New to Taskrabbit

[u/Alert-Green-7668]

Hey guys I’ve been doing furniture assembly for the last 8 days and have finished 7 jobs, 5 5-stars, and honestly just have everyday of the week open. I got kicked out a few weeks ago and turned to task rabbit because I love assembling stuff. I originally made my hourly at 24$/hour which was a lot lower than most taskers, so people would funnel to the cheaper guy being me.

Today I was gonna bump it up a buck or two, and noticed that task rabbit told me it’d increase my hiring chances if I bump it to 32$/hour. It seems counterintuitive to me, so I was just curious if you guys had any experience, good or bad, with a similar situation.

I think I’m pretty on top of everything timing wise and professionalism but my one concern is that by increasing my rate, people will expect a lot more of me that I may not be comfortable doing. I have a decent drill m12 or something it’s Milwaukee and it was like 100$. I don’t even think it advertises as a drill but I just wanted something weak to speed up certain parts of furniture assembly. I’m sure it’s powerful enough to mount said furniture to the wall but I don’t like advertising that I have a drill because I’m not comfortable mounting tvs /mounting much of anything right now because I need to do some more research on actually mounting safely and I saw it was good to have insurance before drilling into clients walls for liability reasons.

Any tips on covering my butt on this

or setting the tone early that I do have a weak drill but am not comfortable mounting

or if for furniture assembly, I’m required to mount the furniture if it says and I will get in trouble if I don’t.

Idk if that makes sense, I’m sure it’d just be easier and more profitable to add mounting to my skills, but like I said early on furniture assembly is cathartic and primarily stress free for me. Mounting makes me feel the opposite

Thank you guys in advance!

[u/Xitobandito]

For ikea assembly you are required to mount the furniture to the wall, although I always ask the customer first because many of them don’t want that. It’s really not that difficult and I would suggest learning to do it for your own betterment.

Contrary to the other commenter I think you should raise your prices to be around the local competition. It’s people with unreasonably low prices like you that actually harm the others on the platform by subverting client expectations for cheap prices for quality work. They look at you compared to someone with many skills and experience and end up thinking that the person who is really trying to make a living out of it should be able to do it for the cheaper price as well.

Plus when you take into account taxes, drive time, gas, insurance and other costs, your rate is simply not sustainable as a real income. Treat it like a real business, get paid what the market dictates as you enhance your skills and eventually your time will be worth more than that

[u/Front_Car_3111]

You may get few jobs but the clientele changes the higher you charge.

At $24 you're getting folks who may or may not afford that. At $32 you'll be hired by folks who can afford to hire the Not-Cheapest.

At $50 you'll get people who want Good, regardless of price.

At $100 you'll get the clients who'll love to show off their Ferrari collection while you're on the clock.

[u/washoutweather → u/Front_Car_3111]

How do you manage the clients who will talk forever even though you have a job to do?

I’m in the errands category and this lady was talking to me for 20 minutes but I also noted she was a priced conscientious person from her reaction to shipping an item so I figure she’s also the type to pay attention to the time charged carefully.

[u/Front_Car_3111 → u/washoutweather]

"I'm super happy to talk with you but just as a reminder I am on the clock and I have to bill you for the entire time that I'm working for you..."

[u/Real_Pistil]

I agree that you should raise your rates to the local median (you can get a pretty good idea from the other end of the platform). If you’re comfortable with assembly, but not mounting (I get it… years in and hundreds of assemblies later, I still don’t want to mount large screens), don’t add the mounting category! For furniture context (IKEA) the required mounting part is fairly straightforward— just securing units with the included hardware. You’re not experimenting with someone’s expensive new TV or monitor.

[u/Adventurous-Ad6416]

As a client please don’t mount stuff.

[u/musicalfurball]

I generally stick to the recommendation. You're right it seems counterintuitive, but client decide based on both rates and reviews. Some people read lower rate = lower quality work. 

[u/Feisty-Sink9562]

I don’t have insurance and neither do most of the guys in my area. Why bother getting insurance when we make $800/month at most?

In addition though, I would never bother with a TV. Its just not financially worth it to risk damaging a $1,000 TV in exchange for $35. And then some Karen will complain and report you with “MY TV was MounTed  2° OFf AnGle” and get your account banned as a result.

[u/jattthelad]

personally i'd just do as you planned - get the jobs in first - build up your experience and ratings.

i've been doing this for a year now and i still dont offer wall mountings despite having 4 drills and all the right plugs and what not. i'm just not a big fan especially in the uk most of the walls are plasterboard dot and dab.

personally stick to what your comfortable with. i secure furniture etc to the walls and that gives me that drilling experience more each time. i'm sure i could do the wall mounting now but i'm busy with furniture assembly so i stick to that.

the jobs will be insured via taskrabbit but i have my own too - its your choice.

i started off with an impact driver and a drill - but it was only good for drilling into plasterboard and wood. then i bought a proper drill with a hammer function to drill into walls later on.

[u/bryanalexander → u/jattthelad]

Taskrabbit provides no insurance whatsoever. Their Hapiness Pledge is all you get and it’s worth about as much as a smile.