Should I give bids/estimates at no charge?
I have seen mixed feelings on this topic and I would love to hear some opinions from successful business owners here.
Forum Discussion
We have been struggling with this topic as well. We are an electrical contracting company, out of Sonoma County, CA, for reference.
For residential customers, we have started charging for the estimate, usually about $150, and then if they move forward with the work, we discount the quoting fee at the end of the job.
If it is a general contractor who does bigger jobs, we will often give them 3 free quotes, and if they don't book a job with us within those free quotes, we start charging for quotes, and again discounting the quoting fee at the end of the job.