18 May ARE YOU CHARGING ENOUGH?

Quote in hand!

I was ready!

I was waiting for them to show up!

From experience; it doesn’t matter how much you like to do things yourself – there is always something that is outside your reach. And this job was literally outside my reach – trimming the top of my tree. There was no way that I was climbing up that high and trimming those branches – we all can drum up a very vivid picture of how that would end! And since I want to continue to be able to work out and play volleyball, heck even walk – I determined that this was the perfect time to get a professional involved.

At the agreed upon time.. they showed up. I was excited, since I’m one of “those” people that likes to check things off of my to do list. And this one was a big one, if there was a storm and those branches were to come down they could potentially damage my neighbors’ fence – not good!

Here I sit in my office. Watching three trucks with three employees and all of their equipment arrive. For a normal person that would be it until the work is complete and the bill has to be paid.

Not Me:

Oh no – not me. My mind takes off.. three trucks, three employees, and equipment…. I know numbers, I know costs, I know the effects of pricing on the overall business and profitability.

I also know how much they are charging me.

Three trucks, three employees, equipment to complete the job and three hours of time – now I know they did not bid the job properly!

It doesn’t matter how hard your employees work if the jobs are not quoted correctly your business could be losing money with every job. That’s on billed hours, let alone covering your non-billable hours.

We have all heard the saying that it flows downhill, in this case it is true. If the job is not bid correctly there is absolutely nothing that the employee performing the work can do to make that job profitable. NOTHING.

Deeper Dive:

So as we always do here; we took this one step further. Oh yes we did.

We sent out the following question on a social media platform asking “How do you set your retail labor rates?” Not one business owner based their retail labor rates off of their costs – not one!

• Added a percentage to what their old employer used to charge
• Added a specific dollar amount to what their old employers used to charge
• Added a percentage to what other businesses in their area are charging
• Added a specific dollar amount to what their competitors are charging
• Added a percentage to their ‘loaded labor’
• Charge what they think their customers will pay

Imagine what you can do for your employees, your business and yourself by charging a profitable and competitive retail labor rate every time for every job. OK – stop and take a moment to envision what that would look like, I’ll wait.

We have been there. We have experienced the same things as you. We Googled, we looked, we searched, we asked other business owners, and we ended up like all of you with a dreaded spreadsheet. Then we too got so frustrated we quit using it.

You asked for it and we created it – .

We knew when we created the Apex eSuite that it had to be more. It had to provide you with everything that you have been looking for. It had to move with your business, adjust to your business, create realistic numbers, create usable numbers, and it does everything that you have requested over the years. It was created by a service oriented business for service oriented businesses.

 

Want profitable retail labor pricing?

Want proper job costing?

Want to hire a new employee?

Want to give a raise?

Want to offer a new benefits plan?

Want to purchase a new truck?

Want to purchase a building?

Want to hire a new employee?

Want to change the employees’ efficiency?

Want to track costs over a specific period of time?

Play “What If” scenarios?

Want to hire a mentor to move your business forward? (Wow what a great idea!)

The Apex eSuite does it all. Try it today with our 14 Day Risk Free Trial when creating an account at www.apexesuite.com.

We’ve listened now it’s your turn to try it.

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