What is my time worth?

A

Andoo

New member
I recently purchased a used pickup and like the retentive person I am, I used my Blackfire products to detail the body.

A couple of people at work saw the results, and a few days back they asked if I could work on their cars, and they would pay me.

So the question is, what can I charge? These are people I work with every day so obviously I want to be fair.

An idea of what I would be doing is the following:

Wash, clay, polish, paint protect, and wax. (On my regular car I usually do 2 coats of paint protection and wax.)

One car is an older Subaru outback, so I might even throw in a light compound before the polish like I did with the truck.

The other car is a brand new Audi A6.

Obviously each car will take a few days, and I can garage it while I work on it. But again, what would be reasonable to charge for such a job?

I'm by no means a pro, I just enjoy taking care of my cars…

-Andrew
 
Only you can decide that. Since you don't do this regularly plan for it to take longer than you think. Consider what you make per hour at your job and charge at least 50% of that. Anything less and I would say your time would be better spent hanging out at the lake or beach. For those who plan to do this as a business I recommend going the other way. After covering taxes and overhead you should still be walking away with at least 50% more than you could make hourly at a job. If not your business can't grow without reducing your income below the level you could make elsewhere.


If you do these cars I would be curious to hear your thoughts on the difference between doing you own vehicle vs. doing it for pay.
 
I would ask how far they wanted you to go and how much $ are they willing to spend. Ask what's bothering them the most about their cars appearance and focus on that


Your time should really be determined by your level of experience
 
Andoo said:
I recently purchased a used pickup and like the retentive person I am, I used my Blackfire products to detail the body.

A couple of people at work saw the results, and a few days back they asked if I could work on their cars, and they would pay me.

So the question is, what can I charge? These are people I work with every day so obviously I want to be fair.

-Andrew
Click to expand...

Your time is the most valuable thing that you have. You should not waste it! Consequently, you should be fairly compensated. A professional would expect to get at least $40/hour for his or her time. You should get a similar amount for your time for an equal job. That is fair.

Now, you may take longer than a true professional would so you should think in terms of billing $40/hour for the amount of time it would take a professional to do an equivalent job rather than the amount of time it actually takes you.

Having said all that, you are talking about friends here. Friends are also valuable assets. Consequently, you may want to do your friends a favor by reducing your fee by some amount that you feel would be a good favor to your friends.

I think this should give you a good matrix with which to work this out for yourself.
 
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