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

Pierre,
Excellent advice!!!!!!! Your "two cents" was worth at least a couple of bucks.

I looked at a job for a new GC the other day. His policy is that he buys all the light fixtures, thus giving him the profitable mark-up. Should I deal with him, or is this a strong indicator that he is going to find a thousand other ways to keep the profit for himself?

[This message has been edited by Pat@Amber (edited 08-31-2004).]

Going back to earlier mentions on this topic it might be possible that you are giong through typical growing pains of a small contractor,to nuch work for two guys but not enough for 3.if you can keep yourself and another busy fulltime you will make a good living.There comes a time when one has to decide whether he wants to expand his business or can afford to.Sometimes small contractors here in T.O. will borrow men from each other during these times.
GOOD LUCK

Hey Getelectric,
Thanks for posting again. I think you are probably right. The size of my company is perfectly wrong in just about every way.
Just as you said, too much work for 2, not enough for three. Then with trying to get the extra work for three, it just adds to the paperwork and office stuff so I don't have enough time to go out and work in the field anyway.
I'd love to expand enough to get out of the field (feeling old at 40), but that takes more money than I have right now. Credit is stretched pretty thin at the moment too.

Pat

No Pat it didn't work. For some reason my PDA program jumps in and takes that file and I can't view it. I'll get my son over here to figure it out. Thanks.
My operation is so small I track every dime on Quicken and so far I am doing all right as long as I stay away from the tract homes.
Brian

Well, shoot! Wednesday nights have been busy, and I miss the chat again every time I also tried to go to the nosecrets website, and it asks me for a user name and password. I sure don't remember visiting the site before, so I have no user name or password for it. Of course it won't let me access the site without them.

Good topic, by the way, for those of us who never make the Wed night wing-ding.

Won't let me in now either!

HVAC boys are on to us!

I did try the labor calculator. I set up my own a while back which is very similar to this. Will also say that I use Microsoft Excel for anything in my business which has anything to do with any number involved with my business. From bidding to invoicing to tracking overall profitability. I would say that the calculator is a good one but the numbers in blue must be adjusted to meet the real numbers involved with your own business situation or it has no meaning other than to give you some idea of what your expense catagories are. If you can't meet what the competition is charging in your area it my be a good time to take an honest look at your overhead and fixed expenses so that you can still make a profit. It took me a while to get over the pay check once a week mentality to looking at my pay check as a years worth of work and how many months I would need to work for free to pay all of the expenses and taxes for the year. But I sit down at the beginning of the tax year and look at just that.
The points made by all on material mark up has been great.
I mark up everything but I do not mark up everything at the same rate. I work with an engineer all of the time and I would not be competitive if I tried to mark up his fees say 50% and passed that on to the customer. Again I take a hard look at my volume and expense for the year, figure what I want to make, understanding my competitions rates, and make every penny I possibly can.

By the way I used to run a service dept and can not believe you guy's do not charge for travel or at least have a trip charge line on every invoice. I thought that was standard everywhere. Also when running service type work I never marked up standard supplies less than 20% and at that time I charged 4x journeymans rates for hourly charges to meet O&P.

I must agree that a trip charge should be added for service work. I charge from the time I leave the shop to the time I get back from the service call.(Port to Port)I also figure travel time into my job estimates...have to do it,I'm paying the guys to travel to the job,not to mention the gas,and wear and tear on the vechicle.If they don't like it ,tell em to bring the house to the shop for repair!!

shortcircuit

it's not how much you make, it's how much you keep.....and how you keep it

~quote from my accountant

~S~