ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Business Related Discussion Itemized invoices

Several times a customer has asked to supply materials. I give them generic info and 95% of the time I gewt the call... Why don't you just bring the materials with you.

This customer is a regular client who would not get the same price I paid for this wire.
It was marked up appropriately, and I seriously doubt they could call any supplier and get a quote for the price I charged them, let alone the price that I paid.
I also doubt that they would bother to try.
We all have different operating principles, and different reasons for pricing the way we do.
There are several considerations that come into play when I invoice. The desire to provide high quality work at a price that is fair to both parties is a priority when the business of an important regular customer is at stake.
It depends on what kind of business you're in, but if you want to establish long term relationships with good customers who pay promptly, you should consider the future, not just the present.

Quote:
What if he decides that he's only going to pay you the $2400 that the wire would cost?


There's that "straw man" again...


Dnk..

your right dnk. it's never happened to anyone before, so why bother trying to avoid it?

Dnk, i really don't care how you run your business.

but if my experiences and the experiences of others can help someone run a better business, than what is wrong with that?

Maybe you've never had a customer shop your prices after you did the job, but before you've gotten paid. But we have and so have a mess of contractors that I am friends with.

So, you call it "straw man", I call it a possible reality.

You say don't worry about it, never happen. I say it has and does happen, so how can you avoid it?

Run you business how you want. But why do you get so upset and angered when someone who has been through it attempts to help others avoid it?

You've already admitted that you need to run into the wall to believe that it's there. That's fine. But does everyone need to run into the wall with you?

Or is it conceivable to you, that some people can actually learn from other peoples mistakes and lessons?

Or should we be called theives and cheats in a public forum because we want a better life than you want to have?

I apologize that I am trying to help other contractors see that there is something different out there than the 'going rate' and the status quo.

You may not want to change, but maybe other contractors just don't know that they can change. Maybe once they learn that there is a different way, it opens up everything.

Good luck Dnk.

I like this forum SO much more when the posts don't get personal.

Dave

i agree tiger. i attempt to keep them generic. but sometimes specific answers are for specific questions to specific people.

$500 mightn't seem like much till you consider how much work you need to do to replace it.
The only way to make up lost money is by profits from other jobs. Even if you're pricing with a 20% profit margin you lose some of that to company tax plus not every job is going to come in on or under the price. So net profit will probably be closer to 10%. That means to cover that lost amount of $500 you need to do another $5000 worth of work.
hmmm...maybe it's worth chasing those bad debts afterall!

[This message has been edited by mahlere (edited 05-04-2006).]

Now the key question is how to avoid that situation to begin with?