Too expensive?

[Joe_b87]

Like a lot of people at the moment im getting undercut, nothing new in this but I was wondering what everybody else is charging for labour? I work on £30 per hour depending on the job, the bigger stuff i work out a price.

 

[markc123]

30ph more of a london wage imo not yorkshire. im a tenner cheaper than that per/hour

 

[bigbaddave]

Like a lot of people at the moment im getting undercut, nothing new in this but I was wondering what everybody else is charging for labour? I work on £30 per hour depending on the job, the bigger stuff i work out a price.

In this day in age everyone wants to know the price.. Only the regulars let me work and then bill them to be fair..

 

[Joe_b87]

Cheers mark, it would explain why im sat on my a*** right now! How are you finding it at the moment?

 

[stuartcourt]

Hello mate I am in Poole near Bournemouth and I charge between 25 and 30 an hour or work my price out on that. After driving to look at job and an hour at least out of your time, then time spent on quote + invoice not to mention your money for materials and then the wait for payment it works out a pretty good price.

 

[glasgospark]

£30ph is a reasonable price whatever part of britain you are in ,
only when people start working for £15ph just to get work then it becomes desperate

 

[Octopus]

Maybe you need a first hour rate then a subsequent hour rate - so £35 then £25 or something like that?

 

[Joe_b87]

Thanks for all the feedback chaps!

 

[glasgospark]

if you worked for a company they would have you out at £35ph minimum .

theres companies out there charging £500per day per spark for testing :O

 

[Octopus]

What you need to remember that price isn't everything!

 

[Joe_b87]

What you need to remember that price isn't everything!

I agree that's why im reluctant to drop, wanted to know whether I was way over the top or not. Getting good repeat business but when the phone rings the first thing im hearing is " hi how much would it be for...."

 

[MDJ]

The rate will depend on your customers, if your sat at home then in the current climate your too expensive even if in reality your costs are correct, when times improve £30.00 per hour will be fine, at the moment with hardly anything about and large companies charging silly rates to keep their guys working rather than having them washing vans you need to lessen your rate if you want to work, if not then stick with the £30.00 and something will come along eventually at that cost but you may not work much. In the domestic sector outside London at the moment £30.00 per hour will be the top whack and you will find £20.00-£25.00 more realistic, my view is to keep the rate low and add 15% onto materials which may get you more work for now. There are guys getting work at £30.00 per hour no doubt, but not many at the moment, I find rates fluctuate with the current climate more than I have seen before, thats the state the country is in, if you have a mortgage and need to work then you can't charge £30.00 per hour and expect to be really busy unless your lucky, I would suggest you try at £22.00 for the next Job you price with a mark up on materiales and see where that gets you.

Mike

 

[Octopus]

I agree that's why im reluctant to drop, wanted to know whether I was way over the top or not. Getting good repeat business but when the phone rings the first thing im hearing is " hi how much would it be for...."

In which case you have a marketing decision to make. Lower you price a little to get your boot in the door....BUT don't do it all the time else you will be a very busy, poor person.

 

[Joe_b87]

Cheers mike, think ill give it a go but I don't want it to turn into the norm. Saying that I don't want to be sat around like this for too long either, the mrs is starting to irritate me ;-)

 

[D Skelton]

I charge what I charge and this is justified by the quality of the service the customer gets from either myself or anyone else working for me and also how much I need to earn to maintain a profitable business (this will vary from area to area). I have many happy customers, none of whom have queried the price and my business has never had a bad review. Another reason I am happy to charge what I charge is because I have never got involved with customers no matter what sector where cost is their sole driving force when it comes to decision making. Every quote we provided and in every tender process we have entered into we have outlined that we provide value for money and in many occasions we have been one of the most expensive, often the most expensive and we have still won jobs.

Only you can decide what your services are worth. I have a good friend who charges half what I do but his mortgage is paid, his kids aren't at home anymore, he's not bothered about extravagent holidays and cars and he's happy to do the job he loves in order to supplement his state pension. That said, his quality of workmanship is no less than mine so there are other factors to take into account but all in all, he isn't competing for jobs on the same scale and is more at home changing Mrs Jones' consumer unit than quoting for large scale refurb projects.

Ultimately, you set your rate and justify it by the quality of work you provide and how much you need to earn to put food on the table. I've seen a fair few £150 CU changes and so called sparks charging £15ph and let's just say, we've made a fair few bob off the back of their shoddy workmanship over the years (not that I'm tarring every £15ph spark with the same brush, like I said, there are occasionally other factors at play).

One piece of advice I will give you however is when you come up with a price stick to it! There's nothing worse in my opinion than a business offering a client a price and when it is questioned it gets dropped. It makes for an unprofessional approach to dealing with a clients procurement as all it does is make it look like you over valued your services in the first place thus making you look like a rip off merchant!

Best of luck getting the work in bud!