Per hour pricing?

I know this gets talked about some already but I'm curious from the folks who do charge hourly how many refusals you get. I've started my adc work selling to the customer that hourly is the fair way and can be cheaper. Every other service a client pays for is hourly so why not trapping? They are paying for a skill they don't have no different then an electrician, plumber or etc... I let them know that they pay the same rate no matter how many animals I catch. If I charged per head on beaver they could potentially pay a $1000 for a very limited amount of time. But hourly it may only cost $2-300. I want to make money but I don't want to lose money nor do I want to take advantage of people either.

I factor in my head how many hours it will take and give them a flat rate. They seem,to take it better that way. If I hustle I earn more.

What if you are called in and give a price on a beaver, then you start the work and realize your trying to clean up after their friends and familiar threw every trick they know at them and is now shy and takes a little more discipline to get? Likely the pricing would be wrong?

It just seems to me that there is a lot less risk in the work if it's hourly thus giving a more consistent profit margin. I do understand that a bid has more risk this potential for more reward but I would think a better long term plan would have more consistency? Would this not be a proper way of thinking?

Less risk for you means more risk for the customer. Most would realize this and I think you would have trouble finding enough people to take you up on hourly.

The other service industries you mentioned are pretty standardized. When someone calls a plumber they assume he is coming out with a reasonable amount of training and experience. Most trades have an apprenticeship. ADC far from it. The customer has no clue who is coming out, if they had any formal training, etc. That is why they are going to be less likely to accept the risk of hourly.

The other truth of the matter you never get ahead with hourly. You can only make a wage, only so many hours in a day. Some service companies figure this out and offer flat rate pricing. Then they have the abilty to do the job with less time. You are going to get the bad job now and again but the good ones make up for it.

There was a gentleman here that did a Beaver job for the NYS Thruway Authority years ago. It was a ways from his home, and quoted them a price of 50.00 an hour, travel time and time spent on the job. He got the job. It ended up being a job like you described, he was cleaning up after a couple other trappers could not remove the last Beaver. The last time I talked to him he had billed them for almost 2500.00 , and still had not caught a Beaver, and they were into him for a couple grand more. I asked him how he could charge them that kind of money and not produce. He had no problem explaining to me that that is what they agreed to pay him.....I understand if a job is more difficult, charge something extra to make it worth while doing, but you are still expected to produce results in a timely manner. Funny part was another friend of mine gave them a quote of 300.00 to do the complete job, and they turned him down...

I see that aspect also. I wouldn't be able to charge that personally. If I failed miserably I would do what I could to get the right person in there. I guess my mindset is different because I've been an electrician for years. The only time we give numbers is new construction. If we don't know what we are getting into then it's hourly

I have never done beaver work so I dont know how it would work. I do residential squirrels, skunks, gophers, things like that . I charge by the week and solve 90% in that time, mostly in less time.

I appreciate all the help guys. I think I'll sit down and start running some numbers to figure out where I should be. I know what the only other local guy charges because he told me and doesn't want that kind of work. Atleast I have an idea how to start

A couple things about charging per animal for beaver removal.We do it here because it is an incentive to get every beaver.You should be a good enough beaver trapper to get even the most educated beaver if you are selling a beaver removal service.
By charging a per beaver price on top of mileage and \or hourly you are making sure there is a compensatory fee for the wasting of the fur resource.

Boco, after looking at the prices that are being paid for the hides of the majority of the furbearers that most of us catch in our

ADC work, we should be very thankful. If I was still fur trapping, at 57 cents a mile, I would lose a lot of money during trapping

season.

Not everybody traps fur out of a truck.
We charge 75 dollars per beaver removed.Some charge 100.I run my line all day on my Honda bike on a cup and a half of gas.
A bit more if breaking trail in winter with the 550 skidoo.
Still way less than a pick up.

Well you've got me there. I did own a Honda in 1965 but I never used it for trapping. I could never figure out if the raccoons should

ride in the back or I should shove them down my waders.

