Technical Fabricator Rates?

When the guy was about to go into business, we went out for lunch and had a "business discussion". Im a qualified chartered accountant, turned businessman, so felt I was pretty qualified to offer some free advice.

I told him to charge "retail" and to invoice weekly and to require payment before the end of the following week, or work would cease on the car. I was actually his first client, and I havent missed a payment yet. . Hes been in business for about 18 months and is going great.

Biggest issue for me is that hes an excellent fabricator and everyone else wants him to work on their small projects...

 

First and foremost, it's a business and any business that can't deliver it's product on time will fail. If your friend isn't financially capable of keeping his shop open for the time it takes to become established as a reliable, no nonsense, let's get the job done and done right the first time, he will fail. @squirrel has it right, there are those out there who take in a new job and charge a down payment when they have older jobs waiting to be finished. The new down payment is used to finish those older jobs and it becomes a vicious circle.

 

Looks nice. Are those prices in US dollars or NZ dollars? Even if the latter, $120K US is a fair chunk of change.

 

I basically agree with what you are saying. A man's first responsibility is to insure his family is provided for. I do know that there are lots of ways to do things though, and its not a "one size fits all" world. There are lots of jobs that offer health insurance even though they are part time. My wife used to work with a lady who worked 1 day a week and drove a pretty good way to get there. She did it simply for the insurance coverage. There are a lot of man/wife teams where the wife has a job that provides insurance and some supplementary income. Nothing wrong with trying to build a successful business by both parties working together, as it could be beneficial to both if it works out. The guy just has to be realistic about whether he is succeeding or treading water. In the end though its his responsibility to insure his family is properly provided for.

I used to work with a guy whose last name was "Head" and his first name was "Richard"..........
Always wondered what his parents were thinking. Then there is the one about the parents of a little girl who wanted to name their daughter "Sha-thead" but spelled it "Shi-thead" . Now spell it without the hyphen I added.

 

That last one is a racist urban myth. Please don't perpetuate it.

 

You need all the disciplines to be an independent successful business owner.
My wife has a small salon. It doesn’t get the family rich, but it is and has been a strong/ stable source of income because of her disciplines. I myself possess a wide skill set. I’m constantly pushed to go out on my own. The problem is I know that I don’t possess ALL the disciplines needed to succeed. I am in a good place with a normal stable day job, and have none of the stresses that I know would come if I took the leap.
My labor for projects brought to me are on a sliding scale dependent on consumables or difficult to handle situations. Weld up a trans case? If its clean and out of the car, as in bench top work, you’ll love my price. Bring it over in your mud truck leaking all over and you’d probably save money buying new. Never charged less than $35.00 hr/Never charged more than $200. Thats a big swing as a customer. But it weeds out most of the work that I prefer to avoid.

 

You might want to do a little research before assuming (sterotyping) something like that. You might find that it is an actual name in certain parts of the world.

 

What was racist in that comment,,,,I didn’t see it ?
A lot of people assume the worst,,,,when in reality it is just their assumptions.
It is very damaging to someone’s reputation to claim a thing like that,,,without any evidence .
Tommy

 

I did. It is not on a US birth registry. Not, at-least since 1980.

The LexisNexis software is a powerful tool.

And, very seriously, several people at my last employer were terminated for forwarding this as a joke. Nobody in the legal or HR departments found it funny.

 

I didn't say that he was racist. I pointed out that what he casually posted had its origins in racism.

If he's concerned about that having an effect on his reputation, he can edit it out of his comment.