Advice for charges????

[Frenchy316]

Hi Guys. I recently started up my own company about 6months ago, its general property maintenance but I do offer a plumbing along with this, for which I am qualified. The problem I find is that I'm unsure a lot of the time as to what to charge, i'm not gas safe registered as yet so its mainly maintenance plumbing and new bathroom installs. I tend to charge around £20 p/h for repairs plus a £20 call out fee, not sure what reasonable day rate would be? A couple of examples of small jobs recently carried out include, a replacement radiator- charged £60 labour and sink taps replaced £40 labour? does this sound reasonable? also should I add anything on for materials? many thanks in advance, any advice would be welcome.

 

[Ray Stafford]

Hi Frenchy316 and welcome to the forum.

Whereabouts in the country are you?

This thread might help.

 

[Barry98]

ray thats in the arms they wont be able to see it , as we dont discuss pricing on open forum , stick around frency get your post count up and we will let you in the arms further down the line

 

[Ray Stafford]

ray thats in the arms they wont be able to see it , as we dont discuss pricing on open forum , stick around frency get your post count up and we will let you in the arms further down the line

Ooops - thanks Bod, and sorry Frenchy

 

[Barry98]

my advice and this is just my opinion , charge what you want to earn a living and dont worry about what ervyone else is doing.

we know were not the cheapest and openly tell people this when they ring for a quote as a example i know a gas man in west yorkshire charging £25 for a landlords check

the question is whats he doing and waht has the landlord done to ensure hes doing it correctly - just a thought

 

[Mrs Tara Plumbi]

I don't think many people could live charging £20p/h and having to pay all your business overheads out of that.
You should be very busy but you could be just as busy charging twice as much!

Business over heads include:
public liability insurance,
cost of running a van including cost of buying van
tools & replacing them
training courses
advertising
accountant
Gas Safe registration and any other memberships
Your phone
Your internet (because it is essential for work)
Stationary & postage

Investigate what others are changing in your area.

 

[REDSAW]

first, how much should you earn a year?, now halve it!!

next work out your running cost's (mines £9 p.h one man band!)

multiply that by 40 weeks per year because thats about the productivity time (in my case at least)

then add the figure in step one divide that by 52 weeks.

whatever it is in your case it should be about the same as us in realistic plumber/gas workers..about £6.50 per hour in your pocket 😉

 

[Whl4852]

I don't think many people could live charging £20p/h and having to pay all your business overheads out of that.
You should be very busy but you could be just as busy charging twice as much!

Business over heads include:
public liability insurance,
cost of running a van including cost of buying van
tools & replacing them
training courses
advertising
accountant
Gas Safe registration and any other memberships
Your phone
Your internet (because it is essential for work)
Stationary & postage

Investigate what others are changing in your area.

I dont don't agree at all, many people charging £20ph and running a business, if you can get £20ph that's great, better paying jobs will come along..

 

[cr0ft]

£20 per hour = £160 per day. I work on around £50 per day of costs running my business. So £110 per day. You can earn more than that working for someone else without any of the hassle that comes from being the person the buck stops with. Why on earth would someone want to run their own business for that? The only person that would imo is someone who has no clue about how to run a business.

 

[hammers4spanner]

I dont don't agree at all, many people charging £20ph and running a business, if you can get £20ph that's great, better paying jobs will come along..

i used to charge that and it was a struggle always skint , day rate at twenty an hour yes but then when working at that theirs always extra long dinners etc etc

 

[helpsy]

I charge £35 an hour or £225 for the day.

 

[helpsy]

Got a mate who was charging £150 a day and he said loads of people were saying "HOW MUCH !" I said to him he was wasting his time as when he took out running costs etc it wasn't worth it, he would have been better off working for a company and no hassle. He has now upped his charges.

 

[cr0ft]

Like most on here I started out too cheap. Without fail, as my prices have gone up jobs have become less stressful as these are now the sort of jobs where customers leave me to buy all materials so they are right first time. Customers who go for a cheap tradesman only value the fact you are cheap. Customers going for an expensive tradesman value them in my experience.

 

[DaveTidy]

We had a similar debate on another thread but can't find it.

Read this article a while ago quoting £51/hour if all overheads were factored in correctly, they list it on a spreadsheet.

£9/hr sounds a bit on the light side, are holidays, training, sick, petrol, replacement tools etc factored in?

