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Hi all.  Am having a bit of a dilemma here. Need a little advice[ if you will] on how you quote out a job. The wrought iron work I do, I fab from scratch, that's not the issue. BUT...I also do aluminum and glass railings.   Now...heres the thing. I measure up the job, send the material list in to the Aluminum Rail manufacturer and they send me a quote for MATERIAL  ONLY. The quote takes time, the drive, measure and return to the shop takes time. The fax cost money...etc. I am going to take the material quote and add a percentage to get the price I give the client.  What % do you folks typically add to the material cost in order to come up with a total. I'm thinking it should be a certain amount if I am just delivering and a larger amount[ obviously] if I'm installing which I usually do.  Need to make a living but dot want to scare away clients either.Thanks for all your help in advance.  Jeff
Reply:For delivery only, I mark up 25% plus whatever profit you want, plus delivery time. For completed jobs I use a factor of 3.3 times the materials. I just use this as a double check on my bids to make sure I didn't miss anything. It is usually fairly accurate. For residential bids I generally chat with the customers before going out there and get a feel for what they want, then ballpark a number for them, letting them know it is subject to a wide variety of changes. If they are still interested I will go out and bid it. It saves giving lots of bids and getting few of them.
Reply:Thanks, I should mention that I get slapped with a 150.00 delivery charge from my supplier, they are 3 hours away. Because of that I was thinking about 35% for delivery only. On 70 ft. of railing my cost is about 4 grand[ its NICE stuff] and its about a day and a half to install wit a helper.
Reply:If you are a small business you can gamble on the fence company, and their gamble on the people that supply them with materials. Depending on what kind of gaurantee you offer, and for what period, your reputation, your money, or business may be on the line if the fence is faulty. In large business the markup is 4x or four times the material. Consider a very real scenario that happens today, you pay for the fence, you pay all your men. You endure the wear on your trucks and equipment. The week or month of insurance, taxes, that you are paying during this job. The wear on your tools, the loss of your tools, and the one less job all those things can do, including yourself. The customer comes out and says "what the hell is this discoloration?" After careful examination it appears a carpenter left a handful of nails on the roof of the building. And the rainwater runoff carried this rust, and this rusty water splashed up on your rails, and turned them a rusty orange brown color. A big company would probably offer to hire a third party to fix or coat the fence to remedy the situation. Now if the customer goes for it great. If the customer says "take your orange fake stainless or fake aluminum fence and shove it where the sun does not shine", the big company says ok and just makes enough from the deposit and or payments so far, that the job costs them nothing at a 4x markup. That is real world, real business. More than likely the big company would just strike a deal and let the guy keep the fence if the third party repair did not work, and perhaps pay a reduced price if the third party fix did work. You are in business to make money by performing a service, not gamble on a hundred different manufacturers, their salesmen, the lies they tell, and mother nature and a failing infrastructure. Now the small guy can take out the fence maybe sell it at a discount to someone or maybe it will take up a good portion of his yard as his employees laugh at him for messing up the whole yard instead of just facing his loss and throwing it in the garbage, or give away. To answer your question 4 times the cost of material, if you are doing time and material, that is standard business. And if you are just giving a price you should calculate the same way. Try to get a refund today, from a large company. You could wait a year, for your money if you ever get it. You have to figure on eating the fence, taking the fence back out, maybe put up the old fence you took down. There is no end to where you can be held liable. Sincerely, William McCormickIf I wasn't so.....crazy, I wouldn't try to act normal, and you would be afraid.
Reply:this isn't the answer to your question, but heres what i'd lean try to lean to most of the time:    i'd tell the customer i'll set the order up, you call in w/ your credit card and pay for it.    then after you install a % of the fence, you want a payment and so on.    your still holding there material, they made a payment which acknowledges your work was acceptable.  your in good shape at that point, not extedning credit/trading dollars.       i realize the way some big businesses pay, it may not work, but for ssmall biz/common cutomers etc., thats a good fair deal for both parties.   if they hesitate on  that offer w/o good reason, it may be a early sign your wasting your time w/ themLast edited by 123weld; 04-04-2016 at 10:16 PM.
Reply:

Originally Posted by 123weld

this isn't the answer to your question, but heres what i'd lean try to lean to most of the time:    i'd tell the customer i'll set the order up, you call in w/ your credit card and pay for it.    then after you install a % of the fence, you want a payment and so on.    your still holding there material, they made a payment which acknowledges your work was acceptable.  your in good shape at that point, not extedning credit/trading dollars.       i realize the way some big businesses pay, it may not work, but for ssmall biz/common cutomers etc., thats a good fair deal for both parties.   if they hesitate on  that offer w/o good reason, it may be a early sign your wasting your time w/ them
Reply:[QUOTE=BlacksmithJeff;7085741]  Now...heres the thing. I measure up the job, send the material list in to the Aluminum Rail manufacturer and they send me a quote for MATERIAL  ONLY. The quote takes time, the drive, measure and return to the shop takes time. The fax cost money...etc. i understand you walker, but what i suggested kinda takes out alot of  what jeff is complaining about, while not knowing if he'll get the job.    the cost of materials is what it is,  i don't like to trade dollars.