Transition to self employed (wages etc)

[Joe Newton]

On 21/03/2018 at 23:23, Jonny69 said:

Out of interest what sort of margin do you think you have in that. After all the costs on the people, machines and vans for a day that you mentioned in the previous post. What is left for you?

 You're a very good example of choosing your customers though mate. If you had multiple lads on the books working in urban areas you might be pushed to be more competitive.

 

I think you and Ben have incompatible business demographics. 

[Jonny69]

7 hours ago, Joe Newton said:

 You're a very good example of choosing your customers though mate. If you had multiple lads on the books working in urban areas you might be pushed to be more competitive.

 

I think you and Ben have incompatible business demographics. 

I am very competitive with price, quote against two others regularly with Council and school stuff. Just get the work done quickly. 

 

If earning a decent income couldn't be done then i'd give up and do something else. Flogging a dead horse is not the thing to do. 

 

Also, you are a poor example of the reason this thread has started. Being the only self employed climber that has done more than two days with me! The rest were useless and I just ended up doing it myself anyway, so judging what you want per day in comparison to what the guy who started the thread wants is almost impossible. 

[Joe Newton]

3 hours ago, Jonny69 said:

I am very competitive with price, quote against two others regularly with Council and school stuff. Just get the work done quickly. 

 

If earning a decent income couldn't be done then i'd give up and do something else. Flogging a dead horse is not the thing to do. 

 

Also, you are a poor example of the reason this thread has started. Being the only self employed climber that has done more than two days with me! The rest were useless and I just ended up doing it myself anyway, so judging what you want per day in comparison to what the guy who started the thread wants is almost impossible. 

 So reading between the lines, I should probably up my day rate. What do you think it should go up to?

[Joe Newton]

I wasn't implying that you weren't competitive, but I don't get the impression you're trying to be cheap either. 

[Steve Bullman]

2 minutes ago, Joe Newton said:

 So reading between the lines, I should probably up my day rate. What do you think it should go up to?

As much as you can get away with!!!  You are here to do NO ONE favours 

[benedmonds]

4 hours ago, Jonny69 said:

I am very competitive with price, quote against two others regularly with Council and school stuff. Just get the work done quickly. 

 

If earning a decent income couldn't be done then i'd give up and do something else. Flogging a dead horse is not the thing to do. 

If you would have quoted £900 to do that job you would NOT be competitive on price. Some one was willing to do it for £450.

 

I don't see how anyone could have done more  quickly (except with more men).   No access for bigger machines, 10 inch chipper to process brash would have kept pace with the 2 groundies dragging..   Logs humped out by 2 guys while stumps ground out.. Return to yard at end of day with 1 truck full of chip and the other logs.. 

 

[AHPP]

Do you own an arb trolley, Ben?

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

1 hour ago, benedmonds said:

Some one was willing to do it for £450.

£450 each, excl grind, looks like a sensible ball park.  £450 the lot, rather go fishing!

[benedmonds]

1 hour ago, AHPP said:

Do you own an arb trolley, Ben?

yes

[Jonny69]

8 hours ago, Joe Newton said:

 So reading between the lines, I should probably up my day rate. What do you think it should go up to?

I genuinely reckon you are about bang on. Cheap enough that you should always have regular work and expensive enough so that if you do a few weekends should be able to clear 35-40k. I would say that's a pretty happy medium. Neither of us have any real qualifications, I basically didn't go to school so for us manual labourers that would be considered reasonable going I think.