What to charge friends and family

[starshadowbbq]

Anyone out there have this issue: doing work for friends and family is killing my wallet.
What do you folk out there do about pricing work for people you know really well, or even your own flesh&blood. Probably being too nice, but I find it really hard to charge proper prices. And, getting most work word of mouth means people also tend to pass on how little you charged !!!!!

So, where is the cutoff? Mom, dad, immediately family for free. Everyone else full price. Even yr mates?Strangers/new customers more to offset true cost of doing freebies? (Embarrassing when you change a flush valve for a pal and they offer to buy u a drink etc).

Obviously talking labour costs here/expenses. What do you do?

humbug

 

[TBServices]

I'm lucky in that most of my friends and family accept that I need to make a living and want to pay the going rate, although for immediate family and best mates i take a hit. i fit my best mates boiler on the 27th/28th december (my week off) last year and charged him £200 labour for a conversion to combi after his cylinder exploded. It's the acquaintances that expect better prices that wind me up.

At the end of the day, you have to make a living, so working for next to nothing for family, when you could be working elsewhere is no good for you, they should appreciate that. I know it's hard, but sometimes you just have to say no.

I'll be plumbing an extension for my parents after Xmas and I expect they'll pay full rate, cos they appreciate a quality job and don't want me to be skint lol.

 

[Jeff_JLED]

Close family - free
Relatives - discount
Friends - I take it on a job to job basis, but usually always throw in a discount.

 

[Jeff_JLED]

But then factors to consider are your financial circumstances too.

 

[Destroyer2813]

Lucky for only have small family so free labour materials paid for best mate same as cos he fixs all my computer related stuff on the same principle

 

[starshadowbbq]

Thanks y'all. I need to man up. Of course by that I mean I'm redesigning my website and putting an unlinked Friends and Family page with discounted rates so we (not least me) know how much it costs. Maybe. Five years on I've only just realised that I'm losing over £300 a month tootling around doing free stuff. That's not including lost time. ! (Her indoors - 'why are you overdrawn again?')

 

[Avatar]

Family - reluctantly free or discounted

the rest of the world - go to hell i say!!!!!

Life is too short to be doing work for free.,

If I wanted to earn less than I do now I would get a job in ASDA. I didn't become a plumber to work for £50 a day . . . . . .

So I say - 'I don't do mates rates' - or 'Yep - its £45 an hour you tight git!'

 

[Dotty]

Mechanic mate of mine fixed my car and charged me full whack, when I asked about mates rates he replied -

"Mates are mates but business is business!"

And that's stuck with me to this day!

 

[Centralheatking]

I have (due to my activities and no telly years ago) a humungous extended family 7 children ex wife and wife and some really trusted friends. This problem does occur often.

My trusted friends 4of we never charge each other labour but trade in beer
My in laws pay double the going rate
My children all get the 1st house done out - after that normal rates - except the 1x girly

I hope this helps your dilemma


Father Xmas

 

[SimonG]

Don't work for friends or family. Too much hassle, easy to tell them I'm too busy.

 

[villa_tom]

Don't work for friends or family. Too much hassle, easy to tell them I'm too busy.

Same as me. I don't do anything for people I know. I say I'm not qualified to work on their boiler and get my mate to go. I can't be doing going out on evenings and weekends for a few quid and a thank you.

To be fair I've put a stop on all my private work now, I just do my contracting Monday through Friday and my evenings and weekends are my own, and I've never been happier.

Theres More to life than work and I'm happy earning what I do in the week and don't really want to the friends and family hassle side of things.

 

[Rickster123]

:iagree:

Ive given up the private stuff abit too. I'm contracting all week. No out quoting in the evening. No working weekends. No faffing about with materials and paid regularly with the tax already taken off. Happy days.

 

[villa_tom]

:iagree:

Ive given up the private stuff abit too. I'm contracting all week. No out quoting in the evening. No working weekends. No faffing about with materials and paid regularly with the tax already taken off. Happy days.

Same as me then, but my tax dont get taken off. You can't let the taxman know everything 🙂

 

[AWheating]

50% more than you charge everyone else.

 

[jase158]

My worst customer is my bro, he moans at absolutely everything. A 1 hour job takes 4 hours of discussion and 2 hours work as he wants it done right, all the way down to the cleaning of the kitchen that was already dirty.
My dad takes days as when its done, he changes his mind and does it completely different,
But I charge them both around half of what I usually charge, but they both helped me become a plumber so kind of dont mind.
my other brother did my website and SEO for free and I wouldnt be as busy as I am if it werent for him so am always doing free work for him.
works in roundabouts

 

[lame plumber]

I love my family and don't have any friends. Probably coz I dont do free