New To US Need Some Advice.

KennMacMoragh

That's a nice thought, but it's easy to do if you've been in business for years. Just charge what you've been charging and whatever it is your business needs. But if you're just starting out then you don't have much else to go by besides what the competition is charging.

J F

Which can put you right out of business if you're comparing yourself to someone who's wife has a good job with benefits and just wants to do some part-time work, making $18 per hour....it's gotta be based on your own costs of running your business, even at first when you have to forecast them.

DavidC

Welll your right in a sense. I have been doing for years, finally reached the point where I didn't give crap about the outcome. I mean, I decided to change my pricing structure and sell the work at my price or do something different.

Al Gore hadn't invented the internet yet so these valuable lessons weren't so readily available for me. I can tell you from experience that if you insist on using some one Else's pricing you can expect at least similar problems that are so common in our field.

Pick a coffee shop or after hours club where contractors might gather and listen to the complaints about how rough our business is. I'd bet dollars to donuts that mostly you'll hear money concerns backed up with that's all anybody will pay or you can't get anymore than $X for doing whatever.

It's all crap. Herd mentality. I know because I've been there.

Lot's of good threads here and on JLC about how to set the right price for you and a lot of good reading recommendations. Study up and determine what your price should be and sell at that price.

Here's the method I used for the switch, maybe it will help you. Book your self up for 2 weeks at your current rates. Then take your next new prospect and prepare their estimate based on what you know it should be. If you can't sell it your still booked at same-o-same-o. But don't give up, try the next one. Keep it up, it's important to your family.

At some point you will sell a job and earn what you need to and it will feel good. Then you have to break in your repeat clientele, you may lose a few but that's o.k. We rely greatly on repeat business and I only lost a handful of customers when prices went up. The key is the level of service you provide, make it worth their investment by being different than the rest. Just remember, your doing this to support your family, not subsidize your customers.

Sorry to rant, I'm still sore from years of being abused.

Good Luck
Dave

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