Well, today was my last day of booked in work. I have never experienced anything like this before.
Worked all weekend on quotes that I didn't win. I've gone from having more calls than I can field and winning, no exaggeration 90% of my quotes to scavenging around for work and when it does come winning 10%
What have I changed? My website is better and clearer, my portfolio is more organised, I have more reviews, more happy customers and I'm spending more on marketing. Even my vehicles weren't sign written before and I've recently had them written.
I'd be interested in opinions on how this is even possible. All I can see that I've done is improve absolutely everything and spend more money or advertising and be more visible yet I've never had it so hard since I started being self employed.....
Totally ran out of work
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rxbren
- Posts: 394
- Joined: Thu Jan 05, 2012 11:41 am
- Location: northampton
Same here im quiet well just ticking over got a few small jobs but nothing great.phone has been quiet with people wanting quotes a few others i know are quiet as well.
Spent mo ey on adwords was a waste of time as usual, all it every does is increase the amount if calls offering fuel cards, phones/phone lines and other similar calls
Spent mo ey on adwords was a waste of time as usual, all it every does is increase the amount if calls offering fuel cards, phones/phone lines and other similar calls
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dig dug dan
- Posts: 2504
- Joined: Thu Jul 10, 2003 10:20 pm
- Location: hemel hempstead,herts. 01442 212315
Thats bad. So busy here, but I have diversified so imend up with a few eggs in the basket. Got crusher hires, landscaping, and paid training at heathrow for snow clearing. It soon mounts up.
plus, I try and work on my own as much as possible. I dont have to pay anyone.
just had weeks worth of work cancelled for march, and already filled it!
one extreme to the other
plus, I try and work on my own as much as possible. I dont have to pay anyone.
just had weeks worth of work cancelled for march, and already filled it!
one extreme to the other
Dan the Crusher Man
01442 212315
www.crusherhire.co.uk
"a satisfied customer? we should have them stuffed!"
01442 212315
www.crusherhire.co.uk
"a satisfied customer? we should have them stuffed!"
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Forestboy1978
- Posts: 1000
- Joined: Sun Oct 23, 2011 9:57 am
- Location: southampton, hampshire
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Forestboy1978
- Posts: 1000
- Joined: Sun Oct 23, 2011 9:57 am
- Location: southampton, hampshire
This is an example of what I hate about this work most of all and why I quite like fencing...
Guy gets me round cos he's selling the house and want to sort the garden out to sell it. Says he want's patio, fencing (posh fencing) 150m2 of turf and a hill levelled off, decking ripped up, bushes ripped out etc.
Spent about 4 hours on it sketching it out and working out rough time scales. Estimated 10k and gave him some details which included sorting out manholes, steps, curved patio etc.
Said thanks but way more than he can spend.....
I was the one who initially gave him some cheaper idea on site which he scoffed at and requested natural stone.
I'm seriously considering saying over the phone. Do you have a budget to work by? Do you know what you want? If the answer is no then I don't quote it.
Guy gets me round cos he's selling the house and want to sort the garden out to sell it. Says he want's patio, fencing (posh fencing) 150m2 of turf and a hill levelled off, decking ripped up, bushes ripped out etc.
Spent about 4 hours on it sketching it out and working out rough time scales. Estimated 10k and gave him some details which included sorting out manholes, steps, curved patio etc.
Said thanks but way more than he can spend.....
I was the one who initially gave him some cheaper idea on site which he scoffed at and requested natural stone.
I'm seriously considering saying over the phone. Do you have a budget to work by? Do you know what you want? If the answer is no then I don't quote it.
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RAPressureWashing
- Posts: 985
- Joined: Wed Aug 15, 2007 3:02 pm
- Location: Staines Surrey
- Contact:
That's pretty much how I work, on the initial call or email I ask them to email over photos of the areas to be cleaned and if they can give me rough sizes, then I will send you a ballpark figure, to see if this is what you sort of expected. Got fed-up wasting time doing site visits & quotes on work that was never going to happen. Lot of tyre kickers out the unfortunately.
Roger Oakley BDA(Europe)Member 2006
R&A Pressure Washing Services Ltd
info@rapressurewashing.co.uk
www.rapressurewashing.co.uk
R&A Pressure Washing Services Ltd
info@rapressurewashing.co.uk
www.rapressurewashing.co.uk
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Forestboy1978
- Posts: 1000
- Joined: Sun Oct 23, 2011 9:57 am
- Location: southampton, hampshire
^^^ Yeah I may try that. I'll say I can give estimates immediately if they want to send photos.
