Costs,,

[logun 91]

there hell of a lot of mole trappes out there it seems,,but aint really any idea how to price jobs ,,, on going threads now that starts off how much etc for mole job..tip from me .. if you need to ask you aint been in the game long....... and to even try and make a living ,,you need some serious land..

[Bunny Boiler 177]

Having a whinge again then, Logun?

[Froudy 40]

Moaning about everything lately, is it his time off the month? lol

[Matt 160]

I thought you were a bricklayer/internet trapping guru logun? Have I missed something? Are you now a pest controller?

 

Anyway, folks tend to try and making pricing to complicated for moles. My charges range from £10 per mole to £45 per mole, depending on the job and how far away it is.

 

On farms, I charge a straight £10 per mole; it's not out of the way these days when you consider how much farmers spend on fertilizer diesel etc to produce silage. To risk spoiling a good crop for the sake of a few quid is pointless, and my customers tend to understand that. Less than that price would not be economical for me, and while I understand that some people like to try and go in cheaper to get the work, they tend to be gone within a year or two. There are plenty of 'busy fools' around these days.

 

Gardens are a different kettle of fish. Most tend to be just one or two moles, and if it's not too far out of my way then it's £35 per mole. Add more travel miles or time, then I charge £45 per mole.

 

I now have a minimum charge of £75 for garden moles. That price is for up to two moles, with additional moles charged at £35 each. I brought in the minimum charge last year because of the escalating fuel costs. When you break it down, even a one mole job needs three visits (one to set traps, one to remove the mole and rake off the molehills, and a final visit to make sure there are no more) so £25 per visit isn't out of the way.

 

On the farms, I tend to go in three times a year and take out as many as I can at £10 each. I did a new job at the back end of November where the farmer had paid someone £2,500 to gas about a dozen fields. I went in and took 50 moles out at £10 each and he was over the moon. It may take me a year to get it looking really good, but at least he can see what he gets for his buck.

 

I don't make any other charges; if I wasn't confident enough to catch moles then I'd get a job doing something else. No mole, no fee works for me, and my customers like it. In 2011 I turned over just under 40k on moles alone, so it does work.

[3175darren 1,100]

I am not sure you would get that much for a mole up here mate,the farmers moan at £5 a mole,

[Matt 160]

I am not sure you would get that much for a mole up here mate,the farmers moan at £5 a mole,

 

I've heard that dozens of times.

 

Stand up to them, and they will pay. If not, stay at home or whatever. Even farmers cant' expect people to work for a loss.

 

The problem is that there are too many hobbyists and part timers trying their luck. If all the decent molecatchers stood their ground and insisted on a fair price then the £5 a mole merchants would be long gone.

 

Farmers are the same all over the country. They love to get a deal, and love it more when they think that they've got one over on you. A few years ago one of my regular farming customers told me that someone had offered to do his moles for £5 each. "You'd better ring him then" I said. A few months later the farmer called me in again. It seems that the £5 per mole merchant had caught a few on the easy ground and not bothered coming back. I took him back on at £15 per mole, dropping back to £10 the following spring.

 

Inflation is running at around 3-5%. That means that if I was charging £10 five years ago, and inflation was 5% each year since, then I should be charging £13.25 now. Fuel (which is one of the biggest costs) has gone up by more than 5%, so in effect, I'm earning less now than I was five years ago.

 

Everything else goes up, so why should the cost of mole control not go up too?

 

Far too many people forget that the main objective of any business should be to make a profit. If you don't increase your prices in line with inflation, then you are in effect doing yourself out of a fair wage. You either have to take a pay cut accordingly, or work a little bit more each year to make up the shortfall.

 

Farmers expect their subsidies to rise each year in line with inflation, so they should expect other costs to increase accordingly. Stand up for yourselves, and don't be bullied into paying tp catch vermin which in turn improves (and increases the value of) farmland.

 

£5 per mole? You must be joking.

[IanB 0]

Matt I agree totally, good put together post..

[DIDO.1 22,221]

Although I agree in principle it really is area dependant. I like to average 25 moles per day when I start on my farm jobs, I do most of my farms over a 6 week period before spring. If I could get £10 per mole id be laughing, but I couldnt in this area, not a chance. I do quite a few smaller farms/small holdings and gardens year round and for those my pricing is similar or more expensive than yours Matt.

Edited January 15, 2013 by DIDO.1

[Matt 160]

Why should the price be area dependant? Are your costs in the North lower than mine? Do farmers in the north get less for their produce than the ones in the South? No. Of course not.

 

The problem is that people are prepared to do the work for peanuts.

 

Lets put this into perspective.

 

If I wanted to earn £25k a year, I could do so easily by working for someone else checking bait boxes. As it is, I've chosen to run my own business, and expect to earn a little bit more than that.

 

Lets just break that £25k down to a daily rate. 220 days a year is the normal budgetry figure to work to (that allows for holidays, sickness, training etc), so £25k divided by 220 days works out at £113 per day.

