Maybe someone should post one of them sticky thingy ma bobs explaining that rates are not discussed on the forum but giving this very simple pricing formula for newbs ....
Take the best educated guess you can as to what you think you should charge for boarding, dabbing, skimming , floating etc, taking into account that it should cover a decent daily rate for you, your materials, advertising, vehicles and insurance costs with a little profit on top .
Go out and measure your first few jobs, don't price them on the spot in front of the customer, take an email and send over a proper written quotation, this looks more professional which can be an advantage over others but also reduces the risk of you making a mistake in your pricing due to inexperience.
As well as measuring the job make a little note in your pad estimating how long each part of the job will take.
Work out your price based on your meter rates, if its not enough to cover the things detailed above, you're rates are too cheap, if the rate seems good but you are not winning any jobs you may be too expensive, try creeping the rates down until you start winning more than you lose out on.
Some people don't use meter rates at all on domestics, and on some jobs they don't work, in which case apply your daily rate, but I've found them to be a good basis for pricing jobs as if you can work out your average cost per meter squared for materials as well as labour you can take on bigger jobs without worrying about under pricing materials, something which costs a lot of new guys dearly when they try to take on a larger project.
Take the best educated guess you can as to what you think you should charge for boarding, dabbing, skimming , floating etc, taking into account that it should cover a decent daily rate for you, your materials, advertising, vehicles and insurance costs with a little profit on top .
Go out and measure your first few jobs, don't price them on the spot in front of the customer, take an email and send over a proper written quotation, this looks more professional which can be an advantage over others but also reduces the risk of you making a mistake in your pricing due to inexperience.
As well as measuring the job make a little note in your pad estimating how long each part of the job will take.
Work out your price based on your meter rates, if its not enough to cover the things detailed above, you're rates are too cheap, if the rate seems good but you are not winning any jobs you may be too expensive, try creeping the rates down until you start winning more than you lose out on.
Some people don't use meter rates at all on domestics, and on some jobs they don't work, in which case apply your daily rate, but I've found them to be a good basis for pricing jobs as if you can work out your average cost per meter squared for materials as well as labour you can take on bigger jobs without worrying about under pricing materials, something which costs a lot of new guys dearly when they try to take on a larger project.
