During our break time discussions, coworkers have been talking about other companies billing out alot more than we, as a company, are billing out, per hour. Of course our billing rates affect our wages, and so on down the line.
Where can I find information about currant, local, billing & labor rates? I live outside of Burlington VT.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
D-
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Replies
join your home builder's or remodeler's association... develop relationships with your competition.. keep your ear to the ground...
or.. you tell us yours... we may tell you ours...
Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
The I'll show you mine if you show me yours approach could be extremely valuable . Its done all the time in a variety of benchmarking exercises for different businesses, although it usually entails paying a (consultant) suit an hourly rate that exceeds trades rates by about 500%.
Perhaps Fine Homebuilding could sponsor an online survey of rates and charges that guaranteed anonymity. That way individual companies would not lose their competitive advantages, but they could gain access to the information regarding what different companies charge by region, business type and focus, size of company, age of company, etc.... to get widespread participation, I would also recomend that the survey results be available in two forms - a summary for people that have participated and a comprehensive report that could be purchased by anyone.
I bill 2000.00 PER hOUR
nice work if you can get it
He must be an ex Enron employee.
maybe he works in a parallel universe
All of the above guys. Darn I Hate when I have to wake up
That must be where you got the nickname from rich.
Ever read the greenhouse book by Napoleon Hill called Think and Grow Rich?.
Excellence is its own reward!
Have your wife, secretary, or even you call your competitors with some well thought out questions. Called market research
I look down my nose at people who dare to look down their nose at people.
I think it's always the wrong tack to let competitiors set your rates like that. As long as I was looking at it that way, I was making a little less than them. One day, I realized that I was doing better work than many of them and decided to charge what I was worth in my own eyes. I never looked back, never ran out of work, and some of them think I'm charging too much or that, "You can't get that much here."
Rates have to be based on the reality of local wages, labor burden, and market demand vs supply..
Excellence is its own reward!
Out walks Tim out of the saloon to stand beside Piffen in trench coat and slowly reveals his gun .
I offer as my "shot " at this , is that it also depends on what you have to offer to what the competition offers . Some times there is no competition. Depends . You like to stand on your work as speaking for itself, but there are other issues as well.
The main gripe in this area is that contractors dont call back on very small jobs. I saw an opening . Hanging a solid wood door with hardware from the existing jam , would be an example.
Contractors have called me to fix a ceiling in a new home . I didnt do the work to start with , so why call me ? I would not work as cheap as the person that did the work, but price is not the issue when they call this time ! Irrate customer that is holding the final draw ! So, I dont take the job of normal finishing , I take the job of being a Houdini. I price accordinly.
There are others too, but its as you said , supply and demand .
Tim Mooney
On that kind of call, you aren't just selling a door hanging job, you are selling customer satisfaction.
And you might end up with the credit for all the good stuff on the whole job in the customers mind because you are the last smiling face they see. And the guy who couldn't get too it after spending so much of his life on the whole house was too busy to do customer satisfaction work because he was pricing himself too cheap, had too much work to do, and so was too busy to get around to it. So he priced himself out of the possibility of satisfying the consumer on the low end..
Excellence is its own reward!
The question was...how do you find out what your competitors are charging. At some point we all have to know that. Part of my business is electrical contracting. Yes, I can charge a premium because I am good at what I do and dependable. I market that, and sell that.
Business is competitive and unless you know the level of your competition you dont know what your competitive edge is.
Get as much as you can possibly get!
I look down my nose at people who dare to look down their nose at people.
Charging what you think you are worth is great, but if you don't know what the going rates around you are, your $85 an hour(sounds like alot), may be well below the average $250 an hour, that you are not aware of. Only when you know the market around you, are you able to know if you might be short changing yourself, or not.
Thanks for all your input,
D-
Pete, I work in the same business, possibly because we in a small town everybody know what all the competitors charge out rate is and what they are paying their employees.
I would think just a phone call (as previously suggested) would reveal the going rates.
The local carpenters seem to be sticking close to $45. per hr and the electrical rates are close if not a little cheaper per hour.
bake
What's courious about all this is the fact that contractors will take to each other about anything, and give their opinions as well :) except when it comes to money. It's like some unspoken rule that you don't ask another contractor (in your field) how much he charges. (Your subs are glad to tell you, in writing)
In the advise it was said "have your wife or a friend call and get an estimate" Heaven forbid we just ask each other.
Pricing based soley on the competition, as said before, is not the only factor, neither is pricing soley on what you decide your worth. I think you need both, and some other things as well. I did a job once and after finishing the client said "you did that faster and better than (insert the competition here) and he charged twice as much!
Note to self: time to raise your prices :) Justus Koshiol
Running Pug Construction
$2000. per hour. OK that's what you bill. How much of that gets paid?
Service work for electrical contractors around here, Florida, seem to run $50 to $70 per hour for residential service calls. These prices can go up 50% for forced overtime or after hour work and up to 100% for Sundays, holidays or if you tick me off. More if you insist on helping. Emergency work for long time residential customers is commonly billed at regular time or just enough more to cover the overtime costs. Very small jobs, sometime not that small, for the very poor, people living on SS, neighbors and extremely long time customers is commonly not charged for.
Regular time may go for a little less for new house wiring a bit more for heavy commercial or industrial work. The later categories are negotiable. Throwing a major job our way can lower the cost of service work considerably as we would have people on site and the assurance of long term work makes long term planning easier. Long drives to remote locations, work requiring specialized training, experience or equipment and hazardous conditions will tend to raise the price.
Materials mark up for service work, requiring a very heavily stocked service truck, that acts as a rolling warehouse, runs about 70 to 100% with 100% being pretty standard. Long term customers or loyal businesses commonly get a discount. High dollar rapid turn around items, a $2500 custom ordered circuit breaker, get a far lower mark up 25 to 30% as doubling these items would seem excessive for something that cannot be used elsewhere.
A give back of 5 to 10% can be had on service calls just by the customer asking or complaining. Better to loose 10% than drop a customer or have them pay nothing.
I'll go with Piffin and Tim on this one. You definitely shouldn't set your worth according to someone else's.
I believe in the "nothing ventured, nothing gained" approach combined with an assessment of what it is I have to offer that is above average. I'm a firm believer that above average results deserve above average price. We offer more; therefore we should command higher wages.
The first mistake, IMO that anyone can make is to think average, be it in offerings or rewards. If you do, you've just insured that you'll be seen as average and only command "average" as a result.
No offense intended, but perhaps your post implies that it's time for an assessment and the necessary adjustments to offerings and/or rewards.
Change your mind and it'll change your life...for the better or the worse.
Tim, Piffin and Gold are all right on.
Why, in an area when my "competitors" are charging $35 to $55 per hour, am I able to command $85 and up?
The answer to that question would require chapters, but obviously across America, it's being done. It's called "Perceived Value."
Once you have established yourself I believe you can set your own prices where there is no bidding. If working by the piece-rate revise rates annualy, certain tasks, certain price, something different, different price. To work by the hour in my opinion leaves alot to be desired (except for the benefits). If I take on a job my customer knows exactly what they will pay and what the parameters of that price entail. I used to pride myself on the "quote in 30secs or less", very impressive to people with money to spend, scary as hell to those who don't, a dual edged sword so to speak.
To those who started this discussion, it's something you either have a feel for or don't.
sometimes board sometimes knot