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I am curious on this how do you price your services?
Now by services and pricing i am not look9ing for #'s but rather how do you sell the value of your services
are you more of a walmart we"ll pay more guaranteed type
or a service at a price type a little less but kill them with service
maybe your a combination or offer somthing differently entirely.
how do you price and why
In any situation the market will bear a certain range of pricing. Having just getting started over myself doing cleanouts. I pay labor decently because I demand a pro attitude. You can only price your service according to what you offer. I cannot ask the highest price because I cannot offer the best of everything I try to stay in the middle of the road.
Personally I'm always wary of people who are the cheapest. I've been in the moving industry a long time. I work for the most expensive company and am paid the highest wage. We attract certain cliental, Mainly upscale residential and business moving. They want to pay the expensive costs because to them, its cheaper than dealing with guys that steal or ruin their stuff.
When I can finally venture on my own full time. I hope to be the most expensive one day - only because I can justify it with great service.
Since most of what I deal with is E-Waste then I use a different approach. I pull up in a SUV (with or without a trailer) instead of an old pick-up with sidewalls. I come it to the place in khakis and a polo-shirt instead of a T-shirt and Liberty overalls. I try to be someone you'd want in your shop/office. I'm a nice as can be and I try to be fair as well. My price is so/so. There isn't much in my area and most people are doing E-Waste on the side so I try to present as professional image as I can. Keep in mind I live outside of Huntsville... Think NASA, Redstone Arsenal, and TONS of military contractors. I'm just starting out with all the fees and expense that comes with that so I cannot offer amazing prices but I can be service minded.
If the golden rule is treat people like you'd want to be treated than the platinum rule is to treat people how they expect to be treated.
I charge by the TON to cut your material. Scrap yards have problems torching material and we fill that void with precision like efficiency and pump out tonnages that would make a majority of the yards (big and small) jealous.
I beat out all others on things like charging for appliances or mileage on pick ups as for computers I pay lower than most but get a lot of repeat business because I take all other electronics for free in a 5mile area any further I charge $2mile I am a huge action buyer and other auction buyers are my regulars as well as I will take truck loads of things like phones and such that they buy and cant sell or part of lots of misc. stuff like 1 week from my same guy I got almost 500 business phones 175 dell docking stations 35 lcd monitors 14crt 9 tvs and 60boxs of misc. phone computer and small wire which I had to dump in the truck since he wants the boxes back which after cleaned was 117lbs of #2 all this stuff because he sells larger volumes and for what I break down and the time I spend is less than he can make or costs more sitting in the space he needs for higher value sale items. I am currently trying to expand as fast as I can to keep up with the demand of stuff coming in cause I sure am not the only one but I got a huge part cornered since I use all the tools I have found so far to maximize even this forum is awesome for that. im sure I have make at least $50k more just from learning on here this past year
Travis, that was interesting - I think. But I couldn't figure out your pricing strategy. Do you get everything free within five miles, then charge $2 per mile for travel over that? Do you pay for product at all or only take others' auction left-overs that they give you?
I have been seriously considering hitting up the auction scene... More will be revealed on this...
For the last 10 years or so I have been looking for older, more reliable equipment, furniture, etc. Things made in the past tend to last, things made today seem to quickly fade away. When Americans built things, we built them to last. Old tools, old furniture, old houses, they are old because they last. I try to support American companies, I try to trade or barter whenever possible, and try to support people and businesses whom I consider good.
Barring that, there are some things that you just cannot buy used. In those cases I try to deal with companies that are not adding to the problems my country is experiencing. Integrity, honestly, quality are all things I look for, but also I don't want to do any business with companies that donate money to the campaigns of politicians, corporations have no business involving themselves in politics. I also refuse to support companies whom I consider to be doing wrong in the world, like Monsanto, whenever possible.
Scott