Help with giving my boss a price.

[erock]

  So my boss has his first grandchild due in June.  Today, he asked me to build a high chair for the grandchild.  He has seen pictures of the one I built for
my sister.  So he knows I will do a good job.  The problem I am having is pricing it for him.  The maple and hardware will run around $150. 
IF I was to give him an hourly rate a $8 per hour (which to me seems very low) it would be $240 in labor.  I estimate it would take me 30 hours to build the
high chair.  That's a total of $390  [scared].

  After checking Amazon for prices.  I was a little shocked.  You can buy a high chair for $90. 

So should I tell him it would cost to much for me to build it? Or just give him the price and let him look at me like I'm crazy?

How should I handle this?

Thanks guys.

Eric

 

[peter halle]

I would ask him if he asked you because he knew that you would take the time to make it special for the family.  My guess is that is why he asked.  If he said that it was because he wanted something special or customized or not off the shelf, then you give him the price and tell him that you have discounted the labor way down to create something special, but if that is too high then he can find stuff on the web made by machines for far less.

He will pick you.

Peter

 

[waho6o9]

Give him the price and have him look at you like you're the professional you are.
He obviously knows the quality of your work and wants the best.  Otherwise, he would have hit enter and purchased the item on line.
You da Man Erock, congratulations.  [smile]

 

[JeromeM]

   So my boss has his first grandchild due in June.  Today, he asked me to build a high chair for the grandchild.  He has seen pictures of the one I built for
my sister.  So he knows I will do a good job.  The problem I am having is pricing it for him.   The maple and hardware will run around $150. 
IF I was to give him an hourly rate a $8 per hour (which to me seems very low) it would be $240 in labor.  I estimate it would take me 30 hours to build the
high chair.  That's a total of $390  [scared].

  After checking Amazon for prices.  I was a little shocked.   You can buy a high chair for $90. 

So should I tell him it would cost to much for me to build it? Or just give him the price and let him look at me like I'm crazy?

How should I handle this?
Thanks guys.
Eric

I would give him a price that gives you a fair return and let him decide. If he wants cheep he can get it. But yours is bespoke and should be priced to match that.
You can buy a suit for $100 but bespoke will go for $10,000

Your price of $390 is too low.

 

[semenza]

I agree with the others, he is asking you because he likes your work. Make it special, use some great looking wood, maybe an extra feature, curve or something.  A hand/custom made high chair is something that people want to be special and hand down over decades.  For a one of like this , you may need to discount the labor just to bring it into some realistic  sounding price, but $8 / hour is nuts. Unless you have no other jobs coming through the door, or you just want to do it to be nice.

Seth

 

[jacko9]

Erock,  $390 is way too low.  Quote him the same price as anyone else you sell to and let him decide if "custom made" furniture is something that he values. 

 

[erock]

Thanks guys.  I honestly think $390 is to low.  I guess the worst that could happen would be that he never asks me to build anything for him again.
I just know he is tight on the wallet.  But you get what you pay for right? 

I'm not scared to ask for a fair price.  I just didn't want to seem unreasonable. 

I will find out tomorrow. 

Thanks again.

Eric

 

[dltflt]

Just let them know what you want.  They asking because they want quality.  I did a very large picture frame for $400 and I probably could have gotten $800

 

[mouppe]

What would another craftsman charge for a similar piece of the same quality? That should be your price, less maybe 10% because you know the client personally.

 

[tiralie]

Here's my opinion.
I think you are in a tough position here and price is irrelevant.
Your boss could have bought any high chair for his grandchild and not said a word to you.
He's your boss and you work for him. This is unlikely to change in the near future unless of course you piss him off. I am sure he's a great guy but, he has some control over your lively hood and it put you a very difficult situation.
If you were not his employee you could negotiate with him. This is really not a client supplier relationship. Don't treat it like one.

