[Ian101]

This is something Ive been doing for a week or so now and seems to be working nicely.

Got the idea from my motor trade background where the service department has a manufacturers book with times for every car repair job in it (computerised these days) e.g. replace clutch on a Toyota Corolla may be 6 hours labour so thats what they charge the customer 6 hours @ £85 = £510 .... if the mechanic does it in 5 hours they still charge for the 6 hours and the mechanic gets an hours worth of bonus and the garage make a bit more profit.

so what Ive been doing is pulling up to a job, get hose set up and start the stopwatch on my watch ... if the house is £10 then that gives me 20 minutes to do clean and put stuff away and write ticket / collect payment.

Some of my stuff is ok timewise but have exposed a few jobs where not hitting the 50p a minute so have put them up accordingly .... few surprises cos some houses thought was priced ok were well out and some big stuff quicker than what I thought.

50p a minute = £30 and hour which is a level I want to achieve. ( prob nearer £25 ?? when taking travel time in to account but works well on compact stuff and may start to factor travel time into some stuff ?? dont know yet ??)

Nice when you have a £15 job which would "allow" 30 minutes and Ive managed it in under 20 minutes so like the fast mechanic thats my bonus.

Try it next time your out and see your round in a new light  

 

[LWC]

Good honest garages

"if the mechanic does it in 5 hours they still charge for the 6 hours and the mechanic gets an hours worth of bonus and the garage make a bit more profit."

Dont agree with that at all, i have a local guy who does work for me and would never do that.

This aint a dig at you, its a dig at garages and that really ticks me off!

[Ian101]

Good honest garages

"if the mechanic does it in 5 hours they still charge for the 6 hours and the mechanic gets an hours worth of bonus and the garage make a bit more profit."

Dont agree with that at all, i have a local guy who does work for me and would never do that.

This aint a dig at you, its a dig at garages and that really ticks me off!

Main dealers mate .... say no more 

but the idea in principal seems to be sound when it comes to making money as some main dealer service departments make over £100 grand a year

[LWC]

Good making £100k ripping people off aint it.

[Ian101]

Good making £100k ripping people off aint it.

if your the garage owner then yes but if you one of the workers on a pittance then no and if your a customer of these service departments then u can vote with ur feet and go elsewhere.

I left motor trade as didnt want to make my boss any richer  .... prefer to do that for myself

[Ian101]

anyway back on topic 

think I will start a "how we all love or hate the motor trade" topic on the chat section 

[LWC]

Sorry, gets on my goat, will stop now 

[Spruce]

Good honest garages

"if the mechanic does it in 5 hours they still charge for the 6 hours and the mechanic gets an hours worth of bonus and the garage make a bit more profit."

Dont agree with that at all, i have a local guy who does work for me and would never do that.

This aint a dig at you, its a dig at garages and that really ticks me off!

Hi
Even the local one man business uses the time guide to work out a price. But his hourly rate is a quarter of the main dealers. It's the hourly rate that causes the high bills. You have to start somewhere. In credit to this system, if a job takes longer due to a problem, then you still get charged to the allocated time allowed.
You can't have it both ways.
Spruce

[alanwilson]

at the end of the day if the mechanic tells you its £500 to fix the problem but takes him 10 mins, then whats the problem?

you agreed to the price.

shoe on the other foot - you quote a custy £30 thinking it'll take half an hour but you get it done in 15 mins - do you give them £15 back?

I doubt it.

[LWC]

But i dont charge by the hour, they do.

[Adam P]

and if you quote 30 minutes but it takes 45 minutes do you charge them £15 more? i know if we saved some time on a clean we wouldn't give it back, though we usually only get it done quicker because we work harder. we don't charge more if it runs over either so it kind of evens out.

[Smudger]

Ian - good topic and what you are doing is excellent because keeping track on work the price and how long it
takes all keep your business on track

it will also help for quoting future work.

LWC - so how do you calculate your price ?


Ditto - prevoius post - if you can beat your quoted time and the work is still good - your up - but if the job has a problem (extra heavy bird stike - or equipment probs) and takes an extra 15 mins your down - that is life and business

Darran

[Sean Dyer]

I have some work that isnt great prices, but did my best ever day today (with help on bottoms , trad apart from 2 wfp jobs) average job price was prob under a tenner but did a stonker in 8 hours. Sometimes its how you go about it, ie work hard, work smart, and have compact work...

I also picked up 2 new jobs and did the first cleans well chuffed

But pricing is a big issue

When i finished i thought if they were priced right id of made at least an extra ton, but its work i bought , but once ive changed over this round to wfp and got everything right i will bang a good few quid on them to bring them in line, but im still making good $$$

[AuRavelling79]

Excellent post Ian! Will try it.

[lee_dewing]

good post Ian.

I was only thinking this the other day when sitting in the van, in heavy rain.

Had the calculator and was working out why i don't earn enough

and should be looking for the rate you said and when i next quote it will be at 50p a min.

I have been timing myself but won't put prices up just yet as i use trolley system, so gonna get reel from gardiners and use trolley on board as much as poss, this then will make me as quick as poss.

My  stopwatch on my watch confuses me once it gets to the hour stage, i don't understand the display; but this is probably me : 

[Alex Allen]

basic advice is never out of date
£30 per hour has been the minimum for some time
should be earned over the year, nothing less or it would'nt be £30
you should be able to earn that without doing overtime
or getting behind with your work to the point you lose money
catching up with should never affect your profit

this is all basic stuff; you do in your first year
once your hourly rate starts to get high
you have little choice to have an advantage and stay ahead
if you want to earn more
you have some work to do before you get to that stage

[SunShineCleaning]

I'm suprised many are suprised.

I thought this was basic business sense.

You set your hourly rate and work out how long it should take with a worst case scenario and price it at that.

[Ian101]

its my first year  

so yup possibly preaching to the more experianced  

or showing me granny some eggs to suck

[Ian101]

good post Ian.

I was only thinking this the other day when sitting in the van, in heavy rain.

Had the calculator and was working out why i don't earn enough

and should be looking for the rate you said and when i next quote it will be at 50p a min.

I have been timing myself but won't put prices up just yet as i use trolley system, so gonna get reel from gardiners and use trolley on board as much as poss, this then will make me as quick as poss.

My  stopwatch on my watch confuses me once it gets to the hour stage, i don't understand the display; but this is probably me : 

was sitting in my van in the rain the other day when i thought of it 

[Alex Allen]

thought so
plenty more to learn
better to think at home as well
with pen and paper