What should I charge?

I'm an unemployed middle-aged office worker and I'm a bit frustrated by well meaning mostly older people eager to offer me "jobs" cutting their lawns or getting up leaves as soon as they hear I'm out of work. Problem is most of these people still think $5 an hour is good money and that they are doing me a favor offering me the job.

Alright I need some money but I don't like cutting grass. I'm sure I'll be told I can use their equipment but I will not as for some reason every time I use other peoples stuff I find it broken, or worse about to break and completely unsuitable for doing the job quickly and effectively.

This lady's husband busted his knee recently. They are neighbors of my parents and from that they know I'm unemployed. She called me today and wants me to cut grass and get up leaves etc. What is a fair market rate for blowing around detached garage, patio, house, pool, then cutting/vacuuming up the leaves on this yard and dumping them on their garden spot? The cleared area is about 1.38 acres. I'm in the Greensboro, NC area. Not being in this business I don't know myself what to charge.

Lastly this couple has a reputation of being problem people in the neighborhood--unable to get along with a lot of the neighbors and unwilling to step up to their share of neighborhood projects. I have to wonder if they'll be hard to please.
This is the house.

I don't mean to be sitting here laughing,but reading the first paragraph reminded me of an old episode of The Simpsons when Bart worked his fingers to the bone for a whole day for an old lady and she gave him a quarter and a piece of hard candy. lol

If your unemployed and need the work and don't have anything else to do why do you care what they pay? If I needed a job I would be raking the leaves right now hoping someone else saw me doing a good job of it and asked me to rake theirs tomorrow.

I"m with rrlund,we used to pick stones all day long for a good meal at supper and 2 bucks. Sometimes we even got a shot of brandy!

I will try not to take anything you said out of context.

You are out of a job and need money, but you are already complaining you don't want to do certain jobs. To me that means you aren't hungry yet. Hungry enough for either money or work.

Now if they are asking you to mow the lawn for $5/hr, I would then agree with you, way too cheap. You arent doing charity work.

But again, if you have no money, $5/hr is better than sitting here on the internet complaining you need money.

If what you say is true about these neighbors. They will nit-pick your work, and you may not even get paid. Be careful. Every neighborhood has "that one neighbor".

How much to charge? Look at what the lawn care places are getting. Are you providing your own equipment? Are you bonded and insured? Lots of unanswered questions. You are worth more than $5 hour doing yard work in my opinion. But if it was the only work you have, I would take it.

Rick

Rick

I had a older, (80+) neighbor who offered me $5 to clean out the gutters on her old farmhouse, 2 stories, with a 45 degree roof. I told her I'm 58 freaking years old, I don't do roofs. I wasn't looking for work, she just wants cheap.

the going rate here in the NE is $15/hr cash for yard work/ handyman work

Old saying some people are afraid to look for work they might find it!! But also there is a lot of people that would like you to pay them for the privalge of working for them i have amish that you figure just gas not time you would loose money i dont mind charity or helping somebody out but you can end up by losing money rather then getting ahead good luck and be carefull

$5 an hour is good money nowdays...if your in high school. To me you are an adult and there is such a thing as minimum wage, employed or unemployed. I do agree with some of the other comments. Being they are helping you out puts a different spin on things though, and makes it more difficult. Since you dont know what to charge for what they want done, why not call a place that does this type of work and see if you can get a general idea what they would charge, and then go from there. If you undercut their price being they are helping you out then you arent taking advantage of anyone, you can sleep, and would be fair. You kind of have to go with what you feel comfortable with. I do know people that want as much work done as possible and want to pay under what they should. I have experienced it personally. I worked for a neighbor a few years ago for $5 an hour hauling sileage. They complained indirectly to someone else thinking that some of the people / kids (I wasnt a high school kid, was in my 30s) figuring they need $5 an hour, as they were paying an older retired guy $2 an hour. My dad said if you have a $50,000 dollar tractor the guy driving it better be worth $5 an hour, meaning not just anyone can run it. I dont even know anyone personally that has a pool lol.

Well that is too cheap for today, BUT @ $ 5.00 and hour if CASH money is far better then minimum wage of $ 7.50 or whatever it is and taxes being taken out.
And around here min. wage jobs are all there is if even those.

Understand the issue. My folks are in their 80's and would be the same about paying. But, they wouldn't complain about the work. Only ask you to do more, then a little more, etc. I take care of 3 yards besides my own 2. One that my parents just bought and I thought they were gonna move into. Next door to that, widow lady that my neighbor and I kept her grass mowed. Neighbor died this past winter and its up to me now. She gave me $100 last spring. Guess by now I'm working at about $3/hr when you count gas and wear on my mower. But I'm not complaining. Then the neighbor who's widow still lives in the house next to me. My son and I took that on as our way of helping out. OK, so I got hooked, not paid. I'd love for somebody to stop and ask me to do theirs for pay. Might help me break even for the year.

My first instinct would be to determine locally what landscape companies sell labor for. Ask as if you were a customer, checking around, rates or something along that line. I would base my number on that, competitively and discounted where you can, see fit, relatives, friends, again, only if you can.

You are smart to own and use your own equipment, I see the same exact thing, much better to have what you need for productive use.

My philosophy has always been, to charge a fair price for a job done as well as you are capable, being as competitive as you can, but not gouge.

With any of this you will have some overhead, operating costs, incidentals, sundries etc., frankly, $5/hour was fine in 1983 for labor, personally, I'd rather sit idle than use my equipment, tools, etc. to perform labor intense work that does not provide enough cash flow to cover overhead and fair labor, realizing an honest profit at the end of the day. It may sound arrogant but truthfully, you become a charitable volunteer. Nothing wrong with cutting someone a break, doing a small job here and there, no charge, always a nice gesture and reflects well on your character, you still need to put food on the table and pay your bills, volunteer work may get you a meal sometimes, it won't pay the bills, I don't get the logic. Say you were retired, have enough income, then do low cost, more charitable work, to keep active, that would not be so unfair.

