Am i right for thinking this way?

[Ian C]

£250 per day! That's cheap...

 

Working roughly from my accounts last year-

costs/expenses 230 days on tools a daily costs are:

£120 for a climber

£70 for the groundie

£12 insurance

£20 fuel

£30 advertising

£17 accountants and office supplies, bank charges etc

£25 new equipment and plant maintence

£16 vehicle maintence

 

£310 per work day it costs me for a truck chipper, climber and groundie.

 

That doesn't include

rent

cost of waste disposal

time spent quoting

VAT

 

So yes you were right to tell him to bog off! But you are still too cheap. IMO..

 

I was go9ing to say that, basic day for me, standard drag, no lowering etc is 300 quid, no way would i do a day rate for 2 men for £250

[Mr Ed]

Could be that the bigger firm are much faster than you are.

[bob]

Could be that the bigger firm are much faster than you are.

ditto

or bigger better tackle

hiab ect

poss mewp

[Mark Bolam]

Need to be 3x faster to make that pay Ed.

 

Don't live to work. Work to live.

 

Too many variables, none of us know the full score.

 

We've all priced too cheap and probably had other firms thinking 'Grrrrrrrrr - how can pro's make a living with cheapo quotes like that........'

 

Right call to walk away Brian. Next time.

[combined tree services]

some of the firms down here simply quote work that cheaply because they need to fill the diary , in the last 18 months i have seen 5 or 6 new firms set up and 4 of them are all fighting over the same work , personally if a firm wishes to work for free then good luck to them . as for the bigger firm having more kit , down here the big firms dont have any of the kit the anyone like MR Ed has , down here the "big" firms think they are going somewhere when they get more than one truck and chipper !!!! it really is totally different down here to any where elts i have ever worked in the country !!!!!

[ukminch]

You definitely did the right thing to walk away. I do wonder why people work for themselves for so little return. If I'm not earning a reasonable amount I work for other people, and let them have all the stresses and running costs. I turn up, do what I'm told go home, no hassle with clients or breakdowns or anything else.

 

Self employed I firmly believe you need to earn at least double what you would as an employed person to cover holiday, sickness etc.

 

R

[Tom D]

This all sounds very odd, however one thing is clear, you're too cheap.

I started out with a mate 7 years ago after we left the company we were working for, we reckoned we needed £220 a day and off we went, after a year we realised that although we had done ok, both of us had taken minimum wage nearly and there was no cash leftover.

You say that the client liked you the best, thats good, all you need now is the right price. You walk round a job chatting with the client and then when the time comes to give your price you are um-ing and ar-ing staring at your shoes because you feel embarased to be asking as much as your old boss would have done. Dont do this, work out a sensible price that gives you a good profit (on top of your wage) and then when the time comes look them in the eye and confidently tell them your price.

 

As for this job don't be worry, when you get undercut like this its a good feeling: I quoted 5k for a site clearence job recently, i missed out by a good margin, the client was very surprised as the other quotes were around mine but one was way cheaper. I passed the site recently and saw the guys working, they had a 6" chipper and were moving timber with a wheelbarrow,(there's at least 10 ton on site), they were slogging their guts out for sweet FA. It pleases me to know that A, they are tied up for 2 weeks+ and not competing with me for that time and B, they must be desparate to be going in that low in the first place.

Let these guys do the job for £150 if they like and enjoy thinking of them while they do it.

[Mark Bolam]

Totally agree Tom.

 

But don't knock the wheelbarrow! 100KG per load x 10 is a tonne. I've barrowed out more than 10T in a day on tight access jobs!

 

Great advice on confidently giving your price. You don't want a reputation for being the cheapest guy out there.

[combined tree services]

there are a few down here that have a reputation for being the cheapest down here but like i explain to customers - YOU GET WHT YOU PAY FOR when it comes to tree work , it may sound silly but if i did not work then i would still have a 6 inch chipper like the rest of therm but i dont i have a tw190 . this is only one example , all i know is once you get a name for being cheap you will find that the your client base will reflect this .

 

the bloke the Brian was quoting against was at one point quite a large concern he has now lost alot of his staff but he is still having to quote so so cheaply just to keep his two man tem ticking over which to me spells out that things are not to rosey for him , but hey good luck if he wants to buy work then let him do it !!!

[tommer9]

Good call Brian, stick to your guns and put your prices up where you can....

I've gone from 75/ day to 80 now BTW Dave:sneaky2: