Price This

[Mani]

Have none of you heard of the free market? its there to be manipulated - pricing is an art form which requires cunning and deviousness, why do a job for £600 when you can convince the customer you need to charge £1600?

 

Its about finding the optimum time in which to rake in the profits, too quick and the customer wants money off, too long and the customer thinks your setting up home in their backyard.

[treedave]

Have none of you heard of the free market? its there to be manipulated - pricing is an art form which requires cunning and deviousness, why do a job for £600 when you can convince the customer you need to charge £1600?

 

It may work for you, each to their own. I prefer to give them a reasonable price (£800-900 for me) and then get the repeat work / word of mouth recommendation. It's paid dividends in the past - 1 job turning into 7 along a line of houses fringing a wood.

 

What do they say/think about you when they get another quote and it's £600-800 cheaper?

[Drella]

That's $1500.00 all day long here in the South...

[THE88MAN]

:001_smile:i think we should all agree to differ on this one guys,alot comes down to personal circumstances,i.e set up,overheads,equipment,i think its true what most are saying,chippers,cranes,number of men,workload etc all affect a quote,as long as the job is done safely,your happy,customer happy,happy days

[wattie]

I am back from my day out and I have to say that I did not think that this would have so much input, thanks for the interest.

 

As others have said that the prices are all over the place just a litttle more info.

 

The tree was bigger then it looks spead over the house etc, little room to drop so rigging would be required if not using a crane, however the road does not look it but it is busy so traffic lights would have been required for crane use , extra cost but yes quicker.

 

£600 - £800 in my area would I not even think about doing this job for that, far easier work around here or that kind of price think you would have to go some to get this down and away in a day, but non of us know how each other works.

 

To be honest dont think this client would have pay as little as that as he was on the ball and wanted the right price and had a price in mind.(Tell you in a bit)

 

I do belive that so many comnpanies make very little profit by under saling themselves you must all know guys giving up or down sizeing due to mounting costs.

 

£1600 would have been a nice price and I think we should all be aming around them figures to make the profit to be able to pay better wages update our equipment pay the bills and have pennies left over.

 

Who will put there hand up and say they can find it hard to sometimes meet the wages, running costs vat etc.

 

So a good pricing policy for a quality service for the hard and skillfull job we do must come first. The rest will fall into place.

 

My Price after a good chat and good cup of tea and the client happy that he would been very keen to use us "IF WE WERE THE RIGHT PRICE" was £1300 plus vat.

 

He wanted to spead £1000 plus vat and as you know we did not get the work.

 

Dont know what it went for sorry.

 

Thanks again for all the posts.

 

Regards

 

 

Wattie:001_cool:

[Mr Ed]

GREAT thread.

Interesting customer, he sounds very much on the ball if he wanted it doing for £1000+vat, as quite a few on here (myself included) were putting £950+vat (ish) on the job.

 

 

 

I recently paid 3 scaffolders £3,000+vat for 2 days work and the hire of the scaffold for a year..

 

If you cant earn a clear thousand now and then we must be in the crappiest industry onf them all, If I took all that kit you mentioned above on a job Ed and didn't clear a grand i'd jack!

 

I earn plenty of clear thousands, but not through doing domestic treework with basic equipment.

 

I can earn good money utilising my excavator to sort stack and load timber and brash, because I'm not paying 10 men's wages to do the same work - and I can be cheaper than the man doing it without heavy equipment.

 

My point was, that even putting out a tubgrinder at £125 per hour will still not earn you back a grand a day.

Most big hire firms will charge out a 22 tonne excavator with driver for under £30 an hour, and thats a machine cost ing £70K

[Alasdair]

ok as im new to this whole industry im going to add this whether its important or not or anyones interested or not doesnt bother me

 

but would using a crane and chargeing the same as not using a crane be more affective due to the fact you can do the job quicker so there for you can go through more jobs then doing it without the crane?

 

also i want to say after reading all that i have 1 hell of a lot of stuff to learn about becoming a tree surgeon. i found that thread really interesting.

[Drella]

Now let me throw a wrench into the chipper.

 

Next door, a rental property, had a large Laurel Oak that needed removed due to root damaging the foundation and pushing into soffit and facia.

 

It was nearly 4 foot in diameter at the base, but only 45 foot tall. The crown was approximately 50 foot as well.

 

This tree was in the back yard and the drop path was marginal at best.

 

I would have bid the job at $1200.00 and that would not have included the stump grinding- "another $250."

 

Well, the home owner found a fly-by-night operation who did the job for $700.

 

It took this yahoo 8 days to finish up. A job that would've taken me one full day to complete. He only had an early 80's beat up Chevy pick-up truck with an 10' bed. He must have taken 50 loads of brush from there, not including the trunk.

 

He had his girlfriend helping with the ropes, but mostly she just stood there watching. This guy was in no hurry to finish the job as it took over a week to finish.

 

I'm guessing that he figured where else was he going to make $700 in one week, so why hurry.

 

I rather make $700 in a day and have another lined up tomorrow- but, different strokes for different folks.

 

So it's these types of hilljacks I have to contend with. Making my work seem worthless and my talents, a dime a dozen. From watching him, I realized that this is how folks view arborists'.. As shirtless, tattooed white-trash rednecks,, not clean-cut educated and experienced tradesmen...

 

Lesson learned, the customer could give two $hlts who does what and how good, or looks what way. They're just looking to save a few bucks...

[atree]

Cost for 3 men, truck, good chipper and all the gear, working 9am to 4.30pm: £950 + VAT.

 

Wish i could work thoses hours! $1600+ +gst down here but more than likely wood left on site in rings or wood removed with crane

[Steve Bullman]

but would using a crane and chargeing the same as not using a crane be more affective due to the fact you can do the job quicker so there for you can go through more jobs then doing it without the crane?

 

 

thats a good theory to work on assuming you have the work to go on to!