Charging For Ongoing Landscape Consultations

Jacey

I find more people wanting to do parts of the job themselves, in these weird economical times. Does anyone have a good rule of thumb for charging for how to advice? I charge for the initial consultations, but after that I either have been giving away info to get to the parts the clients prefer to let me handle. Now I've been told the parts they want me to handle are not in the budget this year! Anybody else having this come up?

SLSTech

Offer it as a service - 59, 69, 100 whatever for x amount of time (make sure you account for travel time, etc...) - your in good shape as you charge for the initial consult, now you charge for ongoing consults

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Jacey

I didn't make that very clear..Most of the advice was over the phone, or e-mail. I asked them to call me when the dirt was delivered and I thought I would come out and bill them for trip fee. When I delivered the trees (discounted because I thought I would be getting them most of their plants and do a job..WRONG) I noticed they had worked up the berms in a way that would preclude me from accessing an area close to the house by tractor , easily avoidable, then wanted me to bid that part, which now will be impossible to do quickly because they didn't get me out there to state the obvious. Don't block access to other parts of the property!! They also had the wrong planting medium, which I told them about because the beautiful big trees would have suffered had I not.

This I couldn't bill extra for..however as they continued to pick my brain, I told them I get paid for this stuff, left rather po'd, and still don't know how to clearly charge for such a situation.

In reality, I would rather e-mail or call for the expedience of it..so how can I bill for e-mail or phone advice?

wallmaxx

Explain these issues with the customer. Explain what it costs for you to do whatever it is that they want and why. Then they decide if they want to spend that $$$. It's okay to point out that their actions are directly interfering with the smooth work flow of the project. And that costs someone....THEM.

As for the free advice over the phone or email....once it was given...it was free, regardless if it is based on your experience. Don't volunteer anything unless you really don't want or need to be compensated for it.

I just spent 10 hours working up an initial proposal to do something unique for a couple of Canadian lawyers. It's been 3 weeks (they said they'd get back to me 3 weeks ago) and I assume they are taking my initial design and basic material list and shopping for a less expensive person to "get 'r' done".

I knew going in that this might occur...but life is bigger than just our jobs and the cash we seek. I am not in the business of competing with all the guys who chase the bottom dollar jobs. I'm not fast enough as a solo contractor and I don't like the stress of every second being a make or break financial decision.

I gave them a chance to be honest and straight forward, and we shall see.

Good luck to you. At least you are in TEXAS. That's a plus.

Jacey

So there is no protocol for long distance consulting whereby a cash amount can be agreed on? Hurts to hear about the lawyers, in another country no less...Still think a package fair to both parties might be in a contracted outline. Such as 4 onsite personal and unlimited e-mail per month? At maybe 250. or so?

Tinstaafl

If you can get the client to agree, go for it. Arrangements like that are extremely common in big business, particularly for computer/information systems stuff. Unfortunately (for you) it's not nearly so common in the trades.

Jacey

Anyone here from the landscape trade in on this? I know I am underbidding the initial consult, at least by city standards. I am in a more rural setting. What is a realistic fee for an hour on site..and how does one charge for travel time without losing them? This is central Texas, y'all.

piercekiltoff

I have a similar hurdle to this one.

I have a client, well, a bunch actually, a small public water system, that wants a mixture of consulting on site, via email/phone, and some service work.

Anyone combined services like this successfully? Have you just billed t&M with a flat labor rate for siting writing emails vs doing labor?

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CScalf

I would ask your lawyer how they figure it, cuz you know those sharks don't usually let a penny slip by them, and they charge for email and phone consultations... just my .02

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ChainsawCharlie

If I can meet with a potential customer (one time), and be in and out in 30-45 minutes, I will not charge for consultation/planning/tossing around ideas.

For my regular customers, I'll give them ideas/suggestions at no cost. Usually these last 15-20 minutes and lead to future work. And if it doesn't lead to work..oh well...it's just good customer relations, IMO.

ChainsawCharlie

By the way, you owe me tree fiddy for that advice.