Hi maybe your correct
But still trying to work out are plumbers/engineers millionares
As say £50 an hour thats £2000 a week over £100k a year
Now where i live in the south seems crazy money
Well he does cars in the week use to work for flogas
so seems very strange
You aren't an accountant, obviously.
In the nicest possible way, perhaps it is YOU who undercharges?
Last week, I billed £320 in labour for 2 days' work. £160 x 5 x 52 = £42k a year? One day I finished at 18.00, the next I finished at 19.30 approx, but then we were talking and chatting and I got home well after 10. Profit though? £40 in mileage as it wasn't that local (should have charged more really), and let's say £10 in insurances etc (I'm not Gas Safe, just a humble plumber). I tend to say 10% on use and wear and losses on tools and consumables, so that £320 becomes £252. On at least one day I was working at home before 7 getting everything I needed in the van.
The day after I was tired and achieved nothing useful except making soup and I still need to go out and replace the copper pipe I used (for which I made 10% mark-up which just about pays for the cost of running a van to the merchants). That was the end of my week's plumbing as I then had three days' work at my other employed job.
I may or may not have been able to fit in another day's work that week had I been a full-time plumber working 5 days (allowing a day for admin, tidying, paperwork etc), and might have earned another £126. So that's £378 a week self-employed.
Then I need to factor in my holiday. Employee gets 5.6 working weeks, (as a member of two trade unions, I won't accept any less from myself as an employer), so that leaves 46.4 working weeks.
A part of my house ends up being my workplace. Doesn't cost me anything, but does mean I need a bigger house. Let's factor in the cost of using my house for storing stuff as the cost of not being able to have a lodger to try to quantify the cost of my house being bigger than the flat I would otherwise quite happily fit in: £50 a week. £378 - £50 is £328, 46.4 weeks makes £15,219 a year. For myself as a single person, it would be enough and it's a little more than I would earn working full-time in a shop, but for someone who spent a lot of time and money to be in the position of being able to do it, it isn't very much. When I get faster I may be able to fit in more work, or charge more per hour.
Back to your case, if you want a lower hourly rate, then you need to give the plumber a full day's work. (Who said it would take three hours anyway and are you going to pay extra if it takes longer?) THEN he can fit in 8 working hours in a day. Sadly there is no way on earth you can manage 8 hour days out of small jobs, and very often the afternoon is spent driving, tidying the van after your job, looking at the next job for free, like yours, that he may or may not get, so probably you are paying for most of a day's work. And that's fair enough.
