My Garage is trying to kill me!

If you're truly working 20 hours a day x7, that = 140 hours, (that's more than three 40 hour jobs) and not making money, you need to re-evaluate your business plan/labor rates.
Chances are you're pacing yourself for 20 hour days and at such a slow, snails pace that you could get the same amount of work done in 10 hours if you had the proper rest. Work smarter, not harder.

Trust me; Mom will need help when the Baby arrives and you'll have to take some time away from the shop. I like the idea of hiring a knowledgeable retired guy part time.

 

Everyone here is telling you to slow down or die. That part is true.
Many including yourself mention that you are working too long/hard to be barely surviving.
Often there is a thread about some shop that burned someone. Sounds like you are in that boat, since you made promises you can't keep. Get well, talk to your customers and explain that you cannot meet the goals set. Explain why. Come to an agreement on how to proceed from here so that you can still shelter and feed your family. If this means closing the shop and returning uinfinished cars, so be it. A man is only as good as his word but you are not going to survive long enough to finish all the backup, and a dead man's word is nothing....

 

That's it, in a nutshell. That goes for customers and hired help.

 

Ray

So what 's it really all about ??????





Seriously, please take some time to ponder this question. You have so many things going on in your life and are being challenged from many different directions , that finding the answers to these critical questions probably seems impossable to you at this time. I expierienced the same things at 37. This is the second shot across your bow.

If I can offer a couple of suggestions.
Figure out what you really want in life . What are the things you hold most precious. Prioritize these items.

Get some good professional stress management help. Stress is a sneaky bastard and one needs to be taught to recognize how it creeps into a life and consumes it. You need this knowledge to rid your self and those you love of stress that is entering your life from this situation. When I was going through my episode I had a good friend take me to a stress mangement class at our local community college. It really opens ones eyes to what stress and its management is all about. I have since then taken more advanced classes and it benefits are being enjoyed today. It works.....

Learn as much as you can about your medical condition and its associated issues. Doctors and nurses are great people but they are human . Ask the doctors what are the best suggestions they are aware of to help you handle your situation and who would they turn to for help if they were in your shoes . They see others just like you everyday and deal with the results of good and bad patient judgement. You state your in a small community sometimes the new medical news doesnt travel that far quickly. Take personal charge of your health .

Get some time for yourself by yourself...
It doesnt have to be much , just enough to free your mind from the days issues and allow you have some personal time. You have learn to leave work at work and home at home . It can be difficult for some to accomplish this task but it is doable for the most part.

Get some knowledgeable business advise . Solid management training and planning appears to be absent in your business efforts . Many in business go through this learning process of hard knocks especially when they were never taught how to manage and organize people and work. Learn how to hire the right people !

Decide what chair you are going to occupy in your business, We can only do one job well. Do you want to be the boss and manage or do you want to fix the cars ? You cant do both as one or the other will suffer.

As a young father and husband you have many joys to expierience. Take time to be with them . A childhood friend of mine died of Hodgins Lymphoma back in the early 80's and as he was undergoing an experimental bone marrow transplant became very reclusive, only wanting to spend time with his two young daughters , his wife and his parents. At church he had asked the priest to read a letter to those friends and family at his funeral mass. In the letter he asked for forgiveness for ignoring them at this crucial time in his life, explaining that he had two young daughters who would only have a minimal knowledge of who their father was and he wanted and needed to spend as much time with them as he could .

Fear is the greatest motivator for change. It has a small window of time in which its effective. About two months from a life changing expierience. Dont lose the opportunity that you have in front of you to make changes for the better in your life.

Wishing you and your family the best

 

35 years a shop owner with set rules and it worked well. Pick and choose the jobs you want to do. Evaluate your flat rate and adjust accordingly. Consider a 40 hour week with Saturday and Sundys off. When you have a job interview make the calls and check out the guy applying and if you dont get the right vibes don't hire him. Bad help can kill your business and there are good men out there looking and you have to make the right choices. If you do get a bad one immediately fire him period. There are also many mechanical inclined kids out there looking for a break and need a good summer job. Screen a few and see what you can come up with. Consider a few of these changes and give it a try.

