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Plumber, How Much Is Too Much?
Category: Home ImprovementEveryday people say to me ‘how can you charge that much money?’ And my response is always ‘I charge based on supply and demand’. As a plumber in Edmonton, and I am sure this is the same everywhere else we charge by the job or by the hour. And why would I go to someones house to fix something for $40 per hour when everybody else in Edmonton is more than willing to pay $85 per hour.
I am not saying it is OK to over charge someone, I have seen that and do not agree with it. Many times people have called me up and said what do you charge to unplug a drain. I can only give them a guess because with all the experience in the world nobody knows how long it would take to fix. But there is times when people have asked only to find out if the person who was just at their home was charging a proper price. For instance I was called to unclog a toilet once, and could not make it there that day as I was already booked. They called someone else and within 20 minutes of the plumber showing up the toilet was working again. The price was $350. When they told me this I could not believe it. That price is way too high, but the homeowner could have called another company.
Now, just to tell you that is not all profit for the company. They have van costs, overhead, multiple forms of advertising, non billable employees, just to name a few. The average shop of 5 plumbers will have total expenses of $750,000 per year. This can be more or less depending on the type of plumbing company. Construction, service, or what have you. With 5 plumbers the average company will gross about $1,000,000 per year. So there is good profit in this type of business. But it only takes one bad plumber in the company for them to quickly lose $200,000-$300,000. The risks are high, very high, and many fail.
After talking to some clients about this they say that has nothing to do with me. But in reality it has everything to do with the consumer. Look at shop lifting. The price of most products include a certain volume of those being stolen each year. A company can not survive if they do not pass these costs onto the consumer. And if you as the consumer do not want to pay then you have the option of repairing the problem yourself. Now if the plumbing company is giving you good service and you are happy with them stay with them. If they are charging a ridiculous price, then find someone else. Just make sure what the going rate is and don’t pick the bottom guy, or the top guy. Most time the company in the middle will give you the most bang for your buck!
If you liked this article you can get a free report ‘Do you ask these 7 Questions to weed out the Criminal contractor?” at http://www.edmontons-business-directory.com/Weed_out_the_criminal_contractor.html Kelly p Kramer owns a plumbing company in Edmonton, Alberta
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