What hourly rate do you charge ??

[Dazza1976]

Hi all,

Thinking of starting up on my own soon, and was just wondering what sort of rates all of you that are self employed, charge per hour ??

Currently for small little private jobs that I do through word of mouth, I charge roughly £30 per hour.

To start with, I thought about trying out £40 for the first hour, and then £30 per hour thereafter.

I have read on this site, some people only charging £15 per hour !! How can you possibly make a living out of that ?? By the time you have taken out all your overheads such as advertising, vehicle running costs, scheme membership and tax e.t.c you are only gonna end up with about £5-£6 per hour !!

I think its time we all stopped selling ourselves short, We are doing something that is potentially life threatening if not done in the correct way, and which took a lot of us 3 years to learn at college if done properly, aswell as on job learning and experience.

I have seen handyman companies in london area such as the 0800 Handyman, and Handysquad which charge as much as £40 per half an hour !!

And companies such as Pimlico Plumbers and London city Electrical charge up to £80 per hour for their electricians, so why shouldnt we do the same ?? It doesnt mean their sparkies are any better than us, and in some cases they are often worse, judging by some of the standards of work I have seen in the past.

Its time we all charged what we are worth, as we are professional tradesmen at the end of the day, and why should we work for peanuts when places like car garages charge £100 per hour labour for work they do.

I look forward to hearing your commnts.

 

[Octopus]

Not sure I'd be putting this on the general forum. Too many DIYers, builders and bodgers around these days.

where are you? Location matters.

EDIT: You are spot on about people selling themselves short woking for £15.00 per hour!

 

[Geordie Spark]

I think you need to decide how much money you would be happy to have in your hand per year, how many hours you're able and willing to work per year and work backwards from there to arrive at your hourly rate. :yesnod:

 

[telectrix]

work backwards, geordie? he's not a builder.

 

[i=p/u]

A builder with part p and 4 weeks intense experience in ..

 

[telectrix]

bull poo and bodging. (there you are ben, a bit of alliteration for you).

 

[JD6400]

This will upset a few , that do not want rates banted but we have nothing to hide !
Our rates generally vary from between £15 - £25 per hour +vat , depending on how qualified / experienced the man is .
We charge from when they set foot on site - when they leave , with generally no travelling time included apart from fetching parts .

We carry substantial overheads ( 13 staff at the hight of the season last year ) which include a roughly 30m x 10m ex grain store barn that has been converted to a industrial unit as a large stores / workshop and large secure yard , between 3-4 vans / pickups ( just replaced a Astra van with a new caddy last week ) several plant trailers a tracked cherry picker , all the usual plant and also at least £20 k worth of moling gear . Mostly brought brand new and out right ( never had a loan / overdraft ).

We have a separate office but also use our accountants services to do a lot of our monthly paper work such as the payroll and vat / tax .

Both myself and my other director live a comfortable life style , we are not rolling in money but at the same time we have no debts .

This was all achieved from nothing in around 10 years of trading together .

All that is not to big us up , it is to point out that although i understand we are a bit too cheap and our trade should never be under valued , i can never understand how a one man band just starting out thinks £40 - £50 per hour is acceptable and then they probably wont even give a 24/365 out of hours service to their clients either ?

We do not need to under value our trade but at the same time we do not need to charge like a wounded builder !

 

[Geordie Spark]

This will upset a few , that do not want rates banted but we have nothing to hide !
Our rates generally vary from between £15 - £25 per hour +vat , depending on how qualified / experienced the man is .
We charge from when they set foot on site - when they leave , with generally no travelling time included apart from fetching parts .

We carry substantial overheads ( 13 staff at the hight of the season last year ) which include a roughly 30m x 10m ex grain store barn that has been converted to a industrial unit as a large stores / workshop and large secure yard , between 3-4 vans / pickups ( just replaced a Astra van with a new caddy last week ) several plant trailers a tracked cherry picker , all the usual plant and also at least £20 k worth of moling gear . Mostly brought brand new and out right ( never had a loan / overdraft ).

We have a separate office but also use our accountants services to do a lot of our monthly paper work such as the payroll and vat / tax .

Both myself and my other director live a comfortable life style , we are not rolling in money but at the same time we have no debts .

This was all achieved from nothing in around 10 years of trading together .

All that is not to big us up , it is to point out that although i understand we are a bit too cheap and our trade should never be under valued , i can never understand how a one man band just starting out thinks £40 - £50 per hour is acceptable and then they probably wont even give a 24/365 out of hours service to their clients either ?

We do not need to under value our trade but at the same time we do not need to charge like a wounded builder !

Very wise of you.

The less you have to do with banks and other money lenders the better.

