dummies guide to pricing?

[Mesterh]

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......

 

Ditto to that, I regularly drive past jobs that I had priced up years ago and nothing ever got done.

 

Funny the way a tree can one minute be way too close to the house, take up too much of the garden and sunlight and drop too many leaves then all of a sudden become a perfect tree when they get the price

 

 

I also sometimes have a quick little climb of awkward looking conny hedges just to get an idea on how wide they are, been caught out a few times and still will no doubt!

[Adam]

i found nailers comment really helpfull. i am just starting out , having left college and i go by £150 per man per day. minimum of 2 blokes a day. so £300 plus £50 for fuel/wear and tear ect...... obviously this would change depending on the job ect...... hedges i would price less. large complicated take downs more. but i want to take home £100 a day. my other colleague is also qualified with ND arb and by nptc like me , we are both insured for £5million so both of us want to be making about £100 a day. that leaves £150 to the company...... do you think this is the right way to go about it or not?

[Will Ayers]

its interesting to hear that other people have difficulty pricing. i am just starting out as a elf employed climber and hope to be getting my own work in more regularly, last week i did a site safety survey on a huge site with a full written tree report, the site was 1600 acres and i assessed all trees on the path/roadsides. i charged £460 for the survey alone. i found 16 dangerous trees and did the work over 2 days, some big takedowns some just needing deadwooding. me and a groundie (£70 a day) £380 per day. wood and brash was left on site. in a way i feel a bit cheeky taking so much money for three days labour but when i think about the work that went in to the report and the speed that the survey and work was undertaken i think my client got his moneysworth

 

in hindsight i could have charged more and got away with it but i hope to have more work from him in the future. does this sound reasonable or am i getting it wrong

[Adam]

its interesting to hear that other people have difficulty pricing. i am just starting out as a elf employed climber and hope to be getting my own work in more regularly, last week i did a site safety survey on a huge site with a full written tree report, the site was 1600 acres and i assessed all trees on the path/roadsides. i charged £460 for the survey alone. i found 16 dangerous trees and did the work over 2 days, some big takedowns some just needing deadwooding. me and a groundie (£70 a day) £380 per day. wood and brash was left on site. in a way i feel a bit cheeky taking so much money for three days labour but when i think about the work that went in to the report and the speed that the survey and work was undertaken i think my client got his moneysworth

 

in hindsight i could have charged more and got away with it but i hope to have more work from him in the future. does this sound reasonable or am i getting it wrong

 

good to hear work is picking up for you will :001_smile: the thing that gets me is figuring out how much the business should be making, profits ect.....

[Mesterh]

how much the business should be making, profits ect.....

 

As much as possible!

 

Easy.

[alex_m]

At the moment i am climbing just at weekends as i'm doing forestry in the week.

I have priced all my outgoings (fuel, servicing/replacing equipment, public liability, tools insurance) at £25 a week based on just Saturdays. I would like £100 for myself so £125 a day. Simple (at the moment ) (I would bump that up to £300 for a groundy/tipper/chipper)

[skyhuck]

the thing that gets me is figuring out how much the business should be making, profits ect.....

 

I have always come at it from the other end (much to some members discussed)

 

I try to find out how much a job is worth, IE what other firms would charge, then find the fasted most cost effective way of doing the job, the gap between my costs and the "value of the job" is my profit, the more the merrier, I say!!!

[Adam]

I have always come at it from the other end (much to some members discussed)

 

I try to find out how much a job is worth, IE what other firms would charge, then find the fasted most cost effective way of doing the job, the gap between my costs and the "value of the job" is my profit, the more the merrier, I say!!!

 

haha, thanks for that huck. but how do you find out what other companies have priced on a job?

[skyhuck]

haha, thanks for that huck. but how do you find out what other companies have priced on a job?

 

DO NOT ask at the time of quoting, IMO, thats unprofessional.

 

If you don't win the job, just thank them for giving you the opportunity to quote and say " Do you mine my asking what the wining quote was", you have given of your time to quote, so I feel your within your rights to ask.

 

If you win the job chose an opportune time whilst doing the job, maybe while having a cuppa with the customer to just say " do you mine me asking what the other prices you got were?"

 

It takes time, but over a period you will get a good idea of who charges what and where abouts you want to be in the pricing game.

 

BUT as I say to my customers "I do not aim to be the cheapest ,but I do aim to be the best!"

Edited August 2, 2009 by skyhuck

[Mark Bolam]

My pricing is also affected by factors such as will I come out of it with decent cordwood or just willow/conny/pop? Will it be an enjoyable takedown or an awkward reduction? Will I get cut to buggery by hawthorn/blackthorn?

 

So many variables!

 

It also depends on your individual set up, and the distance you have to travel with each load.

 

A 2-man band like mine would struggle to compete with someone set up like Huck on a big takedown, for instance, simply because with smaller kit you are going to be pricing more days on the job.

 

Unless the job was in Kent, 'cos the diesel bill would snooker him!

 

The best advice is stick your price in then forget about it. Price should be what you want to make, not what the customer wants to pay! Obviously if the difference is too great you won't get many acceptances!