Questions & Comments about Starting A New Business

albertrapier

New Member
Alright, getting ready to start PW business in my area. Have idea on what kind of PW machine to buy and where. Today, I was at a dealership (vehicle) and made the comment about washing the vehicles. The main question about this is -- what to charge to wash vehicles at dealerships. This guy has over 150 vehicles. Someone give me a guideline on this.

I have decided (pretty much) to charge .08 per square foot to do houses and .06 per sq. ft. for decks, walkways and driveways. How is this for North Carolina? I think pretty good. Example: a 1300 sq. ft house @ .08 per sq. ft. would be $104.00 plus $24.00 for materials total of $128.00. Acceptable?

A 75 foot long by 25 foot drive way is about 1875 sq. ft. @ .06 per sq. ft. would be $112.50 plus $36.00 for materials total of $148.50. What do you think?
 
M

MARK W.

Guest
I try to get $100.00 an hour for my work. Once you start doing jobs you will be able to tell how long it should take you. If a house is going to take me around 2 hours. It will cost them $200.
Not every job is the same so sometimes you make more and sometimes less.
 

DanKes

New Member
You wouldn't want to come work in PA, would you? I can keep you extremely busy if you are going to charge me the above prices.

You may want to use the search function here to get a better grip on pricing.
 

ron

New Member
albert, $125 to wash a house.
First you talk to the customer on the phone 10 min
drive their and look at job and give est.[drive their and back,plus selling time] 40 min.
cust. must talk to spouse. You dont get the job.
Another cust call's. Same thing but you get the job and must return to wash. Add drive time again and wash time. 40 min. drive
1 1/2 to wash.
Take out the fuel cost's for your truck.
insurance cost's
phone bill
advertising cost's
your billing time
your accountant cost's
wear and tare on your truck
5% for replacement cost's on rig and equipment.
Time spent getting and mixing your chem's.
Intrest on any money you owe on your buissness.
That will leave you about $10 per hour on your first house wash. Maybe.
As you can see you dont set YOUR PRICE untill you know YOUR overhead.
Anyone that tell's you what to charge is telling you the wrong ans. ONLY YOU know what you can charge.
The rest is just BULLSTUFF.
NOW IF SOMEONE ELSE DOSE ALL THE SELLING {DANKEES}
and you wake up and go to work.
$125 per house and give me 3 per day 6 day's a week 10 month's per year.
I"LL TAKE ALL YOU GOT AT 1300 sq ft. House and gutter's ONLY.
If i sell upgrade's i keep that for myself.
deck's,flatwork,detatched garage's,boat's,ect....
 

Dan S

New Member
Thats a fair price Mark, you wont get much more then that in my area.

I know this guy in my area charges 400 to do a average size house ...... all he does is residential ....... His trk. sits more then anything.... last year *summer* he told me he only did 6 houses and wonder why he cant stay busy!.............
 

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