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Asked to justify Hourly rate

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I tell him that you was insulted by his comment as to you being a unskilled labour your a professional and charge price work not hourly rates because your self employed and have overheads to pay and not an employee who does get hourly rates mostly. That's why its £80

 
Just to point out you are a business owner - being self employed and managing your work means you have to look way beyond an hourly rate.

It's easy if employed to sum up your value into your hourly wage but when running a business you have a lot more costs and profits to factor in and no-ome who is unfamiliar with your business has any right to decide what you should charge.

Its a free market - if the price or quality of the work is not to the customer's satisfaction then they go somewhere else. There is a fantastic research thingy called the internet...

 
Good thread this is. The problem is custy thinks what he's handing over is all profit. It isn't as we know. On the other hand, if we're on to such a good earner why don't they try their hand at it. Ok we can make a comfy living from this game, but how many of your customers would get out of bed and crack on cleaning windows in the temperatures we had on Monday? How many would be happy getting texts at 11pm at night asking to leave tomorrow as the windows still look clean. Paper work, chasing debts.....It ain't all plain sailing is it folks!

 
I wouldn't reduce my price after like you have said you plan to it will

A.Look like you over charged him in the first place

And

B.Look like you don't know how to price and could come across a bit amateur.

You came to that price for a reason so stick with it.

A lot of people hand over money and the cogs start turning in there heads and they think all of that money goes in your pocket.This is the opinion of the mostly employed the sort that get 30 days a year paid holiday,pensions,private health care etc.

Every business has expenses take off tax ,ni,van,fuel,tools,water,insurance,bank charges and what you are left with isn't what you receive factor in that we don't get paid when we are sick or on holiday have no health care or pensions and it's not all that.

But you can be doing the best job in the world and some people will hate the fact we are earning good money in there eyes we are one up from the bin man and are wages should reflect that.

There was a window cleaner that use to do very,very well for himself not flash but sent his kids to private school.

When he could he would pick them up.

One of his customers who sent her kids there noticed his van would be there quite frequent and said.

"you must do a lot of work for xxxxx school I see your van their all the time"

To which he replied

"I don't clean the school my kids go there"

He lost her house almost instantly

Her words where

"If you can afford to send your kid to private school I obviously pay you to much"

So you can't please every one and some will just hate it that you could be doing better than them.

 
Just a quick thing to add here peeps, when the original is said to me "you are unskilled" I always say would you tell a plumber the same thing? They also do not need to be qualified nor affiliated does that me they are also unskilled an therefore not worthy of the rate they are charging.

This is also a classic case of work then discuss price should ALWAYS be the other way round.

Hope he tries to clean them himself to save £30 and falls through the bloody skylight [emoji13]

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Just a quick thing to add here peeps, when the original is said to me "you are unskilled" I always say would you tell a plumber the same thing? They also do not need to be qualified nor affiliated does that me they are also unskilled an therefore not worthy of the rate they are charging.This is also a classic case of work then discuss price should ALWAYS be the other way round.

Hope he tries to clean them himself to save £30 and falls through the bloody skylight [emoji13]

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I can plumb :thumbsup: it's all JG speed fit these days :laugh:

 
thats wrong mate, we have a lot of equipment costs resin, batteries ,pumps , poles etc etc all this is included in our time
Agreed, though I think you missed my point. Sure we have a few / some expenses for tools (just like an electrician has screwdrivers and such) but we don't resell products (cable, outlets, etc) and also make money that way.

 
there is one major point that has been forgotten

when you have plenty of work ,everything changes.

your not looking for work the graft is there ,your just getting more cream work hence you can up your prices

So the point is we are doing them massive favour by taking the contract on.So yes we can stick to our guns and get the cream work

if they dont want our prices happyh days move on

 
there is one major point that has been forgotten

when you have plenty of work ,everything changes.

your not looking for work the graft is there ,your just getting more cream work hence you can up your prices

So the point is we are doing them massive favour by taking the contract on.So yes we can stick to our guns and get the cream work

if they dont want our prices happyh days move on

 
If you got plenty of work then just charge him and don't go back . And as for your on more an hour than an electrician YES because I work a lot harder than electrician

 
I left school at sixteen with no qualifications. I have a family member who left school with excellent GCSE and A level results, has two degrees and various other qualifications and their hourly rate isn't even half what I aim for (and achieve) per hour.
Same as you fella, I left at 15 as I had a late birthday. As I've gotten older, I can now see the education system for the hoax that it is. Everyone's ability to be prosperous and abundant doesn't depend on how indocrinated they are. Schooling is to churn out more slaves to serve the system, and many people buy the BS, going on to uni, getting in debt then following the traditional path. Boring! I think we all have the ability to carve our own unique destiny and be as rich as we want.

when the original is said to me "you are unskilled"
If a custy ever uttered these words to me, I think I'd just turn and walk away. All of my custys are wonderful people who appreciate the work that I do, and none of them would ever dream of being so rude.

 
I don't want to sound self righteous but I never......ever.....do work without agreeing on a price BEFORE the work is done. Because that would just make me so mad hearing him say he wasn't going to pay it. If an electrician was getting £50 an hour he would probably be there multiple hours.

 
OK so I don't need the job. I could dump him no problem. I have sat on this for a month. If he was rude I would have on the day. My thinking is he's right. £50 an hour is a realy good wage. OK it's annoying that so much extra got done for a fiver. However it did take just over the hour.

Torn about it realy. He is a really nice guy, wasn't rude or insulting. Just justify Hourly rate realy. So being honest hourly rate ranges £30+ with some nice little runs averaging 50.

Ignore the idiots doing (latest one I saw the card for. Four bed house and conservatory £7.50) even doing a realy realy good job. Can we justify more than £50 an hour. ??
Did you say it was a two man job buddy? I think £60 as minimum for two would be about right, at least

 
At the end of the day everybody runs a business here self employed or limited company.It is up to you how do you price your work per hour per job but in general price work per job . Customers will always question your rates because we live in the world where we have to spend hours at work to earn our hourly rates sadly.Charge per job justify yourself with quality of work and expenses such us petrol. filters, etc.At the end of the day we are all here to make money and run successful businesses not to work on hourly based rates aren't we folks?

 
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I had this exact same thing from a house keeper at a big house that I won't say the name of. Her husband owned an electrical company .she says to me you do realise your on a lot more a day than an electrician . So I said yes because I work a lot harder than an electrician.

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It's not just your hourly rate you need to charge for, there are all your running costs and these need to be added into your rate.

It well worth looking at all you costs over the last 12 months and divide the amount by 261 that should give you your daily Break Even cost.

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There's no need to justify why you charge what you do. I would be telling him politely if it's too high for him no problem but please just say as soon as possible as I have so much work on at the moment I will fill your slot with another customer.

You don't find a mechanic who charges £80 an hour justifying his wages or a soliciter on 500 an hour justifying there's. If you don't want to pay it find another tradesman simple

 
Ive had the same here in Australia. An I.T. turd wanted an hourly rate so I told him Au$100 per hr. "I only get $80 p.h." he told me. So refused to hire me.

I always give an upfront price if I can. If im unsure I will chuck an extra in for safety margin. Dont let them get to you. Just tell em "It is what it is" you get no holiday pay, sick pay or pension. Not to mention vehicle and matrrial costs.

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