Minimum job charge: the quickest way to stop underpriced small jobs

A ten-minute job is never ten minutes. There is the drive there, finding somewhere to park, carrying the tools in, the chat, the bill and the drive to the next one.

If you charge for the ten minutes, you have paid to do the job.

A minimum charge fixes this in one line, and customers are used to it. Most of them expect one.

• Work out what the smallest possible job really takes, door to door.
• Set a minimum that covers it.
• State it in your first reply and on your website.
• Charge separately for parts.
• Have a set price for "while you are here" extras.

Add up the time a small job takes even when the work itself is nothing:

• Travel there, and a share of the journey onward: 30 minutes.
• Parking, unloading and setting up: 10 minutes.
• Looking at the job and talking it through: 10 minutes.
• The bill, payment and notes: 10 minutes.

That is an hour before you have touched a tool. At £50 an hour, any job charged at less than £50 has lost money.

So the minimum is your first hour. Some trades set it higher and include the first 30 minutes of work in it.

Screws, fixings, sealant, tape, blades. Nobody notices them on one job, and over a year they add up to real money.

Either add a small flat line for sundries or build it into the minimum. Do not give them away, and do not itemise every screw.

Parts are different. Charge for those in full, on their own line.

It is the most expensive sentence in the trade. One small extra becomes four, and the next customer waits.

Decide in advance: extras that fit inside the time already paid for are included. Anything beyond that is charged in half-hour blocks.

Say it with a smile before you start the extra, not after.

Six small jobs a month at £30 each brings in £180 for about six hours of your time.

The same six at a £60 minimum brings in £360.

Say one customer in six decides not to book at £60. Five jobs bring in £300, and you have an hour back.

You earn more from fewer visits, and the customers who stay are the ones who value the call-out.

• Time your next three small jobs, door to door.
• Set your minimum and write it down.
• Add it to your website, your voicemail and your first reply.
• Decide your price for a half-hour extra.

Thanks for getting in touch. I can do that for you. My minimum charge is £[amount], which covers the call-out and the first [30 minutes / hour] of work, plus any parts. If you have any other small jobs, send me a list and I will try to do them in the same visit.