I wouldn't worry about offending anyone that would click with the title of this video. The people that take offense to this typically, in my experience, don't have the skills/desire to do hard work.
Thanks for being real! I have a 5x10 cnc table. Tig welders a service body truck with a gen welder I’ve been at it for 5 years off and on. It’s hard to bid jobs well it’s been hard for me but not anymore! I’m defiantly raising my rates. I was welding at a shop that charged 150 hr one of the formen left his bid notes at my station. I was building a fab table. A 4 x8 table. 3/8 “ top with some flip down half sides. The company having it build paid 4K for that table I saw he charged for materials plus 100% 8 hrs at 150$ hr and 10 at 100$ hr. I was blown away man. But they stay busy there. I. Ended up quitting and now working for a lady who runs a decorative handrailing blacksmithing shop so that I can learn and absorb as much as possible to use for myself and my hopefully successful buisness. Thank you for the videos. Definitely subscribing and following your journey! Also I love your signs. They looks badass!!
The market not always solves the problems. Often they can sell you a device which contains the planned obsolesce, and they don't tell you. This is not uncommon nowadays.
Hello. My name is William Watters. With Billy Goat Fabrication. I am 25 and I am starting a small metal fabrication Business. I'll be building everything from furniture to full custom thing. I am a month or so from starting my business in my free time. I have a regular job 40+ he a week as a produion fabrication. Building most everything having to do with metal. Anyway. I will become a patron in the next week. This video has helped me alot with my planning and staging. Thank you very much for your time and your helpful videos. I can't wait to use the patron perks.
I've found that some people just don't want to pay for anything. They waste your time and that cost you money. I feel it's important to do your research to get your pricing right the first time. Because once you do a job at a certain price the customer feels your trying to up charge them for the same job when you realize your mistake. I learned this the hard way.
Can not argue about anything you mentioned in this video. Information is the most expensive tool you will buy. You give it out for next to nothing. So it should be very helpful to others watching this. Thanks for sharing your passion and your thoughts. Peter.
@@42Fab that is some HELLA WISDOM man. It's very brave to educate potential competitors. But of course you're also educating people 6000, or 20,000 miles away who will never bid on the same jobs as you :)
You're right about billing too low where people accept it too easy. I don't have a welding shop, but software and the customers I have had accepted my bids without question and gladly paid my 50% fee to begin work, but when I started out a lot of them cancelled when I was about 75-90% through a project and if I wanted that money I would have to sue for it. I switched to a milestone bid where customers bring me a project and I lay out milestones in the quote so I waste as little time as possible. I think a good thing to mention for anyone trying to make their own business is letting them know they will fail in the beginning, but it gets smoother as you gain more experience not only in your trade of choice, but in dealing with customers and contracts. It is really easy to get discouraged in the first few months of being in business yourself.
I started my business about a year and a half ago and while I didn't have a problem deciding on a shop rate, I did (and still have, even if slightly less) have an ongoing internal battle with quoting jobs. I don't want to rip people off, but first and foremost, I don't want to rip myself off. After being told by a few people in the beginning that "I have good prices" or by a guy I made some custom beam supports for who owns a business himself that I'm not charging enough. Now I'm much more aggressive with my quoting, but it is still a learning process.
What you really need to do is add up all of your fixed costs / divide it out by how many billable hours per month you can reasonably work, add in profit, add in what you need to make per hour to reach a baseline, with this info you can break jobs down into smaller pieces and figure out the cost for each step.
my name is Fred Quinn i like this video and i truely apreciate you shareing your thoughts and experties about your welding fab shop i welded 0ver 30 years stick n mig i worked as an strutural steel worker and welder fabricator and installer /pipe fitting elevators installs /this is very hard work and it really cost a lot of money to do diferent jobs and a lot of effert and dedication /so i give you 2 thumbs up and wish you the best in your career and your business keep up doing what your doing and may God bless you always....
