help on a few pricing scenarios

[Ash]

I know this gets asked a lot, but since I've started up on my own I've really struggled at getting the prices of various jobs right. I don't want to undercut the market, but every time I say the price I cringe up and feel like I'm ripping them off even when I've then been told later that I should have charged more.

So I wanted to get your opinions on what you would price for a selection of job examples so I can get a better idea of what a realistic price is. (please don't include materials)

1st example:

Job is for a window company building a conservatory, two circuits, power and light. Brickies building in the sockets as it goes up, so minimal-to-no chasing.

2nd example:

Power and light to a shed/summerhouse (TT and garage cu), run from a FCU spurred from the closest point near the garden door, swa being clipped to fence/behind bushes

3rd example:

Power and light to a shed/summerhouse (TT and garage cu), run from main cu, swa being buried 500mm deep on (lets say around) 20-30m run.

4th example:

replacing some faulty downlighters and putting in an extractor fan, all downlighters need holes made bigger, extractor fan piping goes into loft and out in some appropriate area.

5th example:

moving a socket that is just a plasterboard fitting possibly having to extend the cables, but have had to travel 30 minutes to get to customer over 10 miles away wasting potentially half a day to do a simple job.

Not all of these are real jobs before someone jumps in and questions, they're just examples of similar sort of jobs I seem to get asked about atm.

Another question is, how do you price a days work when there is more than 1 of you?

Thanks in advance. (sorry if i've offended anyone with the thread topic)

 

[Apache]

There's a load of stuff on this before.

You need to work out firstly what your business costs to run. Then decide how many days you will be able to work in the year, then decide how much you want to make per year. Then you can come up with an hourly rate and see how that fits with your local market.

The difficulty with your pretend jobs is that no one knows how fast you work, and that's the deciding factor.

 

[steptoe]

2 people for 1 day = 2 days,

seemples

count hours, not days,

eg, 1 man for 2 hours = 2 men for 1 hours, its the same amount of labour, except usually 2 men X 1 hour will get slightly more done than 1 man X 2 hours, more efficiency can be gained from a larger workforce sometimes.

plus the travelling time is halved as well.

 

[NozSpark]

You really have to work out what your hourly rate is and then multilpy that by haow long you thing the job is going to take, make sure you mark up the materials, add in an amount for miscelaneous materials and also any time & costs involved in doing paperwork/notification..

As for a 2nd man,, you need to charge him out at a higher rate than you pay him, I guess that you're paying him less than you are paying yourself?

 

[sellers]

I know how you feel mate, I used to be the same.

I used to make up a quote and then think I wouldn't pay that if it was the otherway round. Then I'd knock a little bit off here and there to secure the job. Then the trouble is, is you do the job knowing you could have charged more and it affects you. The start of this year I started running a business and not being an electrician. The price is what ever it works out as with wages + profit. Theres no 'oh call it

 

[Ash]

thanks for the replies, the trouble is since working on my own, I'm not really sure how long some of these jobs will take me because I'm not working with the same people, plus I'm more careful rather than the "council quality" (as I called it) that was being done when I was in the company which makes things take that bit longer than before.

 

[Apache]

To start with there's a lot of guessing in there! You guess how long it will take, you guess how many hours you can work per week [ie bill for]. Sometimes you will win and sometimes you will loose. The more you do the better you will get on.

 

[NozSpark]

Ash..

none of us know exactly how long a job is going to take,, what we do is take an educated guess and most of the time we probably win, but sometimes we lose

If I were you I'd keep good notes of any jobs you do including how long they took, then you can use your timings to get a good idea for the next job

 

[Ash]

That's a good idea, I might start keeping detailed logs of work I do.

 

[sellers]

what I usually do, is for example I recently quoted 1185 for a medium sized kitchen rewire, new cu and rewire the sockets in 1 room. I first price each point at 40quid, then 300 for the cu and 150 for the cooker circuit. I then price up materials +15% minus it off that total. Then whats left is what I should make out of the job. In this instance materals were roughly 280 from memory. So that leaves 905. I estimated it would take maximum at worst 3days - 600. So i make a healthy profit of 305 ontop of my decent wage. Realistically and most of the time I would try and make these 2 pricing methods meet in the middle, so I would have put it down to 205 profit and taken 100quid off the quote but as this is a kitchen with trades being organised by the householder I know problems will occurr so I left it in this time to allow some leeway.

I hope the customer doesn't see this, I haven't second fixed or been paid yet!

 

[steptoe]

perhaps move this to tips section,

A MOD please?!

 

[Zeespark]

Strictly as a guide Ash, why not have a read through Spons pricing guide to get an idea of times? then simply multiply by your hourly rate, and just tell your customer that it is simply an estimate.

Andy

 

[Watchdog]

Why Steptoe?

 

[steptoe]

I just felt perhaps giving out pricing details on the open forum where the public could access was'nt a brilliant idea, and should be perhaps be kept private as to try and keep our profit margins hidden

 

[Apache]

Sellers decided to post the info on an open forum?

---------- Post Auto-Merged at 00:53 ---------- Previous post was made at 00:52 ----------

I don't see the issue. See what the mods think

 

[a1]

what I usually do, is for example I recently quoted 1185 for a medium sized kitchen rewire, new cu and rewire the sockets in 1 room. I first price each point at 40quid, then 300 for the cu and 150 for the cooker circuit. I then price up materials +15% minus it off that total. Then whats left is what I should make out of the job. In this instance materals were roughly 280 from memory. So that leaves 905. I estimated it would take maximum at worst 3days - 600. So i make a healthy profit of 305 ontop of my decent wage. Realistically and most of the time I would try and make these 2 pricing methods meet in the middle, so I would have put it down to 205 profit and taken 100quid off the quote but as this is a kitchen with trades being organised by the householder I know problems will occurr so I left it in this time to allow some leeway.I hope the customer doesn't see this, I haven't second fixed or been paid yet!

I know a few sparks that do that, and if the job takes less time, or goes better in other ways that sparks have quoted for, they will knock that amount off of the bill at the end.

Whether you do that or not doesn't matter, because you are running a business. You decide how to run it and how much profit you make, and that is what it is all about.

 

[gordy71]

I think the public need educating on why electricians prices "seem" to be high. At the end of the day we are skilled tradesmen and our overheads are probably among the highest of all trades. I know how ash feels since starting up less than 6 months ago i certainly feel the cringe factor every time i price. Generally i have been pricing myself at