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There is numerous threads on pricing Tom, do a search for them. This is a bone of contention with lots of members and you will get information overload about it lol. One thing I would say is, charge what you and your business needs, not what other people charge, ONLY you know what your overheads are and what you want to earn for a living, but £12.00 per hour is way to little
Tom, there is lots of advice and discussion on here about the pro's and con's of charging by the hour or for the job! If your college course was in Hort you are already several steps ahead of the weekend 'beer money' men. I would capitalise on this and your families experience and set your prices and sights higher!
Quality costs, customers know this (perhaps deep down!) and it is easy to be a 'busy fool' filling your day as I did when I started, with low paying bits of jobs. Its the start of the season, everyone wants a gardener at this time of year so hang in there!
At those prices you will be out of business in short order - to give you an idea - your running costs will be anywhere between 3-6k per year, Plus the cost of maintaining and replacing equiptment every 3-4 years. You need to be thinking closer to double that.
Good luck just make sure you get it right for your business from the start
Yep, be careful to work out your costs before you start!
Once you write a list, with a planned estimate of costs and contingencies for things like new tools, you'll have a simple sum you can divide by months, weeks, days or hours. Bear in mind holidays, sickness, weather: you won't work 5 days a week flat-out all year round.
I think you'll struggle these days to buy, run, and save for a replacement, van for much under £5K per year? All the tools will need replacing, perhaps over three years? Consumables add up to a lot, then there's marketing, bank charges, office costs, accountant, all have to be planned for.
I think £10K isn't unreasonable to plan as costs over a year. Even if you work 40 hours a week, 48 weeks a year (you probably won't), that's over £5 per hour before you start to earn a penny!
It's linked to from an Orange button on the left hand side of the front page 'Free Hourly Rate Calculator'.
It helps you decide your own internal charge rate for pricing jobs.