I ran my own custom gate and metal fab biz in Las Vegas for 5 years and just like you learned to up my rate from my beginning days. Quality of work and customer satisfaction mean I STILL get calls for work today, solely from referrals, even after I haven't been doing my biz for almost 6 years now.
@@42Fab Good work ethic and people skills are dying qualities these days. I'm in Oregon now, and do my own thing, basically dabbling in multiple revenue streams, because up here the average mindset is to just throw up something cheap and quick...nobody wants to pay for a high end entry gate.
Blunt and to the point! I like it! There’s a guy near me, he charges £100p/hr (Google says that’s 125.50 doll hairs) for line boring work, I’m in Northern Ireland 💪🏼
Thanks, Your spot on I've been doing this for 24 yrs. and went thru the same problems. You forgot the time wasters that want your knowledge for nothing.
I’m so proud of you brother. Know your worth. This job is NOT easy and you make it look smooth. People can think whatever they want, but you are taking a risk to feed your family and have a business running.
This is the best shop rate video I've seen. John Saunders (NYCCNC) also did a video outlining how he sets his CNC shop rate, with details and spreadsheets. This video gives you the high level. That video gives you the nitty gritty. Cheers
Appreciate you putting this video out. Most people don’t have a clue how to factor all these things in and they don’t charge enough. As a Handyman I started at $45 and hour lol and that quickly jumped to $65. Now it’s $85 and most of the time I don’t tell that to people I just use it as a metric when figuring out total bids
I'm in college for Mechanical engineering right now, but I also am starting a small shop. Just about to be signing a lease on a larger space. Great stuff man!
Hopefully you quit engineering lol. I wish I did when I was your position. I’m doing well now and able to charge $300-400 an hour for my time but I enjoy fabricating way more.
Pretty good advice there fella worse part is the bit you didn't mention ..that customer that takes all your time talking about shit and his her job only for you to quote and not get the job as they never really wanted you to do just give advice how they can do it.. Makes a lot of sense adding it all up then working out how the rate is at that figure ..
I love watching videos from people with your personality. I admire the fact that you’re confident in your abilities and want others to gain those confidence and abilities.
Great video. The mental block on the hourly rate is a real thing! I have a friend whos a framing contractor who only charges 30/hr. I keep telling him he needs to up his rate otherwise he's always going to be stuck dealing with the penny pinchers and tire kickers. Thanks for sharing!
I charge 95 dollars an hour in my auto garage!!! That's for regular car repair, but for restoration work I have started telling people that if they want me to restore an old car or truck my starting price is 35 thousand dollars!!! If they can't or won't pay 35k labor for a restoration then I won't do it!!! Keep Rocking!!!
Dude this video helped a lot. Some of the people on here are not gunna put in the time to build that’s why they are downing the video but truth be told there’s a lot of good info in the video. Keep it up
This a good video thanks man. I had a conversation with my dad about this I told him I wont do a job for less than 50 bucks he looked at me like really. Everything adds up is what he told me. I told him would u rather hire two welders to do the same job twice and pay twice or hire just one skilled welder pay once and get the job done right and never have to come back to it again. Lol he still try to argue with me lmao
my minimum is 1/3 hr or $30. I probably do that once or twice a month, generally past customers who just need something that's broken welded back together. 2hr minimum on mobile work.
@@42Fab kool I've been wanting a plasma table but I dont have lots of clients yet. Little steps, well 50 is my price because I live in dallas texas houses are like 120k+ that's not a new house either, new houses are like double of that.
I agree and feel like I function on the same mind set as what you said in this video. I do though have a problem with retaining customers because of price costs. I’m more into the heavy machinery repair side of work and dealing with rich owners that want cheap labor is what makes my rates difficult, I don’t give hand outs but getting consistent work from them seems to be the issue.