It gets worse. Had a BT biz line installed 2 weeks ago. BT phoned saying they need to send an engineer to intall another line for the cloud phone. I say er, why, but ok if it doesn't cost me anything. Should have been done the last time. They said fine. Guy shows up today says you've already got a line installed. You don't need another. I say, yeah, that's what I thought. He says, oh well, he'll let them know. Get a bill for £130 cos engineer arrived and couldn't carry out the work
AND
Prick emails me today asking me if I can ultimately remove a screw from a peice of capping and screw it the other side cos the end feather on a bay fence is 5mm out. 50 mile round trip and he knows it. Did the job cheap to cos he asked for load of shit and a breakdown of cost. Then only wanted the cheap stuff done. Obviously my breakdown of costs had accounted for being there and doing it all. Meaning that's what is works out individually if it's done as a whole project. Said to my labourer.. these are the jobs when the customer ****s you. You've done the job for song and they pick at the littlest detail so be bang on. He wasn't. He's now got to drive 50 miles to screw a screw in.
I'm at the end of my tether I really am.
It gets worse. Had a BT biz line installed 2 weeks ago. BT phoned saying they need to send an engineer to intall another line for the cloud phone. I say er, why, but ok if it doesn't cost me anything. Should have been done the last time. They said fine. Guy shows up today says you've already got a line installed. You don't need another. I say, yeah, that's what I thought. He says, oh well, he'll let them know. Get a bill for £130 cos engineer arrived and couldn't carry out the work
AND
Prick emails me today asking me if I can ultimately remove a screw from a peice of capping and screw it the other side cos the end feather on a bay fence is 5mm out. 50 mile round trip and he knows it. Did the job cheap to cos he asked for load of shit and a breakdown of cost. Then only wanted the cheap stuff done. Obviously my breakdown of costs had accounted for being there and doing it all. Meaning that's what is works out individually if it's done as a whole project. Said to my labourer.. these are the jobs when the customer ****s you. You've done the job for song and they pick at the littlest detail so be bang on. He wasn't. He's now got to drive 50 miles to screw a screw in.
I'm at the end of my tether I really am.
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lemoncurd1702
- Posts: 712
- Joined: Sat Oct 19, 2013 7:56 am
- Location: South Wales
- Contact:
I've had two improvers and movers this month and I'll never bother quoting for such again. One said he'd prefer to put the money towards a new house. At least he was honest, to anyone whose moving it's dead money.
I've been in your position Forest and it's easy to start quoting low to win the work but you may end up winning all the quotes and becoming a busy fool. I know it's no consolation but another few weeks and you'll be switching the phone off.
I've been in your position Forest and it's easy to start quoting low to win the work but you may end up winning all the quotes and becoming a busy fool. I know it's no consolation but another few weeks and you'll be switching the phone off.
Cheers
Lemoncurd
Lemoncurd
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rxbren
- Posts: 394
- Joined: Thu Jan 05, 2012 11:41 am
- Location: northampton
I ask forba rough budget but half the time it barely covers materials.
I give details of all the specs on my quotes dont do itemised anymore.
Its an awkward one but if you quoted for a load if work at reduced rate then they i ly want one bit you shoukd have upped the price for a single partsaying the costs were reduced due to th size of the job.
Personally if there is a few bits to be done i treat all seperate and list prices and combine the total you coukd always offer a discount on the whole package (if you wanted) at least that way if they decide they only want ine part done, your not doing it for cheap or having to say you will have to redo the quote to take into account of it only being one bit
I give details of all the specs on my quotes dont do itemised anymore.
Its an awkward one but if you quoted for a load if work at reduced rate then they i ly want one bit you shoukd have upped the price for a single partsaying the costs were reduced due to th size of the job.
Personally if there is a few bits to be done i treat all seperate and list prices and combine the total you coukd always offer a discount on the whole package (if you wanted) at least that way if they decide they only want ine part done, your not doing it for cheap or having to say you will have to redo the quote to take into account of it only being one bit
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dig dug dan
- Posts: 2504
- Joined: Thu Jul 10, 2003 10:20 pm
- Location: hemel hempstead,herts. 01442 212315
I now will no longer installed supplied materials. One guy supplied a load of fence panels, everyone was out of square, and somehow it was my fault?
