On Sun, 20 May 2012 12:49:00 +0100, The Medway Handyman
wrote:

On 19/05/2012 20:50, Huge wrote:
On 2012-05-19, wrote:
I am sick and tired of replying to adverts for services, getting an
answer phone, leaving a message, then getting no call back.

Huge's rule of tradesperson halfs;

- Half the people you call won't return the call

5% of people don't remember to leave a number. 10% mumble or speak so
quickly you can't decipher it.

- Half the people who return the call won't turn up.

10% of calls are after 9pm, before 8am or on Sundays.

- Half the ones who turn up won't submit an estimate.
- Half the ones who estimate will submit a "we don't really want this job"
estimate.
- Half the ones who submit a sensible estimate can't actually do the job

Half the people you give estimates to will go for a cheaper price & so
waste your time.

If someone says "can you give me an estimate, I have 3 other people
coming to price the job" I just turn it down there & then.

It costs me time & money to give estimates. That's what ****es me off
about these TV consumer shows "always get 3 estimates". Maybe for a
loft conversion or extension, but not for a set of shelves.

It ****es you off because you are doing maybe dozens of that job every
month and you know what is a fair rate for the job. Joe Public is
planning to call out an unknown tradesman to do a one-off job of
unknown complexity (to him). If Joe knew enough about what was
involved in putting up a set of shelves and had an idea about the
right rate for the job, he probably wouldn't have had to call a
tradesman in anyway and he'd have done it himself. If he hasn't got
that experience then the only way he's going to find out if someone is
taking him for a sucker is to ask a lot of people and hope that they
aren't all taking him for a sucker.

I've got round this by producing a standardised price list for pretty
well everything I do. It works on the swings and roundabouts principle
that if I do the job often enough it will average out at a reasonable
return overall.

Nick