new type of work and price??

[gerne]

ok one of my accounts has me doing a lot of work on his yard. I mowed, trimmed, and blew everything off and that was all good but then he has me building a gate, buy drainage pipe (100'), lay down some fertilizer, and weed all of his flower beds. All in all it was $170 in materials. Any ideas on what I should charge him for all the work. Mowing the lawn and that was $30 and I dont know what to charge. He's been screwed over BAD by 4 other LCOs. Right now i'm 11 hrs into it. That includes picking up supplies and suveying the drianage problem.

[Phil Nilsson]

When you get a variety of odd jobs ... some too small and too time consuming to figure a separate price on ... maybe the best way is to charge a (reasonable) hourly rate that the customer can agree with.

Phil

[Scott]

what's your time worth? and what are you doing.
You also need to add in a delivery fee. It for his convience not yours and be careful because these type of ppl will suck you in and make you feel sorry for them. Before you know it, you'll be running to the store and picking up them some milk and cookies.
You may feel that the previous LCO's took advantage of him but it was probably them not letting him take advantage of them.

Just picking some #'s out, w/o actually knowing all the details, I'd charge him $170 for materials and in the neighborhood of $700 for all the running around, delivery fees, building, diggin, pluckin, spreadin, mowin, etc.. to equal $870 as it stands right now.

You really should discuss fees prior to getting too many hours logged in,, they'll think that they're payin you $10 per hour which is bull.

[gerne]

okay, thank you for all of your imput guys! it's appreciated so i guess later on tonight im going to give him an invoice. thank you very much!

[Scaper-S2k]

He may break down and cry if he sees you charging him $70 per hour for the work you have done without agreeing before hand.

Especially if a good chunk of time was just picking up the stuff.

[Phil Nilsson]

If you're going to get a repeat customer from this ... it's important to establish a reasonable hourly rate from day one. Not get locked into a "giveaway" price which will hurt you later on. Also the hourly rate might be seen by the customer as a "measuring stick" ... he sees that it takes you 30 minutes to mow the grass ... or 2 hours to prune shrubs ... mite decide your fixed prices later on are too high? It's a maybe to think about.

Phil

[Seascape]

Something tells me you are going to wisjh you discussed all this w/ him before you did the work.
mike

[Rustic Goat]

Ditto from Seascape.

I wouldn't be selling him the materials for what you paid for them as was suggested. Unless you're running a non-profit outfit. It's your time, money, gas, vehicle overhead, etc. In general, unless there's a multi hundred dollar item involved, double your material cost.
Labor rate, should be at least $60 an hour, the more technical or more specialty tool involved type work even more than that.

ALWAYS agree on pricing structure first.

[Gary batho]

Always discuss hourly wages before a job is started , and wages can vary from job to job depending on the type of work.

[Scott]

I wouldn't be selling him the materials for what you paid for them as was suggested. Unless you're running a non-profit outfit. It's your time, money, gas, vehicle overhead, etc. In general, unless there's a multi hundred dollar item involved, double your material cost.

Rustic Goat would price it along these lines
170x2=340 parts
11hrs x 60= 660 labor
$30=mow
total $1030


I would price it along these lines
170 for parts
11hrs x 60 = 660 labor
30=mow
total $860 (sorry I was off by $10 the first time,, must have been that special math):p


Joe Doesn'tKnowAnybetter, would price it along these lines
170 for parts
11hrs x 10 = 110 labor
30 mow
total = $310

Joe is just leaving too much $$$ on the table and is dead tired with no real profits to boot. Isn't that a sin? to work your butt off, be tired and have nothing to show for it?

However you decide to price this, take into consideration what your local market can bear for odd jobs.

[Rustic Goat]

Try again

Not quite right there Scottster,

Doubling material cost would cover compensation for shopping/delivery.
No need to 'count' that time as hours working. So it would back off some from 11 hours, can't tell by how much, don't know what was rounded up to get from actual working time to 11 hours.

So you and I are most likely in the very same ball park.

[mikeslawnservice]

I have a question:

Does your mechanic charge you his cost for parts or does he make a profit and live to see another BUSINESS day.
The water pump might cost $90 but he will charge you $105.

When you do a mulching job, do you just charge the customer what it cost you for the mulch plus the labor. No. You figure in the cost of getting the mulch, hauling the mulch, extra gas it is going to use hauling those extra pounds, and taking the mulch to the site. All that equals about double. Then you charge for labor.

I have to say that Rustic Goat is just about dead on here.