Another time, I got to the job, cheap 6' panels, gravel boards, and 8' 3inch posts. Straight away, not enough post in the ground, I have to stand around waiting for him to change them. They should be 4inch posts anyhow. Put all the posts in with the gravel boards, and he had no cleats so got me to use old battening he had lying around, then the panels were 30mm too short. Again, it was somehow my fault!
had one customer complain that the sunlight dazzled him when it shone on the nail heads on a fence, someone else said I had left some wire in their garden, went all the way there to find a 6inch length of chainlink straining wire. And another clown deducted £60 from my invoice as he found a crisp packet in his garden and acccused me of littering. Kt was cheese and onion, and I HATE cheese and onion!
I am sure some people think we do this for a laugh
Another time, I got to the job, cheap 6' panels, gravel boards, and 8' 3inch posts. Straight away, not enough post in the ground, I have to stand around waiting for him to change them. They should be 4inch posts anyhow. Put all the posts in with the gravel boards, and he had no cleats so got me to use old battening he had lying around, then the panels were 30mm too short. Again, it was somehow my fault!
had one customer complain that the sunlight dazzled him when it shone on the nail heads on a fence, someone else said I had left some wire in their garden, went all the way there to find a 6inch length of chainlink straining wire. And another clown deducted £60 from my invoice as he found a crisp packet in his garden and acccused me of littering. Kt was cheese and onion, and I HATE cheese and onion!
I am sure some people think we do this for a laugh
Dan the Crusher Man
01442 212315
www.crusherhire.co.uk
"a satisfied customer? we should have them stuffed!"
01442 212315
www.crusherhire.co.uk
"a satisfied customer? we should have them stuffed!"
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rxbren
- Posts: 394
- Joined: Thu Jan 05, 2012 11:41 am
- Location: northampton
As above i generally only install my own supplied materials its rare very rare that do customer supplied stuff and if we do haveit in terms and conditions that if materials are wrong we will still charge for time on site.
Was it the decorative panels you fitted as for aome shitty reason there 1.8m so 30mm shorter than a concrete gravel board
Was it the decorative panels you fitted as for aome shitty reason there 1.8m so 30mm shorter than a concrete gravel board
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Forestboy1978
- Posts: 1000
- Joined: Sun Oct 23, 2011 9:57 am
- Location: southampton, hampshire
Yep same. I will never ever again work with someone else's materials. Why are those decorative panels 1.8??? Bugs the **** out of me.
I've been asked 3 times for arfticial grass too. All times between 4m2 and max 18m2. What sort of prices do you have to charge on that? I quoted £200 per m2 on the 4m2 one. They were offended but I figured I gotta go to 3 different suppliers and the tip, bring compactor, postmix, loads of wastage on the grass and dig it out by hand. No point in doing it for less than 800. I've got loads of big jobs in my reviews and projects page on my website but I seem to get contstantly asked to do massively logistically complex things on tiny scales.
I've been asked 3 times for arfticial grass too. All times between 4m2 and max 18m2. What sort of prices do you have to charge on that? I quoted £200 per m2 on the 4m2 one. They were offended but I figured I gotta go to 3 different suppliers and the tip, bring compactor, postmix, loads of wastage on the grass and dig it out by hand. No point in doing it for less than 800. I've got loads of big jobs in my reviews and projects page on my website but I seem to get contstantly asked to do massively logistically complex things on tiny scales.
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Forestboy1978
- Posts: 1000
- Joined: Sun Oct 23, 2011 9:57 am
- Location: southampton, hampshire
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rxbren
- Posts: 394
- Joined: Thu Jan 05, 2012 11:41 am
- Location: northampton
I get all the hard shit no one wants
Priced artifical turf last week local merchant wont supply it butgave me anumber for someone called them turf came to 1200 for 60m2 they offered if all the prepwork was done to fit it if all yhey had to do was lay it and do the joint, thought would ask what they would charge out of intereat and they gave a price of 600 just to fit
Priced artifical turf last week local merchant wont supply it butgave me anumber for someone called them turf came to 1200 for 60m2 they offered if all the prepwork was done to fit it if all yhey had to do was lay it and do the joint, thought would ask what they would charge out of intereat and they gave a price of 600 just to fit
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Forestboy1978
- Posts: 1000
- Joined: Sun Oct 23, 2011 9:57 am
- Location: southampton, hampshire
lol, believe me I can relate.rxbren wrote:I get all the hard shit no one wants
Priced artifical turf last week local merchant wont supply it butgave me anumber for someone called them turf came to 1200 for 60m2 they offered if all the prepwork was done to fit it if all yhey had to do was lay it and do the joint, thought would ask what they would charge out of intereat and they gave a price of 600 just to fit