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Price for profit
Mark Goodchild of Electric Call Ltd ( electric-call . net ) says : “ If someone else has priced a job , I don ’ t bother quoting for it because I don ’ t wish to compete on price .”
If you are good at your job , you will provide plenty of value to your customers . But it ’ s critical that the customer doesn ’ t get more than their share of this value . So , don ’ t sell yourself short .
If you simply charge by the hour , make sure your hourly rate reflects everything you need to allow for . This includes time for holidays , sickness , training / certification , slack time and time spent buying everything that you need .
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With work that you quote for , it ’ s more complicated and remember that you have to allow for time spent working on quotes , including the ones that you don ’ t win .
If you review every job after it ’ s finished and see how much effort and cost it took versus your estimate you will improve your estimating over time . Quoting too low is one of the commonest reasons installer businesses fail .
Guy Hands of HandyMan advises : “ By reviewing jobs , I can look at my estimating and improve my skills over time . Sometimes as a result of thinking about how the last job was done , I upgrade my tools or try to do things in different ways in the future .”
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Don ’ t do everything
All people have their own way of working and what jobs that they prefer to do . It will reflect their personality and character . When this is successful it ’ s good . But if you are a bit too casual and take on jobs that you ’ re less familiar with it can lead to issues with customers . When you grow your business , consistency will be very hard to achieve so you need to be very clear on what your business stands for .
One business I know always accepts and will immediately responds to all emergency call outs . That ’ s day or night , however small the problem . The reason is because it ’ s the way they find new
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customers . People that were desperate and then experienced good service tend to become loyal customers that aren ’ t too price-sensitive .
Another business always tells their prospects up front that they won ’ t be the cheapest but they will always be the best . They are slowly and successfully moving up market to richer customers . They have now served some premier league footballers , who only want the best . Some specialise in certain lines of work . Mark Goodchild again : “ We don ’ t cover everything electrical as it ’ s impossible to be good at everything .”
Remember if you don ’ t stand for something you will stand for nothing .
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About the author Benjamin Dyer is CEO and co-founder of Powered Now . Powered Now ’ s mobile app aims to make it easier for installers , electricians , builders and other trades to run their businesses .
In summary
It ’ s too bad , but it is true that when you run your own installer business , you do need some skills beyond doing the job well . Getting your prices right and deciding what ’ s important are two of the most important areas and there is a mountain more that could be said about these subjects . It may be short and sweet but I do hope that there are some useful tips here that can help you to be more profitable .
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