Tired of Cut throats!

Does anyone else have this problem. I'm losing bids to people who are charging 40 dollars an hour for labor! No mark up on parts, NO load calculations and barely if any licenses, probably NO insurance..

I charge (a more than fair rate EDIT) an hour per man, and a fair mark up. Fully licensed employees with Nate certification and workmans comp etc. My licensed employees make (a fair wage EDIT). Because they are hard working, very ethical and do the best gosh darn work around! What's happening to this industry. Instead of making sure we make a living people are doing crap work at cut throat prices...

Where is the code enforcement and the freaking business minded people! You can't operate a business for nothing. You have to be educated hard working and dilligent. But it seems like I can't catch a break...I mean I'm not going out of business but it's getting frustrating.

There was a story I heard once, a man takes his car to the mechanic. Says it's making a bad noise. Mechanic listens for a minute walks over grabs a hammer and hits the car. The car quits making noise. Mechanic charges the man 105 dollars. The man says Hey! All you did was hit it with a hammer that's not worth 105 bucks.

Mechanic explains, well it was only 5 dollars to hit it with the hammer. 100 dollars to know where to hit it.

You have an education for a reason don't you?

don't worry about cut throats, they suffer for a lack of business knowledge and most won't be in business this time in the next year or two. We make our money fixing what they put in so keep the course!

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Originally Posted by air2spare

don't worry about cut throats, they suffer for a lack of business knowledge and most won't be in business this time in the next year or two. We make our money fixing what they put in so keep the course!

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Very well said.
Dutty: Keep up the quality work.
It will eventually pay off.

Word of mouth is a powerful thing. You can only screw people so long, till it catches up with ya. I wouldn't worry too much about those cut throats.

I appreciate it guys. It just aggravating to see these yahoo's make a fool out of themselves we see one or two go bankrupt every year which is sad in itself.

But it's good to know that other professionals feel the same way.

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Originally Posted by Duttydutdut

Does anyone else have this problem. I'm losing bids to people who are charging $ dollars an hour for labor! No mark up on parts, NO load calculations and barely if any licenses, probably NO insurance..

I charge $ an hour per man, and a fair mark up. Fully licensed employees with Nate certification and workmans comp etc. My licensed employees make $ an hour. Because they are hard working, very ethical and do the best gosh darn work around! What's happening to this industry. Instead of making sure we make a living people are doing crap work at cut throat prices...

Where is the code enforcement and the freaking business minded people! You can't operate a business for nothing. You have to be educated hard working and dilligent. But it seems like I can't catch a break...I mean I'm not going out of business but it's getting frustrating.

There was a story I heard once, a man takes his car to the mechanic. Says it's making a bad noise. Mechanic listens for a minute walks over grabs a hammer and hits the car. The car quits making noise. Mechanic charges the man $ dollars. The man says Hey! All you did was hit it with a hammer that's not worth $ bucks.

Mechanic explains, well it was only $ dollars to hit it with the hammer. $ dollars to know where to hit it.

You have an education for a reason don't you?

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I would suggest removing the prices from your post.

Although I agree with the sentiment, there are rules against pricing discussions in open forums here.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Duttydutdut

I appreciate it guys. It just aggravating to see these yahoo's make a fool out of themselves we see one or two go bankrupt every year which is sad in itself.

But it's good to know that other professionals feel the same way.

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Make sure you make it to the auction that is selling all of their parts and equipment!

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Originally Posted by jpsmith1cm

I would suggest removing the prices from your post.

Although I agree with the sentiment, there are rules against pricing discussions in open forums here.

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Sorry about that I didn't know!

Edits made!

Thanks again..

I removed the ones from mine, as well.

Never dawned on me.

:eek2:

I've heard of small legit companies banding together and hiring lawyers, to make inforcement go after them. Pretty sad when you pay the state licencing fees and you got to hire someone to make them do their job.

If you really want to get depressed take a look at Cra-gs List under services-trades. Scarry