Man/hrs To Do Specific Jobs

mdcorreia

I am a small operator so that I keep the stress to a minimum.
I notice that many have no clue on how long it takes to do electrical work - they bid blindly then what? Working with the tools is usually 3/4 of the time. How about sitting at home and doing the books? Travelling across the city to give out a free estimate - it could take 2 - 3 hrs - who is going to pay for all that? It also takes longer to do a better job - probably 20% longer - or what - calls back to correct defficiencies? How about collecting - that takes time including waiting in lines at the banks -
There are thousands of small details to account for. I loose a lot of work to people who don`t know how to estimate, However I try to get them too busy doing crappy work so that they interfere less. I tell the customer (who I might not be interested) call ..so and so..he may be able to give you a good price. I do the same with handypeople.
Now to those who I like to do the job for I tell them if they want more estimates call - I give them references to bigger outfits who charge extraordinary prices.
Also look up the work ESTIMATE in the dictionary - It means very different
than A QUOTATION!

Here is an example of my man/hrs that I use. Rough in a box (opening?) in a rec room, new home etc = 22 minutes. When it is all finished = 50 minutes.
Physically it only takes 35 minutes but other time used for set up, running around etc = 50m. Therefore, a new house with 100 items (sws, rec`s, light outlets (not connecting the fixtures etc) = 100 x 55min= 5,500 min : 60 = 92 man/hrs.

Remeber that I worked for housing contractors before and have experience on this. I am an average speed worker but don`t compete
for speed as do these younger workers and the boss laughs around the corner and collects all that extra money to go to Mexico for the winter and the workers can`t go anywhere but keep struggling to get more work to survive.

RobertWilber

if you get 60% productivity from any worker, you are doing good
travel is waste, breaks are waste, cleanup is waste, etc.

who gives free estimates anymore?

Speedy Petey

I do, but I won't travel an hour to give one.

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mdshunk

Same here, but with a few more qualifications. I won't give an estimate (no matter how much the potential customer insists) for items that rightly should be handled during a service call. Examples of such are changing fixtures, adding a few receptacles, new circuit for something or other, blah, blah, blah. Basement remodel, service upgrade, kitchen rennovation, room addition, ...yes I will gladly prepare an estimate. Commercial work and larger resi jobs generally get a firm bid or quote rather than just an estimate (guesstimate?).

Speedy Petey

I did not elaborate, but I totally agree and have the same philosophy.

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Sparky Joe

So you'd charge all the little stuff as a service call, didn't know that was common practice, but makes good sense(amount of time doing work/amount of time spent).

I always thought service call meant a customer needs something right away, so you need to drop what you're doing and head right over and that was why they cost so much just for showing up.

So if showing up and working for 1 hour costs 135 bucks, how much should each additional hour be?

Speedy Petey

"Service call" means they need something done. "EMERGENCY call" means drop what you're doing, go fix what they need immediately, and charge them accordingly.

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bobbyj

We still give free estimates, but usually only jobs that you can bring to us in the form of a print! Anything else is pretty much time and material. Not always, but that is a pretty good rule of thumb.