I’ve just come from quoting at a restaurant. The owner needed some tiling done. He had a large sheet of ‘tile’ that needed to be cut neatly into 8 correctly sized new tiles, which would then be glued over the place where old tiles had fallen off. This, like most Handyman jobs, required time, tools and knowledge.

He must have told me 5 times how quick and easy the job would be, forgetting that I had to effectively 'build' 8 tiles. Maybe he thought he could hypnotize me into agreeing, so I would give a low quote.

After years of practice I have a general idea of how long most jobs should take ... but I'm often wrong. 'Unforeseen circumstances' crop up a lot. And because I give a fixed written quote (rather than an hourly rate) my clients don't have to worry about me taking a bit longer.

Not surprisingly my quote didn't fit into the restaurant owners fantasy time scale so we parted ways.

But I’ve kept his number in case I ever need to tell my mechanic or dentist or accountant how long they should take to do their jobs.

When people ask me this I tell; them I don’t have one.

What you really want to know is how much your job will cost to do/fix.

I once hired an electrician who had the cheapest hourly rate in Mosman. Guess what? He was also the slowest in Mosman … and not very good either. I spent the whole time looking at my watch.

It's far better to get me (or any tradie) to quote upfront in writing. That way you know exactly what the job will cost and you can say yes or no, then relax.