# Raising my rate



## jason72081 (Jun 9, 2012)

Just curious in people's opinion. Been in the trade for 15 years and consider myself a well above average quality carpenter. I'm thinking of raising my hourly rates to x per hr. just curious of what others are getting.


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## donerightwyo (Oct 10, 2011)

I would raise your rates till you run out of work and then back it up enough to stay busy:thumbsup:


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## renov8r (Feb 16, 2013)

Try it out for a while. See how it goes. I've been in the similar situation. What I do when I bid on jobs is I start off with my new rate and that way I have some wiggle room if I get haggled. Some jobs people understand and say yes and I make a little extra profit margin.


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## dom-mas (Nov 26, 2011)

You can only charge what the market in your area can bear. The rate that a carpenter makes in SoCal will be drastically different than one makes in Maine. Or maybe not (probably lots of illegals in SoCal), but you get the idea

I've known guys who raised their rate and got more work at the higher rate than they did at the lower rate and I've known others who raised their rate and the phone stopped ringing. There's a reason that pricing questions (and really this is a pricing question) are not answered here. You need to charge what you need to charge, you can't go broke just to work.


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## Jaws (Dec 20, 2010)

Sorry, Jason, but dont use actual rates in the thread.


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## Warren (Feb 19, 2005)

Jaws said:


> Sorry, Jason, but dont use actual rates in the thread.


Looks like you only edited out a single digit.
Was his rate $9 an hour?:laughing:


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## tgeb (Feb 9, 2006)

Warren said:


> Looks like you only edited out a single digit.
> Was his rate $9 an hour?:laughing:


Pay attention,


jason72081 said:


> I'm thinking of *raising* my hourly rates to x per hr.


It could be worse than you imagined....


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## Snobnd (Jul 1, 2008)

donerightwyo said:


> I would raise your rates till you run out of work and then back it up enough to stay busy:thumbsup:


That line of thinking works for me.

But remember you're not selling your rate your selling your skill set...... Prove to your customer that you're worth it..... Then the job should start rolling in.


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