Completely & Utterly OT; Handyman charges

[The Medway Handyman]

Sorry if this annoys anyone, but I did head the post accordingly!

I've decided to review my pricing structure, firstly to make it easier to communicate to customers and secondly to increase my margin. I'm constantly booked up for weeks ahead & the Fair Trader thing is generating extra business - I also feel it adds value to my services (I'm the only accredited handyman in the scheme).

If anyone would care to comment I'd appreciate your thoughts. Off group if you prefer [e-mail]

The charges are on my site

in advance.

[Dave]

To increase your margins, I would put your first hour up to £49-95 and pro rata after that. Costs have gone up in the last year, so why have yours not?

I went to my local ex Rover garage today to have 2 stop/tail lights changed and he only charged £2-00. . The bulbs must cost that much. I told him that it was too cheap, but he said that it was customer service and that it would bring more custom back. But £1-00 for a bulb change looks like too small a cost to me.

Dave

[Phil L]

I assume it would be preferable to both you and your clients if you did full days rather than an hour here and an hour there? If it were me, I'd charge minimum £50, then £25 PH thereafter, or a full day for £200...but you need to be careful, part of the reason your orderbook is full is because of the charges, and once customers are lost, they are lost forever.

If you are managing comfortably at this moment in time (and you should be), I'd be tempted to leave things as they are.

[John Stumbles]

The first hour/subsequent hours doesn't seem too hard for anyone you'd want to have as a customer :-)

As for actual figures, someone once said that you should expect to lose half of your leads on price!

[Andy Hall]

I think that this is a good structure and reasonable price points.

[Andy Hall]

I think that there is truth in that, but I don't like £49.95. It looks like a cheap shop gimmick for £50. £45 or £55 looks better IMV.

[Andy Hall]

... or be in a business where there isn't competition on price....

[nightjar]

between two of my factories. However, having said that, I thought it was a bit steep and, if it had not been a friend of a friend, I would probably have looked for someone a bit cheaper.

Colin Bignell

[rrh]

Too cheap. If you charged out 8 hours a day, 5 days a week for 48 weeks of the year - extremely unlikely - you would still only be pulling in £42,000 a year - before all your costs (except materials). Your skills are worth more.

[Mike Dodd]

Without wishing to sound disrespectful, for a Handyman I would suggest the prices sound quite reasonable. Let's not bump the price of a Handyman into the realms of the saintly professional plumbers and sparks.

I suppose only TMH can answer this - look at your average weekly hours charged, and decide then that the business can bring in a respectable wage. Although I'm guessing that is precisely what you have done with your post.

For what it's worth - I'd be more inclined to "get a man in", having seen a published charge list - and the prices you charge appear fair, than doing a lot of the DIY myself.

[Andy Hall]

I think that the prices are quite reasonable, although as you say, he could get more, in stages. From past discussions, the catchment area is one of people who are (relatively) cash rich and time poor and who may well not feel that they can tackle DIY jobs anyway - for example putting together IKEA furniture.

So the comparison is not one of "do I DIY?" or "do I get a man in?" but of "are the prices and timescale reasonable as compared with possibly a collection of single tradespeople?". The second case is less price sensitive because people are willing to pay for convenience.

[Mark]

It's known as 'a sprat to catch a mackerel'. ie. They hope to lure you in when you need a big job doing.

mark

[Dave]

After reading my last night's post, I tend to agree with you about that.

Dave

[Dave]

I trust him completely. There are only 3 garages in England that I would trust to do work on my cars and he is one of them. He started his business from the ashes of Rover's Phoenix dealership when they went bust. He has done lots of little jobs and never charged for them, to the extent that I am now getting embarrassed after I ask how much and he says nothing, its customer service.

Dave

[Bovvered?]

Reduce the differential between your 1 hour and 8 hour rates but don't increase the rates for 8 hours. I would be baulking at paying more than 175 quid a day for a 'handyman' (no offence meant) whereas I'd consider 45 quid for the first hour (where all your costs are) quite reasonable. Around here (oop north) tradespeople look to earn 150 quid per day ish.

[Chip]

On Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:43:14 GMT,it is alleged that "The Medway Handyman" spake thusly in uk.d-i-y:

The prices look very reasonable to me, the only comment I have from viewing that page is (unrelated to the prices):

The logo at the top left takes a few seconds to load, even on broadband: if any of your customers are on dialup (a few might still be), the load time would be extreme, which might put them off, it may be better to resize it in photoshop or similar rather than using the browser to resize it. Having said that, it's probably nitpicking, your customers might not be Victor Meldrew's relatives )

[Steve Walker]

Me too - £49.95 looks like Netto, £55 looks like M&S.

[Adrian]

I've agonised over that one as well (with my glass crafts on the open-air markets).

Eventually decided on pricing pretty much everything in multiples of 5 euro - saves a heck of a lot of mental gynastics working out totals, and carrying around loads of coin change - and I don't think that customers are fooled anymore by the ' ?24.99 is much cheaper than ?25.00' trick....

Shor myself in the foot in the run-up towards Christmas - offered 10% off everything - (worked well!) - but used up loads of coins to give people their discount...

They do say that it still works for larger purchases like cars and houses - don;t know how true that is ? Got a car to sell in the near future - maybe I'll try the ?XX,750 approach and see if it works...?

I think the 'Netto VS M&S' simile is a good one for the craft sales though - thanks guys !

Adrian

[Neil]

Just a tiny thing... the first hour says "inc travel" Does that mean you charge for the travelling time, or just for the time actually spent at the customer? (sorry to be a pedent, comes from having to interpret requirements docs.) cheers, Neil

[Andy Hall]

No. Especially as presumably you are not selling junk.

Do you remember that some goods (especially consumer electricals) used to be priced in Guineas? This was effectively the opposite way up.

XX+1,250 or XX+1,500 would be better. Then you can come down.

.. and hopefully you have better than M&S offerings anyway.