Mates Rates

[tysfoot]

Waht do you lot charge for mates or freinds of freinds.

obviously i need to make a livin but i dont want to lose my mates for ripping them off

Did a kitchen splashback other day that took my 14 hours to complete in two days (day and a bit) and charged him 80 notes whereas i would normally charge 100 quid more and he was a good mae, (And still is)

 

[grumpygrouter]

No such thing as "mates" in business!

Grumpy

 

[tysfoot]

i see why they call you grumpy then, lol

 

[justinisaac]

It can be a bit of a nightmare when it comes to friends( and family for that matter!). My advice would be to avoid working for them if you can as most people probably won't appreciate the favours you are doing for them. At the end of the day the only ones getting shafted are us. Sorry to sound so negative but I've just done a job for a friend which she is over the moon about but she is whingeing about the price. I got all the materials at trade for her and only charged her £300 labour for 6 days work! Then again, she does work for the Inland Revenue...
Here endeth the lesson.
All the best
Justin

 

[grumpygrouter]

i see why they call you grumpy then, lol

Hi Tysfoot, thanks for the compliment!!:lol:

If they are really your mates, they should realise that you are in business to make a living and should expect to pay the appropriate price. You could, after all, be doing a full priced job instead of theirs. I did a job for my sister recently and wasn't charging for my time as she had done me a huge favour a few years ago. Ended up that she insisted that she paid me full whack without me asking for anything because they know I need to make a living.

What happens if something goes wrong? You will be the first person they come running after, mate or not. At least if it is done on a proper business footing, they can claim on your insurance if there is a disaster (you do have insurance don't you?).

Wasn't meaning to be obtuse but it is a sad fact of business life that you don't become a millionaire by being nice!

(not really) Grumpy

 

[tysfoot]

i know its a nightmare, as a new tiler evryone i know is saying i need tiling done but as there all good mates and family its hard knowing what to charge.

Did a job for my mate a few weeks back and i said if i do you a favour you do me one so he is gonna decorate the kitchen and stairs for me.

Good thing about this one is that his favour is gonna be bigger than my favour and ill save a lot more then what he has saved

 

[grumpygrouter]

i know its a nightmare, as a new tiler evryone i know is saying i need tiling done but as there all good mates and family its hard knowing what to charge.

Did a job for my mate a few weeks back and i said if i do you a favour you do me one so he is gonna decorate the kitchen and stairs for me.

Good thing about this one is that his favour is gonna be bigger than my favour and ill save a lot more then what he has saved

Thats the way to do it!

grumpy

 

[bathroomboy]

Got to charge the going rate you are in business, if you don't you will end up just doing work for family and freinds on the cheap

 

[etc.tiling]

I just did a job for a mate's Mum. She insisted on paying me but I wasn't happy so she is gonna add to my tools instead. She gets something - I get something so I'm happy and she's happy.

 

[baht'at]

Mates

Did a couple of jobs when first started for friends at well below the normal rates.
I looked at it from the point of view that as just starting out couldnt charge the going rates and as I have had a couple of jobs from this work it can be good advertising as word of mouth seems to be a lot better than paying for adverts in the local papers.
Good luck to you.
Baht'at
Richard

 

[Holohana]

when starting out charge what your happy to get however once established then its got to be the going rate.

I did two last week for friends/family and both a pain in the erse!

One booked me in for the job weeks ago and then it was delayed and i had to squeeze in to fit round everyone else. Once finished he didnt have the cash to pay me, cheers pal.

Next day, on another friends job, i turned up at 8.00am as agreed to work on kitchen splashback only to find kids still eating breakfast and pots and crap everywhere.

I ended up shifting everything once they had gone to work, microwave and everything. Sink full of bloody coco pops and yes they had even turned the water brown! All for £150 which you guessed it, i aint got yet!

He'd taken the tiles off apart from the ones he couldnt be botherd to do as they were behind the microwave

I also did my brothers house with materials and tiles at cost and labour FOC, yes FOC. Didnt even get a beer out of it!

If they expect cheaper rates do they expect cheaper work?

Real mates would insist on paying the going rate in my book as i would if they did any work for me otherwise the incentive to do a good job may be lacking.

Keep business business and social social i say.

 

[DHTiling]

If it was your brother or sister then fair enough..but mates they always want it for nowt..just charge them more then they won't ask again will they...:lol:

 

[Holohana]

on the last one they had a old knacked boiler thermostat control which turned all the wall and worktop etc live when the boiler timer came on!

Think his earth was a bit dodgy too!

Good job he was there to take a look cos neither of us could see what had gone wrong as all connections good, clear of screws etc and clean.

Felt guilty as hell which was odd as it wasnt actually anything to do whith what id done. I'd just found a problem that was waiting to happen!

 

[etc.tiling]

If it comes to pay day and the customer doesn't want to pay then out comes the chisel and it's time to take the tiles off so I can get my adhesive and grout back. It's amazing how fast their hands go in their pockets to get the money!!

 

[versatilene]

I got my 'Mate' all the adhesive, grout and tiles at my trade prices (and was going to do the job real cheap for him) only to be told a few days later that he had got a builder down the road to do the tiling because he would work for a lot less than £100 a day. The cheeky s-d only rings me when the bloke started to say he didn't have any cutters or trowels so could he borrow mine!!! and what do you think I said???