Am I charging too much or not enough? Opinions, please!

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keeperscottage

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As some of you may know, I work as a freelance groom. I was recommended to a friend of one of my "regulars" who asked me to look after her three horses and two ponies Boxing Day evening, the whole of the 27th December, plus the whole of New Years Day. I told her my usual charging rate was £10 per hour, although I was charging time and a half over the Christmas period as well as New Years Day. This woman lives about 20 minutes drive from where I live and expected me to attend her yard THREE times on the 27th. This was my workload:-

Boxing Day evening : Bring in three horses, pick out feet(rugs thankfully not changed!), move two ponies from arena to small yard and pick up any droppings in arena BY HAND (no forks or whatever!).

27th : Feed three horses, turn them out onto yard, hang up six haynets for them, muck out three stables, fill water trough in yard, turn ponies out into arena, give them hay, fill up water.

Lunchtime: Check horses, refill haynets and give ponies more hay. Check water.

Evening : Bring horses in, feed, clear dropping from yard, sweep yard, make up haynets and feeds for next morning, put ponies back in their small yard (after clearing small yard of droppings and sweeping up), fill water, give them more hay, pick up droppings from arena (BY HAND, of course!!).

Almost forgot, go into house and feed cats morning and evening.

New Years Day - as above but only two visits since she wanted the horses brought in at 3pm.

Boxing Day evening seems easy enough, only neighbours had fireworks and two of the horses flipped, one bursting out of stable and one trying to come over the door.

In all, I spent an hour there Boxing Day evening (due to fireworks) which at time and a half is £15.

Morning of the 27th took about two hours - £20.

Lunchtime visit - half an hour (but not worth charging less than £10 as total of 40 minutes travelling!) - £10.

Evening visit about an hour - £10.

Total of £55 for the four visits.

New Years Day - morning took about 2 hours at time and a half - £30.

Evening - at least at hour at time and a half - £15.

Total of £45 for two visits.

Grand total - £100 for 6 visits.

I'm sure she's going to kick at this amount, but each visit entailed twenty minutes travelling each way, ie, a total of four hours travelling over the whole period.

She hasn't asked me yet how much she owes me and I feel I want to reduce the price since I'm sure she's going to explode, but there really was a lot to do - lots of fiddly things, if you know what I mean!

What do you think? Too much, just right, or not enough?
 
IMO I would say thaat was a bargain. I would be charging for travelling time as well. If she had to get a firm of pet/horse sitters in it would have cost far more.
 
Phew! Thanks for that! I wouldn't worry so much but for the fact that she's a really good friend of a "regular" of mine! Don't want to upset her! On the other hand.......I spent an awful lot on petrol!
 
It may sound a lot in one go, but why not do a time sheet?

Dificult to chrage for drive time and costs if you did not mention it before - but certialy list the hours spent at the ayrd, inc fireworks sitting time.
And take a shavings fork or ask her to get scoop of the arena!.She must have a shovel or fork there somewhere?
 
Sounds fair to me - esp as unsocial days. Our freelance groom charges double for those days round Xmas etc.
 
Sounds fair to me - esp as unsocial days. Our freelance groom charges double for those days round Xmas etc. If she was really that bothered about price she would have tried to pin you down to an amount before booking you..be firm if she does try to knock you down!
 
You decide what you charge, not your customers. If I was you I'd drop her an 'invoice' in friendly letter detailing what you did, just like you have in your thread with a 'note at the bottom saying that it was time and ½ due to Christmas cover. Assuming you want her custom again, tell her that you are happy to help her whenever. If she didn't ask how much you were charging then it's her fault.
 
I would say why and break it down a bit on paper, then she can't quibble; mention the fireworks and that you had to hang on a bit, etc.

She'll appreciate the help and professionalism.

Sounds a bit hard, no poop fork, etc and three visits all that way, surely she'll know that. I would.
 
