Hi,

I would appreciate anyones advice on how they price for installation and whether you have simple guidelines on how much to charge.

I'm not talking about full custom installation work here, more the bread and butter (for us at least) of simple plasma deliveries and installation through to say £20K home cinemas and simple multi-room installations.

Obviously when the client requires installation of cables in walls the price will jump considerably, however do you have guides on this as well as guides on setup etc.

How do you determine whats included and what isn't?

Any help greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Chris.

We have a Price per item structure for most commonly installed items. Basically, Youf figure what it takes to do an average install, and charge that. Sometimes you go over a bit, sometimes under... But its set for the clients....

If a Plasma Install on an Articulating wall bracket generall yakes you 4 hours to complete with a 2 man crew, you figure Hardware(Zipties, Tapcons, Lag Bolts, Pac125, etc etc), 8 hours of man(errr.... Installer......) labor, Average Travel Time/Mileage, and create a number off that. Video cables and accessories are always separate.....

On "basic installations" that do not require custom cabling or wall mounting we provide the retailers that use our installation service a fixed price list per item. We charge a little more per item if the customer comes direct to us for installation, as that gives them an incentive to buy through retailers that have registered with us. We go out to the clients homes to quote on anything that falls out of the scope of "basic installation", even if a client only wants a plasma hung on a wall and requests exposed cabling.( They want to cut down cost of install!). The policy is a bit of a pain as there are some tire kickers, but it saves our ass time and time again. People will call up and say that it is a very easy job and will ake an hour. When we go and quote, it ends up being a 5 hour job!

All of these ideas are basically cost of labor plus profit needed to stay in business, plus cost of parts plus profit needed to stay in business. To be competitive, which we all must be, we can't just make up a number. If we do that, we will have no idea if we will lose money or come out all right.

We have no price list, but I know that the average plasma mount, when prewired, will take two men two hours, so I price it according to our "parts and labor" labor rate, with an allowance for more if the wall has issues.

For instance, the mounting surface receded 8", with an overall size about 3/4" larger than the plasma all around. To even hang this at all, we had to get a swing-out mount, do a mockup on a piece of plywood*, then translate the measurements onto the real mounting surface and put it up. For all our pickiness, it ended up 1/4" low. I still don't know why.

*Peerless. Excellent drawings with lots of dimensions, but missing:
a)overall thickness of the mount
b)dimension, left-right, from the center of the plasma to the center of the swing arm mount
c)of course, missing a predicted amount of sag because steel bends. Even thick steel.

Would anyone be willing to share samples of their price lists with me via e-mail? I'm interested to see what kind of prices various installers charge and how you come to those prices. I would really appreciate it.



Thank you,
Damon DG
= = = = =
Control Systems Consulting, Sales & Remote Programming

Ernie - I've taken to adding 1/4" every time... It's the same with every mount manufacturer I've used...

Thanks Guys, this is really helpful stuff.

Control Remotes,

That goes for me as well, if anyone is willing to share their guide to pricing (via email of course) then this would really help me and hopefully avoid the common pitfalls by learning from you pros, i.e. whats included, whats not included.

Of course I'll be getting on with my own research in this area and adapt accordingly.

Thanks again,

Chris.

pick a price then treble it! LOL

I would rather turn down all basic or even custom installations on plasmas when the client has not bought the unit from us (ie I got a killer deal at BB, Costco or the net).

It's just too great of a liability when we're only charging time and materials to stay reasonable.

Think about it, you send your guys out in the morning thinking you will have generated $300-$400 of revenue by the end of the day, but instead you have a $6000 doa plasma to deal with - and what condition was it in before the box was opened anyway?

Safer to stay home and watch Barney all day.

For basic installation pricing on plasmas we sell, we generally charge time and materials (2 hours or so). If the client wants an exact price on across the room custom we'll never bid sight unseen.

We always approach this type of work with the knowledge we are absorbing some of the liability costs in the profit of the plasma. If there is no profit in the plasma, it's very risky business that we happily let slip out of our hands.

Is there a way to have a signed agreement of an unconditional (except dropping the thing, maybe) release from liability for the functionality or performance of any customer-supplied equipment?

I have no real interest in becoming a retailer; there are plenty of those around. I'm happy to install someone elses gear. I do make sure it's agreed that we have no responsibility for anything we didn't sell or supply.

Maybe I've just been lucky, but the one time there was a non-operational issue with gear I hooked up, it was used equipment, and the customer didn't have a problem; I guess they trusted me because of the work quality.

I think that guy wesley should have a guide for this too. haahhah

SpongeBob, stay home and watch Spongebob all day!

I want to sell the equipment. I hate the internet for that reason. Not that I need full boat retail, but I can't survive making 200 bucks on a $12k projector, and I prefer to be responsible for the total job. I provide a fixed labor amount based on a site survey and knowlege of the equipment to be installed.

I will install dang near anything with a well expressed caveat that makes it clear that I am to be paid for my time, no matter what. In some areas that we the custom installers dabble in, I'm inexperienced, so I can do in 20 hours what some of you can do in 2. I make this clear to my customer, and they decide.

Try to remember that you aren't selling product and labor. You are selling yourself. I've been accused of being a craftsman. I'm not a good deal in the Costco buyers mind and hence rarely get that job.

If they agree to my terms, I'm theirs.

A wise old hoot once told me that half the battle is knowing which jobs to walk away from. I heed that advice.

I'm a simple minded creature, $75.00 per hour, portal to portal.

Hope this helps a little.

Thomas the Tank Engine at least has some cool model trains...