tips from business owners!

[Dean Lofthouse]

you should, the way you've framed them using rational thought makes them seem quite plausable.

 

 

 

Changing my beliefs isn't going to change the way my customers behave.

 

 

 

I regularly quote against VAT registered companies for large private/residential jobs, most times I win, the reason I win is because I made a decision not to be a tax collector for the government which is what all you VAT registered companies are doing.

 

Being VAT registered will help you get that Council contract for sure, but thats about as far away from the kind of work I want to being doing as you could get. If you want to run around after half baked civil servants barking orders down the phone thats your perogative.

 

Private and residential clients represent a goldmine to me, they pay well, they tell their friends about me and they're not interested in having VAT added to their bill I can assure you of that. The work is top end and interesting and thats where I want to be. This year I am ceasing all my commercial work to concentrate on private residential treework. After this year there will be no more commercial contracts. I'm leaving stuff that for the so called, 'bigger companies' with their vast array of plant and machinery.

 

I'm not in treework to be a millionaire Tom, if I wanted to make serious money I'd have left this industry years ago or moved my business to upstate New York or the Hollywood Hills.

 

Exactamundo tim

[PhilBeech]

I think Tim and Tom have covered most of the bases! This is a most excellent thread.

[Hodge]

Tom, I understand where you are coming from, in an ideal world we would all like to charge more for the hard and often dangerous work we do, in reality though it doesn't work like that FOR ME, I have in the past tried to charge more and I lost more than I won, I now know how my buisness works the best and that's how I operate. I think the key to this thread is to find what works for you and do it as what may work well for you may not work well for the next guy. I price all my jobs by the job not the time and this is the best way to work IMO.

[Big Mark]

I think the key to this thread is to find what works for you and do it as what may work well for you may not work well for the next guy.

 

:congrats: I think (for what its worth) this is the best bit of info/advise I have read in all this thread.

[Dean Lofthouse]

Exactly as I work.

 

Lost a couple of jobs of late, but the price I put in is the price based on my setup. To do them for any less would not have been worth doing and I would have had a negative attitude whilst doing the job.

 

I really do not want to know what price the jobs were done for either, as that information is useless to me and my setup

[Stephen Blair]

think (for what its worth) this is the best bit of info/advise I have read in all this thread.

 

That's because it is easier to accept, than accepting it could be done better, more efficiently and more profitable.

 

You can't run your business the same way and only change the price of the job you have to change your whole working practice, from advertising , company profile and client base and everything that has kept you in a rut ( this is when some will take offence, by me mentioning the word rut)

Having an understanding of how to communicate with different personalities rather than treat everyone the same way was key for me to change my business and life around.

I constantly hear, " I would much rather work for someone who made me a cup of tea and said please and thank you " even if it's a £50 job.

I would rather work for a blunt person that is willing to pay 3 times the amount , in advance for a first class job. who will happily eat a bacon roll in front of me while watching me sweat, because making me breaks wasn't in the contract, morally some will naturally do this, but not all.

If I come across as " lecturing " then the above information is absolutely no use to yourself, just ignore it .

If deep inside it makes a bit of sense, then start your journey:thumbup1:

 

If Richard Branson can do it, so can any of us.

I do not believe in fate or luck, I treat everything like ingredients.

I used to go into the shops, buy stuff, come home then try and make something for my tea:blushing:

I just accepted spag Bol with no mushrooms, no garlic, not enough meat and chewy pasta and loads of it.

I was too impatient to open a cook book and take a note of what I needed.

I am not happy just mulling away, worrying about my next bill, I want a house that looks like someone else's, I want holidays that I had forgotten how to deam about.

Rule 1, love yourself, love everything about yourself, and have confidence in yourself. Keep away from negative people , energy vampires should be avoided at all times, if you are low on energy, become a vampire and extract some out of someone else, maybe a wings person you meet every morning in the shop, rather than avoid, tell him what a wonderful day you feel it's going to be and how glad you are it is raining, then enjoy his or her miserable little face drawing in like a prune, then skip away whistling after leaving the member of staff, with a compliment and a handful of change for the charity tin:biggrin:

Edited January 27, 2012 by Stephen Blair

[skyhuck]

Are you doing drugs Stevie????????????????????

