DO YOU WANT TO MAKE A PROFIT

[admin]

DO YOU WANT TO MAKE A PROFIT

We have elsewhere in the past discussed how to calculate your own costs per job. Those of you, who are super efficient, have brilliant engineers and never make a mistake should also return the lowest costs per job. In reality we all have good and not so good engineers; our engineers are human too and have strengths and weaknesses and we juggle to get the best out of what we have. So it’s a bit rich for a work provider to agree that completed call rates must rise and demand more efficiency from us. To show we can provide more or better service for an increase in payment is completely missing the point.

Contract work at £33.00 per completed call is already under funded. The work is being done for little profit NOW! If you want a fair return for your labour then some hard decisions are in front of you. In my opinion a starting point for a completed call should now be in the region of £37.00, and within my own business we have trimmed away those who won’t pay that, we quite simply give notice and withdraw. However out there still are businesses that take the work you release because that’s what they’ve always done. I think its time to step back and realize that as a proprietor you have usually been the one to make sacrifices to your staff, you are the one who waits for the money whilst trying to find it from anywhere to pay the bills. Its time to put yourself first for a change. If you trim the fat away it might cost you an engineer or two, a few sleepless nights etc…but we all have to make a profit and £33.00 a call in this day and age is not the way to do it.

Today, there are manufacturer service calls being done for less than £30.00, and it’s a Saturday. There is absolutely no profit in that work, only worry about how to pay the bills.

We are not allowed to price fix in this country (LOL) but I would like to suggest that we all consider asking for £37.00 per call from the work providers with an annual review that is if you want to make a profit

Regards

Kevin heath

[kwatt]

Re: DO YOU WANT TO MAKE A PROFIT

In light of the changes in the wind, for those of us that employ people to work they are there usually because they like the freedom that we, as independents, usually offer and that breeds a certain loyalty that the big boys just can’t get. That’s why I feel a lot of engineers remain with us to a large degree. However, what the big guys do have is the ability to throw money at the problem to cure it and get staff. But they want to see instant returns on that investment and the same goes for those wishing now to pay us more in part.

Everyone agrees that rates for service are too low, they have been for many, many years and now we’re starting to see change, but beware that that change does not come with a price.

Updates of calls are a prime example, we are expected to report back every change on a call for some manufacturers and yet they feel that we should not be paid any extra for that service. I’m sorry, the last time I wanted a service from any organisation it cost me money, they do not offer it for free! Why should we? Inclusive prices are fine, but make sure it’s the right price, we are already way behind inflation on contract rates, I proved that many months ago using the basic headline rate of inflation over the last decade. Yet now we are expected to offer extra services, like calling mobile phones, like reporting back constantly, like calling customers within minutes, like ordering spares with carriage charges on them, like faxing reports several times, like accepting a reduced rate on BER calls, the list goes on and on of the changes that have occured, often sneakily just slipped in. All these things erode the core function of a business, to make a profit.

So we have all this piled upon us and there are many out there running a business and earning less than the engineers that they employ simply to keep the business afloat, that is known as working for your staff, not yourself. This is a ludicrous situation. Why? Simple, to keep the business alive and retain the engineers as we know that without them we will not survive and now, with British Gas, Hotpoint and the likes throwing money at the problem to poach our engineers how long will it be until some of them decide to move on for that extra £4-5K a year?

Already we are in a situation where no network can get all three skillsets in this industry to cover 100{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of the UK. Gas (natural) cover CANNOT be achieved now within the whitegoods repair industry. Refrigeration cover, without the use of the likes of Expert, CANNOT be achieved across 100{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of the UK. Cover for LPG is patchy at best and almost non-existent in many huge areas of the UK. Major agents unsupported by manufacturers such as Electrolux or Whirlpool are now almost non-existent outside the major cities, in many rural areas there are only two or three repairers in the area.

And this against a background of rates still being erroded by inflationary pressures and rising labour rates which are being driven ever higher to levels at which we simply cannot compete. Given the previous paragraph I often wonder just what it will take to make this industry wake up and smell the proverbial roses?

K.

[Martin]

Re: DO YOU WANT TO MAKE A PROFIT

kwatt wrote:Given the previous paragraph I often wonder just what it will take to make this industry wake up and smell the proverbial roses?

I and many others have strong views, opinions and ideas on this very issue that cannot be discussed here right now, but will ‘come to the fore’ at our meeting in Stafford. Ask me the same question again next Friday 😉

Martin

[admin]

Re: DO YOU WANT TO MAKE A PROFIT

I’ve heard today of a business being offered work direct from a manufacturer( cant say in public, whom) but the going rate is £30.00 per call.

Sad that the guy is going to take the work, to keep his business ticking over…….

Hard decisions…remember….

They do read this site so no doubt they won’t be asking me.

kevin

[kwatt]

Funnily enough there’s no point in them asking me. 😉

K.

[Author]

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