Q & A Decoding Estimates for Construction, Landscaping and Lawn Care #1
Q & A Decoding Estimates for Construction, Landscaping and Lawn Care #2
Q & A Decoding Estimates for Construction, Landscaping and Lawn Care #3
I'm going talk about ways that you can tackle bidding when you're not familiar with the job. You don't want to walk away and you go, "Oh yeah, well you know, I lost money." And you forget about it. You're going to keep repeating the cycle over and over and over again. We have Francisco from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on the line today. He has three questions about bidding. What is the process for cutting down trees? I'm not a tree removal or tree trimming company, but what I'm going to do is talk about ways that you can tackle bidding when you're not familiar with the work. so Before we get into it. I need to know the level of familiarity you guys have with tree trimming and tree removal. Have you've done it before? I'm just doing. How is he done it in the past? What formula has he used for getting the tree removal? Do you know? I love it. I don't want to do the "lick and stick method." That actually is a place where a lot of people start.
Lick and Stick
The lick and stick method is a fine place to start, but when you do it that way, you need to do from there is analyze your numbers. So you've already cut some trees down. You bill $400 for this tree. How many hours did it take? If it took you four hours, you made $100/hour. That is a fine place to start. What I want to talk about is how you go into the bidding when you're unfamiliar with the work. Some of it is guesswork, and some of it is trying to find out what other people are doing in your area to come up with their numbers. Then apply that to the real world. so when you're doing this job for $400 that we go back and it took you 10hours you know I only made forty dollars an hour because I charge $400 I need to up my bid on the next job so every job that you come in to, you should be looking at your numbers analyzing where you come up to become a good did you come up to lull did you come out ahead and then taking it to the next level and refining those numbers. So when you're doing this job for $400 and back and realize it took you 10 hours, you know you only made $40 an hour. I need to up my bid on the next job. Every job that you come in to, you should be looking at your numbers analyzing where you come up. Did you come up too low? Did you come out ahead? Then taking it to the next level and refining those numbers. So, every area is different. It doesn't matter if you're in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and go to Mendota Heights, Minnesota. The numbers are going to vary, but that that doesn't mean that you still can't tackle these jobs. What it means is you've got to take the time to look at how you came out on each job. You should only have to get 2-3 jobs in your belt. Yes, you are going to lose on some jobs those jobs. but that's fine because you never technically lose. You always learn.
On the Job Learning
If you don't learn on the job and you just walk away you go yeah well you know guess I lost money on that and you forget about it, you're going to keep repeating the cycle over and over and over again. But the reason I put out so many videos I put them out for you guessed I put them up for me to the videos that I produced on how to bid not shot have been this hot have been that what I call up I'm going to bid these jobs those are reminders to myself about those projects. I'm learning from them, you're still there guy OK so. I'm learning from every time I've been a job whether it produces a video or I don't produce a video, I'm still making sure that I take notes and. Me for I'm back home I have ever been that I've ever done and I'm going back through and I'm comparing them from one job to the next in fact actually, I use that as an excuse when I'm coming up with numbers because when you word hardscaping, excavating landscaping, there are not going to be any two jobs that are exactly the same square footage is changing, conditions change, there's a lot of different things a lot of factors that go in there but I can use them as guidelines for my next job hunt down the road that makes sense Francisco? It does, beautiful, thank you. Perfect.
