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Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 74
T
Member
Helps you generate an hourly rate.
http://www.masterplumbers.com/utilities/costcalc/

I know it's for plumbers, but labor is labor at this point.

I tried it based on my records for last year, short year, new business, and I came out looking pretty good.

Latest Estimating Cost Guides & Software:
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 88
J
Member
Dave55, What was wrong with the flate rate plus book? Can you give me some idea?

Thanks

Joined: May 2004
Posts: 697
D
Member
BTW, I did get my money back from Easy Street. The salesman, a "Master Electrician" argued with me about the need for two ground rods, and missed some material lists which listed wire nuts for large ga. wires. As I recall, it leaned toward NM wiring, and ITE panels, with no info. on Square D, and none on RMC (this is QO and EMT country). They have some sheets on "Rigid", but it was PVC, not RMC. The print-out book was mostly blank space with over 200-pages. Each item listed a special price for a customer with a maintenance contract, which is an easier sell in HVAC than electrical contracting. In the video he showed a very small thin book that was his HVAC sales book. What I was getting from the software was producing a 2" thick binder, which would be nearly unusable.

I had some other issues, but in general I felt like they have a good system for HVAC, but it didn't quite translate into Electrical Contracting. It also had some glaring typos that I felt would have been caught by a proof-reader, rather than a spell-checker. For $2500 I felt it should have run by a few real Electrical Contractors all of whom would have caught the errors and would have been able to help produce a much more professional product. There was nom way I'd present a sales book to a customer that didn't look top-quality.

I also didn't trust the numbers in the sheets. Replacing a Square D QO breaker, for example, was cheaper than replacing the same sized HOM breaker. I ran into a few other things like that and decided that I'd have to take the time to do it myself. I would have much preferred to pay the $2500 than spend the hundreds of hours creating my own.

Dave

Joined: May 2004
Posts: 697
D
Member
A little more to the original topic...something to consider in setting rates and bidding is your level of experience and quality of tools. If I used to work with a hacksaw and took hours to troubleshoot...and now use a metal saw and take minutes to troubleshoot, I need to adjust my rates accordingly. That's one of the major reasons for bidding jobs rather than doing them T&M.

If your rate stays the same and your experience increases (and production increases), you're making LESS MONEY.

Dave

Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 36
D
Member
Dave33 where is the second part of this article http://ceenews.com/mag/electric_overhead_profit_part/
that you posted?
I can't seem to find it
Thanks

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