It’s an economics thing. Like what would you say is a fair price for something that would take a contractor an hour? $200 plus materials? Does that seem high maybe? If you’re a contractor, that probably seems low. $500? Maybe that gets you out of bed.
If they take a big job that will require a week of work, they might charge $2,000. Now, you think, 5 days, 40 hours, that’s $50 an hour and you were willing to pay ten times that. The difference is that $2,000 job is more likely to result in more work, more hours, with higher budgets. The $500 handyman project is an entire day, between travel and planning and tool maintenance and procuring materials. It’s a day you’re not prospecting. It’s a day where you can’t pay any employees.
And that’s before you consider that most customers didn’t even want to pay the $200. They’re going to grumble and complain that you’re robbing them, that they don’t make that much an hour at their desk job. They are going to demand a level of perfection that isn’t in the budget, and changes and scope creep because they want to get their money’s worth. They will bad-mouth you to their friends and family and internet and anyone that will listen.
It’s the 80/20 rule. 80% of anything comes from 20% of sources, whether you’re talking about profits or headaches. So you put effort into finding the good 20 and avoiding the bad 20, which means focusing on large projects and avoiding small projects.
Any contractor with a few years of experience has had nightmare projects. There’s also some psychological gymnastics on that side of the coin, because contractors who have bad experiences on a larger project are likely to justify or forget the annoyances because the experience was “worth it,” while the small job that caused any trouble at all is going to be extra frustrating because of the perceived lack of value.
It’s an economics thing. Like what would you say is a fair price for something that would take a contractor an hour? $200 plus materials? Does that seem high maybe? If you’re a contractor, that probably seems low. $500? Maybe that gets you out of bed.
If they take a big job that will require a week of work, they might charge $2,000. Now, you think, 5 days, 40 hours, that’s $50 an hour and you were willing to pay ten times that. The difference is that $2,000 job is more likely to result in more work, more hours, with higher budgets. The $500 handyman project is an entire day, between travel and planning and tool maintenance and procuring materials. It’s a day you’re not prospecting. It’s a day where you can’t pay any employees.
And that’s before you consider that most customers didn’t even want to pay the $200. They’re going to grumble and complain that you’re robbing them, that they don’t make that much an hour at their desk job. They are going to demand a level of perfection that isn’t in the budget, and changes and scope creep because they want to get their money’s worth. They will bad-mouth you to their friends and family and internet and anyone that will listen.
It’s the 80/20 rule. 80% of anything comes from 20% of sources, whether you’re talking about profits or headaches. So you put effort into finding the good 20 and avoiding the bad 20, which means focusing on large projects and avoiding small projects.
Any contractor with a few years of experience has had nightmare projects. There’s also some psychological gymnastics on that side of the coin, because contractors who have bad experiences on a larger project are likely to justify or forget the annoyances because the experience was “worth it,” while the small job that caused any trouble at all is going to be extra frustrating because of the perceived lack of value.