dummies guide to pricing?

[ukminch]

I may well do that if I come across such a situation again, for the moment I've not really been trying to get much work in for the past couple of months as I'm away for most of August so going to have a big push in September when I'm back - If I come back......

[Marc]

This is an interesting topic, IMO.

 

How do you guys estimate the size of a tree??

 

Does any one measure trees a breast hight??

 

I am not great at estimating tree size, often when I get to a job, that I have priced, I find the tree is much bigger than I thought.

 

I am also often surprised by the size of limbs, once I climb up to them, is it just me?? or do others find the same??

 

Ha ha thought i was the only one who did this, maybe optomistic thinking?

 

I've only priced a few jobs myself, I found i often underestimated the size (just glad i never under estimated the price).

 

Same with limbs, the angles they grow out at and size of them can catch me out, I used to spend time looking at the tree from the ground planning my work, now i'll just have a loose idea the real plan starts when i'm up the tree.

 

As for pricing no idea, make a decent living and enjoy it, otherwise do something else.

[nailer]

Like others have said, there is a million different ways to price work. I`ll just tell you how I do it and hope it is of some help.

 

I add up the cost of all outgoings and costs for 12 months. Fuel, parts, repairs, insurances, accountancy fees, work clothes, printing, stamps, Pay-per-click advertising, tax discs, PMIs, bank charges - the lot, including depreciation of kit. Our chipper loses £3800 in value a year, the truck loses £1500. Add that total to the profit you want for a year. Divide that by 48 weeks for the weekly target. Then I divide that by 5 for the base day-rate. Added to that is the subcontractor costs for that day and then times that total amount by 15% to give a vat-inclusive day rate. Double it for a two-day job or divide by 3 for a `third-of-a-day` job etc. Any job smaller than £200 starts clogging things up.

 

All that is left to do is work out whether you could do 1,2,3 or 4 of them jobs in a day. But that is sometimes easier to say than do.

[skyhuck]

 

Same with limbs, the angles they grow out at and size of them can catch me out, I used to spend time looking at the tree from the ground planning my work, now i'll just have a loose idea the real plan starts when i'm up the tree.

 

.

 

I'm the same.

 

I hear that some climber plan the climb from the ground, I have never found I could do that.

 

I am always surprised how different things look once I get up in the tree.

 

Very often I look at a tree and think "thats going to be tricky, not much room to drop stuff", then I get up there and is easy. And it also often works the other way.

[raafbeard]

Very often I look at a tree and think "thats going to be tricky, not much room to drop stuff", then I get up there and is easy. And it also often works the other way.

 

I have found that as I am learning - early on it was easy to be put off from just looking at things from the ground..

 

Can you put a give or take factor on the price? Ie. allow for the worst case scenario so you have some sort of cover in case things work out harder than they look?

 

The times they are easier is a bonus and when it is harder you are covered.

 

As mentioned cashflow is the key - ie. better to have lots of jobs with less profit than few jobs with bigger profit.

 

Any days when your equipment is not working is a loss

[skyhuck]

 

Can you put a give or take factor on the price? Ie. allow for the worst case scenario so you have some sort of cover in case things work out harder than they look?

 

 

Thats what I do, all prices should, imo, have a bit on to cover what I call the "f***up factor"

[raafbeard]

Nice!! We should be allowed to cover ourselves for unpredictability (Or F.ups) as it won't be the customer who is out of pocket due to circumstances unforeseen!

 

I don't think they would be prepared to pay for full aerial visual inspections before each and every job.

[ukminch]

On that note, has anyone ever climbed a tree to aid with pricing. I did a couple of times when I was less experienced, think I've got the job on a couple of them because they could see I took my time at thequotation stage, along with a well worded written quote sent in on time.

 

Rob

[Mark Bolam]

Done that with loads of big conny hedges and it has always helped.

 

Take your time when pricing - it's not a race.

[Mark Bolam]

Theres no right or wrong way, just your system if it works. I could say how I price work, but seeing as I have priced 13 big take down jobs in the last 6 weeks and got none, you'd be better off not hearing it.

 

Have those jobs been done though, mate?

 

I have priced loads of takedowns that are still there sometimes years later.

 

"£400 to take a tree down! - thats expensive! I thought 2 of you would be happy to turn up with £35k of kit and work for £50......."

 

Yeah,yeah,yeah......