We all like deals. Right? I do not advocate price gouging, but I believe in paying a man his fair wage and dues for the valued professional craftsmanship of his trade. As the title of this blog post suggests, We are in a business to make a living. An honest legal living just like you. To get respect, one must give it. Respect our job and business and please, quit insulting us about what 
you think we should make without any knowledge of how much things really cost us.
I’m using a post from a forum to illustrate a point on what is a fair price for a service call. It’s well known to many contractors and other small business owners that the majority of the public, to which I’ll refer to as average HO (HO is contractor shorthand for homeowner), have not a clue on what it costs to run a legit business or how much the actual time and expense even a small project may take. These folks are too inundated with marketing media shows on many of the DIY channels and HGTV. What the general public fails to realize is these shows are heavily funded – subsidized by big corps pushing their Right Tools & Equipment For Home Improvement. Most materials are donated or sold at a drastically reduced price. Much of the labor is free or heavily subsidized also in one way or another. It’s TV folks not the reality!
Perhaps I shouldn’t post these kinds of things Such as in my previous rant What’s a fair price for your bathroom remodel? on my business website!?! I am a professional remodeling contractor in business just showing my human side and this is…well, a blog. Nevertheless on to the post.
HO complaint
A member of my communty Yahoo group posted a comment about a local handyman. I think it will make for some great fodder in this forum. The title is not accurate as it’s the HO’s friend making the complaint. Give me another 90 seconds to finish popping my popcorn.
Hi, all.
I just wanted to share a short story with all of you. Recently, some friends of mine contacted a handyman who advertises in the All ******xx Bulletin, (name withheld), about a small job they had: the shower stall in the basement of their unit had a water leak in the area near the wall and needed to be caulked. They thought it would be best handled by someone with experience who knew which caulking material would be most reliable and long-lasting.
They also asked that the basement toilet, which often ‘runs,’ be fixed. This was to involve merely replacing the tank ball.
Mr. ****** left that day without providing an estimate, but my friends figured that the work is not complex, should be completed quickly, and thus how much could it be?
Surprise! The total bill turned out to be $310.
Here’s the breakdown: the charge for the caulking job, which took 45 minutes, was $175. Mr. ******x then left to procure a tank ball, which he had not brought with him. He returned an hour and 15 minutes later and took 1/2 hour to replace the tank ball. My friends were charged $45 for the part (which they later priced at $11.49 on the internet) and $90 for procuring the part and installing it.
WOW! That’s like highway robbery, What a rip!!
To which Leo replied:
You are missing a few things here.
- First was the initial call where he drove out to the clients house to look at the problem.
- Second was the caulk, before he got to the clients home he needed to go to the store to get the caulk that was required for the job. Both of these have to be paid for.
- 30 minutes to install and 75 minutes to obtain
He probably paid about $18 for the part. I know my truck uses 4 gallons per hour of driving. I assume it took him about 15 minutes in the store, so that means he was on the road for an hour. So $20 for the part, $10 gas, an hour 15 of his time, lets say $40 (cheap) and half hour to install it ($20). That’s $90 of direct costs right there. $45 for profit on the job, which includes the time for the initial call.
People really just don’t have a clue on how much it costs to do a legal business. They look at how much it costs if they did it themselves and then charge $0/hr because there time is free. No thoughts about vehicle maintenance, insurance, overhead, profit, advertising and everything else that goes into operating just a small business. Every job needs to have all those costs in it or the business will be no longer in a short time.
Sounds like they wanted the guy to work for free. So lets see, $5 for a tube of caulk, $11 for the part (off the internet) 105 minutes of his time at $8/hr so the bill should have been in the range of $30. Right? Is that what they think would have been a fair price?
Sure some HO’s may get defensive and get an attitude from this blog post. They are are usually the kind of HO’s that haven’t a clue and their overly sensitive toes got stepped on. I don’t do cheap, but I am not outrages either. WE aim for affordable value and cost effectiveness. It is not outrages when things unknown to the ignorant are brought into light. Well, we do have those that do know better, but they will still try to nickle and dime a guy to death and chew them down on a fair deal.
HOORAY FOR YOU SHAWN!!! I’m in the same boat HO watchs HGTV and see’s that a room is painted for $50.00, thats probably a reduced price on the paint alone!! The HO has NO IDEA what it takes to run a business, pay your help (and yourself) a decent wage, insurance, rent on an office space, IRS, and I could go on and on. THEN you have the mini-van bandits out there doing sub par work for pennys and the HO thinks they are getting a deal. We are AFFORDABLE BUT NOT CHEAP! I know I maybe cutting my own throat here too, but sometimes it’s better to walk away from the HO than loose money. Keep it up my friend!
Keep on keeping on developing our reputation for high quality work that is guaranteed, affordable and a better overall value than ‘cheap’
Great blog post, Shawn! This is so true for many. I will be honest, many years ago I was the contractors nightmare. I also had that mindset. It wasn’t until I actually became a business owner myself (EVEN though I had done contract work for YEARS), did I realize in my consulting business HOW MUCH TIME I spend on doing an audit and report on a company just to win their business. The almost two hours I spend in free consultation, then the reasearch on what would best fit their marketing needs correctly for their brand. Then deciding which areas they need the most and then quoting it. All the while, sharing my expertise in bits, which they can pretty much walk away with and work on their own. I’ve learned to not “give” so much in my proposals, but at the same time, I like to show value. All in all, the time I spend on ONE potential client equals to about 8-10 hours of work when all is said and done. And don’t forget, I always schedule a follow up appointment with them to disucss the report and proposal. They get a hard copy, beautifully presented measurement of what marketing needs their company has, free.
But, I don’t mind. It’s part of what I have committed myself to doing. It’s laborsome, but then I see the eyeballs when I give them my final total. I have to laugh, because I am about a third of the cost of most marketing companies in the area! lol! But, then again.. it’s the same as you. They do not understand the time that is put into marketing their company. It is VERY time consuming. There is a lot of research, working with agencies on your behalf, developing materials, working on campaigns and marketing plans that will develop a strategy you can use LONG after our contract is done.
All I ask for is a fair wage for fair work. As stated above, I am even priced way lower. I don’t “pad” my hourly rate in the cost of ads, or other ways to gain my money. I am upfront, honest..and put it all out there. I am not interested in padding at all. This is what it cost, this is what you pay me.. this is your total. Easy enough?
Not so much!
Great post again!
Professional dedicated personalized service… Once a client gets a taste of it, they will never look back. This helps to establish trust & respect. This is part of our (I feel is yours too) overall business ethics.
Thanks for stopping by Kathy!