"a family friend who has a t3 camper needs significant work".
These vehicles are worth a few grand in good condition. You are repairing a 'classic' vehicle, and should charge accordingly, even if it's for a friend.
I would say £15 an hour labour is the lowest you should take, even if amply supplied with tea and bacon butties.
There is always a certain amount of 'non-productive' time involved with this sort of work, and when I was self-employed in the car repair trade I would sometimes add up all the time I was actually doing something for the customer, and not getting paid for it. In the end I itemised it on the bill - or some of it.
It's very easy to do:
Research into finding parts cheaper for the customer; into the best way of fitting those parts if it's something out of the ordinary; into the way other people have repaired something in the hope of saving time (and money for the customer);
Visiting scrapyards (vehicle recycling centres) again to find that elusive cheap part they tell you they've got over the phone but haven't got when you get there because it's a different model;
The times you have to leave the job to obtain a part or panel you have only just found you need because you've uncovered a faulty/rotten one (when you are off his premises the customer thinks you are no longer working);
The times you are leaving for the day and the customer involves you in conversation for half an hour but has already mentally clocked you off for the day, so the talk is free;
The long phone conversations about your customer's problems (not always to do with the job) which because he is paying for the call he thinks is okay, but in fact it's your time he's wasting because you are working on something else;
The paperwork writing out and printing and recording your itemised bills, together with progress reports if it's an on-going job, and even photos of the work in some cases;
Sometimes you'd get to an ongoing job miles away and find they had gone out unexpectedly, with the job locked up, so it was wasted time going to and fro (I eventually made a point of ringing such jobs every day, even if I knew they would be there);
It's even worse if you do electrical work; you can spend some time searching for wiring diagrams, and discover, as I did with one of the big Citroens, that there were 15 different wiring diagrams for the car during 5 or 6 years of production...
The list could be added to, no doubt. So don't forget to budget for some of this wasted time when setting your prices; it can be worse with friends, they chat more.
Feanor, that was a first-class post. A darkly-nostalgic thread, as you say.
Your post brought back many memories of such times. I sometimes wondered what I did it for; I think partly because there was a certain amount of freedom, or at least an illusion of freedom, of being your own boss. And partly that if there was no regular work about you felt you had to get on with something that you knew about, something you were used to and trained in, and have a go yourself, working from home. As you say, it was not possible to make a good living at it; always only two steps ahead of the shoeshine...
Some memories make me laugh now, looking back, but were far from funny at the time.
These vehicles are worth a few grand in good condition. You are repairing a 'classic' vehicle, and should charge accordingly, even if it's for a friend.
I would say £15 an hour labour is the lowest you should take, even if amply supplied with tea and bacon butties.
There is always a certain amount of 'non-productive' time involved with this sort of work, and when I was self-employed in the car repair trade I would sometimes add up all the time I was actually doing something for the customer, and not getting paid for it. In the end I itemised it on the bill - or some of it.
It's very easy to do:
Research into finding parts cheaper for the customer; into the best way of fitting those parts if it's something out of the ordinary; into the way other people have repaired something in the hope of saving time (and money for the customer);
Visiting scrapyards (vehicle recycling centres) again to find that elusive cheap part they tell you they've got over the phone but haven't got when you get there because it's a different model;
The times you have to leave the job to obtain a part or panel you have only just found you need because you've uncovered a faulty/rotten one (when you are off his premises the customer thinks you are no longer working);
The times you are leaving for the day and the customer involves you in conversation for half an hour but has already mentally clocked you off for the day, so the talk is free;
The long phone conversations about your customer's problems (not always to do with the job) which because he is paying for the call he thinks is okay, but in fact it's your time he's wasting because you are working on something else;
The paperwork writing out and printing and recording your itemised bills, together with progress reports if it's an on-going job, and even photos of the work in some cases;
Sometimes you'd get to an ongoing job miles away and find they had gone out unexpectedly, with the job locked up, so it was wasted time going to and fro (I eventually made a point of ringing such jobs every day, even if I knew they would be there);
It's even worse if you do electrical work; you can spend some time searching for wiring diagrams, and discover, as I did with one of the big Citroens, that there were 15 different wiring diagrams for the car during 5 or 6 years of production...
The list could be added to, no doubt. So don't forget to budget for some of this wasted time when setting your prices; it can be worse with friends, they chat more.
Feanor, that was a first-class post. A darkly-nostalgic thread, as you say.
Your post brought back many memories of such times. I sometimes wondered what I did it for; I think partly because there was a certain amount of freedom, or at least an illusion of freedom, of being your own boss. And partly that if there was no regular work about you felt you had to get on with something that you knew about, something you were used to and trained in, and have a go yourself, working from home. As you say, it was not possible to make a good living at it; always only two steps ahead of the shoeshine...
Some memories make me laugh now, looking back, but were far from funny at the time.