Looking at expanding my company with a mini excavator. Any help on some fair hour prices would be helpful!! located in WI. Hour north of Minneapolis MN. And any other helpful advice would be greatly appreciated. People with unhelpful or negative comments, please keep to yourself and take your negativity elsewhere. THANKS!!!
I guess it depends on what you are doing, and the area. If you are up toward Hayward or Rice Lake there isn't as much money there as some other areas, which holds the rates down a bit. I was $125/hr last year when I do hourly work, which honestly is rare, and only when subbing for guys I know. I will be higher this year.
Welcome to the Forums DBJ! First of all what type of work does your company currently perform?
Such negativity yourself Dana. I think you will find everyone here is respectful, you should try the same, especially on your first post.
You may consider my comments negative but they are meant to be helpful. You, the business owner are the only one who can determine what rates you must charge to remain profitable. This is achieved by putting together a business plan where you add all of your expenses and calculate the number of workable hours you have available in your part of the country. Add in your profit margin and you should be able to calculate your hourly rate. Then you have to compare that to what other contractors are charging to do the same work and figure out if you're in the ballpark and able to book work at that rate. A study of the market needs is also helpful. Depending on others' rates to start your business is a fastlane to failure.
Lot of it goes with experience, can you dig 100 foot or 200 foot of ditch an hour. Can you dig grade on a sewer line. I charge more than most around me but I feel my 44 years of experience is worth something. Never had anyone complain yet. Are you using this with other equipment you have? How big of a machine are you getting? A 9000 lb. excavator isn't worth as much as a 18,000 lb. excavator.
When looking at a new venture or aspect of the industry that's how I look at it as well but reversed. I'll research what the market is paying then back into a business model to see if I can make money at it. Sometimes the local market doesn't pay enough to make the venture profitable. Either way pricing rates according to others is a recipe for failure. I don't let my competition price my jobs.
You're right, I got ahead of myself a little. Makes more sense to determine if there's a market first and then calculate whether you can be competitive in that market. The most important thing is that you do your homework and not rely on other's rates.