free estimates

the_pen_turner

not sure if this is the right forum for this but it is relivent I think.


I see a lot of advertising and posts using free estimates .
im a carpenter and I do this some times but am trying to go away from it.

what is the consences on free estimates.

what are the pros and cons of offering this . I think its ok for small jobs where there is very little working out but for larger jobs somebody has to pay for my time

my3cents

People expect free estimates if you don't give them then they will go to someone who does.

I think the only away around it is to provide an estimate for free but also say that if the customer wants to have a more accurate price they can pay for you to do a full estimate on the bases that a full estimate costs you time to prepare.

Ultimately the customer pays for free estimates and each job will have a price built into it to cover your costs. If you work a 40 hour week and get a weeks wage out of it but spend 4 hours a week giving free estimates you are probably notionally charging someone for the full 40 hours even though 4 are spent estimating. I know if you are self employed then you probably work more than 40 hours but I'm just trying to make the point that even if you don't intentionally charge for estimates then unintentionally you may be doing it in your hourly rate.

On the other hand if you are a specialist who is in demand you may be able to charge for estimates and customers may be willing to pay because they know paying for an estimate gets them on your waiting list, but not every craftsman is that lucky.

BryanF

IMHO Over the last ~8 years the 'ball' was firmly in the clients court. The 'game' is slowly changing (albeit location dependant) back in favour of the builder/contractor - but I don't believe much profit is being made, yet?

Gumbo

If someone asked me for payment for a quote then I'd move on to the next person. I wouldn't expect a full break down estimate in fairness.

the_pen_turner

kceire wrote: »

If someone asked me for payment for a quote then I'd move on to the next person. I wouldn't expect a full break down estimate in fairness.

that ok when you are looking for a small job . what about an extension. there is a lot of working out in some jobs.

machiavellianme

kceire wrote: »

If someone asked me for payment for a quote then I'd move on to the next person. I wouldn't expect a full break down estimate in fairness.

Same. Most business areas ive dealt with (trades, engineering, accounting etc) would provide a high level indicator for any work required. Detailed scoping may follow for a more precise value. Tbh if someone isn't able to provide an approximation, I wouldn't do business with them as I'd assume they are too inexperienced and haven't an idea or are too busy and don't want my money. Either way I'd steer well clear.

my3cents

the_pen_turner wrote: »

that ok when you are looking for a small job . what about an extension. there is a lot of working out in some jobs.

For bigger jobs the field is reduced because there aren't as many people who can do the work so less will be quoting - even if you can get them to quote. Therefore while it may cost you more to quote there is more chance of getting the job.

It may be that part of your problem is that there is nothing to set you apart from anyone else who is quoting for a job? If you have something special the client wants they will pay for whatever you ask but if your just giving a quote along with other businesses with nothing to distinguish you, except price, then all that matters is price.

The traditional way was to charge for a quote but take the charge off the main bill if the quote was accepted. Even so the price for the quote was built into the bill one way or another.

Then there is the question of how firm is a free estimate?

Bad_alibi

I know a kitchen company who charge €100 for the quote and design if you go ahead with the job you get the €100 off the price.
Spoke to the fella and he was saying it had to be done as people were getting him to design and model the kitchen then taking the design to cheaper competitors in the area. He claimed he was spending 10hrs plus weekly modeling designs and not getting half the work.

my3cents

Bad_alibi wrote: »

I know a kitchen company who charge €100 for the quote and design if you go ahead with the job you get the €100 off the price.
Spoke to the fella and he was saying it had to be done as people were getting him to design and model the kitchen then taking the design to cheaper competitors in the area. He claimed he was spending 10hrs plus weekly modeling designs and not getting half the work.

There are two sides to that. If the kitchen company make good money while still spending 10hrs a week doing designs that are ultimately going to be used by the customer to get other quotes it might be better to keep doing that rather than only do a few paid for designs and get less work.

I had a boss who used to go on about the 80/20 rule where 80% of your money is made from 20% of your customers. His idea was to blow out the 80% of customers who didn't make us much money. Try as I may I couldn't explain to him that all that would happen would be that the 80/20 rule would reapply itself so we'd also loose a proportion of big paying customers. The 80% of low value customers aren't so low value if they spread the word and bring in higher value customers.

In the kitchen design scenario a percentage of the work may have come from people getting a free quote who were intending to use it to get quotes in from other companies but in the end when back to the designer?

Bad_alibi

my3cents wrote: »

There are two sides to that. If the kitchen company make good money while still spending 10hrs a week doing designs that are ultimately going to be used by the customer to get other quotes it might be better to keep doing that rather than only do a few paid for designs and get less work.

I had a boss who used to go on about the 80/20 rule where 80% of your money is made from 20% of your customers. His idea was to blow out the 80% of customers who didn't make us much money. Try as I may I couldn't explain to him that all that would happen would be that the 80/20 rule would reapply itself so we'd also loose a proportion of big paying customers. The 80% of low value customers aren't so low value if they spread the word and bring in higher value customers.

In the kitchen design scenario a percentage of the work may have come from people getting a free quote who were intending to use it to get quotes in from other companies but in the end when back to the designer?

I get what your saying in general but this fella is flat out with work and has a waiting list so he must be doing something right.

enricoh

I know a lad doing paving and he charges for coming out to do quotes any further than 15 minutes away from him.
Charges e70 n knocks it off quote if he gets it. He was saying he was driving to dublin (1 hr + away) and giving quotes to people that were just toying with the idea of paving or else he was quote no. 5 they were getting.
An hour up, an hour there n an hour back and then ringing tobermore n road stone Etc for nothing. I think he's dead right, gets rid of the spoofers