What is your hourly rate for a fellow contractor?

Lately a lot of my competition/friends have been asking me to work on their jobs. I had to come up with a number for hourly work and to be honest I think I am worth 150 or more an hour, why shouldn't I be able to charge what a doctor, lawyer etc... charges? My experience is just as valuable as anyones. OK ill never get that from a competitor so I settled for 35 cash. What would you guys charge?

I don't work by the hour for anyone. Not even for myself. Haven't in over 25 years. The last time I "worked" for another company I did it for 50% of the total profit on the job. That was for repair work and I set the price the customers would pay so I knew what I would be getting on the work ahead of time. I sold and performed the work using their leads which were of good quality. Mostly referrals and repeat clients. I sold a few roofs for them on commission also.

Some years ago when I was quite intrigued by the idea of "a billion dollars".... it probably came after watching an Austin Powers movie.... I back engineered the earning potential of Bill Gates on an hourly basis, which ended up being rather inconceivable, so then by the minute.

I forget the exact dollar amount, and of course this figure would be much less by now, as MSFT topped out and Bill liquidated into his charitable fund, but in a nutshell:

If, during the the height of the Microsoft rise, Bill Gate's earning potential was HALTED for the 5 seconds that it would have taken him to stop, bend over, and retrieve a $100.00 dollar bill that he saw on the ground, he would have LOST $300.00.

Time IS money.

I repair most of the time now. I base my rate on what I make doing other type of work. Generally it is $350.00 - $ 425.00 per repair. If it takes a 1/2 hour or 4hrs. I base my rate on experience,knowledge and skill to do the repair correctly. If it is a whole roof I sub it out to licensed crew that worked for me by the hour back in the day when time wasn't like it is today. Minimum $2000.00 profit for me on these. I do nothing but order material pull permits and stop by to inspect deck nailing and dry sheet install for State mandated inspection requiring signed and notarized docs personally inspected by me.

B) :) :) B) Deep Down In Florida Where The Sun Shines Damn Near Every Day

#68/hr is what we charge on T&M.....As for me, MikeH summed it up pretty well.....

I offer 3 different types of services. Cheap, fast and good. I allow them to choose only 2 of the 3. Any 2 they like.

I just tell them if it's cheap and fast, it won't be good.

If it's cheap and good, it won't be fast.

And if it's good and fast it won't be cheap! :laugh:

I never asked anyone what I would get paid. I showed up and went to work. When I got the check I found out. Then I decided if I would work longer.

It was always more then if I did not work.

I always had contractors that I could go work for if I did not have work.

Today I would do it the same way. I work on some of my own jobs for minumum wage or less.

Wow Twill we have to help each other a little, cant get all the work. Anyway I am happy that they want to give me work and that they trust me. ITS ALL GOOD as the new saying goes.

I handle this a couple of ways, but generally speaking...

If I am sending one of my tech's and can't get at least $55/hr then it's not even worth thinking about.

If it's me that someone wants to purchase on an hourly basis, the most likely answer is "NO".

If the answer is "YES", then it's most likely a freebie.

If someone insists on paying me I say this, "Listen, I appreciate what you'd like to do, but if tell you what my time is worth and hour, you'll be offended, and if you offer me what you might think my time is worth per hour then I'll be offended. Why don't we just not risk one of us being offended, and we both walk away happy with the end result of our little project?"

Seems to work out ok.

Twill, you must be having a bad day buddy. All of us here at the RCS are your fellow contractors. :) I know what you mean though. :dry:

Still lovin the pain: " I had to come up with a number for hourly work and to be honest I think I am worth 150 or more an hour."

We're only worth that much to ourselves and the home owners we work for. To anyone else we're "just another dumb ole roofer". ;)

Now and then I do roofs for a good friend, a window guy. He gets the buddy rate, pay the crew and $500/day for me. For $35 an hr they would be paying for everything, gas lunch etc or it wouldn't be worth it.