Thanks a lot Bill, Your post was very well put. I did end up charging 1.5 hours since I knew that a lot of my time was educational. And some of that was spent reattaching hammer springs. Thanks again, Corey In a message dated 9/8/01 5:06:54 AM, yardbird@pop.vermontel.net writes: > >I don't think it's a matter of labor rate (whether for free or tied >to the standard tuning fee). It's the time which can be >unpredictable. One would guess that Corey has some "sweat equity" in >this introduction to "root-level" cleaning (if indeed this is the >case. One might be wrong...) > >Irrespectigardless, even in seasoned hands, it's still alot of manual >labor, and worse, of unpredictable quantities. I think (IMHO), if we >could sort out all of our "beginner's try" time, all the goose-chase, >head-scratch time, we'd probably find that the actual Net Time for >this job was actually a bigger block of time than what we had >originally tossed out when quickly running over the possibility of it >at the outset. > >Many of us would be caught in this same bag, and not for lack of >honesty, either. Ask me how long it takes to replace three cedar >hammer shanks on an upright, especially just before I proceed to do >it on your piano, and the hourly figure which comes out of my mouth >is on the lean and hopeful side. Looking it up in a book is a very >good basis. But if you happen not to, and your "guestimate " is >sorely short of the real Net Time, you would not be alone. Every time >I do it, it hurts. > >But I do think we should get paid for what we accomplish. Not >included in this would be the "learning portion" of the overall (or >Gross) Time. But as we learn to do this properly, there are ways to >construct a total Net Time, which will serve as our billable hours. >If our customer needs to be explained what went into the work, we've >got our notes on the Net Time as the basis. They'll know they're >getting solid work, and that our thumb is not on the scale. > >If it comes own to "cropping" the number of billable hours, maybe the >fairest thing to offer is that we and the customer divided the amount >in question, ie., "split the difference" between the real time and >the overall time. Both kinds of time have to be acknowledged. (And >don't you dare include the "thanks-for- the-milk-and-sugar-donut" >time, they don't appreciate paying for the time you spend enjoying >their good will.) > >Having an accurate way of accounting for our time is how professional >billing develops. (And the sooner we can get pad for it. That is >unless you're going to look it up in a book, which is actually a very >good basis. > >Hey, we're professionals, we get to bill like this because we want >to, right?..... actually, more likely, because we deserve it. > >But boy, it can be a surprise, how long it really takes to plug and >rebore lid hinges, on site. > > >Bill Ballard RPT >NH Chapter, P.T.G. >
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