Good Contractors Don't Sell Themselves Short
When I was young, I had dreams of becoming rich and
successful. These dreams were changed, once I started working in
construction. If you notice, there are very few billionaires in the
construction business. It seems like most contractors live in a dog eat
dog world and will often take jobs cheaper than other contractors,
simply because they don't know any different. Most contractors that
under price themselves, cannot afford health insurance for their family
and usually live just above poverty level.
How do I know this, because this is what I use to do. When I first
started contracting, I felt obligated to give every one that I worked
for the lowest price that I could possibly give them and still make a
couple of dollars. I was usually working six to seven days a week and it
was mostly seven days a week and rarely six days a week, just to make my
house payment and feed my family. If you're a contractor and you're
living a life in survival mode, there's a good chance that you're
underbidding your jobs and selling yourself short.
There's an easy way to fix this, you need to get rid of the clientele
that you have built up and start looking for people that are willing to
pay you what you are worth. Often real estate professionals and property
management teams find the cheapest contractors or handyman to perform
home repairs or minor remodeling of their properties. I have often found
these people to be the cheapest by far and usually take advantage of
unsuspecting contractors who don't know any better.
These professionals, usually make six-figure incomes but don't think
twice about paying someone $10 an hour, to remodel a bathroom. This
isn't good for the contractor or anyone, trying to make a living today.
Reevaluate your situation and try to start raising your prices
gradually. You will definitely lose some of your customers, but those
aren't the people who you want as your clients anyway.
Start looking for people that are willing to pay you a little more money
and soon you will find yourself working for a better class of people.
This is how I got away from homeowners and professionals who really
didn't think I was worth the money that I was being paid, even though
they were paying me less than market value.