Some days that can be a problem no matter what vehicle you use,Paul,lol.

Don't confuse setting a rate with presenting it to the client. For anyone to offer a service there will be a cost of goods and in most cases, the highest price in this cost of goods will be the labor. Start with figuring out what the cost of goods will be and then you can figure out how you want to present it to the client.

For instance, cost involved in a beaver job will include travel to the site, equipment (traps, waders, gloves, shovel, ax, boat, etc.), bait, time on site, and relocation or disposal of the beaver at a minimum. In other words, there are fixed costs for doing beaver work, just like there are fixed costs in the electrician field. In most construction trades, this is why there is a job minimum as it includes all of these items. The main difference is that in most trades, it is easier to estimate about how long the job will take as there tend to be few conditions, not already calculated for, causing interference with the job. Additionally, the more detailed the work, the more specific the contract becomes with a clause allowing for additional charges for necessary material/work not included but required when problems do arise. This is not always the same for wildlife control.

In wildlife control, the wild card is always how the animal responds to your efforts. Does it go into the trap the first night, leave the area so you can't catch it (which is you're charging per animal can be a problem), or stay in the area but shy away from your activity? This becomes even more problematic as the property size grows. Not only is removing a skunk family from under the shed on a 1/8 acre lot not the same as removing beaver families from a 500 acre area, but both jobs may require different pricing models. 56Not only do you have to contend with the current animal(s), but you also can have interference from non-target animals as well as new problem animals taking over the open territory in the right conditions.

So how then do you set a price? While most will not get into the details like I've got listed here, many of the experienced operators are doing this subconsciously when it comes to pricing. That is how some are able to look at a job and set a price based on how much they want to make off the job (i.e., this will cost me $500 to do and I want to make $1,000 so the price is $1,500). Others will set a flat rate (i.e., each trip will cost $150 so a 5 day trip program will be $750). Most will do a service fee plus per animal (i.e., $250 service fee plus $75 an animal so they need to catch 4 beaver to cover cost). Others will do an hourly fee with a minimum rate (i.e., $25 per hour with a job minimum of $250 but then you need to do 20 hours to break even). Personally, I feel you need to be flexible with multiple pricing options based on the project, but what they all have in common is that the successful operators understand what the service they are selling is costing them and then choosing the best pricing strategy for that client. If you can't be flexible with your pricing strategies, you can price yourself right out of a job.

For the client that thinks $750 for a 5 day program is almost too much, you'll never sell them the job (if you really want it) at $1,500 but you may sell them two $750 programs and still make your $1,500. Likewise, some clients will only want to go with the $250 + $75 per animal ($325) if they believe there is only one or two they have to pay for, but if they have about 8 animals ($850) they may be more open to the $750 program or hourly. What it all comes down to is how your present the price to the client and their expectations. $25 per hour or $50 per trip sounds cheap but if you feel it will take 100 hours or 30 trips to complete the job it may be the most expensive option.

Whatever you choose just make sure that you aren't paying the client for the privilege of solving their wildlife problem.

Thanks for all the info. I will continue to keep an open mind and hopefully I will figure it all out during the infancy of my business. The more problems or mistakes I can nip now the more likely I can be profitable in a shorter amount of time. The job I'm setting today will be hourly as I already told them it would be. I do believe it will be cheapest for them as I'm sure it is 1 beaver or possibly a pair. I'm guessing a 2 yr old recently evicted.

Great info WCT.We have a flat rate,$75 per beaver,$50 to lower water (by mutual agreement of complainant and trapper),$.45\km,for up to 5 trips return.This will be on a contract.A lot of times 5 trips is not needed.If more than 5 trips are needed to finish a particularly difficult job,the complainant will have to OK another contract.
The avg cost for a contract will be between $400 and $800.A contract expires in 14 days.
If you are consistent at drying up the beaver problems,you will get all the work you can handle.
There is nothing a complainant hates worse than going back after a job is paid, and finds the culvert plugged and the water high again,and I don't blame them.Make sure you get ALL the beaver.