[Stephen Blair]

Are you doing drugs Stevie????????????????????

 

As I said, just ignore my post

[Tom D]

Nice post Stevie, I have been thinking about this today, whilst you obviously want to run your business in a way that works for you, you have to step back once in a while and look at wether it really is working! I don't just mean making money, are you happy, stimulated, do you get up each day looking forward to the work ahead of you?

 

However my comments on this thread are based on a fairly simple principle: however thrifty and well organised you are you can only get your overheads down so far, the cost of the kit we all buy and the consumables we all use are pretty standard across the whole country. You may only work local, and save money in all sorts of ways, but fuel is near enough £1.40 a litre wherever you are. I chose £80k as a turnover because I think after deducting an average amount of overheads that is a figure that ought to give you a reasonable profit / wage. You may do well turning 60k or you may need 90, but chances are the higher your turnover the more you will make.

 

Consider this: 2 arb teams both working in the same radius using a transit and 6" chipper, both pay the same wages and have similar overheads. Team A charges 350 a day for 200 days and turns £70k, team b charges 400 a day for 200 days and turns £80k. Given that their costs are the same team B has made a whole £10k more by just charging an extra £50 each day. In reality we will all have different overheads, (mine are £1800ish a week BTW) however adding a small amount to your turnover without increasing your overheads too much is the way to make money. So those who say turnover is vanity, think again, if someone else with similar kit and staff numbers like yours turns more, he probably makes more too.

 

 

One final tip. Don't work on a day rate. I hear you saying " I never do, I always price each job individually" thats fine but I used to find that I would look at a job and say " thats about a day" and stick what was effectively a day rate on it. Or a half day, or two days, I reckon we all tend to do this ( look at your invoices over the years, are they all different amounts? or lots of multiples of the same figure... your day rate:sneaky2:...) and there's nothing wrong with pricing that way, but what happens when you get one thats a bit more than a day but not 2 or 3/4 of a day? The best way to work is to have a rigid weekly target that you aim to hit every week, forget about having a day rate, and price each job as it looks, considering your competitors and what you think they will want for the job. This way you may find a job where for example you know it suits your setup perfectly and the the competition may struggle a little, think what they will charge and aim to beat that, it doesn't matter if you can do it in 2 hours because of your crane / climbing groundy / mini loader or whatever your "edge" is. You charge what you need to just beat the competition and no less. This means that on that day you made extra, more than your "day rate", you can now afford to go cheap the next day in order to win a job you know will be up against cheap competition. So long as you make your weekly target it doesn't matter if you do one job for £150 so long as you got in a £750 or whatever.

 

Set your self a challenging but achievable weekly target and go for it for 6 months, see what happens. My business has really taken off since I started doing this. Give it a try.

[Stephen Blair]

Ray mears or Bear grills.

 

Bear Grills would have you jumping off mountains, eating dead buffalow anus for survival.

 

Ray Mears, would wonder into a wood, sit down, build a little fire , and do as little as possible for as big a return.

 

Now if you are under 30, bear grills is the way to go, full steam ahead, whoop woop!

Over 30, Ray mears all the way.

 

Adapt to your situation, if a transit and tow behind is idle 2 days a week, and you are skint, sell it, and buy a Gloria and a tow bar for the wife's car, get dropped off after the school run and collected at 2.45pm

 

Last April I bought a trailer for my mountain bike to keep over heads down, and boost profit.

 

I never got round to using it as I took up golf aswell lol.

 

Guys if you are happy then that is the essential ingredient, contentment is the secret of life imo.

 

Sometimes if you want more, you have to knuckle down and take some small hardships, but do NOT accept something you do not like in your life when you may have control over it, bad health not included .