ddhlakebound said:
Ralph, thats exactly how I've been bidding jobs, but the problems im running into are bids to low for extensive rigging/higher liability jobs, and sometimes bids to high for easy climb and section, or fell/cleanup jobs.
Do you adjust your hourly rate depending upon the difficulty/liability?
Also, if you don't mind, what is your minimum to be on site for the quick easy jobs?
I'm not getting what you're saying. If it will take extensive rigging time that should be figured into the bid amount. If you need to bring in one extra man on the ground for rigging/cleanup, it should be figured in.
How I figure dificulty/liability is how much I want/need the job. Then I increase the proffit margin accordingly. If in talking to people who I get the feeling will be difficult, I may bump up the price by an extra crew hour or two.
If people want to bargin, I ask what part of the job do they want to take on, fine raking, wood removal, turf repair (I can go high-impact vs low impact).
On big jobs where I may not have much contact, or I've a big "dont need it" factor built in, I will put a clause " Price stated is for a low impact, clean job. Cost reductions may be available if the client wishes to perform some or all of the cleanup."
One big mistake new contractors make is in leaving wood they do not specify that the logs will be left where they lie, or piled in the work area not stacked.
As for working for more well to do people and the ethics, i go the other route. I discount for people of limited means.
On regular clients (I differentiate client from customer as the client is a revolving account) where I know they will want to talk, such as the lonley old ladies I've done small bushes for, I've added in some time to walk the yard and listen to them.
If the tree is an easy fell/chip, it should be your base rate. These jobs are ones where you nickle and dime yourself to death.
It should take .75 crew hours, you have a 3 man crew.
60x(3x2.25)=135
If it you waste 15 min on the job you've lost .75 billable man hours or $45.
then add in the half hour travel to the job that's another $90 billable.
Onr thing I've done on small jobs, especially if they are in the normal area of operations, is to have an "at my conveniance" clause so I could pick them up on the way home.
Small tree/shrub jobs I've sold for a given month so I can group them together and maybe do them on a Saturday morning.
Another good tool is to add a few small trees/shrubs to a bid you are doing as seperate line items, or "at no extra cost" sometimes it makes a job eaiser to reduce shrubs, or you can quick prune a crab while the crew is cleaning up, pick prune a foundation juniper so it looks less unruley...If we take the 200 day rule of thumb, and average $100 more per job for half those days...100x100=10,000.