burntmebonce
999 on speed dial
- Messages
- 58
- Location
- cambridge
Hi I do a fair amount of welding for people at home but I always get the impression they were expecting a higher bill. How do you guys charge for work ? my usual area of work is on cars
- Thread starter burntmebonce
- Start date
steviec_lj
Rust Welding Professional
- Messages
- 2,803
- Location
- Barnetby, N.Lincs
How long is a piece of string?
Are these friends and family you're doing the repairs for?
Are these friends and family you're doing the repairs for?
Wendelspanswick
Member
- Messages
- 6,486
At the end of the day after all your expenses what would you be happy with as an hourly rate? Me, I would want at least £18 to £20 an hour for lying underneath a car welding up sills. Add in your expenses and I would be looking at a minimum of £30 an hour, this all depends on amongst other things:
How many hours a week you work?
Do you have premises or are you at the customers home working out of a van?
Do you pay business rates?
Do you have liability insurance (I hope so)?
Only you will know what your expenses are.
How many hours a week you work?
Do you have premises or are you at the customers home working out of a van?
Do you pay business rates?
Do you have liability insurance (I hope so)?
Only you will know what your expenses are.
rtbcomp
Moderator
- Messages
- 18,573
- Location
- Sheffield UK
Add up all your costs + overheads + how much you want to pay yourself + how much you want to put aside for contingencies & replacement equipment. Divide this by your chargeable hours (allowing for holidays) this gives you a £/hr figure.
If you're doing it for cash-in-hand allow for HMRC catching up with you, possible issues with the council and other nasties.
OR
Just charge slightly less than your competitors if you need the work, slightly more if you get too much work and you're better than your competitors.
DanielW
Member
- Messages
- 2,258
- Location
- Merseyside Straightjacket user
If they're coming to you on a regualr basis? you're either being too cheap or are doing a sterling job,either way its not best to charge way over the odds because they will then go elsewhere,no one likes their pocket hurt.
Phone up a couple of welders within a 5 to 10 mile radius and see what their price structure bearing in mind you have no overheads if the ones you phone are a buisness.
burntmebonce
999 on speed dial
- Messages
- 58
- Location
- cambridge
Most are old customers from a garage I worked at
brightspark
Member
- Messages
- 41,439
- Location
- yarm stockton on tees
there u have your answer then. u want more than the hourly rate u were getting there plus the cost of materials and a bit extra to pay for the cost of your welder which will at some point need replacing and that dont come out of your wage or profit
Richard.
Member
- Messages
- 18,335
- Location
- Cambridgeshire
If your making money and your happy with your return and your customers are coming back then I'd say your doing it right. A regular profit coming in consistently is a lot better than a large one off and people looking else where for a better price.
BrokenBiker
Member
- Messages
- 12,175
- Location
- Newport, South Wales
if you are happy with what you are earning, why change it? if you are cheaper than anyone else, you will get more work. a lot of cheap work will earn you more than a small amount of expensive work in my experience. I am working at a slightly cheaper rate than the other local leccies, I get more of the smaller jobs, fitting cooker hoods, showers, fault finding etc, very few full re-wires etc, but it still pays better than nothing at all
