This week's Give & Get question - Dan H.

DanHolohan

How much do you charge for your professional services, and why do you charge that much? What led you to the decision?

If you'd like to play, EMAIL me your answers. I'll be away for a couple of days, so if you post here I'm probably not going to see it.

As always, if you give, you get the entire list as soon as it's ready. This one goes until Sunday night. Have at it!

Bob W._2

Is is wise to invite separate businesses in the same field to ..

share their prices? Does this raise any red flags? Just wondering...

DanHolohan

it's all anonymous

So far, I'm getting input from pros who give their rates and explain how they arrived at them. The stories of how the prices came to be are very interesting. No one will know where any of this is coming from. It's just a snapshot of the industry. Interesting food for thought.

Unknown

prices charged

I have no problem answering to this one. We are a P&L company. We charge $42.00/hr for fuel customers, $62.00/hr for non-fuel customers. $55.00/hr overtime for fuel customers, from the time the technician leaves until the time he gats back. $75.00/hr overtime for non-fuel customers, from the time the technician leaves until the time he gets back.

48 years in the business brings us to this level. It acyually is not enough, but a recessed economy, and a graying population in our area, the market will not stand much more. We can only raise our rates, as others finally raise their's. Not a good measuring stick but.......

I would like to see us go to a fixed pricing structure. So much for each repair. It is the only way we could actually recoup our loses on travel time.

DanHolohan

Please

don't answer here. I'm going away tomorrow and I'll miss it. If I miss it then you won't get the list when I send it out. Also, you left no email address. Thanks.

nick z.

I am a one man operation and just raised my rates to 40 per hr. $50 service call.100 for power snake, 150 on weekends. I try to make 30-40% on mat. It's hard to make anything on mat. as there is several home stores very close and people do check your prices. I based thes prices on others in my area. Pricing is the one thing I know I stink at.more thanonce I ahve ahd freins of mine tell me "you need to charge more."hopefully I'm getting closer to where I need to be.

heatboy

Numbers Cruncher, Nick

Have you seen this software yet? Very simple and very telling. After loading in all of your overhead and salary figures, I'm pretty sure you will be surprised how much you really need to breakeven let alone turn a profit. Fortunately, under Ellen Rohr's tutelage, I saw the light years ago. If I can be of any help to you, just let me know. You can't worry about what the other guys around you are charging. You are a professional, charge like one!

hb

To Learn More About This Contractor, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Contractor"

Earthfire

Mr. Blau would have a coronary if he saw these prices. The prevailing rate in this part of PA. for a plumber is around $25.00 the last time I checked. add workmans comp. health insurance ,state tax, Federal tax, social security, county tax, school income tax, liability insurance, vehicle insurance ,phone & shop costs, inventory, inventory taxes,vehicle costs ,and there is more ,even for a one man shop.$45.00 doesn't doesn't even cover the cost of paying a man to show up. Let alone putting him to work. I remember plumbers charging $45.00 an hour back in the early seventies and costs were a lot lower then. Besides those poor old people that some of you guys worry about get automatic cost of living increases every year or more . DO YOU???? Don't you think that your kids deserve to live above the poverty level while your out breaking your back 16 hrs. a day trying to pay your bills.

DanHolohan

Getting some great stuff

on this question. Fascinating ways of arriving at prices. Thanks for sharing.

If you'd like to play, please EMAIL me your thoughts.