No, me either. I never had the cods to tell a client I needed more frog skins on a job.
Well, in all honesty I just did that.
One of my clients talked me into doing a mulch job. She knew my stand on mulch but she seemed to want me to do it anyway. I told her I would do the beds but not the trees. There were a few odds and ends to do up there also.
So I gave a price to do some shrub work and the mulch. I told her 5 yards. Well I used the 5 yards and was only half done so I called her and got approval for 4 more yards.
I had make up for my mistake and I think my mistake was understandable; Hey, what do I know about how many yards of mulch? And we both sort of knew that going in.
I dropped my price per yard from 95 to 75 and also did a bunch of other things up there which wasn't included in the original proposal. All in all that was the very first time I ever had to call because my estimate was short.
Now if I slung mulch on a regular basis I would think I had better know just how much mulch and if I made a underestimate I would be able to fill in the gaps on my own accord cause that is what I would think a professional mulch slinger would do and be able to do with little or no skin off his nose.
Same with trees, sure I was a little low on some jobs but I really never ever lost out because I know how to expedite... and always have.
We had this caterer ( right up your alley ducati), it was just a lady and her daughter. The supplied food for a small party we had. She told us how much beforehand and dependant on that price would be the decision of whether she fed us or we did it ourselves.
So we agreed and everything was fine. I think the bill was around 500 bucks and I left another buck 50 in the envelope for her.
She called later on, after she had picked up her cash, and said she was under and needed more dough. We did not oblige in the slightest. Not that we thought we were getting over on the lady but Hell; how many jobs did I make good on in my life? And not only that its just in very poor taste to call and ask for more money, just think about the assumptions your are going to get. I would rather lose money on a job than be the target of those assumptions and that is definatley for sure.
I would say if there was some unforseen item that setback the estimate you might have a chance of calling for more money. But i don't know to many people who charge for chains when the hit a nail. In fact, I think that's just part of the job. But as professionals you are supposed to know how to wrangle your own steers, its actually kinda of expected you know.
