Install 20 cams and quote

[cesecure 0]

Hello, i was asked to install a camera system for a 2000sqft quick mart store. The customer wants 5 outdoor cams and 15 indoor.He wants to be able to record for up to 3-4 months and have audio recording indoor. Seems excessive to me but the more the merrier for me $.. I planned to use UNV Ip cam system. 32ch POE NVR 32GB hdd. I quoted him at a little over $7500usd total, equipment costing a little over $5000-5500usd. can anyone tell me if my quote or plan for the system couldve been improved? thanks.

 

edit: the customer told me someone quoted him at $2000usd for install and equipment. its kind of hard to believe even if they got a swan or lorex system..

[the toss 0]

Sometimes when people try that trick you need to call their bluff. That is a fairly big job & if your not going to make anything from it you'd be better off staying in bed

[cesecure 0]

you're right but at the same time my mother always said " only **s make money from bed " lol

[Boogieman 1]

you're right but at the same time my mother always said " only **s make money from bed " lol

20 cams installed for 2k? leave the guy your card so he can call you when the other guy runs off with his money..

[jeromephone 6]

not knowing the store layout and type of camera etc it is kind of hard to comment but I would say your quote is none too high. Wiring, working around customers, and store equipment all add time to the project. training time etc . You need to try and break every labor task down as far as you can. How long does it take you to terminate a jack or put and end on a cable. How long does it take to mount and focus a camera. How long is it going to take to run wire? What labor rate are you using ? Is it comparable to other contractors and is it enough.?

[cesecure 0]

not knowing the store layout and type of camera etc it is kind of hard to comment but I would say your quote is none too high. Wiring, working around customers, and store equipment all add time to the project. training time etc . You need to try and break every labor task down as far as you can. How long does it take you to terminate a jack or put and end on a cable. How long does it take to mount and focus a camera. How long is it going to take to run wire? What labor rate are you using ? Is it comparable to other contractors and is it enough.?

 

Thanks...Training time, working around customers etc. Little stuff like that are really good points to consider. That will probably be my next question in next post.

[Magic of Philly 0]

Hello, i was asked to install a camera system for a 2000sqft quick mart store. The customer wants 5 outdoor cams and 15 indoor.He wants to be able to record for up to 3-4 months and have audio recording indoor. Seems excessive to me but the more the merrier for me $.. I planned to use UNV Ip cam system. 32ch POE NVR 32GB hdd. I quoted him at a little over $7500usd total, equipment costing a little over $5000-5500usd. can anyone tell me if my quote or plan for the system couldve been improved? thanks.

 

edit: the customer told me someone quoted him at $2000usd for install and equipment. its kind of hard to believe even if they got a swan or lorex system..

 

Your quoted price is good but not for an IP camera job, but for an HD-TVI instead.

 

You see? 20 quality reliable IP cameras are going to cost you plus the 32 CH NVR big time, good Poe switch hubs, etc.

 

Here is my proposal idea: buy 20 HD TVI 1080P 0.01 Lux 2.8mm to 12mm motorized zoom varifocal brand: KT&C or HiKVision. Each of these cameras can be had for $68 each at a good supply house, a 32 CH HD-TVI DVR for 350 and each 4TB WD Purple hard drive for $120 you will need 4 of these hard drive for a total of 16 TB, Sure you can skimp on the hard drive but then you will have to skimp on the bitrate to ensure satisfactory number of days of recordings, I would rather just install the four 4TB hard drives and then pick a reasonable bitrate.

 

You will need a 40 A 32 CH CCTV Power Distribution box or get two 20 Amps 16 CH power dist. Box if you can't find the 32ch 40A one. The 32 one shall cost $90 and the 16 one $45

 

A 500' RG59 Siamese cables runs at $50. There are 1,000 ft rolls too. HD TVI can go up to 1,000 Ft. In one cable run much better than Ethernet's 328 ft max and then having to deal with intermediate switches.

 

You will need BNC heads plus male DC plugs for the cameras and one Ethernet cable for the DVR.

 

Here would be your total investment:

$68 Cameras x 20 = $1360

32 CH HD TVI DVR = $350

4TB HDD x 4 = 480

500'RG59 Siamese x 8 = $400

Power Dist Box x 1 = $90

BNC Heads x 40 = $40

DC Plug, male x 20 = $10

Ethernet cable x 1 = $5

Total Investment $2735 and the customer will be left with a setup he will really like. You will charge $7500 therefore your profits would be: $4765 I have doubled your profits. If the customer doesn't want to pay you what an IP camera setup is worth then give them a TVI setup the customer wins in getting name brand quality full HD cameras and a name brand DVR and you win more profit.

 

*I would ever in my wildest dreams agree to install 20 cameras to earn a profit of only $2000, I would rather stay asleep.

 

**You shot yourself on your foot when you told your customer the job is $7500 when you knew your IP equipment would cost you $5500, You should have quoted your customer $11,000 which is double your investment, why? You are not only charging for installation, you are reselling the equipment to your customers, if you invested say $200 on a camera, you would want to resell that camera to $300 and on top of that charge for installation plus materials. I have seen that mistake being made by lots of installer, pretty much giving away the cameras and materials at exactly their costs and only charging for installation, that's loss profit, you know that you had to drive to your supply house to buy everything, you had to spend your time plus gas money, all that is compensable activities, so plan to make at least a 1.5x profit on the costs of your merchandise AND charge for installation.

 

When you go to home depot to but a book shelf that requires assembly and then you contract them to come over to install/build the book shelf for you, you don't see them all of a sudden selling you their book shelf for exactly what they paid their supplier just because they are going to charge you an installation fee to build it.

[jeromephone 6]

Many installers have no real picture of their costs. They as the other poster said you have to make a profit on your material and labor. Every miniute you are in business their is an something eating and it has to be fed no matter what. Insurance. rent, wages, cost of capital, truck expense, equipment, all these things are real and do not go away when you try to work below your costs. Another thing to consider is warranty and other call backs. I have yet to install a system that does not require some tweaking within a couple of weeks of install. Customer forget how to do playback, camera 4 needs to look a little to the left, forgot a password. etc Can you charge for this? basically a judgement call but the point is you will have things to deal with for the life of the equipment and the business needs to have the people to handle it as needed.

[Sentience Security S 0]

We wouldn’t do that job for a dime under 12k. You wayyyyy underbid that for IP. Like the other guy suggested, go with TVI. I’m assuming this is probably a red dot special though and will end up being the install from hell...