Selling Against Other Contractors

Mike Finley

Oh God, I just vomited a little in my mouth.

mahlere

Mr. Wms

It seems lilke you have done your homework, good job.

But parking in peoples driveway without permission is something
homeowners frown upon.

Mr. Wms

and disgusting!

will575

What?

1) This isn't wall street, it's main street. People worry about CEO's because of multi billion $ fraud, not reasonable profits and markups. Will your supplier tell you what they pay for what they sell you?

2) I totally agree about Rule #1. I could use more work, and I would have more work if I cut my prices, but I wouldn't be making more if I did, I would only be working more. I would also be working for a lower quality of consumer, a consumer who is less worried about quality and more worried about price. Or, put another way: less worried about value than price. Some one else can have those customers, I don't want them.

3) I feel that a customer should look at my quality and decide if my price is reasonable based on my quality. I'm not interested in working for people who are worried about what I am making on the job.

4) I've had very few customers who had the time or inclination to be picking up their own material.(but then I deal primarily with customers who are extremely gainfully employed) I've had a few who wanted to buy some of their own stuff (ie they saw the exact vanity they wanted at store X and bought it or their wife already bought the tile before I went to look at the job) and I'll work with that, but every single piece, be it that they pick it up or that I have to prove what I spent on the faucet, the molding, shingles or sheetrock? What about waste?

5) have you known anyone who lost a high end job because they bid too low? It happens!

By the way, some of my employees and subs don't do real well in english, but they do very good work. I would rather speak to them in spanish and have them understand exactly what I and the customer want. I have never had a customer be offended because I speak spanish when I need to, nor that some of my people do better in spanish. It's all about the quality, not the language.

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THINKPAINTING

Just so long as there legal workers and not ilegal I dont care if its spanish or german.

will575

I'm not going to risk problems with INS/ICE over hiring illegals. There are enough ways to get crossways with the government w/o adding that to the mix.

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Mellison

I had one guy who spoke the Queens English.
Problem was he spoke to much,wouldn's shut up. He spoke to much to me, other employees and worst of all , my customers.

Blah, Blah, Blah!!!

duckdown

The only way to not watch the rates drop in our profession is to be vigilant in the elimination of illegals. The fastest way is to call INS and point them in the right direction. You can do this anonymously...

will575

We could also mark up material to keep our rates up

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Mike Finley

duckdown

So, what do you do when illegals don't markup materials? Do you think that customers may think you are price gouging?

kevjob

We don't compete with illegals, if the customers wants lowest price, no mark ups etc, we tell them to call you.

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Kevin
Basement Finishing Highlands Ranch Colorado
Littleton Colorado, Basement Remodeling
Kitchen Remodeling Denver

Mike Finley

That's a very interesting comment to my little warped mind.

There are about 4 things I find very interesting, I won't go into all of them, but one I find very obvious is your connection to contractors following legitimate business practices could be associated with price gouging. Once you think about that the other part of it is even more shall we say... curious... cause in the same thought if you are associating legitimate contractors using legitimate business practices as price gouging, you're in the same breath associating the illegals prices as legitimate.

Does anybody else see that? If the legitimate contractors price is a gouge you're determining that by comparison to another price that isn't, which in this case would be the illegal aliens.

That's very strange to me.

Mellison

While sometimes my customers may go to a showroom to pick and purchase fixtures, anything I buy or the cost of any vendor I sub to gets a 20% mark up at least. Grout, paint,plumber electrician whatever. That is not gouging that is business. No different than an automotive mechanic marking up auto parts. To not do so is silly and will cost a business thousand of dollars a year.

sparehair

The other benefit of buying materials rather allowing your customers to do so is the power you gain over the wholesaler. Take paint. When I started I was buying it at 22.70 a gallon. Bought a fair amount of paint; now its $17.00. And there is still room for more savings on the materials side that translates directly into profit. I don't care who you are dealing with. If you buy enough from them you can get more out of them. That is business with a capital B. All that cash that flows through your hands means you get to decide which supplier it goes to = power.

maiana

(Rant)In retail the markup is at least 100%, and usually more than that, as much as 137% I've seen having worked a number of retail jobs. I'd say marking something up 20% or even 50% is more than fair considering things like time spent researching the best product at the best value, tying up funds with materials purchasing, transportation and shipping costs, storage of materials, having someone on site for deliveries, etc. etc. etc.

I know as a culture we want to spend the least amount on the best thing, but if we aren't marking up materials how are we going to stay in business? It's a macrocosm of any type of craft. A craftsperson invests years in training and knowledge in their craft, spending money on classes and educational materials, trade associations, etc. They buy their materials and then mark up the cost of materials in addition to charging their hourly fee. Who's to say that's not fair?(/Rant)

rbsremodeling

I swear on my Momma. I know a remodeling company for at least 10 years that got a minimum 80% markup on jobs for years. I have seen them as high as 200%

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silvertree

Duckdown, what is your problem with making money. When I was a kid I sold newspapers on a street corner. Newspaper cost me 25 cents each, sold them for 50 cents each. Bought a brand new bike in one summer of selling newspapers, then I used the bike to move to better locations to sell more newspapers, then I got one of those change machines so I go sell faster and keep my money where it was easy to reach. Then I bought some cool tennis shoes, baseball glove and so on. Never asked my old man for a dime.
Thats how it works.

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Vote for Pedro
Kitchen, bath, St Paul remodeling
Minneapolis Remodel Blog
203K Loan Consultant Minnesota

DetailHandyman

It seems that this thread has become a clone of the "what can you learn from handyman services" thread.
Both courtesy of duckdown. Strange...