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.

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.