Story About Decorators Pricing a Job
By Robbie McFadzean
3 decorators, one called Andy, one call Ste and one called Dan. They are all qualified and all been decorating 10 years. They all charge £150 a day for labour.
Andy isn’t the best at his job, slow and quality is only just acceptable.
Ste is of an average speed and leaves a good job.
Then there’s Dan, he’s double the speed of Andy and leaves an excellent job.
They all quote 3 identical jobs. Andy pricing for 5 days, Ste pricing for 3.5 days and Dan for 2.5 days. Customers in order are satisfied with the finish, delighted with the finish and ecstatic with the finish but have paid for their jobs in the wrong order…. that is why everyone should price for the job and not for the time. Dan has probably figured out in the 10 years he’s been doing his job that he’s so much better than Andy and double his prices so when he quotes the same job as Andy there’s no difference in cost. Dan just needs to be clever not to tell the Decorators Forum that he charges £300 a day because he’ll be shot down in flames for robbing his customers.
Story About Decorators Pricing a Job
Fantastic story
Very true
Great advice
That better no be me!!!!
Dan needs to put his price up and have an up to date website with gallery.
Pricing almost always has to be calculated by job and not by time. Give estimates never quotes because sometimes the price may have to go up as more problems might be uncovered e.g. once you’ve stripped the paper. My estimates have a proviso that works of possible price increase if problems arise but that I will always consult them before proceeding.
If you charge by the hour the customer may think you’re just dragging the job out, so quote for the entire job.
Remember to add 20% to materials as you have to order and collect them.