Bidding big jobs-help

[southsoundtree]

Juhl Doug-fir removal bird's eye view

 

[DanielSon]

Sean,

Here is my experiance for what it is worth.

Charge plenty....

Big jobs are too easy to loose money on.

A 160 ton will cost 3-4 grand to bring in for a day... ???

All that mula is balanced on a LOT of things that could go wrong.

I.E... climber gets sick, motor goes down, neighbor doesnt want power off for some reason.. blah blah blah....

With a job like that, the real risk is the costs that you are going to outlay in order to set it up. (not to mention the hours that you have already sunk into the job by posting here and the brain time you have put into it. etc...)

From my experiance, I shy away from these jobs unless it is a storm situation.

In storms, when the insurance is paying, when it is a huge job like you have, if somthing goes wrong you can ask for more.

However, in this case when it is out of pocket, and they may be getting "other bids", you will try to squeeze your profits down so much that if something does go wrong, you loose.

And here is the point. Losing on a half day job is sustainable. no big deal. few hundred down the drain.

Having something go wrong whenyou have a 160 ton in the street changes your profit for the week/month.

The last thing you want to do is pay to do a big a$$ job like that. You will NEVER forget it.

So, charge high. If you win the job, GREAT! you have plenty of margin to take it easy and not rush.

If you dont win, GREAT! Go do a few half day jobs with a lot less risk.

By the way, If I was doing that job, I would inquire about a 200 Ton if it wasnt a lot more dough.

I always like having the ability to go bigger when needed.

However, depending on your landing zone, you may not be able to squeeze big pieces into a tight area.

Ohh,,, that is one other thing.

see if you can just shut the street down for the day.

If you can re direct traffic around the block and have the whole street to play in, it will save a ton of crane time.

good luck. Charge a bunch and walk if you dont get it. Let someone else take the risk.

Danielson