Mates Rates?

[Bob Eager]

Indeed. We've had a guy working here since Tuesday morning, 9 hours a day (5 hours today) and he's still coming back for 2-3 hours on Monday. He's someone who is usually busy, too.

[DMac]

£20-30 Sound s good to me IF their rate of utilisation to your job is approaching 100pc I've know tradesmen keeping the clock running while filling the van with petrol / picking sonething up for the mrs - doing an odd job on the way to get parts.etc expanding the job to bump the price up

All of a sudden if you look at work they are doing for you the hourly rate could be nearer £60/hr

I always prefer to negotiate a per job rate - so both parties know where they are and what is expected. If they do a good job in half the time they win - if they spend half the time drinking tea and jabbering on the mobile then they are doing it in their time.

Great for focusing the mind!

My teenage daughter slways negotiates a fixed rate for a taxi journey home - and not surprisingly the taxi then goes the most direct route rather than deliberately taking her through city centre congestion with the meter running

It is a sad reflection of the times we live in that everyone seems to want to rip everyone else off (that goes for customers as much as tradesmen)

(But I still believe there is mileage in the price being right if both parties are dissatisfied with the deal)

[dom]

If you're never left without work, then the market can stand a price increase.

Entirely up to you if you wish to price yourself on what you consider makes you a reasonable income - or price yourself on what the customer is willing to pay.

[tim(yet another new home)]

Uninsured numpties, presumably.

tim

[Stuart Noble]

Of course, and I thought it was going to have to take the sashes out to get to the weights, which would have been considerably longer. Good tip if this ever happens to you: unscrew the sash pulley and shove a length of hose down the channel. This worked where the bent coat hanger routine wouldn't.

[ARWadsworth]

Agreed, but you missed out estate agents.

Adam

[Dave Liquorice]

How many half days do you do?

How about standard hourly rate but with a discount? People like discounts...

But how long before the job is "in advance" 12hrs, 24hrs, 48?

[RichGK]

You should pay for the time it takes to have the chainsaw sharpened. It isn't the customers fault that you haven't kept it in working order. This is something you should have noticed after the last time you used it and got it sharpened ASAP.

[Clive George]

Er - looks like you read his post wrongly. He's complaining that he has to sharpen the saw because it's been blunted doing work for the customer.

He should be including the cost of tool maintenance (including time) when pricing up jobs - ie the customer should be paying for this.

cheers, clive

[Dave Liquorice]

Well a chainsaw is going to blunt anyway but cutting old sleepers with soil around 'em is going to do it faster than a nice clean fresh confire.

Yes, the chain of a chainsaw is a "consumable". The cost of its replacement and sharpening needs to amortised over the number of jobs it can reasonably be expected to do before needing replacement. A fixed "sharpening fee" of 50p(*) or so for each day the saw is used.

(*)A guess, maybe wildly wrong...

[Guy King]

Ultimately, the customer pays for everything one way or another.

[Brian Sharrock]

Yep; this is the classic problem with one-man-bands. Tools; purchase of, renewal, sharpening, maintenance; scrapping, replacement etc; al needs to be costed into a time frame and the customer charged (priced) accordingly. If you're doing one mega-job entirely for one customer then include your cost into his price, If you're doing lots of little jobs then add a proportion of Your costs into each customers price. Typically a _proper_ beancounter's company will add thirteen percent to hours worked for such 'General' works. The chain saw will have to be sharpened, oil added, and eventually replaced ... this should be costed (proportionally) into each and every job. [Even if a chain-saw isn't utilised on any one job],

[Anna Kettle]

Thats interesting, its the first time I've ever seen numbers put to 'what to charge' for wear and tear, general consumables etc. I add on £5 per day or £10 if I'm using a lot of power tools but I just plucked those numbers out of the sky. By your calculation I'm undercharging but then a) I do not employ a beancounter b) It probably varies depending on the trade and my equipment is pretty cheap and basic

Anna ~~ Anna Kettle, Suffolk, England |""""| ~ Lime plaster repair and conservation / ^^ \ // Freehand modelling in lime: overmantels, pargeting etc |____|

01359 230642

[dom]

No. The basic rule of business is that the customer pays for everything. The next customer isn't responsible for the chain being blunt, the previous one is. All that matters is that each customer pays their fair share of sharpening.

As it's unrealistic to itemise all these little charges, Anna's flat rate makes sense.

[Brian Sharrock]

Anna: this isn't the forum to conduct a seminar in _Management Accounting_ (there's lots of books available) but in general, I think you're conflating many things;-

You _do_ employ a beancounter! De-facto, that beancounter is _you_. If your beancounter is getting things wrong, unfortunately you've only yourself to blame :)

You've mentioned 'wear and tear' and 'consumable's in the same breath. Once again, they're different; 'wear and tear' should be amortised over the life of whatever is being discussed and charged for every against every 'job'/Contract. Essentially, it's a function of hours worked and should be factored into hourly price charged. {NB: there's a non-linear relationship between cost and price - you might want to sell at less than cost (ask your beancounter)].

Consumables are a function of _materials_, O-rings, olives, clay, paper-clips, A4 stationary; stamps, etc, etc, are purchased items (costs) that you need to 'sell' onto your customers as a price. A good practise is to 'mark-up' your input prices then sell that to your customer. The 'mark-up' covers the cost of ;wasted consumable's ; the A4 sheets that the printer chews up; the clay / glaze that gets thrown out; the aggregate left over when the job is finished .... The beancounter should have ensured that all of the materials utilised in the job are chargeable to the customer,

... and we haven't started to discuss;- Overheads, burden, profits, holiday pay, lost times, marketing ...

If you're going to say; 'I don't do that sort of stuff!' ... your beancounter (you) should start reading some books .... and/or using a decent financial software application.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Best one was a drain clearing firm arriving and wishing to fill their tank off the household supply. Took 20 minutes at 150 quid an hour...

[Helen Deborah Vecht]

tony sayer typed

OY! I am a doctor and do not believe I quibble about payment or pay under the odds.

[tony sayer]

In article , Helen Deborah Vecht writes

Well you're a rare one then Helen;)