Plumbing charges - self employed

Morricl

Hi all, my first thread here cos I just don't know who else to ask. My husband set up small plumbing business five years ago in a small rural community. He tends to work locally and is well known as a trustworthy and pleasant person - which he is!! The trouble is we are getting further and further into debt as our overheads increase but our income doesn't. He charges by the hour and only charges for as long as he is there. His average charge is around £20 per hour so for 1/2 an hour he would charge £10 etc. He charges a daily rate of £120 for an 8 hour day. He is not good at sending out bills and we actually have people knocking on our door asking for bills! I cannot do his books as I work full time. I tried to get someone to do them for him but it wasn't cost effective. His work ranges from repairing dripping taps to installing central heating and fitting bathrooms or under floor heating. So two questions, are his fees realistic? There isn't a lot of love lost between local plumbers and I have no way of finding out what other people charge. He has not put his fees up in the last five years and as we keep hearing about potential recession - we both feel that this would be a risky move. Recently we paid a plasterer to do a job for us and paid £300 for 10 hours work - that got me thinking. Also are hourly rates or job rates better - for all concerned?
Any advice would be gladly received.

martindow

Your hourly rates seem amazingly cheap and your husband should value his time and expertise at more realistic rates. Travel time and expenses are not being covered especially on short jobs.

I would charge an amount for a visit and up to 30 minutes work and then an hourly rate for any extra time, so that you don't lose money on easily fixed jobs. Other people here might tell you what they charge - it might be helpful to let them know what area of the country you are in as rates will vary.

Phone a few plumbers in the Yellow Pages and ask what their call out fees and hourly charges are. I bet no one is offering work at 20 pounds/hour! I'm sure you can raise your charges considerably and still be very competitive.

Your husband sounds a good plumber and will get plenty of work charging a realistic rate. In fact the low charges you have at the moment would make me a bit suspicious that this might be someone with no qualifications and experience.

sidthesexist

£20 p/h seems to be far to low tbh, not sure how much they charged per hour but when we had 7 new rad, a top end Worcester boiler and the tanks removed and pipe work bridged together just before Christmas it cost us £3.5k or so and that was from a freind of the family other plumbers wanted £1k or so more.

Nomad25

TOTALLY UNREALISTIC!!!

30 mins is impracticable, as is £10.00 - that amount would be used in his travel, his time and general OH's.

You and your oh need to work out a minimum charge to cover call out and labout up to say 1 hour, which includes ALL HIS OVERHEAD COSTS.

This needs to amortise all his annual/monthly recurring expenses [like car tax, petrol, insurance Vat, 'phone, time for meal breaks etc.].

Set a mileage distance [include there and back] for local call out minimum charge.

Times may be getting tighter, but even if he does less work for more money, then he won't be working all the hours that god sends playing catch-up on his income - and compromising his health and family well-being.

There is no reason why fair and reasonable oh increases should not be passed on to customers.

Flyfisher_2

Remember to put holiday pay into the equasion as well as overheads.

writestuff

Hi Morricl, you're not alone - I have a husband who works as a handyman - and is training as a plumber - and he charges less than your hubby. I have tried to persuade him to put his prices up but he says he'll lose customers if he does that. This was bad enough but now my job is at risk of redundancy and we don't have anything to fall back on. Sorry I can't be of any more help, but at least you know you're not alone.

Morricl

Thanks all, I felt I have just been nagging but he is an experienced and qualified plumber - he is City and Guilds qualified with British Gas and a real perfectionist and I value him but I think he's selling himself short. We live in Herefordshire which is real rural! Just as an insight he did a job for an acquaintance and when asked for charge my OH said "give us the price of a pint", when he was given £20 as the guy was so pleased he said he didn't know beer had gone up that much!

Nomad25

Your OH is too nice and it won't pay the bills. Can you/he work out a basic cost vs time analysis. If you need help the HMRC website is really useful:

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/layer?topicId=1079681521

I've shown a link to the profitability page, but you can go back or forward from there. HTH. But it sounds as if your OH won't acknowledge the 'problem'. Good luck.

brightonman123

maybe need to up your hubby's rate, and charge a minimum 1 hour work, to make it worth the gas money..

people will value good work above price. and i guess there's no harm in putting leaflets around local shops etc.

ukbill69

£30 ph is the start rate for most trades. My plumber charges £40 ph, im happy with what he does what I ask and comes within good times.

Savvy_Sue

WRT doing the books, SOMEONE'S got to keep on top of them. Would it be possible for both of you to sit down regularly (I'd say weekly!) to get the bills sent out, chasers for any outstanding, and write up the books? Either Saturday morning or a regular evening, give yourselves a treat either afterwards or the next day ...

And he's definitely under-charging. At least an hour's callout is standard, even if you're only there half an hour.

I'd also ask a friend to call up and get quotes for a few jobs from other people to see what they're charging. Putting up rates may lead to a few previous customers saying "I'm not paying that" but if they find that's what others charge, they'll probably be back to the plumber they trust.