New Mole Pricing

[Rowan 308]

Many moons ago I charged for each mole caught , but changed to pricing per visit , no arguments then over the amount of moles caught . Some people believe you always have one in your pocket or just don't believe you when you phone them up with a caught total .

 

The only reason i'm thinking of changing is there are a couple of companies ! around here charging £40 every mole and one well known Lady charging £60 a mole , WOW...

 

If I could charge any where near these prices I could make more for the same work , time for an Awld dog to learn some new pricing strategies.

[Torquemada 288]

I just give a total price based on the job, with a time limit, bearing in mind that most of the time there will be 2 or 3 moles maximum per garden. Commercial customers pay through the nose.

[Pirate 9000 676]

Last season l caught the moles for a large estate it took four weeks, the bill was a thousand pound,when I told a old farm worker on the estate he said when is father was a mole catcher he was paid a shilling and a horse shit sandwich a week, thank god things have changed.

[Rowan 308]

Last season l caught the moles for a large estate it took four weeks, the bill was a thousand pound,when I told a old farm worker on the estate he said when is father was a mole catcher he was paid a shilling and a horse shit sandwich a week, thank god things have changed.

Now that's decent money , not the shilling , although the sandwich sounds tasty. . All my work at the moment is per visits , with domestic gardens priced at a maximum of setting plus 3 visits , if i'm still catching after the 3rd its then per visit until finished. Saying that there is the rare occasion , that after the 3rd I've still caught nothing,, , yes it does happen, but thankfully very rarely indeed....When this may happen because I've priced the job I give them a maximum of 3 more visits if needed , you win most , but loose rarely....

 

I may just be getting greedy after all these years , like some of the , dare I say , ex other trades starting out are.

[Phil Lloyd 10,738]

Good to see lads charging a realistic price for their services....

Mole catching is not some long lost art,..of course not, but, it does require a particular knack and a sympathetic feel for the job...so,...trappers , whilst understanding the market and not demanding a fee that is simply not practical,.. , should always strive to price themselves sensibly...

After all,.we are professionals...

 

I have been extremely fortunate,...(lucky perhaps),...and I am now, fully booked,.. until the end of February.. I cannot take on any more trapping jobs,..and more work is coming in every day....

 

Best wishes to all my fellow trappers,.it is going to be a bumper year

Edited November 20, 2016 by Phil Lloyd

[Rowan 308]

Thanks Phil , great to hear your busy too , I must admit I've made a decent living from set pricing for my jobs . Perhaps it may be prudent to carry on regardless.

[tilimangro 1,013]

I now charge a set price for each job and price accordingly for each job

I got caught out a few times

Farm work i price or tenner a mole depending which I think is more realistic

[trappa 518]

Domestics i charge a set rate for three visits, farms i charge by the hour. I know charging per mole is probably going to reap me more money but i think per hour is better suited to me so both me and customer knows exactly where we stand.

[Rowan 308]

Domestics i charge a set rate for three visits, farms i charge by the hour. I know charging per mole is probably going to reap me more money but i think per hour is better suited to me so both me and customer knows exactly where we stand.

Definitely , just can't get my head around some people charging £ 40 a mole and one Lady charges £60 , how can you ask all that and keep a straight face , it beggars belief. Why oh why are people going to her .

[torchey 1,328]

If they can get that sort of money good luck to them

[tilimangro 1,013]

 

 

Domestics i charge a set rate for three visits, farms i charge by the hour. I know charging per mole is probably going to reap me more money but i think per hour is better suited to me so both me and customer knows exactly where we stand.

Definitely , just can't get my head around some people charging £ 40 a mole and one Lady charges £60 , how can you ask all that and keep a straight face , it beggars belief. Why oh why are people going to her .

tgats cheap for the south east

[comanche 3,027]

One chap I know has charges that start at £65 a mole even for local jobs . If he gets two the customer pays £130. After I'd choked I asked if he was busy. His answer was"No but at my prices I don't need to be."