 

[basildog]

my advice and this is just my opinion , charge what you want to earn a living and dont worry about what ervyone else is doing.

we know were not the cheapest and openly tell people this when they ring for a quote as a example i know a gas man in west yorkshire charging £25 for a landlords check

the question is whats he doing and waht has the landlord done to ensure hes doing it correctly - just a thought

If a man cannot live on £20 an hour I would suggest he is living beyond his means ?
There are good people out there self employed on £80 a day !
Then take all the care workers and bus drivers on £7.50 an hour ?
Would you drive a coach or bus for that ?
70 kids screaming in your ear as you deal with a 40 foot coach in busy traffic and working a 14 hour day ?
The world is a strange old place we are supposed to value our kids and family yet we let them travel on a bus where the driver is underpaid and overworked ?
I would actually think if a man earns £20 an hour he is probably in the top 25 percent of workers ?

 

[solutions]

If a man cannot live on £20 an hour I would suggest he is living beyond his means ?
There are good people out there self employed on £80 a day !
Then take all the care workers and bus drivers on £7.50 an hour ?
Would you drive a coach or bus for that ?
70 kids screaming in your ear as you deal with a 40 foot coach in busy traffic and working a 14 hour day ?
The world is a strange old place we are supposed to value our kids and family yet we let them travel on a bus where the driver is underpaid and overworked ?
I would actually think if a man earns £20 an hour he is probably in the top 25 percent of workers ?

I get the sentiment, but other than tax and ni what overheads does a bus driver have to do his job? He probably has to have his hat calibrated every 12 months to stay within regs, oh and pay bussafe to make sure he knows how to drive.

 

[Mrs Tara Plumbi]

If a man cannot live on £20 an hour I would suggest he is living beyond his means ?
,,,
I would actually think if a man earns £20 an hour he is probably in the top 25 percent of workers ?

When you are starting out you should be prepared for a low income - lack of work, unforseen problems - but these are not what you aim for long term!

As said If you charge £20ph you do not have £20ph to live on - there are a load of business Overheads I listed some earlier. What they add up to will be different for every one. Someone said they might work out at £50 per day - yes quite possibly.
Then there is also tax on income.

I would also question the lifestyle f the man charge £20 p h. - does he have children? Is he claiming benefits? Means rested benefits are a away of subsidising low pay and I would not think a self employed person should be aiming for an income that is so low they would qualify for means tested benefits.

I would also point out that £20p/h ust might be the going rate for an unskilled, UNQUALIFIED self employed person, with little or no overheads. Someone who is also offering no guarantee to the customers.

As for how the £20 p/h person compares to the rest of the popularion.
I have no idea.
I think the average income is about £26k gross.
If you were a paid employee you would get over 5 weeks paid holiday.

I suspect the self employed plumber charging £20 p/h would drive a battered old van, live with his parents and actually be in the BOTTOM 25% of earners.

WE all know he should be charging at least £40p/h and more. £60 is reasonable - depending on many factors.
But hourly rate is not the same as day rate. £150 p day might be reasonable (again depending on many things) but is on the low side.

 

[Frenchy316]

When you are starting out you should be prepared for a low income - lack of work, unforseen problems - but these are not what you aim for long term!

As said If you charge £20ph you do not have £20ph to live on - there are a load of business Overheads I listed some earlier. What they add up to will be different for every one. Someone said they might work out at £50 per day - yes quite possibly.
Then there is also tax on income.

I would also question the lifestyle f the man charge £20 p h. - does he have children? Is he claiming benefits? Means rested benefits are a away of subsidising low pay and I would not think a self employed person should be aiming for an income that is so low they would qualify for means tested benefits.

I would also point out that £20p/h ust might be the going rate for an unskilled, UNQUALIFIED self employed person, with little or no overheads. Someone who is also offering no guarantee to the customers.

As for how the £20 p/h person compares to the rest of the popularion.
I have no idea.
I think the average income is about £26k gross.
If you were a paid employee you would get over 5 weeks paid holiday.

I suspect the self employed plumber charging £20 p/h would drive a battered old van, live with his parents and actually be in the BOTTOM 25% of earners.

WE all know he should be charging at least £40p/h and more. £60 is reasonable - depending on many factors.
But hourly rate is not the same as day rate. £150 p day might be reasonable (again depending on many things) but is on the low side.

Thank you for your wise words, i have found all this advice very useful and will take a lot of it on board moving my business forward. I'm finding this forum a very useful learning tool. Thanks guys.

 

[oz-plumber]

Hi Frenchy,

If I can offer any advice - take it as you will.

What ever you initially think it will cost you to run your business, cover expenses, pay, holiday pay and all other ancilliarys' ,it would be fair to say the you should double your charge-out rate.

The other thing you should be doing is giving customers quotes on work to be done..most ofthe time. Customers would rather have a fixed price for works rather than a service call charge and and hourly rate.
I rarely do work on an hourly rate..bar minor service calls. I prefer to quote jobs and include all business expenses within the quote.
Difficult at times - but necessary...