Expenses

[Richard 1234]

Yes!!!

 

 

Thought so I know I don't make that!!!

[TIMON]

Thought so I know I don't make that!!!

 

 

If we didn't all work voluntarily on this project it wouldn't be anywhere near that high. But like I say, the 60% goes to pay for the residences. So I'm not sure that we can compare strictly like for like,

I really appreciate your comments and input guys 🙂

[Mesterh]

I would say 15% profit or over is extremely good unless you are a multi million pound company so youre doing better than probably every other arb company I know.

[Jonny69]

I would say 15% profit or over is extremely good unless you are a multi million pound company so youre doing better than probably every other arb company I know.

 

This is exactly the opposite of correct.

 

Bigger businesses within the service industry run on very low margins.

 

If newguyti and his 60% is of a £200,000 turnover then he's doing well.

 

If its of a £25,000 turnover. Not so good.

 

If a two man crew is turning over 50-80k per year and the boss is making about 10k based on your estimation of "doing well" then everyone involved may as well just go and earn 4x that driving forklifts on a night shift.

 

If your business involves a lot of material cost then this will scupper the figures that are being compared. I spent almost nothing on materials last year.

 

Any business turning over more than a couple of million will be lucky to have a margin of more than 10%. Of course the directors may have already taken their share before net profit is calculated.

[Mesterh]

Ok but I would be happy with 14k left after everything had been paid on an 80k turnover.

 

That is profit and not my wages btw, which is where the confusion comes in I think.

[Stephen Blair]

"Looking after the pennies" is OK, but you have to "speculate to accumulate", if I had simply looked after the pennies I would still be running a transit and tow behind.

 

 

I've always taken that quote as not to be wasteful more than not spend money mate.

Like you I've always invested in kit as you know but I still can't walk past a light left on in a room

[gooseflight]

If we didn't all work voluntarily on this project it wouldn't be anywhere near that high. But like I say, the 60% goes to pay for the residences. So I'm not sure that we can compare strictly like for like,

I really appreciate your comments and input guys 🙂

Just to be clear, your operation generates a healthy surplus but apart from sub-contractors you don't pay for any labour? And your labour is fed and housed from the proceeds of your operation @ 60% of turnover?

[Tom D]

Any thing more than 30% profit is very good, 60-70% is awesome! I would suspect that you are including you own "wage" in that?

 

We manage about 25% which I am quite happy with, but thats on a decent turnover of around £350-400k. Usually its re-invested into new kit etc. This year has been a strange one, we had a very slow start, and now its gone mental, not really sure what it will average out to this time. on the first 6 months of the year we will have made a big loss, the last quarter of the financial year will be well over 130k which pro rata would have given us and annual turnover over the 1/2 million, however given that we only managed about 50k in the first quarter we'll probably end up somewhere like last year.

 

As far as cost cutting goes, its best to look at your biggest costs as these are where the biggest savings can be had.

[Billy]

47% so far this year but I have bought another chipper, I expect this percentage to decrease with growth.

[TIMON]

Just to be clear, your operation generates a healthy surplus but apart from sub-contractors you don't pay for any labour? And your labour is fed and housed from the proceeds of your operation @ 60% of turnover?

 

 

That's about the size of it. I don't take a wage out of the business. My wife and I get an income from elsewhere.