Quote Originally Posted by Optimistic Nick View Post
The thing is, sometimes even the trademen themselves don't really get it.

We had a bedroom carpet fitted a few years ago. I used a local company who sent out a fitter. I paid the company for the carpet, and £35 to the two fitters who came to put it down, arranged by the company. The fitters did a decent job and were tidy so I asked them if they did private work. They did. I ordered carpet for hall stairs and landing. Including the supply of the rods he quoted £55 to fit. I asked him how long it would take to do the hall stairs and landing. It would take two of them half a day, at least. I questioned why the cost wasn't more. He just said that's what he gets paid by the carpet companies so that's what he charges for private work.

Absolutely bonkers. £55 for a day's work?! I paid him £120. Still saved me a fortune as I could get hold of carpet and decent underlay a lot cheaper online, and he gets to earn a fair fee. He did admit afterwards that he was just starting out on private work and hadn't really thought about pricing much, but when I got him back in to quote a few years later for something else he did remember me and said he'd upped his charging and was still busy.
that is the problem, people just starting out, they feel they have to price low to get work

I see it all the time, people starting out in whatever business, as people know i am a ex-carpenter / foreman / site agent who now earns maybe 60% of my income from window cleaning ( i still project manage building jobs for people )

2 recent examples

window cleaning, a company quote for a job to do, they ask the company how much i charge, Company boss decides to have a bit of a laugh, the job is £450, he tell them " £150 ", they come back to him with a £120 quote 120 quid, it takes me a day and a bit, maybe 10 hours, so this company are happy with £12 a hour, its just not enough, but could well have driven the price down so much that it wasnt worth doing

Building, someone i know has started out doing groundwork and landscape gardening, i had a job that needed a patio doing after a extension was built, guy says " if you buy the materials I will charge you day rates , now i was expecting £200 - £250 a day for him and his labourer, Nope £150 a day, i told him he needs to charge more, his response was " oh i used to earn £100 a day working for someone, so I am happy with that and £50 for the lad ", i then explained holiday pay, days when you cannot work, ill or rain, fuel and van costs, tool costs, the guy still invoiced me for £150 a day