 

dead is forever! slow down now. you cant build anything lying in a box.ive had 2 heartattacks myself and im 56. the last 5 years ive been crippled due a very bad bike wreck where i died twice, a month in a coma and a month in a nursing home and 6 months in my own bed. had to learn to talk, walk eat hell everything all over again.now im on narcotics just so i can move without pain. buddy listen to me, ive been there.i love everything about life. because i came so close to loosing it.forever.stop what your doing now and take a look at how you can fix whats wrong in your life.when i had my heartattacks i was drinking a fifth of bourbon a day and workin about 70 hrs aweek. dumb.i gave up the booze and started workin about 40 hrs a week and i felt good. for the first time in yrs.after the wreck i started im my shop workin on 1 customer at a time and worked on my own projects alot more than i work on customers cars.im very lucky i have a wife who makes good money and let me do my own thing. she still pays all the bills for the house and i spend my money on the cars and shop.if you have to go to work for some one else do it. let them have the headaches and stress.you will not regret it.and you will live longer to enjoy that kid.

 

What everyone has said here is true - dead is forever, your family needs you more, pick your jobs, get some stress management help, etc, etc. Whatever you decide do, do it for you and do it for your family - nothing else really matters.

 

wish i was closer i would help im moving to p.a. eventually when the housing market get back up so i can sell my house for an actual profit so i'l see ya in 20 yrs

 

Interesting ... at first I felt sorry for you. Then I realized who you are. Firstly, I don't think it is humanly possible to work 20 hours a day 7 days a week. And second, IF you are truly "working too hard" then why wasn't the '38 Ford P-up of 4HawkRod (on the hamb) finished in 2009 like you had initially promised (check your calender folks, it is now more than halfway through 2011 and I don't believe 4HawkRod has seen his finished truck yet).

Guess 4HawkRod might have been right when he said something along the lines of "I fear I will probably die from the cancer I have before I ever see that truck again".

Not only does it appear that you are incapable of providing a customer with a realistic timeline in regards to finishing a vehicle, it also appears that you can be extremely hard to contact (read that "virtually IMPOSSIBLE to contact") once the time for it to be finished has come and gone. 4HawkRod posted here on the hamb both in 2010 and again in 2011 requesting help contacting you due to the fact that he (your customer) was unable to get in contact with you himself. Now I read your story about having a heart attack and I can't help but wonder if 4HawkRod was right when he said something along the lines of "I fear I will die of my cancer before I ever see my truck again".

Again, I first read your heart attack post and felt sorry for you ... but after realizing that you are the "Ray Daye from Sandy Lake Pa" that 4HawkRod had such a hard time contacting, I can't help but feel suspicious that your "heart attack" story is simply more bullshit from you ... a pathetic lie to simply buy you more time hoping that 4HawkRod will "pass on" or "succumb to his cancer" and therefore save you from finishing the job you agreed to take on in the first place.

If I am wrong, I aplogize ... but I have this nagging feeling that I am not ...


Let the posts begin, labeling me as an uncaring, insensitive piece of shit ... wait by your mailbox, I'll send you a letter when I give a rats ass .


Just thought I should add, I only know about the 4HawkRod story from reading it here on the hamb, I have never met either of these people.

 

Well, I had typed out a long thing that keeps vanishing off my keyboard so I'll use the short version.

First, decide that you need to actually reduce your stress level a lot and take some time for yourself.

Second take a look at your fixed costs and decide if they are in line or if you could do something to reduce them and still run a good shop.

Third and the post above may be proof in the pudding. Maybe it is time to decide to specialize on certain parts of custom work and not attempt to build complete cars. If you are great at chopping tops and can get them turned out in a respectable time maybe you should concentrate on chopping tops and leave the other work to other shops. I found out a long time ago that I had to specialize if I expected to make any real money working on cars.

Third can you become more efficient in the shop and actually turn out an hours work in an hours time and not do 30 minutes of productive work and 30 minutes of looking for the missing part or tool or bs'ing with your buddy who stopped by on his lunch break or locking up and spending an hour running after parts that you could have had delivered.

Last, how do you pay yourself every week? (no need to say here) do you just draw from the till or do you actually write yourself a paycheck and live on that? I had one friend in Texas in the mid 70's loose his business because he used the store banking account as his personal account and didn't control spending.

And sometimes you have to be the bad guy and turn away work that just flat will take too much time to do for the amount that it pays.

 

Ahh haw. the worm turns.

 

Thanks for all the love! I'm getting released to out patiant today! Possably! I hope I think its just because there tierd of the dirty bikers camped out in waiting room! The nurse said I had the most visitor they ever seen!Lol love my brothers! I'm def rethinkin my busness plan I'm just to nice and need to learn to say NO!

