For all you small business out their 2-3 employees, When do you find time to do estimates, Where I work now, The owner does all the estimates and is never on the job, Their is only 2 guy doing ALL the work, sanding, installing, refinishing. Just wondering how you do it.
Steve

I run a one man op and hire on others if and when I need to. I do estimates in the evenings after work, on weekends sometimes, and on days that are short ( one small job to coat, etc.). You make the time. Sounds as if your "boss" concentrates on running and managing the business and trusts the work to his two man crew. Nothing wrong with that.

Not saying anything is wrong, but looking to the future when I'll be doing the estimates, Just thinking when will I find time. Does anyone have just an estimate guy. I think personalty is a huge part of the selling a job process, reputation plays a part, but alot of people just pick people out of the book, and get a few estimates.

I charge a $50.00 measure fee , that i take off the bill if i do the job .. You can run on estimates all day , and every day of the week .. a lot of them just want to know how much floor to order and do it them selves .. I do all my own measuring like gary .. i dont sell floors , i sell my self .. and i dont trust anyone else to see problems that might exist , and not charged for ..

Hmmm, sounded to me like you were complaining a little bit there.

I do the estimating myself. Time is a big problem for all of us. I am fortunate that I work off of referrals so most clients are serious about doing it, instead of simply price shopping.

Most of my work is also referal jerry , but for the ones that want to just pick your brain , its going to cost them .. our time has to be worth something to .. And if gas prices keep going up , they are going to have to bring a floor plan to my business .. hee hee ..

I'm a peabrain, so the pick'ns are slim .

50.00 for an estimate, How does that fly, I think everyone in my area advertises free estimates, I agree 100% that our time is valuable, but I don't think we could get away with that. I like the I'll take it off if we do the job.
Steve

One thing about working for yourself, you set the hours. Many self employed work way over 40 hrs. per week when you factor in all the office work, estimates, answering phone calls, etc. So after 25+ yrs. on the floor, I only work about 6 to 7 hrs per day on the floors and use the other time to estimate and do paperwork. Hey, what's the point of working for yourself if you don't get to call the shots and determine when and where you work? It ain't for the higher income because after Uncle Sam gets through with you, you don't make any more than if you worked for a shop that paid well. Did you see this years new EZ Federal Tax Return Form? It goes like this:

1) How much income did you earn last year?
2) Mail it in!

$50.00 works quite well , they have a lot of guys giving free estimates here also .. But i tell them they get the square ft or yardage they need for the job [etc] ].. if they are not willing to pay the fifty , chances are good they will try and low ball me with 20 other estimates they got for free from guys who took off work to go waste their time on a job they will never get .. You have to do what feels good for you and your business ..

On the TODAY show this morning, they were talking about AC repar and scams. They pointed out it is better to pay for estimating and consulting, rather then "free estimates", because of the rip off factor.

They said you get an honest estimate, instead of them selling you things you don't need.

I feel flooring is the same way. I charge a consulting and material take-off fee, which is deducted from the contract price.

I have done free estimates, for referral clients, which call me at home, but if they call the office line, I know they got my name from the phonebook and are shopping. They get the I charge a consulting fee. Never to hear from them again!!! I just culled a time waster!!!!

I suppose that's one way of looking at it. Another would be that there are enough other good people out there that paying for an estimate would seem silly.

For example, we are just finishing up an almost $200K remodeling on the house. There were a couple of companies that wanted to charge us a couple/few hundred dollars to come out and look at things and give an estimate along with a preliminary design. With lots of reputable long time businesses in the area that do the same for free, I said that I would think about it, and then never called back.

I'm not sure that company culled me out as a time waster. But they did cull themselves out of a decent sized job.

I guess it really depends on the local market.