Startup requirements?

[Steve Bullman]

1 minute ago, Godfish said:

 

Why would you say this? The margins seem good at least for some?

 

Theres easier ways to make money....a lot of easier ways

[Matthew Storrs]

15 minutes ago, Steve Bullman said:

buy new?  yes if I was sitting on 50k.

I have been down the old knackered truck route and aside from costing you money in repairs it costs you way more in down time and disgruntled customers.  This is coming from someone who can just about change a spark plug at a push.  perhaps if you are more mechanically minded a worn out piece of crap is a viable option

IMO, a worn out piece of crap is never a viable option regardless of mechanical competence- downtime is downtime regardless of who fixes it. However on the other toss of the coin I can’t think of a quicker way to lose money than by buying a brand new vehicle. I’d prefer to spend on something that is a few years old, tidy but basically done the lions share of depreciation. 

Edited January 14, 2018 by Matthew Storrs

[Steve Bullman]

15 minutes ago, Godfish said:

 

Why would you say this? The margins seem good at least for some?

 

I'm gonna go out on a limb here from the little you've posted and say that you probably work for a well established company, run by a business minded person who is charging good money for a professional service and has a good number of contacts/clients.  Unless you are particularly talented, it takes time to get to that stage.  In the interim you're going to be competing with all the bottom feeders who are charging next to nothing, and with established client base of your own you're going to having to price competitively pretty much 100% of the time to start off

[Woodworks]

7 minutes ago, Matthew Storrs said:

IMO, a worn out piece of crap is never a viable option regardless of mechanical competence- downtime is downtime regardless of who fixes it. However on the other toss of the coin I can’t think of a quicker way to lose money than by buying a brand new vehicle. I’d prefer to spend on something that is a few years old, tidy but basically done the lions share of depreciation. 

Also I am not sure the image of a brand new truck works everywhere. Pretty sure around here we all think you must be ripping them off if you driving fancy new kit

[Steve Bullman]

1 minute ago, Woodworks said:

Also I am not sure the image of a brand new truck works everywhere. Pretty sure around here we all think you must be ripping them off if you driving fancy new kit

You will always get that, by and large people don't like seeing other people succeed

 

[Matthew Storrs]

At least not when they think it’s at their expense!

[Woodworks]

1 minute ago, Steve Bullman said:

You will always get that, by and large people don't like seeing other people succeed

 

I am not sure it's that just seems flash but pointless buying a new truck. Did once but never again. Buy it a few years old when it's halved in value but still got 3/4 of it's life ahead of it.

[Godfish]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here from the little you've posted and say that you probably work for a well established company, run by a business minded person who is charging good money for a professional service and has a good number of contacts/clients.  Unless you are particularly talented, it takes time to get to that stage.  In the interim you're going to be competing with all the bottom feeders who are charging next to nothing, and with established client base of your own you're going to having to price competitively pretty much 100% of the time to start off

Why would you have to compete with bottom feeders? I price 70% of the work that comes into my current employer, and I know they are 1/3 new customers or people who approach when they see us working and of these we get just over 2/3 of them in spite of bottom feeders lurking in every corner.

[Steve Bullman]

9 minutes ago, Godfish said:

 

Why would you have to compete with bottom feeders? I price 70% of the work that comes into my current employer, and I know they are 1/3 new customers or people who approach when they see us working and of these we get just over 2/3 of them in spite of bottom feeders lurking in every corner.

 

`not due in part to your company being well known in the area and having a good reputation don't you think?

[Jonny69]

1 hour ago, Godfish said:

 

Why would you say this? The margins seem good at least for some?

 

If you earn more than 40K per year now. Your 50k investment wont get you that income without running very efficiently. Also you will need the quantity of work, which may be hard to come by for the first couple of years. Expect a pay cut for a while, the grass may be greener eventually.