 

[JD6400]

That is a fact there Geordie , they have buzzed around plenty in the past trying to get us to do so and generally treated us like fools for not doing so .
If you owe them nothing you then tell them how it is !

Edit ; If we can not afford it we just wait until we can , simples .

 

[snowhead]

You can TRY and charge whatever you like.
Local market forces will drag your prices down untill you start getting work.


Pimlico work for high end customers who are prepared to pay the snobbery tax, they've worked to get where they are now.

The car dealerships who charge £100 /hr do so partly because of the very high overheads associated with Global car companies.
They're not your average back street or high street garage.


Most trades would argue their work is potentially life threatening, as would car mechanics.

Work that some builders leave as completed is actually life threatening!!

 

[Geordie Spark]

That is a fact there Geordie , they have buzzed around plenty in the past trying to get us to do so and generally treated us like fools for not doing so .
If you owe them nothing you then tell them how it is !

Well I was speaking from bitter experience.

I owned a Flight case manufacturing company and we had a good relationship with our bank manager who encouraged us to take-out a loan to buy new plant, so we borrowed £15k and bought ourselves a nice new panel saw & various other bits of kit. The repayments on the loan were quite comfortable, and everybody was happy.

Then, out of the blue, the manager was moved to another branch and a new one took his place. This new bloke - for reasons we never discovered - seemed to take a dislike to us and the next thing we knew the loan wasn't a loan anymore - it was an overdraft which he wanted repaying there & then.

I've never felt comfortable with banks or trusted them ever since.

 

[JD6400]

Well I was speaking from bitter experience.

I owned a Flight case manufacturing company and we had a good relationship with our bank manager who encouraged us to take-out a loan to buy new plant, so we borrowed £15k and bought ourselves a nice new panel saw & various other bits of kit. The repayments on the loan were quite comfortable, and everybody was happy.

Then, out of the blue, the manager was moved to another branch and a new one took his place. This new bloke - for reasons we never discovered - seemed to take a dislike to us and the next thing we knew the loan wasn't a loan anymore - it was an overdraft which he wanted repaying there & then.

I've never felt comfortable with banks or trusted them ever since.

I would like your post , but that just seems wrong !
I do feel for you , it is things like this i remember from my childhood and how the banks would cajole small family farms in to a position of no escape and then foreclose on them , is why i would not P""s on one of the low bellied fork tonged lying pond life scum even if i did get them to light in the first place . And all that before what they have done to the country on their last outing !

 

[KFH]

I have had similar problems with banks to Geordie Spark. If you need to borow money try putting your wife on the street and selling your children, the dog etc. It will be less aggravation in the long term.

As to rates - what the market will bear. If you are not getting any business from quotes then bring your price down a bit. If you are winning every quote you put in then up your price a bit. If you have to quote stupidly low prices to get the business in your area then give up.

I have found being upfront about extra charges and not taking the **** about the little extras that you can often just do while you are there all help build a relationship.

 

[Poshspark]

Hi before I started working for my self I got my wife to phone up a few local companies and say she had some small repairs needing done around the house how much do you charge.
I know it's a bit cheeky but it will give you an idea what people charge in your area.

 

[Octopus]

Its all very well thinking about your hourly rate, and yes we'd all like to earn loads but when you do bigger jobs you need to weigh up the fact that you'll be working week(s) rather than hours!

 

[Geordie Spark]

I have had similar problems with banks to Geordie Spark. If you need to borow money try putting your wife on the street and selling your children, the dog etc. It will be less aggravation in the long term.

As to rates - what the market will bear. If you are not getting any business from quotes then bring your price down a bit. If you are winning every quote you put in then up your price a bit. If you have to quote stupidly low prices to get the business in your area then give up.

I have found being upfront about extra charges and not taking the **** about the little extras that you can often just do while you are there all help build a relationship.

Hah !! ........ you never met my (Ex) wife and our two bloody useless, bone-idle sons!!

Apart from that, I agree with all you say. Your second paragraph is almost verbatim what my then accountant told me.

 

[KFH]

It's all a bit theoretical anyway as borrowing money from banks in a non starter these days, they all have computers that say no! They are trying to rebuild their capital to meet the more stringent requirements to, supposedly, stop us (the UK) from having to go bankrupt again bailing them out when they fail.

 

[i=p/u]

did some guy not try start a bank called bank of dave and the banks actually stopped him from trading cause they have a pact..???

 

[KFH]

If the bank of Dave is the one I heard on the radio, he is not allowed to call himself a bank due to UK banking regulations, all ROFL at this point. However he is still doing good business in his local area, but he is not a bank.

 

[gutterball]

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