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Replies
Ashley, welcome and good to hear from you.
There are many definitions of "competitive" and at least one of those implies a race to the bottom on price.
So your definition needs to include with whom you wish to be competitive? The uninsured? The benefits claimants? In other words, those who have no overheads and no way of putting right what they do wrong? True, some of them will not go far wrong but nor can they afford to finance a quality job or the quality tools with which to do it.
If, on the other hand, you want to compete with competent professionals who are properly tooled and insured you are possibly a tad on the low price side but not too markedly so.
Please try to get away from the idea of pricing by "yardage" or "hourly rates" or anything similar. Take a browse around many of the earlier threads within the Juice network and you will see many pointers about how you can do that. Then you can build your business and your reputation whilst gaining repeat and referred work from your customers.
As a southerner living in Yorkshire, I can tell you price differentials across the country are no more than marginal if anything. Even here, where the folk have a reputation for, not to put too fine a point on it, being tight fisted, they are perfectly happy to pay for quality.
Like anywhere else, some will pay a cowboy in the mistaken belief there is a saving to be made. But, also like anywhere else, they tend to be either skint or in a small minority of those who do have the cash.
Too many skilled operatives, landscapers and gardeners among many others, hear the price talk and take it in. Then they join in the price race. It is a mistake.
Thank you Mike for your detailed reply and the welcome. I started off quoting each job individually but kept getting the same response from most of the customers that I'm too expensive. At first I took it on the chin but after a while, I couldn't understand why a lot comment on the cost. It's actually been driving me mad! Its good to know I'm not too high with my price range tho as its really had me going round in circles. I don't like quoting per M but Iv pushed myself to it whilst trying to earn some income. I understand why its a bad idea but I guess its a easy way to compare with others and yes its definitely easy to get caught in the price race. My feather edge initially started with 1.8m bays but I had no choice to extend this to 2.4m bays to keep to those prices but earning hardly anything on a job. I have only posted some offers and prices today for on the meter but once they have expired, I will not be re-offending. Thankyou very much for the reasurance