Yes, I thought about sending her an invoice detailing what I'd done. She knew my charges from the outset, including the enhanced rates for the Christmas and New Year period. There really was so much to remember, it wasn't a case of simply going in and mucking out! Her house is on the market, so I certainly don't see her as a possible "regular"!

Right, I've decided......I'm not going to reduce the amount (like I said, I spent a total of four hours travelling!) and if I charged mileage at the rate I was paid when I worked in an office (50p per mile), I'd be charging her £48 just for travelling!!!! I did a good job and I deserve to be paid for it!
 
Forgot to mention that she seemed very surprised when I told her how upset the horses had been over the fireworks.....said neighbour had had fireworks before and horses weren't bothered! Well, I did NOT imagine that two of them became somewhat frenzied!!!
 
But you did not tell her about travel costs, you told her £15 an hour.
I;d work it out to something like £98 , and hope /expect that she gives you the £100 for a job well done.
 
No, I'm NOT charging her for travel costs, I was just pointing out that if I was charging her at the rate my ex-employers used to pay their staff, I would be charging her £48! I'm actually not charging her anything for travelling!
 
In that case she is very lucky- if you do hers again, I'd add in true fuel costs, and something for travel time.

Employee car use fig are usaully more than true cost, so that epole will use their own cars for buisness journeys- ours are only 34p a mile.
 
LOL I asked one of my girls to do New Years Day morning either 8 till 12 or 9 till 1pm. I said she would be paid through her wages for the day as if it was a public holiday but would also pay double time cash if she could manage to work the 1/2 day. Guess what. NO
That would have worked out to be £100 (£50 cash in hand) for 1/2 days work. Think I am doing something wrong here.
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(love her to bits though) !!!!
 
So, basically, you don't think I'm charging over the top then? I really had to laught to myself when she insisted that any droppings in the arena were picked up "by hand" not via a muck scoop or chippings fork! Forget to mention that the muck heap had to be "stepped", not just chucked up willy-nilly!
 
I don't think your charges are over the top. Have you just started doing this? If so, then you quickly need to become familiar and comfortable with your costs/charges etc. You can't be charging some people one figure and then charging others another figure. These are your costs; people know this before they take you on therefore I can't see why you are so worried....don't be.
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As to what an owner asks you to do for this money, well it is none of ours or anyone else's business - this is how the owner likes it done, you agreed to it, end of story.
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my yard charged 50 a day without any nonsense. i would provide a time sheet broken down - surely no one would object to someone working on xmas day!
 
I would say that is fairly cheap for prices round here.

Most freelances charge £7 - £7.50 an hours for regulars and more for 'one offs' I also pay £5 a visit for travelling.

Over the Xmas period you can pretty much name your price. I have just been away for 8 days which I know will cost me around £400 (£45 a day, staying overnight and doing the neds, dog, cat, chickens etc)
 
Well, the other thing to do is to break it all down...

So, say you're working for someone on a busy yard, someone else comes up and says "Oh, you're a freelance groom...how much would you charge me to..."

Feed a horse (feed already prepared) - £1?
Turn out a horse - £2?
Change rugs - £2?
Pick out feet.. £2?
and so on...which, to be fair, is a system you get on most livery yards...

See how much that comes to. In my mind, as a rough estimate, yours works out about the same or cheaper!! If she doesn't want to pay that much, then she need to learn that the horses come first all year round!!
 
IMO I would say that is extremely reasonable for all the work you did and if I were her, would happily pay the amount without so much as a query. As Tia said, she knew the charges before she took you on so it shouldn't be a problem
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It sounds fine to me. When we go away we have a lady to do my horse who charges £15 per visit - so that would be £90 for six visits. It's probably 45min work in the morning and 30min in the evening, plus travel time, so I think you're offering a bargain.
 
That sounds fine to me, but you could use the well worn trick of charging her a bit more, say £120, then when she complains, offer, grudgingly to reduce it to £100. She'll jump at that, hopefully!!
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Good luck!!
 
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