 

Ok so after all the cuddling is over, consider having these brothers help finish a few of your bleeding customer commitments.

There are friends that will visit your casket and cry..... and then there are friends that will pitch in to keep it from happening.

 

Take a step back. I learned from experience, my BP went through the roof unbeknown to me. I then went to the doctor who did all sorts of heart stress tests etc, prescribed me medication that I still take and most likely will for the rest of my life. I had to take over four (4) weeks leave to get my BP down to an acceptable level; all due to work related stress. I'm fortunate I work for the state Government and in a legal area that, are you ready for it, deals with workplace health & safety claims, primarily stress. I learned a few things about myself and stress from a personal perspective. Obvious to others but not me. All good now. You only have 1 life and you want to enjoy it with friends and loved ones.

 

All the stuff said above is good advice. Just remember real stress is when you have a bunch of employees who want a paycheck every week and you have tax, insurance and a ton of other obligations to take care of all the time. Sounds like you seriously need to evaluate your billing or possibly collection issues first. Good clients will hang with you while you sort things out. People who will not be patient while you put your house in order you don't need anyway!

I used to have six guys working for me. They all had new cars and trucks and took tons of time off. During the slow down I let attrition take it's toll and now I have two part timers and I'm making more money than before just because I'm now efficient. There's times you need to burn the midnight oil to get that special project out but it better be important and not all the time.

Some of the other shops should post up here about what kind of backlog they have to get a car in, many are over a year, and realisticly how long the average car takes to complete. I'll bet it's longer than most folks think.

Take care of your lady and new one. Your good customers will understand.

 

Been there done all that. What I figured was to work smarter not harder. We don't need to work all those hours to get somewhere. We have family and other things that we need to do, especially for the family. Pick your jobs that bring the money or satisfaction for you. The money doesn't need to be the only thing tho. Sometimes a job that isn't as hard or involved is the one to take in the long run even thos it doesn't bring the most money. if you work 20 hours a day 7 day etc trying to make all that money when ya gona spend it? When are you going to spend time with the family? When are you going to have fun at a cruise or just hanging out?

There is that one person out there that wants to work for you, he just hasn't walked into your shop. It all works out in the end. First take care of yourself and your family, cause if you don't you won't be happy.

Mike

 

Hmmmm

 

Yep, Charge more for your work. Your quality will go up and your hours will go down. Set some firm "Hours of Operation" and stick to them! Best of luck (and health) to you and the family!!!

 

Best of luck to you man...family is always first. money means nothing at the end of the day---been there with taking on projects you shouldnt just to be nice---its not worth it. you ALWAYS lose in the end. if the customer isnt willing to do the project the way you want it done, then they need to go elsewhere. Once you start being a little more picky with the projects--things will work themselves out. better jobs, better customers, and better money.

 

Yea were now doing 9am to 6pm that's it not a minute longer! Shop rate has been $45/hr numbers say that works I just don't think anyone is prepared to pay for every hour we put in to theses cars. Most people think they can do it on evenings and weeks ends in a year or 6 months I should only take 3 weeks! And I am sure there idea of "nice" or a good fit is not the same as mine! Also have got some office help to track down supplys answer calls etc. For a while at least till school starts and she has to go back to teaching. Thanks everyone lot of good advise!

 

Ray

I hope that we are still on course for the completion of my truck

Just a note to what we agreed on

As a middle man and an appointed contact person for Jeff (4HawkRod) and his wife, during this unfortunate situation, I've been asked on behalf of BOTH parties to help clear all this up by announcing the current agreement in public. Unfortunately I do not know all the previous details of the agreement, but am only trying to help. Here's what the agreement is at this point:

Ray Daye will finish Jeff's 1938 Ford 1/2-ton pickup no later than August 31st, 2011.

Hope this can all be cleared up and everyone can move on. Hopefully this is also all just a series of unfortunately miscommunications and can be cleared up ASAP.

Good luck! I hope that the finished truck can be posted along with a nice video of a victory lap when all is said and done....


"""After returning from Holidays and reading this email I am not pleased again""

Ray what is the problem again....... Every few months we have this problem.

Below you can read the email that was sent to me from Ray.

"""""""""""""""Get a trailer come get that truck I'm so sick and tierd of the smack talking and the disrepect! You can see how I get treated on the hamb because of you!""""""""""""""""""

 

Ttt