Marquee Hire - long term

[dwents]

I used to work for a marquee firm which I bought all the equipment when they retired I never played any part in quoting when I worked for them So its all been a big learning curve I have just had a client wanting to know about prices for long term hire ie put up once take down once over say a month anybody help with how best to quote for that lets assume its a marquee worth £3,500 for a one off event and they want it for 4 weeks also any advice if say it was 3-4 months

 

Ps I mentioned to Mods about a dedicated section for marquee just like sound and lighting as there is no forum for marquees I can find on the web they said if enough people used the blue room for marquee type questions they would consider a dedicated section so please post away.

 

Dean

[Calder]

Dwents

 

How about calling the people up who you bought the equipment from and ask them for some advice?

 

C.

[Pete McCrea]

Equipment works on a 3 day week, 3 week month typically....

[dwents]

Hi Guys

The previous company are not a lo of help with things like this ?

So am I right in saying you would chage for 3 weeks even though its being used for 4 weeks is that typical for marquees or dry hire pa / lighting as although they are the same kind of business im trying to compete with other ompanies on a like for like basis

[cfmonk]

Hi Dwents,

 

Our policy is that we charge our single hire rate for the first week / weekend and then 50% for each week after that.

 

Seems to work for us!

 

Chris

[ramdram]

Can I suggest the old competitive shopping routine? Simply ring up all the suppliers in your area and get an idea of the price spread.

 

Obviously you know your kit better than "we" do so ask for a quote on what you have as if a dry hire etc etc .

 

Then, ask about the "extras" such as linings, lighting, dance floor, seating, tables, bar, disco, stage, power distro etc etc.

 

Find out if the fire extinguishers are supplied and, with thanks to cfmonk from an earlier thread, insist you will be including fire exits according to whatever the regs stipulate and thats the end of argument on that issue.

 

Check out the insurance...ie, you do it and pass it on to the client or, if they do it, get a copy for your protection. As in if the client manages to burn down your source of income...who pays loss of earnings for how long, and /or the replacement/repair, of ALL the stuff supplied, say.

 

Quite a bit to do but you may then be in a position to offer "extras" and clean up...?

[kerry davies]

Hi Dean;

This seems like a request for business advice and people should be reluctant to provide that. Not being personal but there seem to be a lot of threads and topics asking where to source things like services and equipment, how to run elements of a business and associated topics lately. It's a bit like asking a production manager if one can photostat his "little black book" to obtain the contacts he has built up over years in the business and how he makes his money.

 

One of the reasons why there is no MUTA forum like the BR is because of this, why should they tell their competitors how to run a business, what charges to make or what prices they pay to suppliers and contractors? Some of that is down to "commercial confidence" whereby I agree a price with each of my suppliers and clients individually and keep that information to myself. Some of it is simple business acumen as every job and every client demands a different approach. I am not "selling" the same thing to the same customer any two days in a row, or purchasing for that matter.

 

The other side of the coin is that, as a competitor, I could easily tell you to charge twice what I would so that I get the job. Is that devious or "not personal, just business", as the Soprano's would say?

 

I am not especially happy that BR seems to be moving away from a technical forum, but everyone knows I'm a miserable old git, so what do others think?

[David Lee]

Kerry, it is a tricky one to draw the line.

 

Many of us are self employed as this is the best business model (There are only so many full time posts in this industry - and even less that pay well). This means that we need advice on operating as a business such as what to do about late payments, tax advice and insurance to say the least. Very few of us are business men/ women or entrpreneurs, we do it because we enjoy the job and want to make a living out of it.

 

There are, of course, others places to get this information but this is a good place to pool the resources available for the arts/ entertainment industry and its quirks and percularities. - This id what the Office section does so well.

 

I agree that when it comes down to questions of "how much to charge for..." or "should I buy xxx bit of kit" then a little research in your competitors and a review of your costs are far more useful than an open question on an open forum.

 

The other side of the coin is that, as a competitor, I could easily tell you to charge twice what I would so that I get the job. Is that devious or "not personal, just business", as the Soprano's would say?

 

So true.

 

Hope that makes sense.

[cfmonk]

Hi Kerry,

 

There are plenty of technical parts of the forum. This is "The Office" section. I would say people are free to ask and some of us are happy to share some of the information (by no means all of it) that we hold. My pricing schedule is not a trade secret, dwents could quite easily have emailed me from a hotmail account asking me to provide him with a detailed quote for the equipment he is providing to his clients over the period the client wants it. I would have then wasted an hour or so putting the quote together and providing him with a lot more information about my business than my reply above did. Who knows, if I help dwents out with a bit of our knowledge every now and then, I might get a bit of work out of it (possibly a lot of furniture hire work), or he could lend me some seat pads when I discover that for no reason I can still work out we are exactly 15 down on Burgundy!

