ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Making Money

Welcome to the forum Pat.

The timestamps on the messages are all EST/EDT, so a 1 a.m. timestamp is only 10 p.m. for the guys out in the far West.

But we do keep some odd hours anyway, and you find my message posted at what appear to be all sorts of odd times. Oh, and where I am it's about 7:20 p.m. right now, just to confuse matters even more!

I figured out the "time thing" in the truck this morning,(coffee must have been a little weak) but didn't want to turn around just to edit my erroneous post.
I pay my guys (and myself) $25 per hour. If you add up all the lost time in traffic, going to the supply house, set up, clean-up, vacations, doctor's appointments and on and on ---- you only get about 1400 hours of billable time per year for each tech. Even less for me because I do all the estimating, scheduling, billing, permits and going to put that last 5-gang switch plate on so the customer will pay us.
Pay out for GAS!!, trucks, insurance, cell phones,FICA, workman's comp etc. and no matter how Getelectric slices my pie, my bank account is still hungry.
Getelectric,
If you made enough money to retire after 10 years in business, PLEASE join the business chat tonight and let me know how you did it.
Thanks for all the replies gentlemen,
Pat

Lostazhell,
Who needed to buy a Slurpee at 3AM?

lets see 2 guys working for you 1400 billable hrs a year each at 80 hr=224000.

you pay these guys on a 40 hr week,52 wks a year a total 0f 104,000.00

the difference om your side is 120,000.00

now with only two guys working you should be able to work yourself for added revenue never mind the m.u. on material.

not bad on my ledger sheet.

Keep in mind prices vary widely in different areas.

On another thread talking about the going rate for a standard 200 amp service prices given ranged from $800 to $2,500.

This does not mean the guys getting $2,500 are rich, the cost of living in those areas may be high.

If plumbers are getting $120 to $150 in Pats area I would think it safe to say the costs in his area are high.

Bob

I'll take a chance on boring you with more particulars.
Take the $120,000 minus $75,000 in above mentioned expenses and that leaves $45,000.
Pay myself $52,000 and now company is only $7000 in the hole. Must pay my own FICA of $7,800 for the pleasure of being self employed and that brings us to -$14,800. Throw in a few bad jobs and the picture darkens. With the work I can put out personally, I'll get above break even. Add in the mark up on material, then split the profit with my business partner and I come out with about $60,000 per year.
Scale wages are at $38.00 per hour now. That's about $76,000 per year for eight hours, 5 days a week.
Thus my original post.

Pat..what do you mean when you say scale wages are $38 an hour?

shortcircuit

I don,t know how yoy can incur 75,000.00 in expenses,but thats what you suggest so be it.
How then in Toronto higher gas prices insurance is unbelievable,vehicles cost more is it that an company can charge 70.00hr(CDN)
union scale is over 40.00 and still make money.

Getelectric,
That's what I'm trying to figure out. Totally confused myself. I have no business training (obviously), and avoided math like the plauge in school.

Shortcircuit,
Davis-Bacon wages for scale jobs at government sites in the Washington DC area are now paying $38 per hour, overtime if you want it at time and a half.

40% mark-up on material.