I've done a fair amount of this while in a similar position, more tools and equipment involved, as well as a larger scope of work, and have broke even, on hard labor intense jobs, at the end of the day, it does not add up, and is why I do not do much of it anymore. The profitability is minimal, yet the labor intense. It takes much more out of you in the mid 40's than it did in the mid 20's, and you have to use care with safety/injury and similar risks.

Some people are quite ridiculous, I had a customer who wanted us to do some things totally against the local building code, and one of the inspectors lived across the street ! That job material was delivered and the work started. Did a 180 degree turn, no way, you own the material now, pay up and we are out. The profit was marginal, it was a long time friends parents friends so they got a break. They had to find another contractor, it was not worth our reputation with the municipality, which was impeccable. They clearly were not happy unless we defied the code by what they wanted done, once it was determined the structure we were intending to repair, really needed to be demolished and a new one built, which was stated right up front as a distinct possibility. They knew.

More complicated and apples to oranges, but I think its unfair to do work at a deficit no matter what it is, whats fair is fair, can't be tilted one way or the other, or whats the point of getting involved ?

Reminds me of another story from days gone by. They used to pay a dollar a day to pick up potatoes out of the field. Had a neighbor here who was the cheapest guy who ever lived. The last day,they got done before they had a full day in. He sat down and figured out that he owed the kids working for him each 87 cents that day. His next door neighbor was a rural mail carrier so Art knew he'd have change from selling stamps,so he went over and got change so he could give everybody what he figured he owed them.

It sounds like there could be a lot of complications. Unless you actually want to start up a landscaping business, I'd refer them to a professional landscaper and keep looking for work in your chosen career field.

Aldi's is looking for cashiers pays $12.00 an hour. Hal

Thanks for most of the replies. Maybe I shouldn't have said need money, my meaning was always could use more money. I'm covering my bills with small consulting jobs but sure would like to get back to a steady paycheck. I need to use my time searching and doing things that find me as someone put it "work in my field" rather than running around doing odd jobs that don't really help the bottom line much. But there is always that stigma that if I don't take this kind of thing word gets around and people think I'm out of work, don't want to work, on some kind of government assistance (I'm not).

I've had a talk with my folks to stop telling people I'm unemployed tell them I'm consulting and if they want to help me out refer me to some business leaders that might need my skills. I need to get people thinking in that direction rather than thinking of odd jobs they can offer me.

That said I volunteered for a non-profit awhile back and offered to do some, computer work, paper work, even maintenance or landscaping projects. As landscaping came out they jumped. So I started cleaning paved parking lots of grass, gravel, building retaining walls and before you know it everyone there thought I was "Grounds Keeper Willy" and started asking if I'd come by their house and remove bushes or cut back tree limbs etc. I began to think there must be a pent up need for this kind of work--then again I think the pent up need is more the prospect of getting someone you know something about to drop by and do hard work off the books for very little money. Of course I responded I didn't really do this kind of thing for a living I was just helping out the charity. But, once typecast as grounds keeper willy it's hard to be seen as anything else and I eventually couldn't handle the work any more. Frankly at times I've thought of hiring me some workers and going into that business, but there are tons of guys with trucks and old mowers cutting grass now--I can't imagine there's much profit to be made to start another landscaping business. Again the demand isn't for someone to do the work, it's for someone cheap!

I have no background in pricing work like this so I've decided to quote them an hourly price at which I feel comfortable working. I'll supply all the equipment. How well or fast it's done is up to them. Want it done in 2 hours or want not one leaf left on the yard and spend 4 hours--makes no difference to me. Think cleaning the gutters or fishing leaves out of the pool was included--fine as long as I'm there working it's X and hour.

They will not hire me as my most recent experience with a cash register was 1988.

Depends if it is a skilled job. Yard work no tractor $10-12 per hour. Skilled work i.e. carpentry $20-25 per hour.

I figured there was more details.

OK, so you can get by and are not eating out of a dumpster. To make contacts and secure a new job in your field of expertise, I would use M-F being down doors for leads, etc.

Then, if you have nothing else to do on the weekends, maybe pickup the $5/hr cash if you need it.

Rick

Chris, check out Ruger that is coming to Rockingham County. Just a thought. Good luck.

Small potatoes beat no potatoes every time.My first job other than farm work paid 85 cents an hour Union shop.I did whatever work I could get to keep my family fed .If I was younger I would put a lawn mower in back of my pick up and go mowing lawns.Friend and I did mowing jobs with a 48 Ford and a home made trailer.

Since I retired, I don't like being 'on the clock'
somebody needs something done, I quote a price for
the complete job.
This also stops the
'looking out the window to make sure he's working'
kind of thing.
Do I technically lose, if something unexpected pops up? sure.
But it keeps things friendly on both sides.
And, time I have, and I like to work, so it's all good.

also, somebody smarter than me could say why, but
even if you are good worker, working a job by the hour,
you have a steady pace.
Working a set price job, and getting the job done
lets you go home, or come out of the shop..
......you find yourself working at a furious pace!

(quoted from post at 14:43:36 10/25/13) They will not hire me as my most recent experience with a cash register was 1988.

Click to expand...

Why, did you [b:252bd6ae31][i:252bd6ae31]steal[/i:252bd6ae31][/b:252bd6ae31] said cash register back in 1988? If you didnt, they will hire you.... they would likely hire you even if you did steal it...

Just saying...