Where do I say NO?

Better tax i always thought if you give the best service to your customers and keep them happy no matter what then they will go no where else , been dropped by a few companys , one that we worked for for over 10 years because we couldn't absorb any more losses on his under pricing of jobs , he just started using some one else who was starting out and took the losses on the chin . Dont get me wrong we always try and give our customers a first class service , but dont be fooled with the lure of " well you get all our work " they will drop you if some one else comes along cheaper.
What i would do John is , price the job as normal and then put the hire of the gear on top, if you dont get it then no bother , if do get it result .
The way i done it when i started out, and had a big job come in was to hire the gear but buy something towards it , say 50 boards , or 200 doubles or what ever you need to match you kit, that way next job you have x amount towards it . Hiring is a Bas tard money pit , it sounds cheap at the time but believe me them invoices just keep on coming , and you always seem to end up paying for gear that has been lost or damaged.
 
It seems you may be too cheap with your pricing. Your quotation should be covering all labour costs with travel expence, scaffold material costs, any 'one off' purchases (inc design), Transport both ways and then your overhead and profit. To hire gear will prove costly in the short term, Fatal in the long term if you 'loose' too much gear. I have seen a too many good 'little' scaffold companies get closed down by the hire companies for not being able to cover burdening hire costs.
 
If you are making enough to fullfill your workload and some, leave it at that. Trust me it takes it's toll on you eventually, soon your getting phone calls on sunday morning, even had one at 2:40am stick with the good payers and explain to anybody else you can quote for it but are fully booked for the next X amount of weeks. also looks good to them that your so busy,
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom