Since I am new to this forum, I apologize up front if this question has already been addressed.

I have been in the business for just over a year now and am having the time of my life (for the most part). I have been giving my pricing a lot of thought though, and am hoping that maybe someone might be able to steer me in the right direction.

As I look back over my estimates for the past year, I have noticed that about 90% of the jobs that I have estimated have all been pretty much the same price. For example, estimates for single story homes are usually one price, 2 story homes another, and on down the line. With the exception of a few estimates where there were some extreme circumstances, my price seems to be pretty well fixed. For my area, I am competitively priced, just a little higher than most of the competition.

Here is my question. I figure that each estimate that I do costs me at least one hour of my time, which is worth about $85 per hour. I have averaged 6 estimates per week, totaling $510 per week doing estimates. Multiply that over the past year and that comes to roughly $30,000 in time for a years worth of estimating.

I am considering streamlining the process quite a bit by simply publishing a nice brochure with a rate matrix attached. This way, I will save time on the estimating side as well as know that most of the calls that I receive from potential customers will already know roughly what it is going to cost them to have work done.

Of course, I will make an exception for commercial/industrial work, which will still be done on an estimate basis, but it seems to me that I could make a significant savings by doing a standard rate sheet instead of on-site estimates.

Has anyone struggled with this issue before? If so, what did you choose to do and what was the outcome?

Thanks in advacne for all the help.

Mark Bebout
WhiteWash, Inc.
markbebout@hotmail.com

I dont think its a good idea. Even though you seem to price the same, you still need to look over each individual job for possible pitfalls before you quote it.

Plus, do you want your competitors to have that info?

Mike Hughes,
Everclear Cleaning Services, Inc.
Souderton, PA

email me at sbnetwork at Comcast.net

If you set a price bar, some lowballer will set it lower.[mike is correct]
You need to look at your thinking. You invest est. time to enable you to make $85 per hour.
Not that your looseing $85 per hour.
Remember the work is the easy part, it's the rest that's hard.
The way your looking at it, how much are you looseing doing equip. maint,book keeping,travel,mixing chem,picking up chem or supplies,est. jobs,phone time,ect....?
Your not looseing $$$$, your investing time in your biz.
Now 2 years down the road that same person calls you back,you were smart enuff to have a computer program to list everything you did to that persons property and can give them a price without going to there house. Now you cut that hour est. time in half over the 2 years.
It's called building your biz. Dont look at your time as a loss, look at it as a gain.
Send post cards to your customers every spring. Suggest diffrent surfaces that they may need to have cleaned. Make them feel special by offering a discount for being a PREFRERED CUSTOMER.
iF YOU HAVE A SPECIFIC DEVEOPMENT, and want too do a TARGET MAILING.
one or two week special then thats one way to go.
Another thing you can do is put in your ad "over the phone est."
Get all of the cust. info and then tell them the price. Instead of putting it in print.
but it only takes one or two jobs to bite you and you'll stop doing it that way.

The more you learn the more you earn! Thanks to everyone for their help.
My motto '' Do it right or dont do it.''

I agree with everyone else I think it could be a bad idea doing that. The main reason I won't even quote over the phone is that it is mostly women I talk to and they don't always give me the correct info. One woman told me she a ranch style home and it ended up having peaks 30 feet high. Another thing is I always have to check out the surroundings. I have had 30' high places to wash on the side of a house and the ground is at such a steep angle that it makes it hard to get a normal ladder in there. There also can be tons of bees or wasps, many trees close to the house, want the chimmney washed and it is 40' up there and just about impossible to reach, etc. By the way I charge for bee/wasp removal, I am not the Orkin man. I have to go look at it to be able to get a rough idea how long it will take and any special items I may need to complete the job. Ever give a bid over the phone just to get there and realize you need something else and then have to leave to go get it? Also not showing up to look at the house can be a little impersonal.

Steve Gunn
West Shore Pressure Washing
Holland, MI
616-786-9667
the_gunn_man@yahoo.com

Every time I set a price on the phone, I have a problem at the job site-never fails. My time to do the estimate is thrown into the mix and over all rate. Nothing is free and the customer should realize it.

David

Hi Mark,


You've got to deal with a guy down there who says he does any house for $99.00. That pretty much sets your stage for pricing. He started out about 3 years ago doing the $99.00 for 2 story and $69.00 for single. There was another guy who tried to compete with the $99 but I don't see him anymore. Everytime I visit Columbus I look for thieir ads in the local papers.

Good luck!

Thank you all for the reply's! Your input has been very valuable, I have decided that it would probably be a bad idea to just publish prices, especially since I am a little more expensive than most people.

Thanks again for the input!

Mark

Mark Bebout
WhiteWash, Inc.
markbebout@hotmail.com

I have no set pricing plan. I do quote over the phone but always tell the customer that this is a rough estimate and without seeing the job I cannot be sure of the price. Most of the time if they are serious and not just price shopping they will tell me ok come out and bring your equipment, if its close to the price you gave me go ahead and do it. Ive been in business long enough that a pretty good chunk of biz comes from referrals so 99% of the time these jobs are in the bag as long as the price is reasonable. Ive done large ranchers for over 200.00 and just completed a home for 760.00. The big house I get every year it was 800.00 but I discount slightly for yearly biz. Repeat biz its where it is at so always leave a job with a maximum effort even if you loose money. I wont wash a house for 69.00 or even 99.00 I do a quality job with quality materials and have normal business overhead such as maintenance, advertisement, fuel and insurance. Those guys can't be around long at those prices and I doubt they do professional work.