Yet another great job to price!!

[felixthelogchopper]

Life is never a level playing field.

 

Some are more skilled, some get financial help from family or friends, some are farmers sons with land and machines available at no cost, etc,etc.

 

My advice is to concentrate on yourself and the thing within your control, not worrying about others.

 

I'm just wondering why I haven't had an answer to a question I asked the OP twice?

[djbobbins]

Coming at this from an independent point of view (I don't work in the arb industry, just interested particularly in the energy side)...

 

I think £850 is cheap. I am guessing you can already undercut a lot of companies on here by not having to be registered for VAT (assuming the threshold for registration is still about £55k per year).

 

Assuming you are all going to put in a decent day, I think you should work on £150 per man day, then something to cover fuel, depreciation, maintenance etc, and of course profit.

 

Sooner or later if you go into it professionally, your staff will want payingthe going rate (and will need to have NI, holiday and so on). You wouldn't have the income from a full time job to fall back on, in the same way that the other guys on here haven't. That equipment that you're using will need replacing and you won't be able to borrow vehicles.

 

I would say price as if you were set up and doing this as your living. Six man days of labour, all the material costs, wear and tear and so on feels like al least thirteen hundred sheets to me...

[treedweller]

Haha can of worrms LOL ok people from now on ill double all my prices then add 10% scouts honour lol no seriously I don't want to spoil the job for others and don't want to work for free. On smaller jobs I'm usually not far out but when it gets complicated like this job and the epic conifer hedge ill hopefully get. I'm out of my depth in terms of pricing because iv never had to do it before. I actually put the quote in for £2100 on the hedge in the end. And I do hope I get that one!!

[Dan Curtis]

Best of luck to you. I didn't intend on the little derail,i was just trying to make a point relevant to your thread. Fair play to anyone who is giving it a go, it's just nice to try and maintain a healthy income at the same time.

[agg221]

I don't work in arb, but I do do a lot of pricing, sometimes on very large jobs (several £M) so thought some ideas might help.

 

Firstly, separate cost and price. Cost the job first - how much will you need to pay other people, fuel (for kit, but don't forget your fuel travelling to view the site), chains, any hire costs etc.

 

This gives you your cost.

 

Then think about your own time - setting up the job (liasing with client, council etc and don't forget travelling to view the site), doing the job and any finishing up (returning plant, disposing of arisings etc).

 

Decide what you want as a reasonable return on your time. This gives you a starting point for a price.

 

Then decide what you think is a reasonable price. Your costs are fixed, your rate is 'reasonable' so if you discount below this it's because you are getting something less tangible out of it (e.g. building a reputation, potential for good publicity etc, although be careful as you don't want to build a reputation for having a lower price than you can sustain - that's how you go bust, so if your costs are low because you called in favours, consider adding enough to the job to cover you if you hadn't). If you add more to it, this is 'super profit' which is quite legitimate, but requires skill to judge, based on experience of what a job will stand.

 

I wouldn't worry too much about 'spoiling it for others'. As has been said, we live in a largely capitalist freemarket economy. If the state fixes prices, that's called communism. If a group of people get together to fix prices in a particular sector, that's called protectionism, which is illegal. You are free to charge what you want and if you're operating legally but your overheads are lower than someone else's you can afford to undercut them - that's business.

 

In the end, the gut feel to go with once you've come up with a figure is to imagine yourself losing the job and think how you'd feel about it. If you would wish you'd put a bit less on it, you've put too much on it. If you would think, 'oh well, better luck next time' then you're about right.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Alec

[VEG]

Dont forget though there will all ways be someone cheaper but no reason to do it at a loss.

[Big Bolt]

£ 850 bloody hell thats expensive me and the transit gang 600 all in and i have a laybye lined up as well

[treedweller]

I don't work in arb, but I do do a lot of pricing, sometimes on very large jobs (several £M) so thought some ideas might help.

 

Firstly, separate cost and price. Cost the job first - how much will you need to pay other people, fuel (for kit, but don't forget your fuel travelling to view the site), chains, any hire costs etc.

 

This gives you your cost.

 

Then think about your own time - setting up the job (liasing with client, council etc and don't forget travelling to view the site), doing the job and any finishing up (returning plant, disposing of arisings etc).

 

Decide what you want as a reasonable return on your time. This gives you a starting point for a price.

 

Then decide what you think is a reasonable price. Your costs are fixed, your rate is 'reasonable' so if you discount below this it's because you are getting something less tangible out of it (e.g. building a reputation, potential for good publicity etc, although be careful as you don't want to build a reputation for having a lower price than you can sustain - that's how you go bust, so if your costs are low because you called in favours, consider adding enough to the job to cover you if you hadn't). If you add more to it, this is 'super profit' which is quite legitimate, but requires skill to judge, based on experience of what a job will stand.

 

I wouldn't worry too much about 'spoiling it for others'. As has been said, we live in a largely capitalist freemarket economy. If the state fixes prices, that's called communism. If a group of people get together to fix prices in a particular sector, that's called protectionism, which is illegal. You are free to charge what you want and if you're operating legally bu

t your overheads are lower than someone else's you can afford to undercut them - that's business.

 

In the end, the gut feel to go with once you've come up with a figure is to imagine yourself losing the job and think how you'd feel about it. If you would wish you'd put a bit less on it, you've put too much on it. If you would think, 'oh well, better luck next time' then you're about right.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Alec

 

Bloody hell the force is strong with this one. They are some really wise words my friend and ill be taking them on every job I goto price from now on!! Thank you. I never even consider all the running around I do before and after it always just comes out my back pocket when I'm queing up at the petrol station!! I'll be putting more thought into pricing jobs from now on instead of pulling a figure out of my backside:thumbup:

[GardenKit]

Agg221 has put that brilliantly. Take all of that and add this thought provoker to it.

How much do you need to make in profit alone to have a good business?

You have 52 weeks in a year, but you take 3 weeks holiday and may well be sick for a week. Now only 48 5 day weeks available to work=240 days.

Now, you will need 1 day in case of funeral, 1 to mot the van,2 for kids school functions, 5 to look after kids when wife is ill,1 to go to a trade show, now down to 230 possible working days per year

You need 1 day in 5 for looking at jobs and 1 day in 10 when you cannot work because of poor weather, take off another 72 days, now down to 158

 

158 x8 hour days = 1264 hours, but... You have 2 hrs travel and prep per day, so its 158 x 6 = 948 hrs. My mental arithmatic is rubbish so we will round it up to 1000

 

I dont know what you want to make in profit, but you need to be on at least 32k or you are better working for someone else IMO. You therefore need a profit of £32 per working hour. This is a profit figure. Work out your costs, divide them by 1000 and add them to £32 to get an hourly rate. If you want to earn more (or less) re jig the figure. i assume one man band.

 

All of this can be taken loosely, but i bet its not far off reality.

[Stephen Blair]

As I said £3k plus vat:)