Pricing ?

[JM ELECTRICAL]

Hello,

how much do yous all charge in a domestic property from changing a fitting to a full rewire ?

i know prices change depending on the job I am just asking for a rough estimates as I feel as I am newly qualified when I do jobs for people my prices are all over the place.

thanks

 

[Sintra]

This is not the best place to discuss prices. Remember this is an open forum viewable by the public.

 

[JM ELECTRICAL]

I am only asking for very rough estimates, if someone wants to share information but doesn't want to post here please private mail me that would be very much appreciated !

 

[Dave 85]

I would charge ten grand....for any job, keeps things simple.

 

[i=p/u]

Hourly rate x hours to do job x materials, then if someone says change few lights , change a board, half day or full day or hourly rate..

you ain't the first to make no profit and hard work ha been put in. You'll work it out .

 

[JM ELECTRICAL]

Dave that's true might go ahead with that haha

 

[arfurfouksayke]

i always like to be fair and upfront with customers when it comes to pricing.
the other day, someone phoned me and asked, how much do you charge ?
i said to him, i charge £300 to answer 3 questions.
he said, that's a bit steep isn't it ?

i said yes it is, and what was your 3rd question ? :teeth_smile:

 

[sparkol]

When I first started on my own I woefully undercharged. I think most sparks do.

You need to bear in mind that you'll spend a very small proportion of your working week actually doing chargeable work. The rest will be spent doing quotes, receipts, certificates, travelling, buying materials, answering the phone, organising your van, sorting out your advertising, buying fuel, changing the blade in your circular saw, talking on this forum, going back to jobs where you forgot to change that last lightswitch, etc...

Try to find out what hourly rate sparks in your area are charging.

Also, try to keep some rough records of how long certain jobs take you, so you can accurately estimate how long things actually take once you've allowed for everything from unpacking the van to clearing up after the job.

Hope that helps.

 

[Dave 85]

Right...here's my serious answer. I was actually thinking about this quite a bit the other day....

Here's the way I look at it...
If my work is steady I wanna be making 35k profit. If I'm flat out every month doing 50 hour weeks I'd wanna make considerably more.
Now I reckon for every 4 days I spend doing chargeable work I spend at least 1 viewing jobs and doing admin. So I consider a week to be four 8 hour days chargeable work.
Now obviously I'm not gonna be doing 52 weeks work a year
So I'd deduct:
2 weeks abroad
2 weeks bank holiday (guess?)
2 weeks Christmas
4 weeks Cancelled jobs/no work/half days etc

So realistically, I'm reckoning on 42 x 4 day weeks a year
so that's 168 days of chargeable work...
Now the running expenses of a small electrical firm (not inc materials) for me have always been about 5k per year

So if I want 35k profit and 5k running costs I divide £40,000 by 168 days which gives me approx £240 a day or £30 an hour

In reality...if I'm on a job for a regular client and I'm working on an hourly rate (which I only do for a very few clients) I'll charge £25 per hour. On most jobs I will quote beforehand and aim to earn £30 per hour + 25% profit on materials so I am making £250-£400 per day total.

If you quote the job beforehand, and do not specify what proportion is labor/materials no one can try and argue that you are making too much money...They simply accept or reject your quote.

I rarely lose a quoted job and have not had an invoice or quote questioned by a client for years. One reason for this is that the majority of my clients are repeat customers and I always maintain a friendly relationship with them.
I know most of my clients will not bother getting quotes from other contractors as they trust me and would prefer to use me than a stranger.

 

[Dave 85]

For the record...I live in the south east where living expenses are high and most of my clients are fairly wealthy. Obviously average earning for tradesmen varies massively depending on which part of the UK they are in.

 

[Welchyboy1]

For the record...I live in the south east where living expenses are high and most of my clients are fairly wealthy. Obviously average earning for tradesmen varies massively depending on which part of the UK they are in.

I also live in the south east and would concur lol