# How to price???



## 512high (Jan 18, 2010)

Hi everyone,

I just bought a 43hp, 2006 Kubota L-4330HSTC(cab), and with my small parking lots, i've had a few clients ask to "stack" the snow banks, and relocate a few piles on site, my question is i have no idea what to charge for a small loader this size, i am located in Southern New Hampshire,(35 mi) north of Boston. 

any ideas? a few guys in the area say $85.00 per hr. with a three hour min., not sure if this is fair too low, etc.

thanks,

philip


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## grandview (Oct 9, 2005)

You could do a flat fee if you wanted to . EX. 250.00 to push the piles back.But you need to know how long it would take first.Some places don't like per hour because they think you will milk it.


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## 512high (Jan 18, 2010)

Thanks for the quick reply! Does price matter what part of the country one is located? Or is $250.00 for this size of machine "normal"?


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## grandview (Oct 9, 2005)

Prices are different even in your own town. Just depends on who's doing it.


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## dayexco (Oct 30, 2003)

i wouldn't hire somebody who went on the internet asking how much to charge. i would hope he'd know what his costs were before i hired him.


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## Jewell1386 (Dec 3, 2010)

dayexco man lay off him he is just trying to get anothers perfessional opinion and that is what this website is all about. We use a bobcat tractor at a storage locker set and i just charged a price and come to find out I needed to charge a litttle more. Wish I would have got anothers opioinon


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## Mick76 (Aug 2, 2009)

Jewell1386;1276714 said:


> dayexco man lay off him he is just trying to get anothers perfessional opinion and that is what this website is all about. We use a bobcat tractor at a storage locker set and i just charged a price and come to find out I needed to charge a litttle more. Wish I would have got anothers opioinon


Jewell, your fairly new to this site and this question has been asked over and over.... Day has given him good advice...... He needs to know HIS costs associated with the task at hand before you can give a price (wether per hour or for the job)...... He might be able to charge $85 per hour, while the contractor across the street will charge $110 ph...... YOUR PRICING IS DEPENDANT ON YOUR COSTS OF DOING BUSINESS ..... not what others are charging........

Now that said to the op , internet advice is free (take it for whats its worth) but I'd suggest calling around to various landscapers/excavation cos and see what they're charging to get a baseline.... work backwards from there accounting for all your costs...... if you feel your profit margins are fair at a certain hourly figure then there you go...... This would be YOUR hourly rate to do business..... HIH


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## 512high (Jan 18, 2010)

Mick76;1276771 said:


> Jewell, your fairly new to this site and this question has been asked over and over.... Day has given him good advice...... He needs to know HIS costs associated with the task at hand before you can give a price (wether per hour or for the job)...... He might be able to charge $85 per hour, while the contractor across the street will charge $110 ph...... YOUR PRICING IS DEPENDANT ON YOUR COSTS OF DOING BUSINESS ..... not what others are charging........
> 
> Now that said to the op , internet advice is free (take it for whats its worth) but I'd suggest calling around to various landscapers/excavation cos and see what they're charging to get a baseline.... work backwards from there accounting for all your costs...... if you feel your profit margins are fair at a certain hourly figure then there you go...... This would be YOUR hourly rate to do business..... HIH


Guys great advice from all,my point was this is a SMALL machine 1/2 yard bucket, 43hp. Diesel here 4.01 now, I didn't know wether per hour. Or a fixed price is better for a client to hear,etc. I posted this because YOU guys have more experience,and understand diff.regions may get more or less...we all started. Somehere,just looking for what others think,again thanks for the replies


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## cf1128 (Jan 14, 2009)

Mick gave some great advice, and he is dead on about knowing your cost.
I also agree with your last post. I have a John Deere 6330 with a 673 Loader and a 96 inch bucket and a 12 foot push box. I can stack much much higher than you( I think around 14 feet), and I struggle to get $115 hr in Southern NH. To give you an idea, I can get my good customers to pay me $115 an hour, and I can struggle to get $$95hr with everyone else. 
But... I can rent a late model Hyundai 740 with an operator or a Cat 928 with an operator for $100 an hour and charge $130 to $150 an hr, with no fuel cost to me and no wear on my tractor if it is a major stacking job, like last winter. As good as my AG tractor is at pushing, these Front end Loaders dust it when you are stacking major snow.
Also what you need to consider is that you can only stack and push so high, so be prepared before the season to know where you are putting it, once you move it and it freezes, you can pork yourself, your client doesn't want to pay, to move the same snow twice, however that is how a lot of guys operate. That is another reason why the Front end loaders have an advantage over us.
My advice to you, would be to find technical lots, that the big loader guys avoid, because they are too big, you can clean up on those.
I am in NH, so that gives you an idea. 
However, like anything else, I service the heck out of my clients. I try to work for a flat fee every storm, I tell them my hourly, but usually give them a max price, because I know how long it will take and they usually want to know upfront anyway. 
I tell them what I am going to do, and I do it.
I try to do it in the middle of the night when they are closed, and the lot needs to be stacked dress right dress and perfect by sunrise.
Just my opinion.
You will get your balls busted on here, but there is also some good advice on here too.
Just gotta weed through the bs, however, you gotta know what your cost per hour is to run your stuff, fuel, ins. etc...
Good luck.


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## cf1128 (Jan 14, 2009)

Oh, and congrats on the new rig!


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## Wayne Volz (Mar 1, 2002)

*Awesome post to know your cost*

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## grandview (Oct 9, 2005)

Reading back issues of Snow Business and this thread was in the July/Aug issue.


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## second income (Sep 19, 2010)

It is simple know your costs but you charge market rates as long as it is more than your costs. Why work for only a ten percent profit when the market may tell you can make twenty.


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