How much to charge for this job?

[Goose IBEW]

Come to think of it, my goals of $125/hr are really slim compared to the market value of tree work in the New Jersey area. I think I'm going to work on reaching the $200-$225 mark. I will be using my 25 year old truck and chipper for 20 more years at this rate.:msp_ohmy:

Keep in mind that customers really do not like dollar per hour figures. Usually what happens is they start to wonder why things are taking so long not realizing that safety and rigging are not worth skimping out on to save an hour on any given job. Once you give them a price, they don't care if it takes you 2 hours or all day, that's all that they will owe you. I am bidding on a 16 tree removal right now and it's a new challenge. I really want the job but do not want to undercut myself. There are some downed pines, pine bore beetle damage, trees that can be felled, trees that have to be climbed, and trees that a bucket can reach. If I get the job, I will document it with pictures and post it with the monetary breakdown in a new thread. There is a huge amount of knowledge to learn in bidding and the best way is by just doing it.

 

[danbirch]

Yeah he should! This is why you should be posting over on TreeBuzz.

He posted in the 101 area. Maybe you should be in the commercial area, NOT 101!

 

[Lil Red]

Ok just so everyone knows, the 2 whoppin crown lift jobs that I gave the lady a break on gave me the other 5-7 big fir pruning jobs which totaled nearly $1200 So yes, I can afford to give her a break on a two hour job and look to the bigger picture. Even if she hadn't have wanted me to do it, I wasn't really at any loss in the first place.

And my question was never solely based on how much to charge her. I wanted to know if my methodology would lead into the next job as it did.

I appreciate those of you with competent feedback.

This thread can be deleted now.

 

[jakew88]

He posted in the 101 area. Maybe you should be in the commercial area, NOT 101!

The thread was moved! Try reading the whole thing before putting someone down.

 

[danbirch]

The thread was moved! Try reading the whole thing before putting someone down.[/QUOTEjake
jakew88, when was the thread moved? It has been in 101 since I can remember, and certainly before the quoted post was made.

 

[Gologit]

This thread can be deleted now.

Not a chance. We'd all miss the entertainment. All the guys really love it when you ask for their opinion, they take the time to give it, and then you argue with them.

Why in the world would we want this thread deleted?

 

[treeclimber101]

If you are going to go into a job expecting to break even or even lose money on the "promise" of future work from the client, then you are a fool.

I don't completely agree with that , I got a call yesterday from a long time friend and very important client he called me for a favor for one of his long time friends and client , the guy had a blocked drive and needed it opened " now" , I did it for free seeing how what I charged the guy was just put into another fellows hand who helped me out on the fly , and I also took my bucket and chipper there and helped for an hour , so not only did I charge peanuts I lost money , as per wear and tear and fuel , my time doesn't cost much after 3pm anyway ! But I know this favor will be replayed by all parties , now that's just smart business and it has payed me back three fold in many different situations , it has made me the shoe in for certain jobs instead of just being estimate #4

 

[Zale]

I don't completely agree with that , I got a call yesterday from a long time friend and very important client he called me for a favor for one of his long time friends and client , the guy had a blocked drive and needed it opened " now" , I did it for free seeing how what I charged the guy was just put into another fellows hand who helped me out on the fly , and I also took my bucket and chipper there and helped for an hour , so not only did I charge peanuts I lost money , as per wear and tear and fuel , my time doesn't cost much after 3pm anyway ! But I know this favor will be replayed by all parties , now that's just smart business and it has payed me back three fold in many different situations , it has made me the shoe in for certain jobs instead of just being estimate #4

Long time friend and good client is a different story. I'm talking about the prospective client who will dangle "future" work for you in order to get you to lower your price.

 

[jakew88]

Now that this is in the 101 section, have my 2 cents worth, I'm not qualified to answer to a whole lot in the professional thread let alone post there.:taped:

Like I said read the whole thread and you'll see that he originally posted in the pro section. And then was moved. Read, again of you have to damn.

 

[jakew88]

The thread was moved! Try reading the whole thing before putting someone down.[/QUOTEjake
jakew88, when was the thread moved? It has been in 101 since I can remember, and certainly before the quoted post was made.

Numerous people told him NOT to post in the pro section and to post like this in 101.

OP are you licensed and insured at least.

 

[TexasArborist]

Unheard of, you have a high school diploma. You should have been studying those college prep test's during the summer.

Well I can tell you that you will be sitting on your couch most of your next summer if you plan on bidding jobs. You want might to expand your knowledge and experience before you start thinking about bidding jobs.

