Or maybe the business advice is 100% correct but only 2% use it.Originally Posted by ians
Or maybe the business advice is 100% correct but only 2% use it.
i didnt use it and i am part of the 2 %
anyone else who has been operating longer than 10 years been using the advice?
Comments are based on opinion...not always facts....that's why people use an alias.
I was watching the adblock as i open the forum page ...it looks like there 8 ads per page you open.
Comments are based on opinion...not always facts....that's why people use an alias.
Now the big question ...no thanks to Telkoms usual crappy service ...i cant download the footage from the DVR.
Is downloading footage from a DVR regarded as essential ...and 2 of the cameras have been tampered with ...they need to be checked readjusted and reset.
if i dont go to site tomorrow ...the data will be lost and we will have no evidence to prosecute.
Comments are based on opinion...not always facts....that's why people use an alias.
Or 98% of "businesses" shouldn't exist in the 1st place because they were not viable to start with.
that is exactly what my bank manager told me 29 years ago when i started the business... and why they wouldnt approve the hP for my 1400 nissan bakkie i wanted to buy.
I started my business broke... i had to sell my motor bike to buy a cheap golf... a set of roof racks and a 6 ft ladder ... my tools i had were from the railways were i was an appy.... the first job i did i under quoted by R4000 ...back then it was a lot of money ... i learnt that it is literally impossible to rewire a house alone ...but i tried...and i tried and i tried ... i only billed the customer what i quoted and i believe he was so impressed with my determination that he never stopped telling all his mates about me...within 3 years of really battling no money ...no food ...but I was determined to make it work... I started designing...building and installing water treatment and waste water control system all over the country... we were looking after all the swimming pools at schools and municipality ... i eventually got the a contract with special lighting every year for 10 years ...i did lots of factory relocations ...and wired up many engineering companies... sealy beds ...edblo you name it and even repaired stoves and geysers... been involved in massive projects like Alusaf hillside smelter... we were one of the only company which didnt get penalties at the end...just to mention a few of the things i have done since starting this business broke... no one believed i could do it.
Comments are based on opinion...not always facts....that's why people use an alias.
Commendable, but you need to remember that very few people have your guts or stamina to beat the odds. That said, many businesses are simply not viable because people are unable to do the math correctly. Hundreds of people spend thousands on laser cutters because they see it as an easy income without considering basic business principles. I've seen lots and lots of people hand in the towel because they do not understand basic costing let alone making a profit after covering overheads.
Had a partner in another business, who always complained that he needed more income, as the current income was insufficient, yet he could never answer my question - "So what does the business cost to run per minute?"
This was mostly a service orientated business, and was always under quoting.
If you can not get working feel of what your business costs per minute/hour/week/month, then how can you quote on the labour part of your job?
Take all your running expenses per month, wages, rent, insurance, medical aid, telephones, petrol, expenses that are there every month irrespective if you work or not, not material expenses, and divide that value by the number of hours you work per month, then divide by 60 to get cost per minute.
Once you have this number, now you can apply it to your next quote.
I like the minute part as I do manufacturing/assembly work, so the cost per minute makes my calculation of job costing easier. If it takes 15 minutes to fully assemble and 10 minutes to test, then you already have the business cost for that particular job. Now add material costs into the mix, and you have a value to start your quote. Now all it needs is to add the profit margin.
Use this number for everything, even for traveling time, the fact that you are not working, does not mean it's not costing you money.
In fact I have been thinking about an issue, where I have to quote on new jobs, usually R & D, and once I have taken the time to do the quote, I practically have to do a virtual design, which requires research into what is available on the market, read up about it to see if it will work, maybe even tinker with some samples, and then I decide if I want to take the job on. I then tell the client the reason for not doing the job, or may lose the job because the price is too high to to the level of difficulty to do the job. The client now has the information to abandon the project, or go somewhere else and get it cheaper, and the reason for this is that I have already done the ground work to solve the problem. I may have lost a few hours, and in some cases days or even weeks.
This is work time with no income. This year I will be introducing a new way of doing this. I will be charging a Discovery/Feasibility fee, paid upfront for doing the research, and if I get the job, this will be discounted from the development fee.
Just think about it, how long does it take to do a quote, and the customer then rejects it as too expensive and walks away. This becomes more prevalent in complex jobs, as one first has to check up what is buggered and what it will take to correct, both in time and materials.
Victor - Knowledge is a blessing or a curse, your current circumstances make you decide!
Solar pumping, Solar Geyser & Solar Security lighting solutions - www.microsolve.co.za
Blurock (04-Apr-20)
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