 

Cheers,

 

Chris

[dwents]

Hi Guys I appreciate all the comments and I'm not asking people to give away stuff they don't want

My reason for asking on here was to try and grasp a feel for a price structure like it's been said I'd rather be upfront and ask on here

than send random emails wasting peoples time and money preparing a quote to get same answer?

 

what would the forum be like if everytime someone asked " anyone know why my mac 250 keeps going thermal " if all the answers came as send it to me I charge £25 hour plus parts and I'll tell you !!! we would have no forum.

 

I asked the mods about a marquee section as I cant find a dedicated forum for marquees I'm sure someone will and do very well out of it.

I feel it lends it self well to the blue room as a whole as we often require stages, lighting , power etc and I feel it would be good to keep it all together and I'm sure the Techs will at some point want to ask us a few questions

 

for the record cfmonk we have lots of seat pads with the covers in Burgendy (ps if you see my fifteeen missing black ones let me know) I'll bell you soon and have a chat about furniture

promise not to stick a gun to your head and demand information

[paulears]

The office was specifically provided so that the business - despite being boring and dull - can be discussed. The best bit about the forum is that once demand for a section is proven, only those with an interest need to read it. There are a couple of areas I never read, let alone post in - and this is fine.

 

 

The only thing that often concerns me about long-term hires is not having the kit available for short ones! I do a reasonable amount of video work and although I've got Standard Definition professional type cameras, I kept getting enquiries for HD versions of the same kit. I ummed and aahed for months, getting to almost making the order, and then another new version appeared. In the end I made the decision, and it got added to the kit list and advertised. I've not had a chance to even use it - somebody asked for a quote for a long term hire, and I offered quite a low figure based on a decent return, and the expectation that a manufacturers guarantee of 5 years really meant what it suggested. I've had more requests for the usual day/week hires since then, and turning this away, at the higher rate is annoying. So much so - I've removed the camera from the kit list. The admittedly back of a cereal packet calculations I've done still suggest I'm better off with the long term rental business, but it's close. With the marquee hire - I'd advise to be wary of being too cheap, because you're taking the thing off the market for longer, and unless you can sub another in economically, it could earn you less. Probably not - but worth keeping in mind.

[Jivemaster]

The three pricing schedules are;

based on your competitors' prices

Based on your calculated costs + a bit

Based on what you think you can get for the sale or service.

 

Most quotes are partly based on bits of all three.

 

 

In your case the capital is working and the installation staff are not. The marquee stays aired and gets dirty rain on it without getting washed.

[kerry davies]

Points taken and accepted. Still a bit worried that newbies, in particular, might be encouraged to dive in before they are ready and indemnity questions still concern me. No problems with general advice on self-employment, tax status, insurers etc but things like pricing and sourcing are often based on personal contacts and hard-earned experience.

 

However, Dean, one model to look at for extended hire is what the really big companies do and charge the trade sale price for the marquee. If you erect a marquee for a couple of months it is out of action for however many weeks/weekends hire availability, linings will need cleaning at regular intervals, carpets renewing as necessary, maintenance checks carried out on a scheduled basis, sheeting will almost certainly need a thorough clean at the end of hire, the question of insurance needs sorting and a tentmaster needs to be on call at all times for emergencies. Working this all out on a piecemeal basis is too much hassle for them so they bundle it up as capital cost and swallow the revenue expenditure. It is nearly always within a few percent of that piecemeal figure anyway when one considers the infrastructure and manpower costs they incur.

 

In this specific month long hire I would charge them for the four weeks you mention, highlighting the services like cleaning, call-out etc and offer a discount for advance/prompt payment or whatever T's and C's like deposits you want for this gig. It really does all depend on relationships past, present and future with each particular client.

[sking]

dwents - we used to charge exactly the same way as Chris said above, standard charge for the first weekend, 50% for each weekend thereafter.

If it was just a few days extra then we'd charge 10% per day.

If it was long term (few months+) then I'd want to charge enough to buy the marquee new. That way it's not affecting your usual hire stock and you get to keep it afterwards.

We'd include a weekly inspection in the price.

 

Spencer

[cfmonk]

Interesting thoughts on the buying it new pricing. I don't think we would get any business if we tried to charge that for our long term stuff.

 

Kerry you make some good points about the ongoing costs. I usually say we will pop in every week to check on things and if they want matting cleaned or linings changed then they pay the full hire price again for those costs. We always have somebody on call whenever a tent is out anyways so there is not much extra cost associated with that.

 

Spencer: Welcome to the forum, nice to see another tent chap here. I'll also reply to your email about using my article on licences on your site just the now.

 

Chris