 

Lets add on the cost of running the business (overheads like insurance, vehicle, fuel, admin, phones, advertising etc) and give it a ball park figure of £50 per day. That takes it to £163 per day.

 

As I wrote earlier, I expect to earn a tad more than a wage slave, especially as I have the responsibility of running a business, so lets round it up to a neat £200 per day.

 

So from that, you can see that it's not greedy or unreasonable to expect to charge a fair rate for the job. £5 per mole is just not sustainable in this day and age, and those of you that are doing it need your heads checked. Sorry if that's blunt, but it's about time people grew a set of balls and stood up for themselves. If farmers aren't prepared to pay a reasonable price to have the job done, then don't do it. There are plenty of them around who are prepared to spend a couple of grand on burrow blasters, or flasks of gas, so asking for a reasonable amount of money for a fair job of work is the way forward.

 

One of the farmers I know was moaning recently that he had to pay his new herdsman 30k and provide him with a house. I stopped him in his new car the other day and asked him how it was going. "Terrible year" he said. "Wheat yeild down, lamb price static, and rubbish maize harvest." He still managed to scrape the penny's together for a new car I noticed as I wondered if my old van would make it through another winter.

 

Stand your ground and ask for a fair price boys and girls. They will respect you for it in the long run, and if they don't, then they don't deserve your talents anyway.

[mole trapper 1,671]

Matt,s spot on as usual! The problem is now, not only have you got the dole dossers out there under cutting prices the bloody poles are getting in on the act! Even farmers who want to always save a quid only try the cheap chancers the once, they won't be had twice. What Matt did not mention is the over heads the likes of me and him have we just could and would not go out and charge the stupidly low prices banded about on here, but then, we have both been in this game a long time now and built up good loyal client bases, which if your in it for the long haul is essential.

[moley 115]

theres no way you would get £10 per mole round here, but sitting at home dont pay bills, its ok spouting on about busy fools, but if you not out earning at least summit, you not much of a buisness man

matt, as a buisness man yourself earning all that money, why dont you get a new van ?, it goes against tax and you,ll not have to worry about if it will make it thru the winter, just a thought

[Matt 160]

theres no way you would get £10 per mole round here, but sitting at home dont pay bills, its ok spouting on about busy fools, but if you not out earning at least summit, you not much of a buisness man

matt, as a buisness man yourself earning all that money, why dont you get a new van ?, it goes against tax and you,ll not have to worry about if it will make it thru the winter, just a thought

 

If you look at what I posted Moley, you will see that I was talking about 2011.

 

Not that adds anything to this debate, 2012 was a pretty terrible year for me. I had a life threatening illness in February, which took me 6 months to recover from, and my wife suffered 12 strokes over a period of 5 weeks in June and July.

 

After a long period of time off work to recover from my own illness, and then sort out the wife, I was faced with a waspless summer (like many others). In effect, it nearly broke me, but luckily, my customers are loyal and have stood by me.

 

In 2011, I was employing another technician, and turned over 125k. 2012 was terrible, but I should still top 60k in total, moles making up 20 - 30k of that figure.

 

So in short, that is why I'm currently skint and driving around in an old van.

 

The fact is, if I don't average over a certain figure per day then the business looses money. If the business is loosing money, then it doesn't make sense to carry on working your fingers to the bone in the cold and wet and effectively paying for it.

 

All this 'our farmers wouldn't pay that' is silly. If they won't pay, then don't do it. Simples.

 

Is it the same for other things in the North? Do people insist on only paying half the going rate for builders or appliance repair? Is the insurance, fuel, stamps etc half the cost in the north? Do the farmers in the north only get half of the EU subsidy?

 

No, of course not.

 

So why, oh why, do molecatchers think that they can't get a reasonable living wage for doing the same work?

[Matt 160]

Just to add another thought to all of this..........

 

In 1920, a moleskin was worth the equivalent of £16.25. Mole catchers still charged farmers a token fee for each mole caught, but made most of their money from the skins.

 

Today skins are virtually worthless. Are some farmers still expecting to pay the 'token fee'? Thoughts?..............

 

I know that if I could get anything over £5 for a skin, I'd be a very happy bunny, and would gladly revise my pricing structure.......

[paulus 26]

Just to add another thought to all of this..........

 

In 1920, a moleskin was worth the equivalent of £16.25. Mole catchers still charged farmers a token fee for each mole caught, but made most of their money from the skins.

 

Today skins are virtually worthless. Are some farmers still expecting to pay the 'token fee'? Thoughts?..............

 

I know that if I could get anything over £5 for a skin, I'd be a very happy bunny, and would gladly revise my pricing structure.......

i couldnt even get the ferrets to eat them

[torchey 1,282]

6 months of illness and probably the worst year for pest control for a long time and still turning over 60k well done