Don't underestimate your value. Don't start off or continue to be the cheap guy down the street. Cater to people/businesses that expect good/fast/ professional service. The bottom feeders aren't worth it. (they expect it now, cheap, and stuck together) Find a niche in your area. Don't aspire to be like _______. Be unique, offer a service(s) no one else in your area does. Take a job....farm out what you don't have the equipment or time to do. If you farm out part of a job, make a profit off of it. Cost you $100, add $150 or more to that. Nothing wrong about it, happens all the time. For example...someone has a fab job that requires sandblasting and powder coating. Fab the steel, farm out the rest. Give the customer a finished item, ready for them to use and saved them the expense of taking it here and there to get it done. You avoid the expense and mess of sand blasting and powder coating. Customer is happy and you did your thing while the item was getting finished elsewhere and made you easy money. I do class 6, 7, and 8 road calls...$1/mile from time I leave shop until I return to shop. Plus $100/hour from time I leave shop until I return to shop. Minimum of $75 for mileage and minimum of $200 hour rate...total of $275 minimum to show up at broke down truck. Its for a couple of steady on-going shop customers...I know the trucks and show up with the tools and parts to repair....or upfront I tell them its a shop repair and hire a wrecker, which at minimum is going to be $500. All of that and I'm at minimum of 1/2 what a truck dealer is going to charge. Any metal work in shop...torch/welding/fab is minimum $100/ tech, then $100 per hour, plus material cost and 30% added to material cost. That covers replacement material to have on hand, gas, and expendables (grinding wheel, welding rods, mig wire, gases, and electricity.)
Appreciate your frankness. your experience will help me a great deal in using my new CNC plasma. I am new to your channel but will definetly keep watching to see what else I can pick up from you. I truly enjoy learning from a hardworker and hands on, no nosense man. Also, these videos take a great deal of effort and time to make. Thank you for your time!
Great explanation, well said and I hope people understand that this info is invaluable. Thanks for sharing, one of the perks of the technology and social media. It's one of those "...I wish someone would have told me that 20 years ago ...." moments, and hopefully everyone that sees it takes from it as such. 😎👍
Agree 100%, owned a bicycle shop in a upper middle class suburb in the Houston area from the early 90’s till early 2005. Was a small shop, with experience back to the mid 70’s. Forgot more than most “mechanics” will ever learn. Got plenty of unsolicited advice (read, you don’t have what I need right now). Got a offer, a good one from a chain. Went back to my first love, training horses and contract ranch jobs. Making more money less overhead AND take the jobs I want. My clients understand upfront that they contracted ME. I also have a barn management business and employ combat veterans suffering from PTSD. We are well established and after 5 years get more calls than we can service.
I'm just about to start a little fab shop at home, I've done it before. My starting rate will be $50 I'm in Australia though so it's a bit different. Great videos man I have learned a lot and will continue to learn more as I go.
I'm also in Aus man and I have a little shop at home. I started charging 50 but you find that you get really bottom of the barell work. Once I put my price up a bit, if the Jb was crappy it still paid well, but I found the crappy jobs went and I was doing better jobs. Still trying to get the price right but most people are willing to pay when I throw a number (even if I think it might be a bit high).
add your employee benefits...health insurance, retirement/pension fund,, life insurance, business/liability insurance, business licence. If you drive around a $60k truck over 10 years that is $6k/year everything adds up
when you are a small business owner everything is on you!! one of our new trucks died and the shop had it for 30 days!!! if the truck can't roll you cannot work-or lease a truck for $100 / day@@42Fab
I agree with the you want your rate were good customers will pay and either cheap customers or customers that cant afford it wont pay I agree I have gotten better customers and business from my rate being at the right number
You are making Home Depot wages at that rate. Call around and see what everyone else is charging. Up here, any trade is $90-$120 Canadian an hour, $25 truck charge and mileage outside of city limits, both ways. After 5 or weekends, it's double. At $90/hour shop rate it's not worth me going into business for myself. It's not just everything Richard said, there's also bad debt, lots of stress for you and your family and the risk you take starting the business because most fail. If a car dealer can charge $125/hour when they pay their mechanics $20 and only what the book quotes, a business owner/operator can charge a $100 for quality work.
