Today Was A Good Day

Stone Mountain

This past winter has been brutal. We had the worst winter since 1939, with so much snow it was getting rediculous. My labour, salt and fuel costs went thru the roof, we had $15,000 in vehcle repairs, and if we made money, it's a miracle. Unlike other areas, most Toronto snow contracts are fixed for the season.
March was my worst for installation sales since I started in business in 1979, up till now April wasn't too great either, and of course cash flow sucks.

On the other hand, I signed up a $23,000 deck this morning, came back to the office and my first call was to confirm another $22,000 project, then on the internet someone else gave me the go ahead for a $9000 project, and finally, I got acceptance for a $19,000 cedar deck!

On top of that, I went to see another customer at 7PM, and although we haven't even confirmed pricing, (the job should be close to $30,000), the HO asked me to book him in, because he trusts me, and likes our work. (He's close friends with a client from last October for whom we built a rather weird $25,000 deck.

AND 2 of my sales peolple connected for jobs s well, but I haven't seen the contracts yet.

Best part is I didn't give anything away. 2 of them didn't even try to bargain.

All in all a good day. Almost makes the rest of the crap I put up with (that we all put up with) worth it. Almost!

One more day like it this month would be very nice.

Please: I'm not bragging as I'm sure you've all had good days. I'm just relieved.

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genecarp

sweet

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John Hyatt

Way to go Stone!!

Its still really rugged over here, worst spring back to 84 when I first got back to the Cow Town , last year was hmmmmm ok bad,but Man!! I am biding those 15/20000 jobs that under normal conditions would have come in.

Not Happening and thats strange for OK, this place stays normal when the rest of the country is bad I mean look at OIL ghesssssssss the refineary is 200 miles from my House with the wells in my backyard!!

I got a couple to go see tomorrow and one more to trun in,,,,heres hoping...Dammmmm I am too old for this ****ttttttttttttt J.

BuiltByMAC

Congratulations, man! Nice seeing that light at the end of the dark, winter tunnel, eh? I know what you mean... spring gets sprung and people start thinking decks again.

Mac

mickeyco

I'm confused about all the snow and cold weather with the "Global Warming" thing. I had to post this, that Karma will get you every time. I'm glad that things are going well for you.

01-11-2007, 10:15 AM

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Some people climb mountains. I take out the trash. But we both do it for the same reason.

Stone Mountain

That $32,000/month had to be last year. The gross was more this year but expenses were WAY up. Last winter we had 65CM of snow (27") the whole season. THis year we had triple that.
Fuel went from 90 cents to $1.10 a litre ($3.42/us/US gallon to $4.18) during the season. In February there was an imaginary salt shortage so salt went up 30% overnight. Because it was a heavy winter, there were more breakdowns, and our labour went up exponentially. Unfortunately, all our contracts were fixed.
We didn't do it, but hundreds of snow contractors walked away from their contracts halfway through the season.

honestly, there were times I thought to just get out and be done with it, but I just couldn't do it.
We'll see how the season goes.

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deckman22

Looks like spring has sprung for you Stone, WTG.

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Bone Saw

lost 3 jobs in as many weeks (paid consults too) totaling 55k in gross sales, they were lowballed 5k 5k 6k respectively, in fact the 6k lowballed job was nearly doubled in size (350sq' doubled at a 6k savings ) oh well

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Stone Mountain

There's always the lowballers out there. I had an apointment with someone this morning for a 10x10 deck. I had told the woman $2500 to $3000.00
I called to confirm the apointment; she told me not to come because she had already signed with someone for $2000.00.00
Material is about $900, I pay a minimum $1000 labour, so my cost is $1900.00 Why would people even bother? The guy doing it isn't making any more than I would pay him, but he has to make the estimate, finance it and warrant it.
Last year I remember one young couple who were had their own plan(which I refined a bit). I gave them a price of $9800, but they went with someone for $6000!


Frankly, if I can't make my markup or close to it, I won't bother to do it.

Chris? You paid a consultant on spec? I did that once for free. Not anymore. I have one now that we have to get a set of professional drawings and I told the customer that the professional fees are extra, but the results belong to them.

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redwood

So far, this year has been much better then last year. The thing that is worrisome to me though, is that all of the work has been for repeat customers. No new blood. I also gave these customers a slight break in my labor rate, in order to push them into doing those projects that might have waited otherwise.

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Mark
Los Gatos, CA
www.creative-redwood-designs.com

Bone Saw

huh? they pay me for consult

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BreyerConstruct

Nice Chris, that's the way to do it!

I haven't worked up the nerve to do that yet, but then again, I don't get into quite the detail of designs you do, either.

~Matt

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mickeyco

They never learn, you need to send them a "tell your friends about us" flier.

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Some people climb mountains. I take out the trash. But we both do it for the same reason.

Stone Mountain

It was just the way I read your post. I didn't occur to me that they would pay you consulting fees. That's the smart way to do it.
I am now using Deck tools with most cutomers, and I'm telling them that I'm going to start charging for 3-d designs. Some say they'd never pay, and some say they'd gladly pay.
One even offered me extra money for the plan after we made the deal. (everyone should be like that!)

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Splinter

Y'know, I really dont say this to be mean, but to help... The phrase "could of" should be "could have". It certainly doesnt matter in the forums, nobody cares about spelling mistakes. If you were really going to put out an advertisement like that though, it should be worded properly.

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- Alex

Long Island Remodeling Contractor

mickeyco

Well la te da Mr. Fancy Speller, I suppose you never made a mistake, you're on the list!






Just kidding, I don't think anyone is going to be handing to those out, it's just a joke. I care about spelling in the forum, just my own or others if I think it would be detrimental to their business, there are times that I cringe when I see what I've posted, a while back I used to correct the errors, but now I just leave them for the most part (unless it's really bad).

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Some people climb mountains. I take out the trash. But we both do it for the same reason.

Tom R

I'll settle this, - - it's 'could've'


(stands for could have, - - pronounced could of) . . .

Chris G

Great to hear the good news Steve. The early warm weather is a big help.

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Bone Saw

tom, djyeetyet

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Greg Di

I have six appointments scheduled for tomorrow. Two are return visits with proposals from last weekend. Four are first sees... At least the phone is ringing.

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