How Much????

[Gardenmac]

Thanks guy, interesting to see the range of opinion.

 

Guess the difference is that I go to work to make a living not to make a killing. I'm lucky enough to enjoy what I do and as long as I make enough to cover the bills, make a small profit and keep customers happy then thats fine by me.

I'll leave the big bucks to the big boys and hope they get the same satisfaction from the work they do.

After all every day is a good day when you wake up stretch out your elbows and they aren't touching the satin lined wooden sides.

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Don't knock it

Learn from your mistake and charge more next time.

Theres too many threads on here knocking undercutting. Now someone comes along and charges a good rate and we moan. Can't win.

You'd charge her £60 for labour and 5 panels featherboard at say £25-50 each

£185-310

Are you VAT registered. Does the job really need 2 on site especially if windy or heavy panels. You've got to quote/ go away/phone to arrange work. Get to site with a mate.

So labour really is £80-100

Panels could be £250- really depends on quality.

VAT is £70.

A good price would be £420. Anything above is good business. Sounds like he was a good businessman.

Just advising.

 

same as above

its a business ie to make a profit, not just wages, if the customer was happy with the quote you give then get on with it I say :thumbup1:

[Gardenmac]

same as above

its a business ie to make a profit, not just wages, if the customer was happy with the quote you give then get on with it I say :thumbup1:

 

All good stuff.The guy who did the original work hasn't been asked back.

I prefer to price reasonable and get repeat business and recommendations than price high and get 'one off' jobs.

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I also prefer repeat work but all too many times in the past ive been too cheap and ended up working for less than wages due to unforeseen setbacks / needing additional bits and bobs for the job.

I quote correctly for each job and make allowances for additional things that may be required, that way I don't need to go back to the client halfway through a task and request more money than originally quoted for, due to something that hadn't been picked up upon during quotation.

take the job listed above, when we removed the old wooden gate post from the concrete one to fill the gap with panel, turned out the concrete post was cracked and being held together by the wooden one.

We had £30.00 budgeted for something like this so we were able to replace the post with new ,

If we didn't have this extra budget we would of been £30.00 or so down if we didn't use it theres 1/4 tank of diesel to cover you for the initial driving round to quote, expenses quoting postage blah blah

[Gardenmac]

Good on ya mate. I hate having to go back to the customer and ask for more than originally quoted but sometimes its a must especially for the unforeseen such as your cracked post. Its a ball ache but sometimes it has to be done.

Like the contingency plan, do you use a percentage of the overall fee or just add on x? Also if you don't end up using the contingency do you pass it on to the customer as a reduced fee?

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Good on ya mate. I hate having to go back to the customer and ask for more than originally quoted but sometimes its a must especially for the unforeseen such as your cracked post. Its a ball ache but sometimes it has to be done.

Like the contingency plan, do you use a percentage of the overall fee or just add on x? Also if you don't end up using the contingency do you pass it on to the customer as a reduced fee?

 

dependant on size of job, figures involved etc X is sometimes passed back onto client .

more often than not its only a nominal fee so we bank it and class it as admin

[Gardenmac]

Good one. I've been passing back to the client as reduced fee most of the time and sometimes they simply say keep it as a tip which is a great feeling.

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Good one. I've been passing back to the client as reduced fee most of the time and sometimes they simply say keep it as a tip which is a great feeling.

 

to pass the saving back to the customers easily is to say you saved on a bulk buy purchase £££ off as you bought x or more panels

[Gardenmac]

[likeitorlumpit]

Business isn't easy but you will always feel better doing the jobs where you make good money rather than enough money. That goes for most people. Getting good money doesn't make you a 'rip off merchant' either. It means you've judged the situation well.

I'm not even sure the 'young lady' in the OP would be pleased that you have pointed out she had been 'overcharged'. Ask yourself, if she had told you the price, would you have just beaten it by 10% and been chuffed about the days work. If she told you the price and you beat it by 50%, do you now regret being so hasty? Let's face it, she's probably not going to sleep with you for this:001_smile: In business there's often days when you make no money. When you get the opportunity to get ahead, take it. And I don't mean ripping off the elderly- they are often vulnerable and can have mental issues. That is not nice. But if you give them a written quote and don't hassle them to accept, thats good practice.