Hello everyone,
i’m fairly new on my own and don’t have a lot of bidding experience, I just got a call on a 60 sg. white cedar shake siding job . I know a helper and myself can do about 2 sg. a day , but wanted to know what other guys were bidding per sg. for this . I’m in ct. any ideas.
thanks kdog
Replies
Depending on the details, access, etc.... 1/2 to 1 square per day, per man. What do you charge per day, and how did you come up with that number?
What are you using for fasteners?
i don't really understand your reply, like I said with two guys I can install about 2 sg. day , i am looking to see what other people in my area are charging i've heard 250 a sg. w/ out materials .
"other people in my area"
Should we just guess what area your from?
Ron,
He said he's from CT,
I'm charging $300 labor only per sq. that's NY state.Vince Carbone
Oops
I aplologize, I missed that.
I am going to give you better advice than you asked for.You are new so you don't know the secrets to making a decent living in this field yet. You are falling into a trap you seem to have set for yourself, but you don't yet recognize the trap.You are trying to let the competition set your rates.
That is always a mistake! If they price their work too low, you try to match it and end up in the same poor boy hole they are in, chasing your won tails forever and not getting ahead.
If they are high, it may be because they are good or even better than you. You try to price your work the same as somebody who does it better and the customer will see the difference in value and you have lost any hope of future recomendations.So you need to meet your new best friend and competitior - Mr Kdog, meet Mr Kdog. Measure your work and your prices against your potential, your own sense of the best work possible, and then calculate the prices you will need to make a living, pay your bills, set some aside, etc. Don't forget all the overhead costs like insurance and taxes.So let's say that you figure you can live on ####couple hundred a day, but you also need to pay the overhead of a hundred a day, and need to set aside a hundred a day and voila! Mr Kdog tells Mr Kdog that he needs to price his work at $400/day. Mr Kdog knows that on a good day, he can do a square a day per man, but Mr Kdog reminds him that there are some bad days due to weather etc, maybe 12% of the time so to stay in buisiness, he calculates that he needs to charge $448/sq. Mr Kdog figures this sounds about right and thanks Mr Kdog for the time going over all the cost figures. Then he sets out to sell the job at that price and points out to the customer the advantages of choosing his quality of work, how he will have himself clean up every evening, and run straight lines, and generally do great work that will make the owner proud to look at every evening when coming home from work. He instills a sense ofr aprtnership and pride and value in the owner that makes it hard for them to consider choosing anyone else at any price. The competition from others no longer exists.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Piffin.....Well said, we are our own competion, "know thy self".
Story time -
I gave up thinking about "the competition" about 30 years ago. I was bidding a re=roof for some nice folks and I happened to know that they were also getting a bid form another roof sub who did lousy work. I pointed out a few specifics in my presentation, and waited for the call back. A month l;ater, I saw another roofer who was probably more expensive than either of us working on that house. When next I saw the HO,i asked politely how he came to choose that roofer.He said very pointedly that my nemesis and I had spent so much time running each other down rather than selling our positive points that hew soon got sick of us both and went with the highest bidder, who made a professional presentation.I learned a lot in my youth. I learn slower now, but it is because I don't make so many mistakes anymore to have to learn from.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Piffin .....I to have learned NEVER to say anything about other contractors work or any of my compition. Recently I was talking to a HO that had taken several bids for a project ,the 1st contractor did a terrible job on a room addition ( sagging ridge line etc.) and a second contractor that had lost the bid said to the HO "if I knew you wanted that kind of work my bid would have been a lot lower." , what seemed to be a clever comment really hurt the HO and it reminded me that we are not in competion with our clients/customers also.
I have a customer who was once very happy with my work. Then one year, hegot another company to do an addition and misc work.Turns out he assumed I was too busy - kind of people who want it now and have little contractor loyalty - or patience to wait.So since that job got finished, he has called me over there every few months with a list of things that need fixing - on the stuff they did, not any of mine. The jobs have ranged from $550 to $22,000. On the first one, I asked, "Wouldn't it make more sense to have XXX Bros back since they are the ones who did..."He never even let me finish. "Paul, I don't want to talk about it, just make it right, please?!"it was obviously an emotional subject. I suspect he already knew he had screwed himself by the choice he made and that he had learned a bit about loyalty to a contractor and didn't need me rubbing it in, though that is not what I was doing. So I have never brought it up again nor pointed out that "This is failing because they did not do this or that right".
just last week, he wrote another check out with a smile for $4765.50
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
those last few rank high on my list of best things that came fro Piffin. I think you accurately summed up what a great many of us think in words that too few of us are able to transfer from cranium to computer."If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man." - Mark Twain
learned years ago in sales ...
talking "bad" about the competition is just giving them "free advertising"!
Like U said ... best to not even know ya know their name.
Jeff Buck Construction
Artistry In Carpentry
Pittsburgh Pa
There is a time to every purpose under heaven.A time to speak up
A time to play dumb
is it time to point fingers
or sit on my thumbs
no forcing the answer
'till it's ready to come
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Does that seem like enough money to you?