Originally Posted by
handlewanker
Hi Jackson, better be carefull on the over or under quoat bit.
If you over quote then you'll always be wondering why the other guy gets all the work.
If you under quote, (you poor fool, thinking you will get all the work and still make it pay) then you will be forced to tread the downward spiral of crusts of bread on the table, paying your work force peanuts, employing schoolkid labour to just get a break even situation, and when all else fails just lowering the standards of workmanship and eventually doing it yourself.
The scenario is this, Anyone out there costing up a job will not necessarily take the lowest bidder, it depends on your RELIABILITY!
You can charge like a wounded bull, if you have a good reputation for quality and delivery.
One thing is for sure, engineering covers a broad spectrum and you can't hope to do all the jobs with your set up, whatever it is, and you also can't expect to be a jack of all trades.
In the end if you try to pick up every and any job that is going, by under quoting, you'll soon lose credibillity.
How many people fail when the lead time blows out and an irate customer is treatening to excommunicate you.
As far as quoting is concerned, you must cover your costs, labour and material wise to break even.
This does not mean crusts on the table.
Decide what YOUR minimum hourly rate will be, add the cost of materials, add some for taxes, add the overheads, insurance. workshop rental/mortgage/loans/ outsourcing and when you get paid for the job the labour part is what you will have left to play with.
The rest will go to paying the bills.
Now try and underquote on that, the only loser is yourself as your rate of pay gets smaller and smaller.
The other cost will remain the same.
There are some jobs that you don't touch and those generally fall into the " can you weld a bit on the bottom of my trailer" type, only worth a dollar to the "customer", but take you two hours to do.
Make a rule of $50 for the first hour and pro rata therafter, and if the customer jumps up and down, just continue to read the paper.
Better to do nothing for nothing than sweat for an hour or two for nothing.
When you've finally arrived and are putting out the work regularly to a client base, then you can re-evaluate your cost structure, but you must be giving value for money,AND ON TIME.
Ian.