7th bid

a couple years ago, storm hit Texas... a big oak fell on my Dad's business associates house. Now, this guy makes 600k per year... big house. He gets a bid for $1000 to take tree off house - does not like that and calls my Dad. Asks if he can borrow a big saw from me, UPS it to him. I say NO, hire the guy for a thousand bucks!. My Dad goes to Lowe's and buys a husky 350 saw, sends it to the guy in Texas. Wealty guy cuts tree off house and sends the saw back to me.
cheap cheap people. They are everywhere, look out!
 
I had a guy a couple months ago ask me what "Rick's" would charge for removing the tree, I just bid 1200 for. I told him I have not a clue and suggested he call (he will beat "any price"). Then I proceded to tell him that his neighbor was a reputable CA. I did everything but give him the phone numbers to call (I really didnt need the work). He refused to call and gave me the job anyhow, and added another tree for an additional 400. Just finished the two up a couple weeks ago and without cutting my prices or having to bid. Just by being honest.

Now he wants another large Tulip poplar removed, another 1400 "when I get bored". I told him he is a 8-12 months out before I can even think about it.

I refuse to get into bidding wars, my price is my price. Thats what it is going to cost you for me to do the job. I explain to people upfront I have too much work right now to be giving discounts and price breaks to get more work. I suggest if they want it cheaper to call someone else. Havent lost work because of it yet.
 
I had an appointment with a client about 3 years ago. I had done work at this home before and at the business of the home owner. I had always worked through his landscaper and had never met the owner in person. I got there about 15 minutes early and no one was home. The owner pulled in shortly after me and asked me to meet him by the barn. He went into the house and as I was waiting two more pickups and a chip truck pulled into the drive. These were other tree guys!?! I was confused. The driveway was very long and as they stopped the owner began walking towards me.

The other "tree guys" looked confused too. He said he had a lot of work to do and was going to give it to whoever gave him the best price. He said the work needed to be done within 3 weeks and started to point out trees. I interrupted at that point and thanked him for inviting me and let him know we could not get the work done within his time frame. One of the other contractors piped up and said "we can be here tomorrow".

Very awkward moment... I didn't stay to watch!
 
Just did a 1400 job, customer mentioned that it was a very good price when I gave it to him.. made 80/man/hour and he was thrilled with the job we did, pruning a big sweetgum that was all over his roof, and taking out a dead magnolia and badly placed spruce.. ground stumps and took grindings.. asked him after he paid, "just out of curiosity, how much did I save you?" other prices were 1800 and 2000. I got part of the pruning on tape. will post later..

SO with the right job I can be competitive and still make good coin.. picked up another 1500+ from the neighbors.. Piggy backed the log pick ups with two other jobs that were within a couple miles, used the skid loader to lay the spruce logs out in front of a sidewalk to drop the neighbor's big maple across the street, swung a big limb off the roof etc.. Finding ways to be efficient is not only competitive, offering the client good value, its also FUN!
 
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If someone tells me they have other estimates and acts like they want to show me. I ALWAYS say, I don't want to see it. You can show me after I write the estimate, I'm curious, but I don't want it to influence my price and I don't want you to think it influenced my price.

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Agreed 100% David. I NEVER haggle on price. I just ask people why in the world would you trust me if I didn't give you my very best price right from the start. I don't do Senior discounts, Military discounts, etc. It costs me the same to do your work no matter how old you are or what your job is or was.

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Noel, good to see you on the buzz.

yes, I don't give seniors or anyone preferrance either. I've told them, if I can do work cheaper for you, than that means i would need to be charging others more to make up for the cheaper price I'm giving you. I treat everyone the same.

I like that, "why in the world would you trust me if I didn't give you my very best price right from the start".

Well, thinking back to not giving people discounts, I do give churches, police dept, fire dept and parks a discount usually though. i figure they give so much to the community (and me being part of the community) that I can help them out by making my profit very little, if anything at all actually.

Also, Angies List customers, can find a 10% coupon on Angies list in the winter months too. They are usually good customers, so it's okay to make little profit in the winter.

Anyway, good to see u on the buzz, maybe in the winter you can get on here more.

take care,
 
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