Help on Pricing Commercial Job

[Pjj]

I don't chase the business but as I'm recommended when tenders come out I am asked to price up. It takes me an hour to price a job so not exactly time consuming, and I will continue to put in a price where I'm happy. Each scheme is run by a residents committee, one day I will find one that actually wants the job done to the specification on the tender, not at a price where it can't be done properly.

I quite agree wkth you sounds like commercial work up your way is very poorly paid fortunatly its not to bad down hear some companies expect you to pay them for the privalage of doing work for them ??? but most want a good job done on a regular basis and are happy to pay a reasonable price for that 

 

[Redditch windy]

 
 
I quite agree wkth you sounds like commercial work up your way is very poorly paid fortunatly its not to bad down hear some companies expect you to pay them for the privalage of doing work for them [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23] but most want a good job done on a regular basis and are happy to pay a reasonable price for that 

some residential customers expect you to pay them as well they want it that cheap [emoji85][emoji85][emoji85]

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[Part Timer]

I quite agree wkth you sounds like commercial work up your way is very poorly paid fortunatly its not to bad down hear some companies expect you to pay them for the privalage of doing work for them ??? but most want a good job done on a regular basis and are happy to pay a reasonable price for that 

Not all of it is bad, I do work for a National Care Home provider where the prices average £40 an hour, not quite as good as your £90 though ? I do 12 properties ranging from £120 to £10, I only do the £10 job because then no other companies do their work and as long as I'm under their budget on the new schemes they're opening they don't put them out for tender. As I say, for me my target is £30 minimum an hour. Something achievable on commercial work, not however residential, but the fight goes on.

 

[Pjj]

Not all of it is bad, I do work for a National Care Home provider where the prices average £40 an hour, not quite as good as your £90 though ? I do 12 properties ranging from £120 to £10, I only do the £10 job because then no other companies do their work and as long as I'm under their budget on the new schemes they're opening they don't put them out for tender. As I say, for me my target is £30 minimum an hour. Something achievable on commercial work, not however residential, but the fight goes on.

Hum thats intresting we  achieve a minimum of £30 per hour on domestic and that’s quite easy to do quite often a fair bit more than that , commercial jobs varie from £30 upwards if doing gutter vaccing never less than £60 per hour , that’s not boasting just how I price stuff but as I said earlier I do think it depends where you are in the country we are very busy so I am now pricing quite high as I don’t need the work so it’s an added bonus if we get it , and surprisingly we get the vast majority of jobs that we quote for both domestic and commercial, I am now just going to start putting up my cheaper work quite dramatically if I loose it then Ime coverd with the new higher priced work 

 

[Part Timer]

I don't do any gutter clearing up here, I do £10k+ a year down south and seem to be able to get your figure comfortably. 

Traditional window cleaning is the norm up here and prices, on average, are very low. I just about make just over £20 an hour on residential as my houses tend to be dotted around. I only have one area where I can do 4 houses without moving the van. To chase and secure more residential I would have to be in the £6-£8 price range. This would only achieve an hourly rate I get now travelling around so would really just become a busy fool. Hence the reason for me travelling south and chasing commercial work. 

 

[Incheck]

What I have found with work in general is, the higher you aim, the higher you will earn, but you won’t necessarily hit your targets. There are so many variables.

Traffic, parking issues, amount of work you can win, unforeseen little hiccups that cost you time. When we aimed for 30 an hour you might just clear £20/£25. If you aim for £200 a day and set your prices on that, you may only come home with £150.

But when you raise your prices, you may still not hit the target, but you will still come home happier.

We work as a two, and aim for £360 per day, and it’s very hard to achieve. Sometimes we clear £300 or more but often it’s between £2-300.

We can only get £360 per day or more on big jobs where they want a lot of work done & there is no travel time involved.

But we only do residential there is no commercial involved.

It’s the same with domestic plumbers. Some people have a fit when they charge £40 per hour, but what they don’t think of is that guy may only have 3 small jobs booked in on that day. The odd leaking tap or toilet etc. If you’re coming home with £120 self employed no pension etc its a hard way to make a living.

I know we are going to have to raise prices again eventually, if we aim for £50 an hour we may just start hitting £40 and above.

finding that balance between making a living & having your customers pass out and turn down your quotes is hard to find.

The sad fact of the matter is, i look at a lot of jobs and know from the start you’re not gonna win the work but you have to tell yourself “in the real world I can not do this for any less”

And sometimes you win it!

[emoji106][emoji106]

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[dmw]

So many variables, some of my work starts at £25 per hour and up to the £50 per hour mark, I always log my daily earnings and time taken and work out my daily rate.
A couple of weeks ago I added my hours and earnings for the month and the average hourly came out at a little over £30 per hour for the month which is pretty good for a relatively unskilled job, going forward I'm going to increase the lower paid work a lot more, and any losses of work should be compensated by the price increase but I can't do it until next March when the biannual increase is due.
Some guys I know are quite happy to make £15 per hour, (albeit tradding), but it does pull the price down for the rest of us.

A while back I lost a care home when they decided to pay me every 3 months rather than monthly as agreed by the previous owner, anyway I lost that when they brought their own people in, I was gutted at first but took on extra work to compensate and I'm quite relieved now as I didn't like the new regime and them sitting on my cash.
Nothing stays the same in this game, I do like the challenge though.

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[Part Timer]

So many variables, some of my work starts at £25 per hour and up to the £50 per hour mark, I always log my daily earnings and time taken and work out my daily rate.
A couple of weeks ago I added my hours and earnings for the month and the average hourly came out at a little over £30 per hour for the month which is pretty good for a relatively unskilled job, going forward I'm going to increase the lower paid work a lot more, and any losses of work should be compensated by the price increase but I can't do it until next March when the biannual increase is due.
Some guys I know are quite happy to make £15 per hour, (albeit tradding), but it does pull the price down for the rest of us.

A while back I lost a care home when they decided to pay me every 3 months rather than monthly as agreed by the previous owner, anyway I lost that when they brought their own people in, I was gutted at first but took on extra work to compensate and I'm quite relieved now as I didn't like the new regime and them sitting on my cash.
Nothing stays the same in this game, I do like the challenge though.

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The best attitude, and the best outlook to succeed in this business. Good luck, not that you'll need it. 

 

[Cghwindowcleaning]

I'm pretty much fully commercial now and just like domestic there is good work and prices out there,But around 70% of low prices are the result of some inexperienced  new lad or a large national driving down the  price and customers expectations on price.

Parts of commercial window cleaning like schools and shops are going backwards in price at the minute with jobs getting cleaned for a lot less than they where 10years ago.

 

[Pjj]

I'm pretty much fully commercial now and just like domestic there is good work and prices out there,But around 70% of low prices are the result of some inexperienced  new lad or a large national driving down the  price and customers expectations on price.

Parts of commercial window cleaning like schools and shops are going backwards in price at the minute with jobs getting cleaned for a lot less than they where 10years ago.

I quite agree with you you I think we should all stick together with some sort of pricing structure then when theses nationals **** it up they would have no choise but to pay a proper price that would benefit us as cleaners and the customer as the job would be done properly