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M

meeb

Hi all

Kind of new to forum, long time reader not often poster! Finishing off college after 3 years of grafting and sorting out starting up on me own. Now come to the challenging part of pricing...

How do you determine the cost of services you provide? For instance a PIR do you price on per bedroom basis? And would you put these prices up online? I find very few sparkies do, just wondered why?

So many factors its quite hard trying to grasp it all!

Thanks in advance

Meeb
 
Hello Meeb.

Work out your hourly rate, then use that hourly rate to charge how long it takes say £20 ph, job takes 2 hrs = £40. Then add your mileage to the job at 45per mile say 10 miles = £4.50, add the costs of the items possibly adding a 30% say some 2m trunking at £4, a double plug socket and mounting box at say £4 and you will get a price of around £54.90p for the job.

Don't feel bad about adding a percentage coz you need to pay for office items, car insurance, liability insurance, professional body, marketing materials, phone calls, invoice paper blah blah blah so on and so fourth.
 
i was thinking when i start il be charging by the half day or full day too, there is loads to consider , and comes with mistakes, hopefuly not every job
 
mine is simple....testing is £160 per house some go easy and some dont.........labour for installing is £20 per hour plus materials adding 25%. and an average of £10 per job for diesel
 
You need to know your break even figure. How much do you need to earn to pay the household bills and food etc, fuel, insurance and all other fixed business costs, divide this by the number of hours you want to work and that is your break even hourly rate. Then add to this the profit you wish to make. You will then have your hourly, daily or weekly rate, you may want to account for holidays and time off sick so factor all this in as well. If you get the basics wrong you will fail. It is no good just plucking a figure out of thin air, or going on what others charge as their circumstances will be different to yours.

I aim for £500 a week, this is a hell of a lot more than my break even figure, but i wont go in too cheap as this does no one any good. But my circumstances are I am older, debt and mortgage free etc, the wife has a good job so dont need the big earnings. I usually only work 3 or 4 days a week, and then some of those are half days etc, but it has not always been like this.

Cheers.............Howard
 
Good advice there sirkit.
Nice to know I'm not the only one who doesn't pluck figures from the air.
 
Plucking figures from the air is a complete non starter. Unless you do as SirKit suggests and do a breakdown of your overheads you'll be lost and if you're starting off on your own you'll need at least £100.00 per month for advertising.... and be realistic in the first year, you'll work really hard and gain little.
 
Thanks for all the responses guys! Could you guys suggest what are the things to take into account? My list so far includes :

NICEIC membership
Public liability insurance - (what amount am I looking for here?)
Vehicle Insurance
Vehicle tax
Vheicle repair fund (contingency if van gets naffed)
Fuel
Advertising ( business cards, mugs, leaflets, local rag. I see this as a monthly usage)
Website
Tools
Phone
Work Wear
Calibration

Then household stuff

Mortgage
Utilities
Insurances
Phone
Food
Council tax



My plan is to start part time at first, just on days off from current job until I'm turning work away regularly... Has anyone had experience of starting off like this before? How did it work out in the end for you?

Thanks

Meeb
 

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