Group the tasks in some logical day order
The afore mentioned job might be divided up into days as follows:
Day 1
remove wallpaper
paint ceilings both rooms
Day 2
patch walls in both rooms
begin enameling
Day 3
sand and prime drywall repairs
paint walls in room 1
finish enameling
Day 4
hang wallpaper
You need to group things together as such because you are dealing with drying times and other timing factors which good efficient sequencing will take into account in order to do the job as quickly as possible and thus keep your price down.
Setting a minimum charge
I use the "half day" as the smallest time increment for any small job. By the time you get to the job, set up , do the task (the task itself may only take an hour), and clean up, you will pretty much use up close to half the working day - so you charge for that even if it took only two hours. Keep in mind that for the rest of the day you will have to drive across town and start up on another job setting up etc.. with the time lost to driving and setting up again etc... you will probably find that you can't charge for anything smaller than a half day rate.
Basic Rules to Remember:
1. Be sure you don't overlook anything - put a number on every task to be accomplished. 2. Don't price your work based on what others charge - if they want to slowly go bankrupt by undercutting everyone - let them, but don't go down with them trying to match or beat their price. 3. Don't make a mistake on a big job: there is a saying "if you are going to take a bath, be sure it is a short one". On all big jobs check and double check your time estimates and be sure you are not overlooking anything. 4. Don't bid on a type of work that you have no experience with. If you want to break into a new area of work go in with another contractor the first time or two or let it go. The exception to this rule might be only if it is a very small job, might you dive in and get some on the job experience.
What should your day rate be?
Now that you know how long it will take to do the job, you need to apply the proper day rate to the job.
The day rate calculation is simple:
Desired annual wage + Company annual profit + Costs (all annual expense and overhead costs including direct expenses such as paint and materials) =Annual Gross
Annual Gross divided by number of working days = Day Rate
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Paint Estimating - The Day Rate Method -pt2
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