I am a newb here, in fact my first response to any post, but have been looking at the site for some time. So I don't mean to step on any toes. I own a small tree company and have been in the business for a little while. When I read 13 an hour my jaw dropped. In this area we won't leave the shop for anything under $80-100 an hour. And we stay very busy usually. And when I say we, I mean me and 1 worker. In fact we got the bid today on 1 white oak removal for $1000. Trimmed limbs last week on 2 trees for $600. It's very surprising to see the cost variation by region. On a side note if anyone wants to work/climb for me for 13 an hour I can give you all the work you'll ever want!

 

[jimmycrackcorn]

Wow!!!!!!! Smh!!!

Yes! This is my first post, just like Mr TeX above I signed up just to spit a few words on this thread..
Geez all I was looking for was a few specs on a saw & I came across this silly thread. I seriously thought it was some sort of inside joke until I came across these comments. This dude is for real, huh?

Really $13 an hour? I know I was over priced, but she is loaded. lol. But I do want her to be ok and keep me around for the rest of the work.

I will take Shauns advice and bring it down to $60 she will be thrilled with that.

& then you proceed to say you were only joking about working for pennies, you obviously were not

2.5 from start to finish. That is from looking at the two tree's to finished cleaning them up. Yes I have researched and more than just logging onto a forum. I guess you could say people who work in the tree industry in this area charge anywhere from $40-$60+ an hr. It was an easy job and I don't have tons of years such as yourselves so I take a step back, realize that my work isn't quite as efficient as some, and its not fair for the HO to make up that expense. Just in case you wanted to criticize why I charged her that.

Guy, you clearly are low balling at an extremely cut throat rate. Even after hearing what most of these guys going rates are, you still choose to do it @ a dirty dirty low rate.. You mentioned for the sake of grace, sheesh guy you could of knocked 10% off a reasonable rate & called it that. You might as well call yourself jimmy crack corn for what you charge. The thing that urks me & probably most these guys is that you & guys like you are the people who are destroying the going rate for professional work! Around my way we have a lot of Illegals & "pro-tards" who make it impossible for the smaller legit companies to get a decent rate never mind steady work that pays the overhead. Its disgusting & a smack in the face when you show up to an estimate, give a competitive rate only to be shown a quote from that pipe dreaming Joe Schmo (who you've seen running around town in his bottomed out 1/2ton grilling your job site) charging a rate you would pay a high school kid to rake your font lawn.

You said you did your research & referenced some numbers. There's no way the rest of the country is charging the rates the rest of these Pros mentioned & you area is off by that much. Its either all cut throats or your telling stories in order not to get flamed by the Big Boys any more.

Point is, only people I know that will scale a tree for $70 are Illegals, cut throat scum, or that ignorant chainsaw hero trying to convince you his MS170 is a pro saw because the home depot clerk told him it was.

Well of was nice to meet y'all, Lol. I'll prolly get banned for it but I think this was my breaking point for ignorance.

Be safe y'all!

 

[B Harrison]

Take it easy jimmy,

lil red is just trying to get started, and as much as I agree with 95% of what you just said, times are hard and you can't blame a man for trying to stay busy. Besides, I think he was straitened out some weeks ago.



So take it easy brother, and welcome to AS

 

[Lil Red]

Yes! This is my first post, just like Mr TeX above I signed up just to spit a few words on this thread..
Geez all I was looking for was a few specs on a saw & I came across this silly thread. I seriously thought it was some sort of inside joke until I came across these comments. This dude is for real, huh?



& then you proceed to say you were only joking about working for pennies, you obviously were not





Guy, you clearly are low balling at an extremely cut throat rate. Even after hearing what most of these guys going rates are, you still choose to do it @ a dirty dirty low rate.. You mentioned for the sake of grace, sheesh guy you could of knocked 10% off a reasonable rate & called it that. You might as well call yourself jimmy crack corn for what you charge. The thing that urks me & probably most these guys is that you & guys like you are the people who are destroying the going rate for professional work! Around my way we have a lot of Illegals & "pro-tards" who make it impossible for the smaller legit companies to get a decent rate never mind steady work that pays the overhead. Its disgusting & a smack in the face when you show up to an estimate, give a competitive rate only to be shown a quote from that pipe dreaming Joe Schmo (who you've seen running around town in his bottomed out 1/2ton grilling your job site) charging a rate you would pay a high school kid to rake your font lawn.

You said you did your research & referenced some numbers. There's no way the rest of the country is charging the rates the rest of these Pros mentioned & you area is off by that much. Its either all cut throats or your telling stories in order not to get flamed by the Big Boys any more.

