lumberjack
Young man on the go
Don't forget wear and tear on the truck and saw.
Chalk this up to tuition and move onward and upward!
Chalk this up to tuition and move onward and upward!
Help in Estimate of Bid on a Cleanup Job?
- Thread starter rfwoody
- Start date
- Replies 37
- Views 4K
murphy4trees
TreeHouser
Best advice you can get is raise your prices.
You may not get every job, but you stsnd a chance to make $ when you do
You may not get every job, but you stsnd a chance to make $ when you do
flashover604
TreeHouser
Rfwoody, I'm a few rows ahead of you in the same boat. I started dabbling in tree work as a side job because I like the work and there's a market for the smaller jobs around town. The first real pay I made was trimming a large oak of a couple dozen dead branches. The homeowner approached me and said they'd been quoted $600 to trim it. I THOUGHT that was crazy high but said said I could do it for $400. I almost felt bad bidding $400 because I felt like I was taking advantage of the situation. It was August in Ohio and close to 100% humidity. A buddy of mine and I decided we'd partner up and split the $ we made on jobs. On this job I'd climb and cut and he'd manage the ropes to keep from cratering their yard.
To make a short story long I undercharged. That oak grabbed the rope every time I tried to pull it. My "this should take an hour or so" turned into six. My arms started cramping and I physically had to uncurl my fingers with the other hand. Granted, it was hotter than normal, but the work was a lot harder than I'd planned. Also, those limbs seemed to triple in size once we started loading them into the truck. We still made $25/hr after dumping the brush, but I learned that day that my time is worth more than $25/hr. I was whipped. He was whipped.
We've since learned to charge what WE think the job is worth. If we're too high someone else can and probably will do it, but I have a newfound respect for the pricing in the tree industry. I rarely do residential bids anymore because everyone wants you to do a job THEY don't want to do for pennies. At least commercial owners have an idea what prices to expect and don't pass out when you give them a quote.
To make a short story long I undercharged. That oak grabbed the rope every time I tried to pull it. My "this should take an hour or so" turned into six. My arms started cramping and I physically had to uncurl my fingers with the other hand. Granted, it was hotter than normal, but the work was a lot harder than I'd planned. Also, those limbs seemed to triple in size once we started loading them into the truck. We still made $25/hr after dumping the brush, but I learned that day that my time is worth more than $25/hr. I was whipped. He was whipped.
We've since learned to charge what WE think the job is worth. If we're too high someone else can and probably will do it, but I have a newfound respect for the pricing in the tree industry. I rarely do residential bids anymore because everyone wants you to do a job THEY don't want to do for pennies. At least commercial owners have an idea what prices to expect and don't pass out when you give them a quote.
flashover604
TreeHouser
At $350 you'd be around $10/hr. Even if you don't think so yet, your time is worth a lot more than that. I've learned that over the last year that if I based my jobs on what the customer WANTS to pay, I'd never do another job. Tree work is expensive for a reason. It's hard work, and not everyone wants to do it. Base your bids accordingly. If you can't turn down the money then do it, but anymore for me it's got to be worth my time or I won't do it. Best of luck to you. You've found a great resource within the pages of this forum. The people here have probably kept me out of the hospital or morgue on more than one occasion. When you ask a question here and everyone tells you the same thing and it's NOT what you think, trust me, they're right!
pantheraba
More biners!!!
Good to read you, Flash...seems it has been awhile. I was afraid you had augered in somewhere....
Good comments on work and pricing.
Good comments on work and pricing.
flashover604
TreeHouser
No sir! I haven't been too active in the "make big trees into little stumps" workforce lately. A couple ash trees here and there. I've been underbid by thousands lately by a few folks that apparently don't have a problem making $200 removing 60' ash trees. More power to them I guess. My time is worth more than that! I MAY have just stumbled onto a Vermeer 6" chipper that I don't need but can't live without... The guy that has it REALLY wants my old Jeep Scrambler. We'll see how that shakes out. It'd be really nice to not have to load and unload ash brush anymore.
pantheraba
More biners!!!
Hope you can get it...I love having a chipper.
I agree with your pricing strategy. Time too precious to give it away.
I agree with your pricing strategy. Time too precious to give it away.
squisher
THE CALM ONE!!!!
Doing work cheap, gets more of the same. Charge a lot more than you think you should if you want to build an actual business. There are endless expenses and bills that will come. And beyond some hourly wage the point of a business is to make profit over and above that.
SeanKroll
Treehouser
I always have a hard time with bidding, and figuring what to tell people as an hourly/ day rate. I feel pretty certain that I have a number of tricks up my sleeve that make things more efficient. My slowdown compared to a LOT of local competition is the safety and predictability factor. I've seen and heard of sooo many injuries and near misses locally. I think most aspects of how tree work will happen are very, very predictable, most of the time. How long it will take it do it, a very cloudy crystal ball for me.
No point in breaking your back to go broke. Funny, when you set the price, you could just as easily say $850, rather than $650, and triple your profit by not leaving $200 on the table. Trick is to have enough work/ make enough work happen that you're not worried how many jobs you get.
I'm trying to remember that this is the point of the year, after a wet, wet spring, where people will be getting more work done, some of which was put off due to wet, wet weather, and people start to think of winter storms. Supply/ Demand.
I need to start asking more often what other bids people got, after selling/ completing the job.
No point in breaking your back to go broke. Funny, when you set the price, you could just as easily say $850, rather than $650, and triple your profit by not leaving $200 on the table. Trick is to have enough work/ make enough work happen that you're not worried how many jobs you get.
I'm trying to remember that this is the point of the year, after a wet, wet spring, where people will be getting more work done, some of which was put off due to wet, wet weather, and people start to think of winter storms. Supply/ Demand.
I need to start asking more often what other bids people got, after selling/ completing the job.
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