Here's why I say this.
Having a good relationship with your boss is a good thing.
I am not saying sucking up or A kissing. I am saying building a good give and take relationship.
It appears you  have a good relationship with your boss and he values your work and trust you. .
If you charge him more than he thinks it's worth but agrees to the price to be polite he may be annoyed.
If however you give him a low price thinking he won't agree to a higher price, you will be pissed and feel used.
Negotiating a "fair" price may be possible but given you are asking us for advice I am assuming you are being cautious for a reason.
Unless your boss has prefaced your discussions about the highchair by saying "charge what you feel is a fair price" I wouldn't even consider this a situation you should be negotiating.
It's not fair but at least you can leverage it to your benefit by building the highchair for him making sure his granddaughter is safe.

Tim

 

[JeromeM]

Thanks guys.  I honestly think $390 is to low.  I guess the worst that could happen would be that he never asks me to build anything for him again.
I just know he is tight on the wallet.  But you get what you pay for right? 

I'm not scared to ask for a fair price.  I just didn't want to seem unreasonable. 

I will find out tomorrow. 

Thanks again.

Eric

How does your boss price the work of his company? I'll bet he goes for top dollar. So should you. He asked you. Price too low and that will be the value that he puts on it. Price high and that will be the perceived quality. As a side affect it will also increase your perceived value to him.

If he doesn't want to pay for quality he can get cheep Chinese mass produced disposable tat.

The biggest mistake most people make is low pricing. You should at least increase your price by 50% to 100% then if he really wants it you can afford to offer things like "free" customisation like engraved family name.

I'll bet he has the money.

 

[lino-man]

My thought is that your boss has asked you to build this because it will now serve as sort of a family heirloom. Every grandchild after that will sit in that chair, there chair he had custom built for his family. He specifically didn't buy the cheap one at walmart for that reason. So charge him an amount that compensates you properly. I am certain that he will tell everyone in the family that he paid to have it custom made.
I built my brother a baby changing table from maple as a gift for his first daughter. It was one of my first high end woodworking projects. When some years later my mom referred to it as a work of art I then realized the value everyone else had placed on it.
Jeff

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

 

[JPF Woodworking]

I totally agree with the opinions shared here. You are way low on your pricing. That said the one other comment I would like to add is that a "high chair" just like a "cradle" are very short lived in the life cycle of the growing child unless this is something that will get handed down. I have experienced building that heirloom piece only to see it sit in the attic for most of the time waiting for the next generation to appear. I say hold off and talk him into building a custom piece when the child gets a bit older. Might be a great way to gracefully bow out of this particular project request.....

Just a thought to consider....

Best of luck no matter what happens!

John

 

[Kev]

Give him three different sketches with three very different prices.

Give him options like finely sanded and oiled with "child safe" wood finish with additional material, time and $ detail.

Put the problem back on him - in a nice and polite way, as you're going to the extra effort of providing options.

This will give you back control of the situation and make you feel less inclined to run away to Alaska !

This provides you with a non challenging way of prensenting the real effort you need to expend.

 

[erock]

Thanks for the help guys.

Well, I gave my boss a price of $550.  He thought about it for the day.  And at the end of the day and a phone call with his wife, they want to skip the high chair and have me build a butcher block island on casters for the wife.

He is worried that his daughter would not take care of the high chair and after a couple months it would be destroyed.  She just turned  18. 
If they new more grand kids would be in the near future, he would have me build the high chair.  But, I guess this grand child is very much unplanned!

I was going to charge him $20 an hour.
He actually thought I should be charging $75 an hour !  [eek]  Other customers of coarse. 

As for the butcher block island,  he and his wife are going to get some pics together and try to come up with some kind of idea as too what they want.

So it looks like some kind of job is going to come out of this. 

He knows my work.  And has told me that he knows I'm worth it. 

Again, thanks for the input guys.  This forum is filled with a bunch of great guys.

Here is a pic of the high chair I built for my sister about 5 years ago.  It's  not the best pic,  but for some reason the only one I could find.
[attachthumb=#]

Eric