Point is, only people I know that will scale a tree for $70 are Illegals, cut throat scum, or that ignorant chainsaw hero trying to convince you his MS170 is a pro saw because the home depot clerk told him it was.

Well of was nice to meet y'all, Lol. I'll prolly get banned for it but I think this was my breaking point for ignorance.

Be safe y'all!

Are you dumb? Read the whole thread moron. The $70 was an easy prune on two tree's to make sure I bagged the rest of the work. Genius

 

[Lil Red]

Ok just so everyone knows, the 2 whoppin crown lift jobs that I gave the lady a break on gave me the other 5-7 big fir pruning jobs which totaled nearly $1200 So yes, I can afford to give her a break on a two hour job and look to the bigger picture. Even if she hadn't have wanted me to do it, I wasn't really at any loss in the first place.

And my question was never solely based on how much to charge her. I wanted to know if my methodology would lead into the next job as it did.

I appreciate those of you with competent feedback.

This thread can be deleted now.

How is that for a Pro-tard cut throat rate?

 

[jakew88]

How is that for a Pro-tard cut throat rate?

I'm sure you left hundreds on the table, once again.

You licensed and insured? Paying taxes on this income?

A pro would be, and would not be asking the question you did.

 

[jimmycrackcorn]

Are you dumb? Read the whole thread moron. The $70 was an easy prune on two tree's to make sure I bagged the rest of the work. Genius

Yes! Extremely DUMB, so dumb that when I come across easy no brainer profitable jobs, I ask what to charge but then do them for chump change cuz I'm ignorant & dumb. So when wondering if I read the whole thread before flamming you, just remember Im the MORON here.

I'm sure you left hundreds on the table, once again.

You licensed and insured? Paying taxes on this income?

A pro would be, and would not be asking the question you did.

+1
I guarantee it.

 

[Lil Red]

I'm sure you left hundreds on the table, once again.

You licensed and insured? Paying taxes on this income?

A pro would be, and would not be asking the question you did.

Yes I am I don't think you are though, you must be a hack, I can tell how you type, I bet you just cut down trees on houses with no respect to any property, I bet you lions tail everything and half ass all your jobs for way to much. You must be certified and everything. I wish I was like you and bid my jobs so much higher then I would have money to put food on my table.


For real guys c'mon. I will try give you a reason to get your panties in a bunch because clearly I have not succeeded, 6+ pages and counting. All this because you have so much time on your hands, you can provide extremely quality advice (and I'm sure you have so much time on your hands because you are doing half ass jobs and getting paid under the table so instead of doing real paper work you log in here to kill time), I feel sorry for you customers. Bend them over with no lube and everything huh. Nice.

 

[jakew88]

Yes I am I don't think you are though, you must be a hack, I can tell how you type, I bet you just cut down trees on houses with no respect to any property, I bet you lions tail everything and half ass all your jobs for way to much. You must be certified and everything. I wish I was like you and bid my jobs so much higher then I would have money to put food on my table.


For real guys c'mon. I will try give you a reason to get your panties in a bunch because clearly I have not succeeded, 6+ pages and counting. All this because you have so much time on your hands, you can provide extremely quality advice (and I'm sure you have so much time on your hands because you are doing half ass jobs and getting paid under the table so instead of doing real paper work you log in here to kill time), I feel sorry for you customers. Bend them over with no lube and everything huh. Nice.

Everyone here is well aware whom the hack might be.

And like I said before, I don't do tree work, the #### your asking is just common sense.

Also, you know my type from my typing? What the hell does that mean?

Get the picture, you asked question, people answered, you argued with their answers. Really, whose the idiot here? Your not proving anything here guy.

 

[TreeGuyHR]

It is a pretty simple job, the rest of the trees and branches are over hanging her house so I will probably have to rig it out, not a big deal. She does have a huge fir tree leaning towards her house, and it looks like a number of years ago someone took almost 70% of all the limbs on one side (opposite side of the house). Now it sits really tilted really loaded on the side leaning towards the home, I might mention something to her about. That job is a little to much for me

Oh guys, I decided $13 was to much so I just charged her minimum wage, didn't want her to get away from me.

I have heard comments about the commercial category, so why does that section have a bad wrap? (this one is gonna get me some flammage)

Sounds like you are just starting out, and probably don't have all the insurance, licensing and bonding, safety gear, training, and legit employees it takes to do the job safely. If you want to stay in the biz for long, you do need to become "official", or you will be stuck low-balling jobs and risking lawsuits and bankruptcy.

No problem until you have an accident, are "popped" by OSHA or the state Contractor's Board, or have a client refuse to pay.