On Mon, 20 Feb 2006 17:50:09 GMT, "Red Neckerson"
wrote:


"Goedjn" wrote in message
.. .


Stretch,
Sorry bud but No freakin way. You have another company or something
subsidizing your ridiculously low prices. $54 to replace a contactor??
I used to charge that about 12 years ago and Im NOT kidding. No way
would your business survive with that kind of pricing.
Bubba

I'll have to second that.

Maybe 10 or 12 years ago we charged that. Our company is cheap and we sell
our regular Honeywell 2-pole contactor for about $32 and we have a
standard
service call of $109 an hour. No more 1/2 hour rates. How in the world
would
you ever pay your bills with a $54 charge? You must be a "loner" (1 man
company) that can afford to do that.

We don't charge trip charge either....

How much of your overhead is a function of where you
live, though?

What exactly do you mean?

I't important to remember that one's personal experience, while
relevent, doesn't describe the whole world. The fact that YOU
can't make a living doing service calls at $50 a pop in your area
doesn't necessarily mean that someone else can't, somewhere else.

You have to pay a living wage to you employees, and yourself, but
what constitutes a living wage in most of, say, California is
significantly more than what it takes in, say Colebrook, NH.
Likewise, auto insurance, permits, business liscences, liability
insurance, utility bills. . . about the only thing that's likely to be
the same is the price of the physical part, and in most cases, that's
a surprisingly small fraction of the total cost of doing business.