Re: Charging for estimates
billfish@igc.net
Fri, 1 Nov 1996 00:23:42 -0600
If a contractor has established a degree of credibility in his field, he can charge a fee for advice/consulting, followed by a free estimate with an offer to reduce the proposal fee by the consulting fee amount if the contract to perform the work is signed. There is no reason to be expected to give sound professional advice and not be compensated. If they want free advise, let them deal with + wait for a Govt. forester or some master gardener. There are some key terms; such as credible + professional, qualities often lacking in the plant care industry. If it's only a bid/price that they want, ask them to fax you a set of specifications. Without decades of experience and/or university degree(s) it's difficult to convince a borderline customer to pay up front for advise, why should they ! Tough row to hoe; for desirable high end work I bend over backwards, no fee, prompt, hopefully enough depth to sell them and make more money. If they are condo jerks, low income anybody(if they
ask if you accept m/c or
visa they don't have the disposable income to become a desirable long term customer), or cheap commercial sites I might approach it either way. The two hours at $ 50.00 = $ 100.00 usually keeps the low end customers away, they're usually a waste of time regardless what you do. Education and professionalism are the ways that you can charge a optimum fee, less work at a higher profit margin is the only attitude to have if you intend to stay in business and not drive yourself crazy. ... Dr. Stanley, a prof. at a Ga. University, has two books that I recently read, Marketing to the affluent + Selling to the affluent, sort of dry but it helps you target people with money. A word of warning, this chat group has many good people + enough that are lacking in their abc's of basic science, so beware. Academy Bill, west palm beach