Clearly a chap with a hard head for business.And a better house and car than me!

Hearing this spurred me to ease my prices up a little with a clear concience.If someone baulks I have no problem suggesting they phone round for other quotes knowing that its likely they'll come across Mr£65.

Actually ,assuming he factors each job at three visits his pricing is probably quite mild. How many other tradesmen would turn-up for £21.60 a visit?

If a plumber comes round and pops-in a tap washer or condemns a washing machine to the scrap-heap after a two minute inspection his customer might mutter darkly but still expect to pay a call-out charge that would have my £65 a time mole-catcher thinking he was in the wrong business.

Sadly for me I can't make myself think like that. I have regular local customers that get a jolly good deal because I hate driving too far and can usually work out a fuel and time friendly round. I earn what I need and customers don't get too hot under the collar about the price of calling me back when another mole moves-in two weeks later.Treat the locals well and they spread the word to other locals . The first time I checked the books after having made the decision to drop the trips to distant lands in search of moles income was down and I had doubts about my business plan. But then I moved-on to "Out-goings"and realised that any loss of income was more than cancelled-out by smaller petrol bills,not to mention the time spent in traffic jams and fending-off the "while you are here" jobs that put a chap behind for the rest of the week and eat into the free time..

It's very easy to be a busy fool if you don't get pricing right but what someone charges for mole-catching comes down to what they need to make it personally worthwhile rather than what everyone else is charging

Edited November 21, 2016 by comanche

[unclepesta 101]

im near phil so im now charging 200 per mole now he's tied up lol

[Rowan 308]

Hi comanche , well worded words of wisdom , thanks for that , i guess we all would like less work for the same or more money , but satisfaction goes along way too.

[trappa 518]

One chap I know has charges that start at £65 a mole even for local jobs . If he gets two the customer pays £130. After I'd choked I asked if he was busy. His answer was"No but at my prices I don't need to be."

Clearly a chap with a hard head for business.And a better house and car than me!

Hearing this spurred me to ease my prices up a little with a clear concience.If someone baulks I have no problem suggesting they phone round for other quotes knowing that its likely they'll come across Mr£65.

Actually ,assuming he factors each job at three visits his pricing is probably quite mild. How many other tradesmen would turn-up for £21.60 a visit?

If a plumber comes round and pops-in a tap washer or condemns a washing machine to the scrap-heap after a two minute inspection his customer might mutter darkly but still expect to pay a call-out charge that would have my £65 a time mole-catcher thinking he was in the wrong business.

Sadly for me I can't make myself think like that. I have regular local customers that get a jolly good deal because I hate driving too far and can usually work out a fuel and time friendly round. I earn what I need and customers don't get too hot under the collar about the price of calling me back when another mole moves-in two weeks later.Treat the locals well and they spread the word to other locals . The first time I checked the books after having made the decision to drop the trips to distant lands in search of moles income was down and I had doubts about my business plan. But then I moved-on to "Out-goings"and realised that any loss of income was more than cancelled-out by smaller petrol bills,not to mention the time spent in traffic jams and fending-off the "while you are here" jobs that put a chap behind for the rest of the week and eat into the free time..

It's very easy to be a busy fool if you don't get pricing right but what someone charges for mole-catching comes down to what they need to make it personally worthwhile rather than what everyone else is charging

Im sat here arguing with myself (not a good sign) I mean on the one hand i totally agree with you that at £21 a visit for a trade (sort of ) is a steal, but on the other hand its rare to go three visits and catch one mole on the final visit. Now and again we have all pulled out many more than we had guessed would be there, i just couldnt look someone in the eye if they only lived a couple of miles away and Id charged them say £260 when i caught 4 moles, i dont honestly think i would sleep that night.

Anyway, good luck to him, it obviously suits him, and like you say, when they ring up him they are going to be straight back on the phone to you. Result !!!