billed time
billed time
(OP)
Like many of you I have a very small Civil Consulting company, myself and 1 employee. We are only 18mos old. We have a ton of small jobs, jobs under $500. Things like a perc test, quick little topo survey, size a beam here, ect. My dilema is we bill hourly which works out great until the job is ended. Then I am getting ph call after ph call from the architects, owners, county, ect.. asking questions. Then I send a bill for my phone time and the client freaks.
Should I just set a minimum job cost at say $500 to cover this incidental time? I had a $200 job that after the job was over I spent 2.5 hrs of phone and email time that they refused to pay because it wasn't in my verbal estimate!!! Hardly a profit there. Well sure it wasn't in my estimate, they asked for a price to do 'x' and I end up spending way more time dealing with the parties involved than just doing the calcs. Do any of you deal with this?
Thanks,
Should I just set a minimum job cost at say $500 to cover this incidental time? I had a $200 job that after the job was over I spent 2.5 hrs of phone and email time that they refused to pay because it wasn't in my verbal estimate!!! Hardly a profit there. Well sure it wasn't in my estimate, they asked for a price to do 'x' and I end up spending way more time dealing with the parties involved than just doing the calcs. Do any of you deal with this?
Thanks,





RE: billed time
VERY simple jobs - I charge no less than $250. Simple jobs start at $500. $1000 for home design (no drawing) with new IBC/IRC Codes. If they think that is high - go somewhere else. I am usually overwhemlemd with these "little" jobs - because no else will do them.
I ALWAYS allow for an extra hour or two - keeps customer from "freaking" and they feel good that I didn't charge them extra. Some have even been appreciative!!
If it is REAL change - then I discuss the extra costs before proceding.
If perchance - they don't call back - I am ahead for the times they call back 10 times!!
Good Luck
RE: billed time
Always generate a written contract and get it signed.
RE: billed time
You can also have a contract, set fee, where you have worked in a reasonable amount of phonetime, listed in the contract, and state that anything above that will be billed at the hourly rate of XXXX.
Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
RE: billed time
In some cases, I have looked up public records on the clients (talking homeowners) and found one with a few civil cases (found out later he owned like 7 rental properties and they were evictions) and one where his mother owned the house so I drafted a contract for his mother to sign. Never did hear back from that guy.
Don Phillips
http://worthingtonengineering.com
RE: billed time
MiketheEngineer, how do you get $1,000 for a house design with no drawings? What do you mean by that?
RE: billed time
Architect or drafts person does the actaul final drawing.
RE: billed time
This approach also saves a lot of time and nerves as I don't have to keep track of time spent on the phone. After all, I make my living with engineering and not with bookkeeping.
Don't underestimate referrals, even if you think these clients won't come back. I get a lot of jobs where the guys got my phone no from friends or friends of friends.
If you have a reputation to charge for every call, you wil never get there. If you go with a lump sum, they will say that you stayed within the budget. Clients like that
(>>>>> good karma, as somebody mentioned above)
RE: billed time
To say I am jealous doesn’t begin to describe it; you must be living the life of Rielly.
RE: billed time
we are talking about small jobs here(<$500.00), that is where I apply a 20-30% increase. If these clients look somewhere else, I don't mind. After all these mini jobs slow me down on the larger ones, that pay my bills. Reality is, I still get 8 jobs out of 10 proposals for these low budget jobs, so I still might quote too low.
Here is another story: Recently, on one of the larger jobs (in the $3,000.00 range)I didn't add anything to what I thought was realistic, and ended with an hourly rate of $4.00 (in words: four dollars per hour)due to my fixed price approach. Barely the life of Rielly. Still jaleous?
RE: billed time
Another way of asking it--do slow workers get to bill more hours (within reason)?
Hg
Eng-Tips policies: FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies
RE: billed time
Don Phillips
http://worthingtonengineering.com