My best guess is the original rates were way too low. I own my own business and I fell into the same trap. People not experienced with business or who like me, refused to believe their Accountant friend's "inflated rates" assume that their costs will be far lower than reality. This "assumption" killed my on-line www.kegkits.com business three years ago & I was only able to restart because I have other incomes to leverage. I've learned since then that if you want to make enough to make business worth the effort you need to charge 3X the hourly rate you want to keep. So, if you want to make 70K a year you have to figure out how to charge 210K a year. And then you'll meet your goals, only if you manage your costs down to the penny. Thanks, Tom Hargrave www.stir-plate.com www.towercooler.com www.kegkits.com www.grow-sun.com
-----Original Message----- From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On Behalf Of neil n Sent: Friday, December 21, 2012 5:10 PM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: Automotive Shop Rate Question Hi all. I don't use a pro mechanic that often so could be totally off base on this. But..... My first visit to a new shop in Sept., hourly rate: $75. The rate then went up to $85 in Nov, and $90 in Dec. The shop location is relatively new, but the business has been around for at least 2 years. Likely it's been around longer than that. Initially the shop rate seemed a little low. Like too good to be true. Has anyone experienced a situation similar to this? I hope I'm wrong, as the shop has shown attention to detail, done good work AFAIK, and been good to work with, but I feel like they got me "in the door" with a lower rate then bumped it up hoping I wouldn't notice. In fact this worked to some degree as I didn't notice the increase to $85/hour. Yes it's the owners prerogative to raise shop rates, but this seems suspicious. Also, when I asked about the rate increase, the answer of "well, people were saying we were the lowest price in town" seemed like a load of horse pucky. Neil. -- Neil n 65 kb image Myford Ready For Assembly http://tinyurl.com/64sx4rp '88 Slate Blue Westy to be named. '81 VanaJetta 2.0 "Jaco" http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/ Vanagon VAG Gas I4/VR Swap Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/vanagons-with-vw-inline-4-cylinder-gas-engine s ----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 10.0.1382 / Virus Database: 2441/5475 - Release Date: 12/20/12 |
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