Discuss Undercutting madness!! in the Canada Tile Advice area at TilersForums.com.

John Benton

TF
Arms
2,203
1,138
Leeds
And they had the neck to debate knocking £56 of price !!!

Id av done half the job for that price...Is ur hand still sore from the customer
shakin it ?


When u go to price a job just think of ur van insurance quote nxt time m8

No but he's just pulling his trews back up.

I would have been looking at £1100-£1200 for that and I may have debated over knocking the .6 of a metre for them :thumbsup:
 
depends if the quoter is pricing because he needs to win the work.

12-1400 for Labour only,, for a 'simple straight job' that would take 3-4 days tops?

I say simple straight job lightly, because its only 1 main room with two french doors (reveals-returns), two internal door thresholds, one lobby, one step. :D
 
£4459 if I recall correctly...Hey If u need the work and ur happy to do it at that price
then that's what counts...I've been there too ! Just be sure not to under value ur
self/work.

Regards
Ian.

Thank you Ian, appreciate your support buddy.

I got my insurance for 4196 in the end. BUT with £1200 excess...
 

John Benton

TF
Arms
2,203
1,138
Leeds
..and accountants, bank charges, diesel, tools..etc etc etc, but I guess it's maybe better than sitting at home doing nowt. The danger with pricing low is that the low price can then become the norm and it's a downward spiral from there.

Cheap labour and you'll always be busy.

I know it's a fine line, but you need to earn enough to pay the bills and have a reasonable standard of living
 

John Benton

TF
Arms
2,203
1,138
Leeds
That was a generalisation not a dig at you.

What i'm saying is you may need to look at the way you price. Look round the house at what they spend money on, have they got nice wallpaper, can you see the joins? All these things tell you what sort of finish the customer is expecting and they are probably willing to pay for a quality finish.

May sound stupid but you have to look into the psyche of the customer, if you see a set of golf clubs, and you play just ask them their handicap, where they play, there best round. People like nothing more than talking about their achievements.

It gets you on their side and people buy from people, don't forget that :thumbsup:
 
That was a generalisation not a dig at you.

What i'm saying is you may need to look at the way you price. Look round the house at what they spend money on, have they got nice wallpaper, can you see the joins? All these things tell you what sort of finish the customer is expecting and they are probably willing to pay for a quality finish.

May sound stupid but you have to look into the psyche of the customer, if you see a set of golf clubs, and you play just ask them their handicap, where they play, there best round. People like nothing more than talking about their achievements.

It gets you on their side and people buy from people, don't forget that :thumbsup:


This is one thing technology has covered up, not knowing if sarcasm is shown etc..
I was thanking in all honesty John :)
Was it my smiley :) face? ha ha

I always keep a keen eye out for other tiling in a customers house !

- - - Updated - - -

Peaks

Do you feel as though you have been stitched up???


How so?
 

John Benton

TF
Arms
2,203
1,138
Leeds
This is one thing technology has covered up, not knowing if sarcasm is shown etc..
I was thanking in all honesty John :)
Was it my smiley :) face? ha ha

I always keep a keen eye out for other tiling in a customers house !

- - - Updated - - -




How so?

No sarcasm here Peaks, just saying how it is

Customer says to his friend, "High Peak did my tiling he's good and he's cheap" so therefore chances are you will get the job, but you're stuck with the low price cos his mate will have told him how much he paid. How can you suddenly double your prices, you can't so it may have to be a steady increase in prices
 

kilty55

TF
Arms
10
1,113
edinburgh
any repeat work from that job will most probably have to be priced based on the same rate as they wil tell there friends you were by far the cheapest

did a cheap job for some one once when i was struggling for work and it gave me 3 more leads all which i had to price the same way other wise i wasnt getting on them...i realised it wasnt the way forward with the business
 
B

bugs183

Thats the trouble with bigger jobs, we all have an idea what our day rate should be, and i price now alot of work on it as working with stone and large formats are much slower,
but this floor is a biggy so potentially you will earn way more than rate, and there is a big price difference that you have to consider is it fair charging meterage or cheaper (but not as fair on you) pricing as day rate.
This is why i never price at the time i see the job, some need weighing up price wise. I'd have measured up, spoken to the customer and gone home to think about which price is best for you and them.
 
T

Time's Ran Out

I don't know what experience the op has but he's just starting his business. I'd rather be working than sitting at home and as every job is different there is no reason to keep the same pricing structure for any recommendation. As others have stated there are lots of overheads involved in pricing, but when I lived at home, using my Dads car for work I charged 90p a metre instead of the going rate of £1.30!
If it gets your foot in the door, gives you photos for a portfolio and you get paid - that's the job.
 
A

AMtek

Not having a go at you at all peak but people keep on shouting about standardising the industry including prices so that people are earning a wage that reflects their skill because there are always some that will work for buttons and undercut everyone else. How many thready have we seen on here where someone has been undercut by a stupidly low price and people assume that because the price is cheap the job will be done to a lower standard and with inferior materials. I think your prices are far too cheap, if you had knocked the £56 off for them that would have been £12.5/m2 or £125 a day and that would work out to about 30k a year but by the time you have taken off your tax, fuel, tools, etc you won't be left with a lot and would probably be earning less than minimum wage.


If you're undercutting slightly to get the job then fair enough but being almost half of what everyone is charging your just going to end up doing a lot of graft for not a lot of money. I would sit down and work out how much you need to earn per day to give you a wage, cover your expenses and holiday pay etc, i would say it will be a fair bit more than you are charging at the minute. Your just ripping yourself off at the minute.

Like i said i'm not having a go at you, if what you charge is enough to cover expenses and give you a wage then more power to you, your in a good position to get a lot of jobs booked in but it is a lot easier to drop your price to get a job than to add money on when its booked in and your prices will follow you on other jobs
 

Sean Kelly

TF
Arms
647
1,068
Ruislip
I have my dinner at 20:00 !!!!! I'm more shocked at the price of the van insurance. I'm still on about the £150 a day wage, and I live in London, and work is very quiet at the mo. It was very mean of the client to knock you down even more. I wonder what materials they will provide for you?
 
Hi all, sorry for the late reply.

I completed the job in 3 days, customer had moved the office furniture in by the following monday. Customer was very happy with the job, They asked me to get same tiles and supply materials and tile a 64m2 floor as soon as i could fit it in.

this is the 2nd job completed for them & now they have asked me to supply and fit their 14m2 domestic kitchen in black marble tiles with gold and silver fleck (starlike)
so all in all, they are very happy with both jobs completed & more work follows!!

They have plenty of money, but are tight as hell... but again the £56 knocked off got me the job and 2 others so far :lol: HAPPY DAYS :smilewinkgrin:

- - - Updated - - -

I have my dinner at 20:00 !!!!! I'm more shocked at the price of the van insurance. I'm still on about the £150 a day wage, and I live in London, and work is very quiet at the mo. It was very mean of the client to knock you down even more. I wonder what materials they will provide for you?


My insurance ?
 

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