handyman hourly rates

First theres 10% of the invoiced amount. Then after the $55 ph running cost i pay 30% income tax. Not all the expences are claimable eg the differance between capital and non capital items.
I started working at 12yo and have had over 60 differant jobs using my hands over 20 years. My work experiance has been my schooling. I network with about 40 handymen and some have been to uni and one is even an aeronortical engineer! We charge the same amount because thats what it costs to run a business and earn a slightly higher wage than we would working in a factory.
Please answer this question truthfully. Would you hire the handyman who has a phd to fix plains at $85 or a handyman with 20 years experiance building and fixing everything at the same rate?

Thanks travelbug.
I have been having a private conversation with another member today about the actual costs involved and im happy to post my side of the conversation soon. It covers the cost if i do the job alone. I have nothing to hide so i will answer any payrate questions and i will post it tomorrow.

Yes you will save heaps if you do the work yourself and it makes quoting much easier.

Hello,
This is the typical running costs of a man in a van with tools who run there own business.

The first $55 is running costs like insurance $3000pa then van 100,000 km $12000pa, advertisement $5000pa, phone $2000pa, part time worker $20000 pa, Dept collector, uniforms, accountant, tool hire, theft, ect ect ect. So if I add them and divide by 52 weeks then by 38 hours gets around $20ph. $85 minus 10% GST minus $20 cost equals around $55. Minus 30% income tax equals about $40 ph. Let me have some super and a small buffer for shopping around to deliver the parts I need and I might make $30 ph. Also consider I have no holidays, no RDO, no sick days, customers who don’t pay and times when there’s no work. Oh and time spent quoting, invoicing and book keeping.

I would like to hear from a tradie who runs his own business at $40ph to tell me the secret.

Thank for understanding.

The reason i found this post is because i had a customer cancel friday afternoon due to price (which she knew before it was booked). When you need to invoice $680 per day to make ends meet and you spend half a day suffleing jobs around at other customers inconeniance it becomes very heartbreaking to know the customer thinks they were a victim of unfair rates.
I did a search on google to see what people thought was a fair rate was and this site came up.

The worst budget handyman work i have ever seen was a bathroom reno with plumbing infront of the tiles, tiles cut with a bolster, and grouting done with plaster filler! The second budget handyman removed the plaster filler and grouted with what looks like a fork. I assume he didnt know what silicone was for because around the bath and pipes was also grout.
I was called in to rectify the mistakes from a referal but i had no option but to say sorry and walk away due to warrenty concerns.
I have pics if you send your email.

Have a great week.

If they can do it for that price while paying taxes and still turn a profit then that’s great.
What expenses do they have that differ from mine outlined in the earlier post? If there was a way I could charge the same then I’m all for it because I would increce my clientele.

Sorry I don’t mean that you can’t get skilled labour at the cost your friends are charging, what I’m debating is that to make a profit from a business while paying taxes and other related costs you need to charge $85.

Is there something in my costs wrong?

Also I’m not sure what the last comment is about

P.S the labour rates I stated are NOT friends whatsoever, they were found directly from the Bayside Leader paper (local rag)

If your tiller and his partner works for $30ph then take 10% GST = $27 minus 30% income tax gives him $18.90 which is below the award rate of $20.50. Already this is not an ideal business model.
You said “and they are all qualified and insured in their trade,”
If his insurance is the same as mine then the hourly cost for this would be $1.51 $18.90 – $1.51 = $17.36
You said “my tiller and his partner tiled 100 m2 of polished porcelain tiles for, when broken down under $30p/h”
$17.36 / 2 workers are $8.68 each. This is well below the poverty line and I don’t know any tiller who would get out of bed for this

The running cost of a car needs to be broken down to an hourly rate to gain an understanding of the business BEP (break evan point) Otherwise how would you know what to charge per hour in order to cover the costs of running a business. If your tiller has a accountant then he should know this too. Also did you see the part where I wrote “Let me have some super and a small buffer for shopping around to deliver the parts I need”

Sleep well

your blinded if you dont think industries are laced with this view. some take cuts on tougher jobs and make it up on the easier ones. Its standard practice mate. To make it clear, they are NOT mates, they are people I know and seem to be, let me rephrase it "nice people".

"If your tiller and his partner works for $30ph then take 10% GST = $27 minus 30% income tax gives him $18.90 which is below the award rate of $20.50. Already this is not an ideal business model."

You should not be taking 30% income tax out at the revenue stage. Company tax is taken based on the net taxable profit which is arrived at after deducting all the related expenses such as insurance, travel expenses, uniforms etc and then all the depreciation on the capital related items. GST should also be quoted ontop of the hourly rate as you are collecting on behalf of the Government.

If it is 85 per hour and you supply yourself and two workers then it is not 85 per hour it would be 1/3 of that.

FYI a University qualified anything starting out earns far less than the rates you are quoting. I think this is a circular discussion, as Tegals has said, it is your business model and if it works for you that is great. It comes down to the quality of the work.

For all the jobs I need done for my build I try and get specialised workers and know roughly what each trade charges. Word of mouth and seeing their work is a must now-days.

Cheers
Mark

I agree with what your saying travelbug. Hire someone who quotes for the job because they will stick to the price and work harder to get it done.
When i quote a job that will take 2 hours of work time it would be $170 total. If it takes 3 hours then thats my loss but if it takes less time then i do odd jobs in the remainder time.

Someone hired me to paint a room about a month ago and between coats i painted her toilet at no extra charge because i had time and she paid a day rate.

Aussiemark
Would a uni quallified person have a lower BEP therefore have a lower charge rate?
I would love to be able to charge half of what i do not just for the sake of getting more customers but also so that my customers can themselves have leftover funds for say a holiday.