. You gain experience from him and in return he gets some lovely money, win win. I did this a while ago with a security systems guy. Whenever I had a security system to install I would give him a bell and get him involved, yes I made less profit but I learnt something new every time