Am I too expensive??

[Mutley404]

I bet there are a lot of posts similar to this one, I've read a few but none can answer my question. Admittedly I'm very green with this doing work for other people stuff

 

I quoted for a job to extract 2 fallen medium sized Beeches from an extremely awkward site; no vehicle/machinery access within 80 metres and no direct line to winch. As far is I could see there was 2 choices, cut everything to small enough lengths to drag by hand or cut into larger lengths and attempt some interesting stuff with the winch. I was to take all the timber and chippings.

 

I quoted near enough £700+Vat, I sat down and did all my figures and that seemed about right to me, bearing in mind my machinery costs are fairly high because it's fairly big gear which isn't cheap to run.

 

The chap was not happy with the amount quoted and said I was asking way too much...which I'm not sure about..I'm sure someone with lower running costs might come in and quote less but I can't do that with the cost of running the show charging less than that wouldn't be worth the time, Unless my costings aren't correct:confused1:

 

I'm in a fortunate position because agriculture is my main source of income, I imagine for the guys solely on timber jobs the margins must be very tight!

[roseyweb]

I'd rather be expensive than a busy fool,

Depends in your machinery but in forestry a man and tractor forwarder will day rate 300-400£ a day which seems mighty cheap

[Ty Korrigan]

Hello,

Do you have any mates in this game who can come by and guide you in your quote?

Don't show weakness in front of the client, that's your price, its a good one and good luck if he can get better tell him.

I'm well used to being turned down for jobs and rarely bother getting the 'ump over it, in fact only look to win about 70% of quotes.

We put in for a week for a team of 3 felling a line of hornbeams for a housing development at 4950 and got told the winning quote was a grand!

I guess these guys where happy to work for the wood and just wanted to cover their hire costs perhaps...?

I can't eat wood nor will it pay my social charges but as there is plenty of work sloshing around over here I let these things go.

Ty

[Scott Walker]

I wouldn't say so, id rather be known for being expensive and doing a good job than cheap and a rough job. He was probably charged a fortune to fell them. When the hard bits the clearing up on that job.

 

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

[geoff]

Don't let the client dictate that your price was too high, leave him with it, he might well have to eat humble pie & give you the go ahead.

[easy-lift guy]

I agree with Ty about securing a Second opinion about pricing, however finding someone else in the business and timing can be a challenge. I believe you know your overhead and how much profit you need to keep the saws running. I also believe based on the number of Post so far your some what new to being a sole operator?. Estimating work and earning a profit after the job takes time. This to shall pass, keep good notes and remember your in business to earn and learn.

easy-lift guy

[arniecardigan]

I had this argument with someone the other day, he moaned at £425 for a conifer removal, not quite a full day but long enough as we couldn't do anything else profitable with the rest of the day.

I then asked the following

what do you do to earn a living? he said he was a painter and decorator,

so I asked what his day rate was? he replied £180

so I asked how much kit including van do you need to take to the clients house to make £180? he replied about £3000

I then explained that to cut his conifer down he would have around £25000 worth of truck and kit parked on his drive along with 2 fully qualified and experienced professionals and a labourer!!!

He then apologised and agreed the price!!

Too many people think anyone can do tree work and its not a real profession and until that changes you'll always get idiots moaning about price but it won't ever change if contractors are working for peanuts!!

[Mutley404]

Cheers for the replies.

 

To be honest it's no skin of my nose that I didn't get the job, it looked like a pain in ass anyway. I was just interested to hear what everyone had to say about it.

 

I've got a couple mates who work in forestry , I'll have word with them and see what they say, they're more used to dealing with large scale operations but they could still be useful.

 

What's new for me is having to deal with customers and competition! And so far I'm not too keen on either

 

I spend many hours working out costs on the farm which is a mighty headache at times, the one thing that makes it slightly more simple is that fact there's no one out there who's going to do it cheaper.

[humpo48]

I will put in a quote rock bottom price to do a job, but another quote comes in cheaper than mine. And I ask myself how can they make much of a profit and run a business? But that's life! That's your quote and stick to it, don't sale yourself short. I have given up worring about it. You get what you pay for.

[humpo48]

I had this argument with someone the other day, he moaned at £425 for a conifer removal, not quite a full day but long enough as we couldn't do anything else profitable with the rest of the day.

I then asked the following

what do you do to earn a living? he said he was a painter and decorator,

so I asked what his day rate was? he replied £180

so I asked how much kit including van do you need to take to the clients house to make £180? he replied about £3000

I then explained that to cut his conifer down he would have around £25000 worth of truck and kit parked on his drive along with 2 fully qualified and experienced professionals and a labourer!!!

He then apologised and agreed the price!!

Too many people think anyone can do tree work and its not a real profession and until that changes you'll always get idiots moaning about price but it won't ever change if contractors are working for peanuts!!

well done to you mate:001_smile: