Flat Rate? Since when?

I get a kick out of all the shops that say they use flat rate pricing, and act like it is something that has been invented just recently.  I wonder why we can’t just say it the way it is said everywhere else.  Ever heard over the loud speaker in the grocery story “I need a flat rate price at register 3?” or have you ever heard a waitress in your favorite restaurant say “Today’s special is a Flat Rate $5.99”

Is it any wonder then that our customers find it a little odd or start wondering about our honesty when we use the term “Flat Rate” to describe how they will be charged for our services?

How Much Should Someone Make?

This is always a topic that bring out a number of answers.  The agressive person always answers "As Much as I  can".  There are those that call all over town and expect to be paid "the going rate", and let's not forget our friends in the Union that have been setting standards for pay for years.

Our country has areas with different standards and different compensation needs.  If you look at an apartment in New York City, and then look at the same thing in Atlanta or Dallas you  would find the very same apartment renting for very different amounts.  It is the same for fuel, and food and entertainment, if you move to different parts of the country the price of the same items change.

Want to Keep your Good Employees?

Once again basic business questions are really simple at times, of course you want to keep the good ones. If that is true what have you done to tell them that? Here are some of the things you can do that are simple and often over looked;

• Feed them
• Talk to them
• Work with them
• Ask for their help in the business
  
  

The Hardest Thing You will ever do in Your Business

Well now, that's a catchy title.. but that doesn't make it any easier for you. I guess I could have taken a poll here but then you might want me to write about something that I don't know anything about.

For some, the first thing that comes to mind is balancing the check book and that would be close to today's topic. However, we are going to talk about knowing your break even. Since this is done so seldom we need to talk about what "break even" is.

We will define this term as how much money the business needs to make to pay the bills... all the bills. Owners' salary, supply bills, building rent or note, lights, phone bill, advertising, direct labor, the whole thing. You need to know just how much staying in business costs you. Since I am such an advocate of using "Billable Hours" to manage your business, this is how it should be expressed.

Charging by the hour or by the job?

You all ready know how I feel about consistency in your business.  One of the most empowering thing you can do in your business is to standardize your pricing.

Standardizing, allows your technicians to work independent of your supervision and makes sure that your customers are billed the same amount.  This a huge factor in keeping customers happy.  Since I like to use the example of a water heater here is a graphic example.

Consistancy is key to any Service Business Growing Larger

Have you ever had the experience of having 2 of your customers compare their bill?  You had Bob go to one customer and the next day, Tom went to the customer's house across the street the same job?  Then Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Jones got together the next day and compared their bills only to find they payed different amounts of the same service from your company?

Now that's an explanation you don't want to have to ever make the customer on the phone.  When businesses are small, it's fairly easy for the service manager or the owner to do all pricing.  You when companies becomes larger, it starts to exceed the ability of the owner to supervise every bit of the work. 

Just what do we really sell?

Too often the reply is "Well that's a dumb question, we have a warehouse with 5000 parts at and we sell them all.  What do you mean what do we really sell?" 

When I first ask this question to business owners they always look at me a little funny, because it seems like an obvious question.  I must admit I've gotten many different answers, But this is still a central question that every business must focus it's efforts on to make the business operate smoothly.

Let me explain.