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How much do you charge for all those odd requests you get?

Something like painting a shed, for instance.

There is a shed here that needs a new fresh coat of paint or stain, but what do we charge?

What do we charge when someone asks us to stain four sections of a fence?

We need an answer.

We can start adding all these up; the trim boards and the door needs to be sanded down, maybe it needs to be oil primed, or maybe it just needs a couple of coats of stain.

What do we charge when we don’t want to scare the customer away?

You know your abilities and you can stain this and paint this all in one day, so let’s get together and put together a cost for a ‘painter for a day’. Here is what you need to do;

Determine Your Hourly Rate

What’s your hourly rate?

We are going to start from there when we are putting together our Painter For a Day.

Is it $45 or is it $70 an hour? If you don’t know your hourly rate, schedule a call with Steve and he can walk you through the process using a tool he created.

Multiply Your Hourly Rate By 8 Hours 

Whatever yours may be, let’s base our example on $50 an hour.

So, $50 an hour, of course, 8 hours a day is a $400 charge.

Add the Cost of Sundries 

We don’t want to charge them just $400, because we are going to use some sundries and such: some sandpaper, some caulking, maybe you need to wash it first –different costs like that should be added in.

Let’s add a few dollars for the supplies that we are going to use, $29, so you have a $429 Painter For a Day.

Add the Cost of the Paint/Stain/Primer

What else do we need to charge here?

We always have a lined item which we use, and here it could be a gallon of solid stain for this, and we need a coat of paint –the paint would be for the trim, the solid stain would be for the siding.

I am assuming we are going to stain the front door as well.

So, right there, we have $50 for a gallon of stain, $20 for a coat of trim paint, so that’s another $70 on top of our $429, which adds up to $499 painter for a day.

For $500, you are going to come in and you are going to prep and stain this shed.

Put Together and Share Your Standard Pricing For ‘Painter for a Day’

But there are other things to consider. Sometimes you have 4 sections of fencing, sometimes you have just one little bulkhead and a couple of other things, some odd things.

You’ll want to figure out your pricing for Painter for a Day and then have it on your website and talk about it at your networking groups where you have 30 seconds each week to talk about your business.

If it takes six hours, you win, if it takes eight and a half, okay, you might want to reconsider your hourly rate and reconfigure your Painter for a Day pricing, so you have healthy profit margins.

Having a price like this ready to go, so you can quickly tell that customer, will help you sell more jobs on the spot.

So, get your hourly rates figured out with healthy profit margins and start letting your clients know you have Painter for a Day to help them with their odd jobs.

I am Ron Ramsden, a DYB Coach. Shoot me a message and let’s see how I can help you –  Ron@DYBCoach.com or find me on Facebook, I would love to chat.

Have a great one and happy estimating!

About the Author

Ron Ramsden is the owner of the successful Ramsden 1-800-PAINTING, who implemented the DYB SYSTEM, and crushed it in 2015, and now coaches other painting contractors around the nation to do the same.