This isn't a problem I've had. I threw out a high rate to begin with and when it wasn't working I lowered it a bit until it wasn't turning customers away. What I do still have trouble with is when I make a piece of steel art for my own enjoyment and decide to sell it. I can spend an hour on a small piece of art but if my rate is $80/hr that doesn't mean anyone will spend $80. It might be a $35 piece. Art is a different animal I don't understand well.
The artist in me is with you. They don't call us "Starving Artist" for nothing! Realizing "milk money/fill-in" jobs between art pieces are essential. Even the Old Masters did portraits to eat. Best, @HoneyOnWales
As a old body & fender guy, who mostly worked piece work. For those that don't know just what is piece work, it's when a person and a shop owner agree to terms of employment based upon a percentage (some where between 50 / 50 -- 60 {shop}-- 40 {me}) of the total labor cost of a repair on a vehicle. So if the repair calls for say 16 hour's of repair, if I can't do the repair in approx 50 percent of the allotted time, I was losing money. A saying that still holds true today, You Win some, You Lose some, and you take a F-ing BATH on some. You do your best to keep the Baths to a very minimum. You want to talk about Self Analysis, Job Analysis, Profit Analysis, a Bath will do just that very fast, thus the School of Hard knock's. Just so you know, not every autobody guy is capable of working piece work, comes down to training, work / life commitments etc.
I like alot of what you are putting out there but....look at overhead cost which includes your salary. Then budget increases and that tells you how much to charge. Then add in your profit margin and move forward
I like the honesty, I would hope your customers don't see this video though. I'm very similar in that I charge the value of my service and not the going rate. I use a different language where you say 'billable hours' I say 'productive and non productive hours'. I find that I can also be cheaper than the competition yet earn more money because I'm more productive, getting the right equipment for a good price also helps productivity and a quick return on your investment in that equipment. I like to keep a mind on how much a piece of equipment owes me after buying it, it helps me choose wisely and not just buy big boys toys... Like your videos keep em coming. Cheers J
I did a $100 table leg job today, but the guy paid $200 (by choice) because he txted me last night and asked if I could have it ready by noon. Then he didn't show up tll 3:00.
Good video, just started my business 11 months ago, I'm mainly doing online sales as of now, I want to start doing local projects more but its nerve racking. By the way I'm in Oklahoma as well
@@42Fab I work out of my garage as of now, I'm off nw expressway and council. I started following you on Instagram check out my page, I mainly do custom drag style minibike frames and similar stuff.
For those of us in consulting jobs, we expect to get paid about 1/3 of our hourly billing rate. So, if I charge $150/hr for my engineering services I only get paid $50/hr
A third to half is pretty standard for any "hourly rate" contracting. 2021 was slightly slower than most years due to health issues, but we ran 39% billable, 42 (hehe)% in 2020. That's looking at 40 hrs/week and averaged over a year, so neglecting the slow times we get to take our vacations, etc.
Great shop, ideas and tools. BUT, you need a steel rack where you don't have to load and unload all that shit up into those cubby holes. AND, it needs to be parallel to your garage door. Build an A-Frame rack with angle arms sticking out to hold material at different levels and put casters on it. Good Luck in your career!
i know that mental block your talking about... people will always say we are to expensive! i have learned they are the customers you dont really want to deal with
This is a problem for me I think I suffer from the “I don’t think my quality of work is worth top dollar” On top of that I only do it on the side and can’t devote the hours that you invest. My pricing has always been materials x3 no labor.
Ha! In San Francisco (or nearby) no home is under a million and a typical thtre room rancher is two. We don't get to charge nine hundred an hour, though. (Although maybe I should?)
You have to take every situation into consideration. All Bill's, budget, hours etc. And honestly, if the person is talented, then a couple percent beyond the normal markup for the name and reputation, as the company is a brand.
I learned that always study your project before giving any quotes.. And most important, I've always ask... WHAT'S YOUR BUDGET !!!!!. before wasting your time on anything.. Very important.
Great video and really useful information . Thank you. I'm in the early stages of getting started myself, and this has helped me with settling on a starting point. Keep up the good work.
