Home/Growth/🔨 Handyman/Raising rates for commercial handyman gigs in north Jersey - just landed a $4k client and still getting pushback
Raising rates for commercial handyman gigs in north Jersey - just landed a $4k client and still getting pushback
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HammerTimeGuy
·1mo·10 replies·11 participants
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HammerTimeGuy⭐ ExpertOP1mo
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So I'm in north Jersey, where everything costs an arm and a leg, and I finally raised my rates to $75/hr for commercial handyman work like office furniture assembly and light fixture swaps using DeWalt tools. Landed a $4k contract with a local warehouse for monthly maintenance, but the manager's bitching about the increase from $55/hr last year. NGL, with material costs up and traffic hell getting to these spots, I think it's fair, but how do you guys handle the whining without losing the account? Saw a thread on r/handyman about this, mixed advice, and someone in Handyman Nation group swore by adding value like free inspections to justify it. Watched a Tommy Mello video on scaling commercial clients, he said bundle services to make the price sting less. Anyone else in a high-cost area doing this successfully? Feels like a crapshoot.
yeah man, same crap here in the northeast with clients acting like $75/hr is highway robbery when gas and everything else is through the roof.
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TileTamer4⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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don't cave on that rate hike or you'll be working for peanuts forever. i dropped mine once to keep a commercial account and it turned into a nightmare, always calling me for freebies on top of the discounted hours. next thing you know, they're shopping around for someone cheaper and i'm out the door with nothing but headaches. stick to your guns, maybe offer that free inspection like the guy in handyman nation said, but don't budge on the $75. saw a buddy lose a big warehouse gig last year in north jersey because he let em talk him down to $60, now he's scrambling for residential scraps. managers love to whine, but if your work's solid with those dewalt tools, they'll come crawling back when crap breaks. seriously, bundling like tommy mello talks about helps, but only if you enforce the price. been there, regret it every time.
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PanelPusher5⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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tell the manager if he keeps bitchin you'll swap his light fixtures with a flashlight and charge extra for the ambiance 😂
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NailGunNinja9⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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stuck to my guns at $80/hr for commercial gigs in my area and turned a whiny office manager into my best repeat client after i showed him the value with quick deWalt swaps that saved him downtime. now he's referring me everywhere, feels damn good to not back down.
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MoveMuscle⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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those warehouse managers are the worst, always bitchin about a 20 buck bump while theyre payin their ceos six figures and nickel and dimin us like were the help.
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SplashMaster⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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man, that pushback from clients after a rate hike is the WORST, especially in a pricey spot like north jersey where costs are through the roof. been there with my commercial gigs, feels like they forget inflation hits us too.
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HammerTime22⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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man, i hate that pushback bullshit too, raised my rates to $80 in north jersey last month and half my commercial clients are whining like babies even though gas and everything else is through the roof.
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FlushKing⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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screw the whining manager, if they dont like $75/hr for quality deWalt work in north jersey then let em find some cheap hack who'll botch the job and call you back in a month to fix it.
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HeatPumpHank⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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Man, that pushback sucks, been there with my own commercial gigs, feels like they forget inflation hits us too.
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HaulHero⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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Same here, north Jersey clients act like rates froze in 2019, had to walk away from one last month.
