Am I over pricing myself to split logs?

[Eagle90301]

I decided a few months ago I was going to start a log splitting business to earn a little extra cash. I decided for now I’d travel up to 10miles each way. I was going to charge 35/hr to split and 45/hr to cut and split wood. I had 3 people contact me so far.
the first one wanted a price to travel 20 miles each way (1hr each way)split and stack the wood I quoted them $300 they were happy but have not done job due to rainy weather.

Second person( bottom photo) wanted a flat fee. I asked for a description of what was needed. They said cut and split about 10logs 9’ long and 1.5-2’ diamitor. I asked for either address or photos to see what I was working with. I decided on $300 to unstack Logs cut to length, and split. I eplained I needed to charge more to carefully get logs off the pile. this job is about 20 minutes from me. Am I on the right track with pricing?

The 3rd person has a small pile about 30 minutes from me and was ok with the $35/hr to split just waiting on weather.

 

[Little Al]

Our firewood sales ; splitting is standard in the Cubic Metre price .Logs left in the round cut to 30 or40 cm's are cheaper we charge 50 euros per cubic metre if 3 or more metres are purchased at any one time this is for oak approx 12" in the round & split 3/4 pieces dependent on customers requirement This is only a sideline to the main logging business so its secondary job

 

[lknchoppers]

I would say you are doing good. If they are hiring you then you are in the Ballpark.

 

[ropensaddle]

Set your price based on your time and labor and wear and tear they either agree or not. As far as what I'm seeing looks like a cord each first two piles a maybe 2 in last. I tell folks all the time that the wood is free the labor is what i charge for "just saying"

 

[ropensaddle]

Set your price based on your time and labor and wear and tear they either agree or not. As far as what I'm seeing looks like a cord each first two piles a maybe 2 in last. I tell folks all the time that the wood is free the labor is what i charge for "just saying"

I would tell them cord price and a true cord will take you minimum 4 to 5 hours to cut split and stack .

 

[Ryan'smilling]

You need an understanding of your costs, as I said in your other thread. You can't just judge how well you're pricing things based on how excited people seem to hire you. If you're only making $1 an hour, you can't make up for that by doing a lot of hours...

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

We charge $30/hr per person just to stack wood. If I had to drag equipment out to do a job, it's $135/hr per piece of iron.

 

[lknchoppers]

This past spring one of my customers had some trees cut, looked to be about 2 cords or a little more. He wanted me to come split it. I gave him an upfront price of $250 and he would have to help. I ran the splitter and he basically fed it. We finished in 4 hours, no stacking just threw it in a pile. He was happy and so was I. I towed the splitter about 30 minutes drive to get there.