Hello… I’m thinking about setting out a standard pricing formula based on:
Is something like this a workable system for you or do you just come up with a number $____ based on how long you think it will take you?
Any advice or detail would be much appreciated 
Thanks, John
John, I admire your tenacity. You are asking good questions. However, this forum has a wonderful search function that will answer just about any question you could possibly come up with. Yes, you’ll have to invest time and brain space to learn the answers you seek but the reward will be that much sweeter for your efforts.
You’ve visited this place for a week, have invested a mere two hours of time in reading, and you’ve created five new topics all containing questions that have been answered here countless times. When you use the search button you will get insight from all kinds of different people and lines of thinking that have responded to those same questions in the past. You will undoubtedly have to maneuver your way through some BS and a moderate amount of thread drift but that’s par for the course with just about any online forum.
Best of luck to you, John. Wear that search bar out and by the time you do that you’ll have an entirely different set of questions and then you can repeat the process. Feel free to ask questions along the way in those threads but please don’t spam the forum with a new thread for every thought that passes through your mind.
I downloaded this app yesterday. I have been using online access for a lot longer than 2 weeks, since last year. I had a look at previous topics but my “topics” were not covered exactly. I decided to ask the question. Sorry if it annoyed you. Perhaps others may like to contribute despite your reply. I do appreciate your previous responses. Most insightful. All the best.
There’s an app? Good to know.
Annoying is probably not the word I would use. There is good reason for condensing as much useful information into any given thread as possible. It makes finding and accessing that information much easier for future readers. When you have a handful of threads packed to the gills with good info it makes it much easier for readers to absorb the information whereas a million threads with only tidbits of info only really serves to confuse the reader.
Pricing, the subject you started this thread on, is incredibly subjective. Now, you kept your question very broad as to illicit input on how people set their rates but, again, it’s so subjective that it’s hard to get any sort of baseline for what is really “valuable” input from the members here. You have people from all walks of life with all kinds of professional backgrounds that are all at completely different points in their business and they all have differing viewpoints as to what works and what doesn’t. The guy in Alaska is charging considerably more for a house wash than the guy in Florida is. They each think the other is crazy because, from their vantage point, that strategy would never work in their domain.
Even this part…
…is virtually useless knowledge for you to know. A) you’re likely not running identical equipment or processes and B) you’re likely not the same experience level as the people that are answering.
My suggestion is to do a few jobs (for free) for friends and family and take note of three things:
How long it took from the time you left your home/shop/whatever to the time you returned.
How much chemical, fuel, and actual labor on the job it took. Remember, you have to pay yourself so include your actual labor times and whatever you consider to be an appropriate hourly wage.
How much your monthly operating costs will be on average. That should include truck payment, wear and tear, fuel… EVERYTHING.
From there you can pretty much figure out everything you need to know as you go.
If it’s going to cost you $5k/month just to be in business you need to figure out how many jobs it’s going to take to get in the black.
No one can give you that info but yourself. Hope that helps!
The guy in Alaska concurs 
My pricing goes like this. I Google Earth/Zillow the property to get a rough idea. Then I walk the property because it could look great on Zillow, and dilapidated in person. I eyeball the house or whatever I’m going to do, get a feel for it the customer is going to be a pain in the butt, calculate how long this should take me and go from there. I have set minimums for depending on what I am doing, and I will adjust accordingly.
DisplacedTexan is correct because there’s so many variables it’s hard to ask us for specifics. I value my time according to an hourly wage that Ineed to make in order to profit, and use that as a tool to adjust up/down but mostly up because like I said earlier, I have minimums.
I would like to say that when I was new, and I ran into people reiterating charge what YOU need to charge to make a profit… I thought was kind of a jerk saying because I felt like it might be people holding back some magic number or industry secrets. The more experience I have gotten the more I stand behind that saying because with all the variables you need to see how much everything costs you in your area, and what the market allows and hopefully those two things work out and you have enough business to keep on going.
You just gave off the vibe of “I didn’t get the information spoon fed to me in the manner in which I have become accustomed to”. A lot of the new guys that have come on here lately have a sense of entitlement, that the people here have to help you…they don’t. Ask questions, these people will help you, they helped me out tremendously. . Or…you can just light er up and get er done then.
I’m shocked the texan is taking the time and being that verbose, he used to just lay into people. Maybe he is getting old and soft 
And yes, your questions have been asked on here numerous times and in different ways. I have a set rate for single and double wides (unless they have four enclosed porches), concrete calculations based on how many steps and sq ft, every home is priced differently because we don’t have cookie cutter houses in my area, decks I price on sq footage and what is around them, log cabins are sq footage and problems, pavilions are based on how heavy the stuff is to move, stripping is sq footage and how many layers thick it is, painting foundations is always the same price (time)with material costs added in. There ya go.
Old, yes. Soft, no. BUT I have been making a conscious effort to have a bit more grace in my personal and professional life. Not a super big fan of it so far lol
It’s interesting because I have little patience for people in general and am somewhat surly but I’ll be danged if serving others doesn’t make me feel great. This has been a new development for me as well 
We are in the process of adopting a 5 year old that we’ve had in our custody for going on six months now. I’ve learned a lot about patience in these past few months. I’ve also learned that harboring ill-will in my heart really only hurts me.
I still don’t like people but I’ll tolerate them a bit longer now before I let my intrusive thoughts take over.
Hope you know I was just playing.
Yes I knew no worries amigo!
A little off the thread but I gotta ask as I saw a user by the name of MisplacedTexan on a forum called thehighroad. Would that happen to be you? Saw that name and did a double take
Excellent points here guys. Thanks heaps for your patience and attention. Your contributions have greatly assisted me. I’ll definitely take on board your tips on how to use PWR. I’m a big YouTube researcher and a tad ignorant to online forums. I’ll familiarise myself with the PWR search bar more thoroughly before my next new topic! All the best, John
I can neither confirm nor deny…
Just kidding. Nope, not me. At least I don’t think so.
One thing to keep in mind John is that most people on YouTube have something to sell you. In our business, that’s usually courses of some sort so they never quite tell you exactly what you need to do without buying said course.
In this forum you have everything at your fingertips. I know because I was able to find just about everything out that I ever needed with some digging around here. Good luck!
