[Steve Race]

Merry Christmas everyone!

I'm just looking for a bit of advice from some of you seasoned experts really.

I've set up on my own and have the chance to tender for specialist cleaning such as

Pigeon Guano
Needle Sweeps
Flea contamination
Human excrement cleans
Fire Damage
Chewing Gum
Graffiti

The tender wants hourly rates for each service but also hourly rates for emergency 1 hour response call out, bank holiday call outs , weekend call outs, with 24 hour call outs and out of hours call outs

Then there's needle sweeps based on 1 bed/2 bed/3 bed/4 bed

Fire damage cleaning 1 bed/2bed/3bed

It was when I read the tender that I realised I haven't a clue how to price hourly.

Was just wondering what the going rates are for this kind of thing if anyone would be kind enough to share this info?

Its something I would have preferred to quote on a job to job basis as we all know each is unique!

In return if anyone can help me out a little with some info and perhaps answer a couple more questions I could help them with any website updates, SEO or marketing!

Thank you in advance to anyone that replies and Merry Christmas! 

[Smudger]

Not really my area on a lot that but I would never  quote hourly - we do graffiti work and it’s priced per job

I would say any tender trying to get rate p/h is just trying to drive the price down - who decides how many hours they are paying you for?

You may think a job will take 6 hours bout they will only pay for 4

If you go ahead give them your standard rate (07.00 to 17.00) at xx.xx (£40 for example) and at xx.xx (£90 for example) out of hours call out and see how it goes

Tenders sound great but can lead to misery if you price wrong

Darran

[Steve Race]

Thanks for your reply Darran! Really do appreciate the advice.

What you've said is pretty much what I've been thinking, its just on the tender spread sheet that I have been sent it asks for hourly and price per job (house size) for certain jobs like needle sweeps.  I've done plenty of this work to know that some houses you can go in and its a breeze and you're in and out within a couple of hours but some you're there all day finding needles everywhere and in everything. Even in the loft!

I got pretty excited I have to admit when the chance arose but since thinking about it all realistically it could go the opposite way and become a nightmare.

That's my main worry now pricing wrong, they do have a weekly retainer box in the pricing sheet which again sounds appealing but its all very vague and there's no real details on how this would all work. Thinking about leaving it at the minute to be honest, it wasn't really about the money per se it was more about the client portfolio etc

Thank you again though really helpful. If you ever need any help with anything (background in SEO and marketing) just give me a shout!

Have a good new year

[Smudger]

Happy new year to you..

It's a juggling act as to whether a contract/tender is worth doing - not just financial but the strain on the rest of your workload.

If getting this tender leads to others then go for it, if it's stand alone and not a good payer I'd pass - always best to put your best price in tho.

I can understand that certain tasks are "set prices" I have an  housing association with 8 sites and 2 clears a year with  a return to site for ad hoc emergency clear (foc) I priced for worst case scenario (longest time) and allowed 2 visits extra a year and put the price in.

So far in 4 years I've had one site that needs 1 or 2 extra visits - it could have gone wrong of course having to visit them several times extra a year..

Darran