Billing On Small Jobs

Philly Dude

I haven't been is business for too long so I occasionally get requests for small jobs that are much more handyman type then what a contractor would normally do. I'm talking about things that would take less then 4 hours. I usually try to get the customer to add a thing or 2 too make it at least 4 hours so I can charge for at least half a day.

However, sometimes I get requests for things where the job itself would only take me an hour or two to do, but researching and/or travel time to get the part or material needed might take 2 or 3 hours. For example: I just had a customer ask me to replace a exterior wooden windowsill on his house. This is an old house and to do it right I have to have a mill make this piece up custom. Just going to the mill and back to get a price is an hour. Then if the ho wants me to do the job it is another trip to the mill to order the piece (and another hour) and then I have to pick the piece up (another hour). So it is 3 hours of my time just to get this piece of wood and only 1-2 hours to install it. By the way it is $150 for the mill to make me this piece out of cedar.

So my question is : how do you guys handle billing on small jobs like this (assuming you would take a job this small) ? Bill for every hour that you spend looking for the part/material ? Add a percentage to the part/material ? Both ?

mahlere

a quoted price to cover all your time and material....flat rate if you will

genecarp

PHILLY, you are entitled to get paid for every hour you put into the job, even research. very simply price the job accordingly, and if questioned, explain the time involved to the homeowner. Do yourself a favor, begin to realize your value early in the business, if you believe in your worth, so will the client..

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mrhodus

a note about small jobs. If most of your projects are at least one day projects, you should consider having a minimum 8hr charge for every job. Unless of course you have a couple less than one day jobs and you can do more than one in one day.

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SLSTech

Almost every trade has a minimum charge / service charge. Figure one out that works for you

As for the milling question, I would probably go for T&M - Time, Materials, Mileage

If you know it will always be 3 hours getting millwork made up & the knives go for $150 - figure out a flat price / Service Charge for custom millwork ordering inc. OH & Profit

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CrpntrFrk

I would have to agree with mrhodus. For example if a drywall hanger charges 18cents a sq/ft he would be ok taking a job hanging a 3000 sq/ft home. But it would not even be worth his time to hang 10 4x12 sheets for a room addition unless he had a flat rate fee. If on a " normal" job you make say $250 a day then that should be your flat rate. These are all examples so you have to find what works best for you.

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neolitic

Small jobs for long time, regular customers
it's 4hrs minimum.
Everyone else 8 hours minimum.
I'm too old and cranky to jerk around
between two or three jobs in a day.

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buildpinnacle

We charge $XX per man hour from the time my men leave the shop until they get in their truck and leave the job. This is T/M work and makes up only a small percentage of our work. We do have a minimum. If someone wants a doorknob put in, I refer them to a handyman. Documentation is important in T/M work. Your time to pick up materials, look over color charts, etc. is all being billed.

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Double-A

Both

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Sgt.Grumpy

Lately, the small "handyman" jobs have been keeping me very busy. I charge a flat "service charge" just for showing up, then charge hourly for my time, a slightly higher rate than normal. I also schedule the jobs and trips for materials around each other to save wasted travel time. Around here, if I told people I would have to charge them for 4 hours for a 45 minute job, I wouldnt have much work. But I explain my fees up front, and tell them I have to schedule them in, and never have any complaints, and get plenty of referrals. Of course if its an emregency job, thats another $tory...

rbsremodeling

4 hour minimum @$65-95 per hour for labor

Some specific activities carry a minimum charge additional to the per hour fee

Materials cost times 50%

$450 minimum charge

always bill for time spent looking for material

30% Deposit 50% due when starting, 20% due upon compeletion

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Mellison

My standard responce is : I take on handy man projects but I do not charge handy man prices.
Followed by a brief description of my overhead compared to that of a handy man (none to very little).
Most people can read between the lines and will either say no thank you or will ask what that amounts to in dolllars.
Then it is your call as to what you charge for a day or half day.

buildpinnacle

Didn't want to put the hourly's in my last post as I am still fairly new and didn't know the proper etiquitte thereof, but RB has similar number on the lower end of his range for us in East TX. My hourly charges include all company overhead, profit, etc. I inlcude all travel time, design time, etc. and do not charge m/u on the materials. These types of jobs generally never exceed $1,500.00 and most are far less than that. We do, however, do a lot of T/M work inside of our contracted work. If a change order request is brought up that I am going to have to tear into that has too many intangibles and I want to be covered, I will let them know we can do it on T/M and I can usually give them a not to exceed hourly that has everything under the sun going wrong factored in to give them a worst case scenerio.

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will575

You have to charge for what the job is going to take. Explain to the customer what you are charging for, If they don't want to pay for what the job is going to take then don't do it. You have to make a living plus a profit.

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DetailHandyman

That's the way I do it. Give them a flat price based on your costs and an extra % for "unforeseen circumstances".
If they understand the value of your work, they'll be happy to pay. If they are just price shopping, then you can find out beforehand and not have to listen to b!tching about the bill later.