business costs

[Matthew Storrs]

small is nice & charge Y! probably the least stressfull for the most amount of money.

[Johny Walker]

are you chaps including or excluding all the cash you draw from jobs ?? no doubt that would influence your final figures

[Matthew Storrs]

what lump in my matress?!

[Ty Korrigan]

Ah...cash.

We neither talk about, admit, acknowledge or are aware of any cash element to this business...

We declare every centime and never talk payments into offshore accounts...

Ty

[Hodge]

Alot comes down to how much you pay yourself, I try and keep it seperate from what the buisness makes otherwise I find all my personal wage just gets lost in the wash- so to speak.

I try and have a base rate of what I need to make a day in order to cover costs comfortably, that includes maintenance costs- small tool (chainsaws etc) replacement, insurance and wages, I don't include large equipment costs unless im actually using it that day, when i do use large equipment (digger/tractor/chipper) I charge it out as if i had had to hire it, and add that to my base rate.

 

That's ok but the large kit still needs to be paid for even when not in use doesn't it?

[skyhuck]

That's ok but the large kit still needs to be paid for even when not in use doesn't it?

 

Yes, but you should only buy it if you have the work for it.

 

You do need to cover all your costs, but you can't expect to get the same rate for a job that require minimal kit as you would for one that requires lots of plant.

 

IME big gear (unimogs, cranes, etc) speed the job up, so you don't actually charge more, you just get the job done in less time. so a £800 job takes 2 days with tow behind and transit or 1 day with mog and timber trailer

[likeitorlumpit]

I guess we've each got our own perspective and business model.

It's just necessary that whatever level you operate at you sit down and assess occasionally. Not anally although sometimes it's easy to get obsessed.

The point with the large kit is valid and I agree micro diggers and even chippers to a point should be charged out per job otherwise they inflate the costs of the small mowing job.

But £15K for a micro plus attachments over 15 years because we don't use it every day/ or even every month does not affect the day rate that much.

I'll redo the equation and leave out big plant and get totally confused.

We'll end up with rates we need per job per hour. I can feel a migraine coming on.

I only speak from where I am at present. 30 years ago the figures would have been much different. But then again I would have loaded 3 skips by hand in one day after digging out a patio by hand. Seemed easy at the time.

I'm actually going to move away from this worry now- go with the flow and price by gut instinct which has served me well over the years. Maybe this is the lesson from our little chat.

[Hodge]

Yes, but you should only buy it if you have the work for it.

 

You do need to cover all your costs, but you can't expect to get the same rate for a job that require minimal kit as you would for one that requires lots of plant.

 

IME big gear (unimogs, cranes, etc) speed the job up, so you don't actually charge more, you just get the job done in less time. so a £800 job takes 2 days with tow behind and transit or 1 day with mog and timber trailer

 

Agreed huck. In my case I had my chipper on finance to begin with so I had to meet the payment, if I was doing hedges or fences instead of trees I still had the same outgoings so where I could had to charge the same:)

[Hodge]

I guess we've each got our own perspective and business model.

It's just necessary that whatever level you operate at you sit down and assess occasionally. Not anally although sometimes it's easy to get obsessed.

The point with the large kit is valid and I agree micro diggers and even chippers to a point should be charged out per job otherwise they inflate the costs of the small mowing job.

But £15K for a micro plus attachments over 15 years because we don't use it every day/ or even every month does not affect the day rate that much.

I'll redo the equation and leave out big plant and get totally confused.

We'll end up with rates we need per job per hour. I can feel a migraine coming on.

I only speak from where I am at present. 30 years ago the figures would have been much different. But then again I would have loaded 3 skips by hand in one day after digging out a patio by hand. Seemed easy at the time.

I'm actually going to move away from this worry now- go with the flow and price by gut instinct which has served me well over the years. Maybe this is the lesson from our little chat.

 

At the end of the day your accounts will tell the story, are you in profit or not? Have you made a good living , and take it from there:)

[Gareth Dalzell]

I work with a cost spreadsheet to keep an eye our our operating costs. It has all our business costs dropped in and it is a dynamic tool meaning that it gets updated monthly. When our insurance comes in if it's changed the figure is amended on the spread sheet.

 

The last columns on the spread sheet give a cost rate for a man, a two man team and a three man team. there,s a % profit box to adjust this, a box for number of weeks worked in a year and another for chargeable/operatives.

 

It,s great fun seeing what difference a certain percentage of pay increase will do the final charge out rates or the difference the statutory increase in holidays will do.

 

 

This is how we ensure we,re maintaining a business that is not losing money at any point through the year or if we are how much we need to create to catch up.