What to charge for services?

I suppose it all depends on how easy ones money comes to them. I worked primarily for the common working folk, and they werent about to pay anyone 80 dollars an hour for anything.... they would simply do without. The first shop I worked in professionally was a dealership in southern California, they charged 10 bucks an hour, of which I got five. (that was the same rate when I was at the Mercedes dealership several years later too.) As my life moved on rates have gone up, shop rates quite a bit, the mechanics rates not so much. Here in my area of Ky today, the average auto mechanic is probably getting in the 20 dollar range. but he better be good. Your grandparents were most likely a pain to work for due the fact that they had to work hard for their money, and expected a quality job if they were going to pay for it. I am pretty much the same way.

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"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain

I don't believe that, and if you actually did............... well.

There is a lot of difference between a rural area where the mean annual income may be 25 or 30 K and the Dallas metroplex.

Yeppers, a LOT of difference! I just looked up the median income for my county, 23k as of census 2000. I earned a bit more than that my best year, but usually came in around 15 or 16k in that time period.

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"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain

$10/hr, and costs of gas as a tip is more than reasonable. A friend of mine works for a company that charges $35/hr, while the employee receives $12 hr.

What really stands out on that "to-do" list for me is the tree trimming. You don't want to hire just anybody to do that job on your property. Doofus has an accident and their health insurance company sues you to recoup the medical bills, even if Doofus himself isn't the litigious type. No, thanks. Pay the money and get a professional with good equipment who carries their own insurance to handle trees. Always. The other items, whatever the two parties can agree on is fair.

How far of a drive is it to get over there? Do they provide tools/materials? How much is your time worth when you are working elsewhere? All kinds of considerations from one person to the next. One "size" doesn't fit all.

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It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with the simple pleasures and to be cheerful and have courage when things go wrong.
Laura Ingalls Wilder

I have a friend who does handyman type stuff. Paints, does drywall, changes out light switches and stuff. He's no carpenter or anything and he charges 15 an hour.

There is a huge difference between what an employee makes and what an employer charges. A 2.5-3 multiplier is typical for a company to charge for services so this means that if they are paying an employee $10 per hour they are billing him out at around $30 per hour to cover wages, taxes insurace and make a reasonable profit.

If you charge $10 hr for any of those services you are low balling, obviously not paying taxes and insurance...my industry is full of low ballers...they steal money from my family. If you dont like my prices you can hire an inexperienced hack to mow your lawn, I cannot compete with cheaters..I like cash as much as the next guy but my business does not operate on low cash prices.

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I live in a rural area a small town of 600. And NO respected mechanic would ever charge 10 bucks or less, more like 35 was the last time I stopped in.
And if I can't get 20 bucks an hour for fixing or repairing or whatever i wouldn't even leave the yard for anything less then 20.
I sometimes look at and fix coffee brewers for some commercial accounts that my friends have. 50 bucks an hour Just To LOOK at the machine, parts and further labor charges will be added if machine needs to be worked on.
Never let anybody "take" advantage, they will fore ever be asking for more and more of you. Your "time" is well worth 15 at the very least.

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I think the price per hour should be according to how much you work per hour. Some people work alot faster than others. I had a Guy working for me, he asked when I thought he might get a raise. I told him as soon as he started working faster. I asked him how much he felt I was worth. He said About $20 per hr. I told him I would work for $15 per hr for someone else. I was paying him $8(this was 20 yrs ago)---he wanted $10. He was fixing to start a project, so I timed him without him knowing it. It took him 1hr and 15 minutes. When he got through I said it just took you 1hr and 15 minutes to do that. I said I feel I can do it in 10 minutes, he said No Way--I said clock me, In 4 1/2 minutes I was through and it looked better than his, but his look good. I told him to figure his pay compared to a $20 per hr man, being he felt I was worth $20 per hour. I told him he cost me $10 do do something that A $20 per hr man did in 5 minutes and would have only cost me $1.66 to do the same thing. He got the picture and started working on some speed.

If you work fast, you should get more than $10. $10 is ok pay for a slow, steady average working person. $5 is about what a person is worth that takes twice as long to do something as a average person!

Don't ever be reluctant to ask what you feel you are worth in doing work for someone else. Doesn't matter what the job is. Your time is valuable and if you feel you can do a good job, ask a good price for it.

If the person can't afford it or doesn't want to pay it, that's on them. If someone needs help and you want to do them a favor, help them out and do them a favor. If they want you to "work" for them, that's something else.

I worked for a software company that did dealership software, even in the middle of nowhere they billed $80 - 120 an hour and yes I know about overhead, but it still came out to a lot more than $10 an hour for the mechanic.

You under priced yourself by a large amount, but hey if you were happy with it...........

Personally I wouldn't get out of bed for $10 an hour, my skills and knowledge are worth more than that.

Mechanics are not unskilled labor. Properly defined, unskilled labor is something with little or no barrier to enter the market. The pool of available labor is almost infinite hence the low wages. It has nothing to do with getting dirty or not getting dirty or any of the other assumptions.

Semi-skilled labor is less available because those workers have a skill even though it may not be mastered. And skilled labor requires training to enter the market so it is priced according to the shortage of skilled laborers.

For us, it depends on the skill level. We pick up temp laborers from a city run program. They run $10.00 an hour. We usually find someone there that can act as a foreman and pay them $12 - $15 an hour to run the crew for us.

We have to pick them up and drop them back off in addition to that. We always buy them lunch, which isn't part of the contract, but they have to eat.

I have always paid 10 to teens and amish for yard work and housekeeping. You have to remember that they aren't paying a dime in taxes on that cash, which makes it even better for them.

The more experienced grown men charge 15.

And these are people using all of my own equipment and products, etc.

These types of jobs fall into the unskilled category; in other words, you could easily train a monkey, kid, or an imbecile to do them with no prior experience or skills required. I am not knocking these unskilled jobs as I have worked them myself, I just don't expect a glamorous salary, tax free, for pulling a weed or running a rag over a window sill...

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................My opinion is.........$10 per is OK for a couple of months , BUT , once he has demonstrated his general mechanical repair abilities , his responsibility to showUP when he says he will , to respect the property owner as well as cleanup after himself I would charge $15 per hour . Anyone doing physical labor who is trustworthy and dependable is worth $15 per hour . , fordy

I recall thinking the same kinda thing..... when I had plenty of money in my pockets and more coming in all the time. However, when one does not have money to feed his kids, his out look changes. I dont recall ever making any money laying in bed, and with kids looking at you for their breakfast.... I found out pretty quick I not only could, but would work for far less than I had ever imagined, and be thankful for the work that was available. If you havent worked the top tier in a barn housing tobacco or cut and spiked it in 100 plus degree heat and 80 percent humidity for a buck an hour to feed the little ones, you probably would never understand what a blessing it is to be able overhaul a car engine.... right there in a nice cool shop, for a hundred bucks plus parts.

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"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain

Goodness my son took my truck in and the mechanic fee there is $105 an hour!
Not what most call a large town either (though larger than I like which is why i live outside it in the county!)

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2Ti 1:7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
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hey I've been out of work too, but then I am both very thrifty and a saver - I had enough in the bank to carry me over a year that I was unemployed. That's not luck, that's hard work, determination and being willing to uproot your family and move halfway across the country (twice) for a job

I live under my means, by quite a bit.
I also stretch a dollar until George Washington screams in pain.

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