Thanks boco. We will see how this job goes. Set a few traps tonight and will check in the morning

You guys have a pretty good job going on a control guy charged a family friend 199.99 to drive 15.min away for a racoon check in a chimney and said that it wasn't there but call him back if you want him to trap it. Extra of course. I might look into the trade. Felt a little sorry for the elder lady living by her self.

You will find people like that in every trade, but I don't think it is the normal way most of us do business. At least not the owner/operators I know and work with. If I found no animal in the chimney after a thorough inspection, I would have tried to convince her to let me cap her chimney properly, so this problem does not happen again in the future. In the end her problem is properly solved, and we provided a service to her she needed, and expected when she hired us.

I was recommended by the next door neighbor to catch a woodchuck under a lady's shed. No hole, no woodchuck, and no charge either and

that was also a 15 minute drive. I'm not going to criticize the 199.99 guy but I do agree with Mr. Burns. We all run our businesses

differently but if your business is getting more calls, you're doing it right. More complaints, not so much.

I have that same story with a plumber,electrician,dr., vet, preacher, family member and the list goes on and on

Yep, until I was I'm business for myself I was so mad at the hvac company I called when my furnace wouldn't work. He came in and was do e in less than five minutes. A leaf got sucked into the vent. $65.
Now I get it, he drove here, he found something I never would have, and he fixed my problem. Next time it happend I saved $65 and pulled the leaf out

I don't know what was said between the two parties, but I've no issue with this. Wildlife control services are primarily offered by for-profit business,not by charities (for my statement, mandatory "donations" fall into the same category as for-profit). Services were offered and purchased, nothing more, nothing less.

Let's change the scenario and say it was a plumber that was called out for a leak, but no leak was found or a faucet wasn't turned all the way off, would the plumber not charge for their service? How about an electrician that had to do an emergency call that turned out to be a tripped breaker? In most of these cases, the client would have been charged. They called and agreed to the terms of the service, the plumber and electrician didn't call them soliciting work.

Now look at the medical field. You feel sick, make an appointment and go to the doctor's office then sit there for 15 minutes to 1 1/2 hours before you're seen. The doctor comes into the room and speaks to you for 5 minutes. They may look in your nose and ears and/or have you stick out your tongue or cough. At the end of your 5 minute exam you're told that there is nothing that can be done as it's a virus and you're past the period when medication may of helped (yes, this is a true story with influenza). Do you think I didn't have to pay $180 for the visit, 5 minutes of the Dr's time, 2 1/2 hours of my time and gas/wear on my vehicle because I was 8 hours past the 48 hour time limit?

The difference between all of these scenarios is that people base the value of wildlife control on how much they value the animal, not the service(s) being rendered. When they hear that raccoon went for $7 on average at fur sales, they can't comprehend a $200 - $500 charge for that $7 raccoon. They aren't looking at what it costs to run a business, the knowledge and equipment required to perform services, the true time each job takes, the risks operators take with their own health and safety to resolve the problem, and more.

As I'm also a fur trapper, I understand that there is a cost and risks to fur trapping as well, but those are personal costs not business expenses. The main difference for me between fur trapping and wildlife control is that for fur trapping I am trying to catch an animal for personal reasons (food, pelt, etc) but when doing control work, I am selling piece of mind to the client for the client.

Whether or not I catch an animal to provide this service, depends on what steps I need to perform in order to provide that service. No raccoon to remove from the chimney? Offer to cap the chimney and give a price. If the client decides not to take the offer, they now have the option to call me back or another operator the next time they hear noise.

Nicely typed WCT, some folks just don't look at our line of work as a "business".

Very true. In most trades there is a minimum of an hour charged for a service call. Even if it doesn't take you but 15 min to check it out it actually takes close to an hour by the time you drive there and drive back and do paperwork. That is all time spent that you could've been working somewhere else so it only makes sense to charge a minimum of an hour.