General Bidding

fetti10007

Hello, my name is Steve. I have been working for myself as a Handyman for the past year and a half. It is going great. Customers seem to have taken a liking to me and I get a lot of work all from word of mouth. I've been doing mostly hourly work but I've recently been getting some bigger jobs where the customers want a bid. I have little experience with bidding jobs and I'm struggling with how much to charge for different projects. I would be very grateful for any suggestions on how to enhance my bidding skills. Thank you very much, Handyman Steve

woodworkbykirk

unless your well versed in the specific projects your bidding on you wont know how much to bid because you dont have enough experience to know how long it takes you to do tasks from there you can come up with a price

also with bid jobs you can run into nightmare clients who change their mind every 5 minutes and still expect the same price.

your best bet is to bid high so you dont lose your shirt if you get the job. or just tell them its above your capability

12penny

Invest in an estimating program. I use National Estimator but R.S. Means has a good one also. They'll give you time and material estimates for just about everything. You'll have to change their labor rates to whatever it is you charge as well as make any material price changes. But untill you have more experience, they'll get you close.

mae-ling

Join www.contractortalk.com lots of good info there.

When bidding be vary specific but not overly wordy about what the bid does and does not include, any changes as you go get in writing and signed with he additional cost to the customer.