Machinery maintenance

[Richard 1234]

Yes, its catch 22 though, getting in customers is one thing- being able to hold onto them when you treble your rate over the first few years is another. generally most will start to look elsewhere if there is such a big increase.

 

 

If he were to start higher then you could increase more slowly and not loose so many.

I lost loads of clients due to having to ramp prices up!

[GardenKit]

My choice of the word 'cheapskate' in the earlier post was poor. I did not call him a cheapskate, but was trying to imply that he may look somewhat unprofessional at such a cheap rate. If it was taken that I was calling him a cheapskate then I apologise.

 

But the fact remains that his business plan is very poorly thought out and there is no way it can work.

 

I am not trying to put the OP down, but merely trying to give advice that may help him succeed long term.

 

There is absolutely no point in charging £12 per hour when he would still be cheap at twice that price.

 

The notion that some posters have put forward that it is possible to start cheap and then increase prices is also flawed. It simply does not work.

 

I started out as a one man band some 14 years ago working from a domestic garage at my house. I started even then at £35.00 per hour (no Vat) and outgrew the garage within 2 months. Within 6 months I had to register for VAT and in those 14 years have never been short of work, even at todays price of £42 per hour (plus vat = £50) Customers will happily pay for good service.

 

But neither have I made a fortune, its not a high profit margin business. I only earn around the same that I did in my previous salaried management position, so to charge out any less a rate would be pointless.

 

Good luck to the OP, but if he does indeed have the mechanical skills then he should charge accordingly from the start.

[White Noise]

As said, far, far too cheap. You wont make a living and will get a reputation as a cheapskate.

 

Who are you trying to take work from? Find out their prices and charge the same, just be a bit better in everything you do.

 

Value yourself and others will value you.

 

I charge £50 per hour (inc VAT), plus delivery and collection and I am still not a rich man. But I have as much work as I can handle.

 

And at least 80% of my business comes from within a 5 mile radius. I only collect ride-on mowers from anywhere over 15miles.

 

 

I,m happy your a busy man . Although £50 an hour is expensive . Not having a go . Just seems way over the top

[Sawchip]

I,m happy your a busy man . Although £50 an hour is expensive . Not having a go . Just seems way over the top

£42.00 per hr...the rest Barrie collects on behalf of the revenue ..He has no choice . The investment in building rental, business rates , vehicles, tools , and a load ! of other running costs take a chunk of change from the £42.00. It takes a fair bit to run and offer the sort of service Garden kit and similar dealer /service outlets give . So maybe £42.00 per hr is pretty good when you consider the effectiveness and professional knowledge you get . In my Humble opinion

[spudulike]

I,m happy your a busy man . Although £50 an hour is expensive . Not having a go . Just seems way over the top

 

But GK is one busy man running a successful business so he is doing something right and repeat business proves this.

 

Thinking about the £12 per hour - one or two returns, issues that need to be absorbed rather than charged and bang goes any sort of profit. I think the expression is being a busy fool and have been there before and is never good.

 

I used fixed rates often and you win and lose but it works for me with the sort of repairs I mainly get.

[GardenKit]

So having established that dealerships will be charging around £40 - £45 plus vat for each hour then that can become the norm that people expect to pay.

 

Assuming that the OP and others like him have similar skills to myself and other dealers technicians, there is no real reason why they cannot charge similar rates if the job is finished to the same standard. Of course, they will probably want to give themselves an 'edge' by being a bit cheaper than the local dealer. Thats fair enough, but they will still have that 'edge' if they charged, say £30 an hour. So come on guys, value yourselves and earn a decent living.

[Warners]

So having established that dealerships will be charging around £40 - £45 plus vat for each hour then that can become the norm that people expect to pay.

 

Assuming that the OP and others like him have similar skills to myself and other dealers technicians, there is no real reason why they cannot charge similar rates if the job is finished to the same standard. Of course, they will probably want to give themselves an 'edge' by being a bit cheaper than the local dealer. Thats fair enough, but they will still have that 'edge' if they charged, say £30 an hour. So come on guys, value yourselves and earn a decent living.

 

Quite right... There is always posts on here to say arb is an undervalued profession so charge properly in the first place....

[Haironyourchest]

Some of the prices quoted here are pretty shocking to my ears - £40-50ph. Our local guy is €30ph and he's considered expensive by some. But then I suppose mechanics always were expensive.

I have also taken to doing my own repairs for this reason, never been a better time, what with all the youtube walkthroughs etc.

One never knows what people's circumstances are, and they often don't think to give you the whole picture. The OP could be living in a shed next to his parent's house for all we know, and have no costs at all...Everyone has a car if they live ruralish, maybe he's just a big van guy. Some costs, part of life, others not so much. Working for that kind of money a lot of his customers will be paying cash in hand as well, which is a huge advantage, for obvious reasons.

Another thing about working "cheap" is people don't expect the earth from you. If you're a low-intesity kind of soul, who doesn't want to have to be "on" all the time, then you gotta price yourself to reflect that reality.

(Never mind me - just chucking some random thought out there.....)

[spudulike]

Another way to look at it is that if your MS660 has just been repaired and it is needed for a major job, the cost of its repair will pale in to insignificance to the costs lost if it fails because the repair job was ineffective. That is loss of earnings, wages paid out for guys standing doing nothing, rescheduling work etc etc.

 

This post perhaps puts more on the actual repair cost rather than the cost of failure after repair. From what I have been told, my local agents make my business pretty easy for me.

 

I have just had a saw in that the owner has spent a small fortune on it trying to fix it. I turned it around, found a couple of fundamental faults, checked it over and returned it 100%. It would have been far cheaper just to give it to me in the first place.

[Steve Bullman]

Hourly rates mean little to me. They guy charging £40 an hour might work twice as quick as the guy charging £20 an hour. Add to that, the guy charging £20 an hour might not even do the job properly(nor the guy charging £40 for that matter). I have used countless saw mechanics over the years, several I have had to take the same saws back to as they hadn't fixed the issues. As a result i'm pretty fussy who I take my saws to.

 

All that aside, £12 an hour is no rate for anyone to be charging as a professional. It shows absolutely no forethought whatsoever...sorry to be so blunt.