How Do You Estimate/Bid On Jobs?

How can you ensure that you don’t overcharge or undercharge a job? This is a must-have skill in running a business to keep you profitable while staying competitive.

The electrician can give a price over the phone, followed by a formal, written quotation for a simple 1-hour job, plus materials. The process is different for bigger jobs like rewiring a house. You will need to meet with the customer, write down their expectations, and work out the hours and materials cost.

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How do you quote for a rewire?

Follow some basic staples based on the age of the property. If the property is old, it’s worth getting an asbestos survey. Why? Many products back in the 70s had asbestos used in the manufacturing process.

Things like Artex had asbestos in the mix. 1, you don’t want to be breathing in asbestos. 2, the cost of disposing of asbestos is high, so make sure it’s included before you offer a bid.

Here are some other pointers to consider:

  • Complete and EICR first. The property may not need rewiring, so be honest with your customer.
  • Take photos of every room on the property
  • Measure each room
  • Sit with the customer and ask for a property layout schematic with everything they required marked on the schematic
  • Ask if your potential customer is willing to live outside of the property while the rewire is taking place
  • Ask for a plasterer to come in after you have completed the first fix and schedule the second fix a week later

There are now three factors you will need to decide, how much will the materials cost you and how much will you sell the materials to the customer.

How much is your labour, including out of pocket expenses for your team, fuel, and miscellaneous items?

What should be included in an estimate?

Your estimates should have a standard format so consider how you will do this. Will you use an Excel sheet, handwritten, or will you use a software package like Tradify?

Your estimate must include the following as a bare minimum:

  • Schedule of works to be completed. This should state when the products are being delivered and when the job will commence and finish. Allow a factor for the unforeseen.
  • A complete line item breakdown of the components to be used from the smallest to the largest, including them all.
  • Your overall price to complete the job as specified in the estimate.
  • Validity of the estimate 10 days 30 days.
  • Terms and conditions.
  • Payment schedule.
  • All signed and delivered in good time.

How do you estimate the time for a rewire?

It will be a challenge, especially if you have not done many rewires. As an electrician, you never know what snags you will come across along the way.

By the very nature of the rewire, the property is not new, and you may come across some issues you have not encountered before, so build a factor in for the unexpected.

Don’t pay too much attention to online estimates. Spoke guys will work for nothing, and you need to make a profit.

Companies who estimate online have no idea how fast you can work, and you have no idea how many electricians they can throw at the job, so don’t compare.

How far off can an estimate be?

It’s called an estimate for a good reason. Because that is what it is, It’s easy to miss something off an estimate and for normal circumstances, it would be acceptable for an estimate to be off by, say, 5 to 10%, any more than that makes you look as if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Why is there so much confusion for customers?

Because not all estimates are the same, take, for example, you may want to take two weeks to rewire a four-bedroom house. Another electrician says he can do it in a week.

While a third estimate will bid for the job, such as £100.00 plus VAT for every powerpoint fitted.

The inconsistency scares customers away.

Is there ever a time you can return to the customer and ask for money?

As a rule of thumb, it would be very unprofessional to take this approach, but the converse is true, can a customer come and ask for changes?

If the customer asks for reasonable changes, try to accommodate the changes and absorb the hit in your labour price.

If it’s a drastic change, you can tell the customer it is outside of the scope of the original estimate, and you will need to charge more for the additional work.

Is an estimate legally binding in the UK?

No. You can consider your estimate to generalise the outline or scope of the proposed project you are bidding for.

You should then proceed to produce a quotation that has gone into an in-depth costing of the materials and labour content of the job.

Does a company have to honour a quote?

No, a quote is just an offer of a service provided by the electrician. It’s not legally binding, and either party can walk away from the quote before the payment schedule has been put into play.

In other words, if the customer has made a stage payment, the quote could be considered legal.

How do you ensure clients pay on time?

  • Keep a good working relationship with your client
  • Invoice on time so they are aware of the payment coming due
  • Using a cloud-based service for invoicing is so much easier
  • Have signed payment terms from your client before starting the job and include punitive late fees at your discretion
  • Don’t be worried about asking for payment. A gentle nudge is sometimes needed and appreciated
  • Don’t continue the work if the payment is late by a couple of days

What can cause a rewire to run over the estimated time?

Many things could happen, your van could break down, and you are hours late or have to lose a day. 

If you have hired, say, a wall chaser from a tool hire company and its performance is lacklustre, it will add time to the job.

Always add in a factor for the unexpected.

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