What's your hourly cash rate? Just had a grumbling customer!

[telectrix]

We're trying to get some second hand masks from our local council - specially for the launch of our new £90 an hour domestic non part P approved, scam....SCHEME.

The idea is that we've photo-shopped up some quals - didn't need a five day course, HA!, gotten a name very similar to another already on the Part P register, and we don't need guides, or books, because we just post the difficult ones up here, if we can't talk the punters into a load of work they don't really need - we're going to use the next series of Rogue Traders for our advertising.

We don't need insurance, because we got a great deal on Pay as you go phones - and we figured for the quiet times, we'll go round knocking on doors, offering CU upgrades because we've got some left over from a job down the road, and we don't want to waste them - the guvnor will go spare if we take them back -

And the crowning glory - Our company name, and tag line will be:

4Cash Decorating and Electrical - "We're Electricians, because we say we are".

I reckon, to be honest, we'll do well. It seems to work for others.

i've got several od wylex 3036 fused boards i was going to strip for tat, but now i see there is a market for them, refurbished with nails in the fuse carriers ( for plumber fitted showers and DIY light fitters ) . just got to scrape the old plaster and paint off, supply a roll of tape as there are no covers over the fuses. bargain at £30 a pop.

 

[accordfire]

i've got several od wylex 3036 fused boards i was going to strip for tat, but now i see there is a market for them, refurbished with nails in the fuse carriers ( for plumber fitted showers and DIY light fitters ) . just got to scrape the old plaster and paint off, supply a roll of tape as there are no covers over the fuses. bargain at £30 a pop.

£30 seems reasonable - that's per fuse way, right?

Make the tape an optional upgrade, and offer a choice of nail - a cheap one that'll go really quick when the rust hits it, or an "upgraded" nail that'll never blow, no matter how much load it handles. An extra tenner a nail for that.

Maybe it's just the old cynic coming out in me - but I swear some folks really do try to run a business that way.

 

[telectrix]

and here was me calculating load and de-rating factors

 

[accordfire]

and here was me calculating load and de-rating factors

Too much work mate. Just fit a bigger nail to be sure.

 

[Izzy's Dad]

I agree with Accordfire, the guy's a bully! You get them all the time "oh I can get it done for blah blah" My answer is always: Well you get it done then mate!
I was talking to a brickie a few weeks ago, who was working for peanuts to get the work. He was moaning his a*** off. My answer to him was: "mate I'd rather shove yogurt pots on a conveyor at muller than de value myself and my profession" It's a damn sight harder to pull back than it is to give it away!

 

[kung]

View attachment 3148QUOTE=accordfire;200432]Too much work mate. Just fit a bigger nail to be sure.[/QUOTE]

Like this one !!!! just got a tripping rcd to sort out thats bugging me at the moment might need to sell it for repairs/spares !

 

[millwall ken]

i've got several od wylex 3036 fused boards i was going to strip for tat, but now i see there is a market for them, refurbished with nails in the fuse carriers ( for plumber fitted showers and DIY light fitters ) . just got to scrape the old plaster and paint off, supply a roll of tape as there are no covers over the fuses. bargain at £30 a pop.

Oh telectrix - you're oh so witty, you make me blush....

 

[telectrix]

or should i ship them to poland for a better price

 

[millwall ken]

or should i ship them to poland for a better price

Yer mate, Lol

 

[accordfire]

View attachment 3148QUOTE=accordfire;200432]Too much work mate. Just fit a bigger nail to be sure.

Like this one !!!! just got a tripping rcd to sort out thats bugging me at the moment might need to sell it for repairs/spares ![/QUOTE]

Ah - the old "guaranteed fault call out" adapter.....miraculously disappears when the invoice is paid!

 

[sparx24]

£30/hr min of 2 hrs. Domestic rate.
£35-40 commercial/industrial all plus VAT.
Rural Kent (very rural) more sheep than people here, mind you some pretty sheep and some U-G-L-I people!
Trading Standards/Trust Mark registration helps.

 

[BLBelfast]

My pricing is £25 an hour. 15% markup on materials plus some fixed pricing eg £25 per socket changed obviously lowering if there is more to do. £25 a downlight supplied and fitted.

The problem I have is knowing what to charge for the likes of a kitchen where I am spending alot of time tracking and it is dirty work. Do youse all charge per point no matter what is involved?

 

[accordfire]

My pricing is £25 an hour. 15% markup on materials plus some fixed pricing eg £25 per socket changed obviously lowering if there is more to do. £25 a downlight supplied and fitted.

The problem I have is knowing what to charge for the likes of a kitchen where I am spending alot of time tracking and it is dirty work. Do youse all charge per point no matter what is involved?

I don't, generally. Charing a fixed price per point is somewhat akin to Fixed Rate Pricing (see the thread on Interesting but American). For us, there's little substitute in visiting the site first, and pricing the work required. We treat time and materials separately for quote purposes - that is, we mark materials up, and use labour rates which are calculated to cover overheads and direct costs.

 

[BLBelfast]

Yeah it is just the labour rates which I cant seem to quite get right.

Sometimes I overcharge which loss' me the job and other times I undercharge which ends up costing me. Done a job about 4 months ago and priced it so low that when I hit a water pipe by accident and had to pay for the plumber to fix it I made about £20 for a two day job.

 

[accordfire]

Yeah it is just the labour rates which I cant seem to quite get right.

Sometimes I overcharge which loss' me the job and other times I undercharge which ends up costing me. Done a job about 4 months ago and priced it so low that when I hit a water pipe by accident and had to pay for the plumber to fix it I made about £20 for a two day job.

Well, labour rates should be worked out based on what it actually costs you to provide that labour, at that point, for that job.

In simple terms, all your overheads and direct costs, totalled, then divided by the number of hours you work in a year - usually around 2080.

This gives you a direct cost of labour assuming that you are actually charging every last working hour out. Most of us don't, and can't. After holidays, sickness, and other time off, there's typically around 220 working days in a year. That's around 1760 working hours. Then, most of us, in "one man" terms, actually work an average of 5 chargeable hours a day - the rest we give away one way and another. That means that your overheads/direct costs have to be paid for in as few as 1100 chargeable hours each year.

As an example - assume that rent, rates, cost of van, PC, tools, and so on cost you £10,000 per year. Divide that by 1100 and you get £9.09 per hour.

In other words, you need to earn £9.09 every working hour, just to stand still - and you need to make sure you have 1100 hours of chargeable work in each year too. On top of this, however, you need to pay salaries, taxes, and so on. So assume you pay yourself £20,000 per annum - and divide that by your 1100 hours too. That's another £18.18 per hour on top. So far, £27.27 per hour. Add a margin for taxes, and lower than expected working hours, say 25%. That brings you to around £34.08 per hour with a safe margin on your labour, also covering all your non-chargeable hours.

In this way, you know that your labour rate needs to be between £27 and £35 an hour to cover your costs with a safety margin to suit your working patterns.

Materials, then become effectively the "profit" element of what you make on a job - so can be managed accordingly.