No. i would charge for the paint because it takes me more time. That one job could tweak my work-week. If it’s commercial, they’re not worried about it; it’s a write-off.
Just be careful bro, plan plan plan before you jump in - like you say “become ready”, just don’t commit to a large project unless you are really sure you can and will be ready.
I have a friend, he jumped into a business… Let’s just say he is never focused on what he currently offers and his current services which could be highly profitable aren’t - because he is always focused on catching the “big fish” or the next big thing for his company - and he has been in business since 2009, has had to work a second job the entire time just to put food on the table. This year he just took out a 30k loan against his house, cars etc. to increase to the “next size” and still wants more to compete with the big dogs in his field - all while there are HUGE “scraps” of business and money to be made if he focused on his current “capability”. It’s a train wreck waiting to happen and more of an ego deal or eyes bigger than your stomach deal with him. He always has job leads but if 1 customer out of 100 asks if he can add X service - the guys whole business plan goes out the window in order to figure out how to provide it or get the next bigger job with lots of $$$ vs. getting the smaller stuff first - and he is always in panic mode. Focus level -3.
Make sure you can and will be ready before signing on the line - if you are confident you can be ready without added stress or giving your company a bad name because you put it in a bind and things didn’t go as planned on the job - GO FOR IT.
One thing I used to believe was that all these clients or even big clients were a “once in a lifetime opportunity” so I had to go balls out to get them or someone else would take them and the opportunity would be lost and the market would be closed when I finally was “ready” to compete. Wrong mindset, the market and these job opportunities are never closed. It’s like your first hot girlfriend - you do everything to get her and makes sure she stays but once it’s over, you realize the ocean is full of hot fish and why the heck were you so darn worried? You’ll catch one when the timing is right and do a better job handling it when your ready.
I’m getting into employees this year, last time I hired someone I was burned to the point it out me out of business (ugh, big long story - guy was a pain, liar and thief). I started to build my company around his full time availability to work to work in order to grow and get even more employees. I, didn’t have enough leads on future employees to replace him the day I was forced to fired him - and I had too much work. Forced me to work harder than I should have been, last job I overworked and due to the stress and work load I couldn’t and wouldn’t take care of myself - I was laying in bed and around basically vomiting for a week after my last job due to the overwork & exhaustion (have underlying medical issues it didn’t help). - biting off more than I could chew put me out of business, screwed my health more than it already was, and almost / would have screwed my reputation if I hadn’t made the call to just shut it down and go out of business completely to save face and health.
Be prepared before trying to run big.
Yup
In my opinion if you have a problem customer then you get rid of them. Especially if there is other work that can be done. Get a good customer at a good price. Don’t keep a bad customer at a good price.
Skipper you run the ship, your crew needs to know there job before you can take that long voyage into new open waters. Make sure there ready.
You dont want to find your ship wrecked on a deserted island or worse yet you saying how in the heck didnt I see that freakin iceberg!
I cant tell you how many jobs I’ve lost to lower bids but I can tell you I never lost sleep over it.
I also have been called back to finish jobs that the lower bidder walked out on because they didn’t know what they were doing, even though they had years of experience and thought they knew everything…
The VP is in her position partially because she knows how to save money for the business, not because she hires the most expensive contractors regardless of their quality work.
If you win the bid today but screw up the job, she wont call you back
If you win the bid today and do a perfect job, she will still send out an RFP for the next cleaning to see if she can save money for the company.
I’m reading “The Pumpkin Plan” and it has a lot of good thoughts concerning getting rid of customers who are ducking the life out of your business.
It was a recommendation from two well-well-respected colleagues. Mike Goeller and Matt Adwell.
always better to have 2 parttimers than 1 fulltimer employee. that way you are never relying on any single person,plus its easy to get rid of a slacker while another is still in the breech so to speak. thats how Macd does it i looked closely while eating my burger theres never 1 chef always 2 or more
This
Funny but so true!
- now we know who the creepy guy was staring at people clutching his burger. JK
Honestly it used to be hard to “fire” clients, I felt guilty, felt bad for them, felt like “the customer is always right” and felt like a loser because I was tied to bad customers, people who would use me, and everybody’s servant.
One day I got mad at wasting time and being worn out at one particularly picky, cheap client who I had become accustomed to “using me”. I did their store AND their private home for dirt cheap and while it was my fault - they tended to treat me like more of a servant than a luxury service, always trying to get me to do more than the windows for no more $$. The restaurant was on a 2x monthly plan at a killer rate for them. One month the guy added hookah usage to the evenings at the restaurant… Went in and told him I had enough higher paying clients I had to raise my rates to almost 2x + i would only service the inside 1x a month. He was pissed… I walked away with one less job and whistling a merry tune smiling and most importantly HAPPY.
Now it’s nothing for me to walk away because that was the day I grew a pair and learned to value ME and MY family and MY business and MY time, I’m nice but I won’t apologize for my rates, if I don’t want to service someone anymore - tough for them, I will “nicely” send them to my competition - I’m always prepared with my competitions number when I do it (these are the people you send to Fish - I won’t disgrace my GOOD competitors with garbage) no lies needed just "we can no longer service your account - I have the number of another company I can refer you to. If they argue I just say “I’m sorry we can’t” and leave it like that - I don’t have to explain anything to them.
If people don’t see value in my service to pay my rates or they simply fall outside of what I want to do - they are not the right fit for my company. I don’t work for free unless I want to actively help someone or use it for marketing.
This is good advice for expanding. Starting with part time help gives you way more flexibility. And there are lots of people looking for part time work.
No, I don’t believe in working for free. You can’t make any money if you’re not getting paid.
That said, I’ll do a few minutes of extra work on a house, if they’re someone who has been nice, not overly picky or complaining, etc. But if they don’t tip me that’s the last time I do anything free for them. Same for route work. If I add on mirrors for free and don’t get a tip, no more freebies.
No job is worth having if it’s underbid. If your contact doesn’t value your service enough to pay your prices, then you need to find better customers. I know how enticing it can be to see the big dollar jobs, but a big dollar job without the proper profit margin still isn’t worth it.
Have they gotten three estimates and you’re higher than the others, or are they just being cheap and want you to lower your prices based on their feelings? You can ask if they are comparing your prices to another company’s prices.
I agree. Part timers are golden
Sent from my iPhone using Window Cleaning Resource
Don’t bite off more than you can chew … Brother.
Your putting to much pressure on yourself. Which in turn will make you put to much pressure on who ever works with you
Sent from my iPhone using Window Cleaning Resource
