Know-How Exchange : Strategy

I think you're opening a can of worms. Say for instance, someone wants you to hang some shelves and buy your service for half a day. But the shelves take less time. What are you going to do for the rest of the time?

Why don't you just tell them, ok-- I'll hang the shelves for x$. if it takes longer, oh well. As someone in the biz, you know the difference than a 3 hour job or 6 hour job.

When you do this-- detail the scope of service. Cause the homeowner will come back and say "oh I thought this was included".

My handyman always charged by the hour. And I loved it. He did some minor remodeling for my kitchen-- and once I started, the project got bigger. There was no conflict -- I was paying him by the hour and if I wanted it to include something additional-- we had no conflict.

I also hate the per-hour pricing but it's pretty standard. You might want to give a range of times...based on work that you've done.

Michael

As others have said - make it by the job, not by the hour. People want to know how much it'll cost them to get the job completed, and by-the-hour can be too open-ended.

Are they compensated on performace? In sales, if you mis-estimate something you are penalized. First, the factory may not accept the order at all. 2nd, you get a charge back on the commission.

Well you might want to think about it. They are bidding low on jobs because they are being rewarded for it. They bid low, get the job, get paid as usual. And you eat the loss. They do not share in the loss, so why worry -- it's your issue. If someone wants low price they can give it to them. And they are paid as usual.

You may not see yourself as a factory and you may want to rethink that. Cause just as a factory, you have a service that you must sell at a profit. They need to realize they need to be a profit center for your business or they have no value at all.