| Tricks of the Trade© |
Morning edition Monday September 11, 2000 |
Bidding
I bid some things by the sq. ft and unit price. For example you might count how many doors and charge a unit price per door of say $45 to $55 each. A standard bedroom could run say $300 and you could adjust that if it had extras like louvered doors, crown moldings, etc. I charge for example $1.50 per sq. ft to do popcorn ceilings.
The mistake some guys make is not charging more for smaller jobs. For example on just one bedroom of pop corn ceilings. I would charge $2.00 per sq. ft. On a huge office complex I may adjust it to $1.25 This is because for a small job you still have drive time, set up and clean up of equipment etc. With larger areas production also tends to increase. I use the same method when pricing decks. I would not try to use someone else's numbers. Everyone has different overhead cost and rates can be different from one city to the next. I would figure out what hourly rate you need to charge to cover labor, materials, taxes, insurance, gas, and other overhead. Most people who are operating a profitable business tend to agree this must be at least $45 per hour. That's not set in stone but it does seem to be a point where some painters begin to make a profit. But a lot of guys who think they are making money are in reality just running money through a business and holding on to very little in the way of a profit.
Some signs you may need to raise your rates would be trouble paying your paint bill, waiting for funds to pay payroll, going into your line of credit to pay monthly bills, etc.
If you see these signals it's time to investigate and make some serious changes. The PDCA has an estimating guide you can buy through their web site at www.pdca.org that can help you figure out production rates.
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