Business and Pricing Topics

Thats exactly the way I look at it. Ive been doing this a long time and I know what my value is to clients. I see the workers on my competetors job sites. We offer much better service and peace of mind. Our job as "sales people' is to give them as accurate description as possible to what their outcome is going to be. Try to get them to envision the level of service and craftsamanship they will recieve. It's tough. But at the same time it's not because it the truth. You know what you are are going to provide them because you've done it many times before. They dont. So you need to explain it through words, or pictures, or testimonials from past clients.

Then you charge what you feel your value is worth!

That's great info. The business part of business is my worst thing.

I am also self employed. I go against conventional norm and charge an hourly rate.

Let me explain...

We are full service. Carpentry, framing, plumbing, electrical, tile, painting. We do great inspection worthy jobs.

But we remodel many older homes. We've found that the minute the walls open up, all bets are off from the original plan.

Most contractors that 'bid' only see these as bites out of their bottom line and may be inclined to avoid fixing them.

We fix EVERYTHING we find wrong if the client approves. No matter what you throw at us in the middle of a project, we can take care of.

So the hourly rate allows us to take time and care in what we do without fear of losing out.

Now .... We're not cheap. Roughly 600\day 8 hrs. But it must cover my insurances.

So I'm the cheapest electrician or plumber you'll ever find, but the most expensive painter or material hauler you'll hire. Customer buy all the material. I get paid to pick it up. I do give ballparks obviously to keep client expectations.

We believe it works well, clients are happy with our effort.

I welcome any insight or problems you all may see with our business model.

Edit: we also make friends. I often have a client credit card in my wallet for weeks at a time. We go over any receipts if they want, and I am happy to explain the purchases.

We are entirely word of mouth because we're honest, trustworthy, professional and human.

Calling didn’t help me, but when I went downtown to their office and show them photos and plans, they have been extremely helpful, as long as you have done some homework.

Each market is different, but in LA there is alot of competition. The key is to find what you feel you deserve to make, and then find jobs/clients that are willing to pay that price. If you do volume, you can cut your price but it is important to manage the expectations of each client. If they are looking for a good deal (i.e. real estate investor), you tell them they may need to sacrifice some quality in order to meet their budget. If they are a high end builder, you will want to charge top dollar and let them know you will be paying very careful attention to all details and provide excellent service. It is easiest to stick with one or the other, that way your employess are geared towards similar types of expectations on each job.

Installers in my area with that experience (as employees) usually are paid $30-$40hr.

Supply and demand drive the market price and that changes based on how busy everyone is.