Minimums?

RockyDaz · October 31, 2014

What value does everyone put on their time?

It's as hot as hell here at the moment. Lately I can book as many cars into the workshop as I want, all paying top dollar for my best ceramic film.

At the same time I am getting bombarded with requests to go out and tint just 2 panes of glass in a house or any number of small jobs. I have never seen so many requests for small jobs come in before.

I am already working 12 hour days 6 days a week, to even look at a job like these I would have to say no to a better job and so the subject of a minimum charge crops up.

What is everyone's take on this and is there a certain size job that is just not worth getting out of bed for?

Tint Eastwood · October 31, 2014

When work is booming and I am spread thin, minimums can exceed $400. When things taper off and I am a little hungry to get something on the books it can be as low a $100....depending on the location and such. I try to be upfront with folks about it and let them know that we can put them on a "will call" list for occasions where work is slow or people cancel appointments. Then they have a choice wait.....or pay. If scheduled right you can still make pretty good money running around knocking out minimum jobs for a day or piggy backing them. Then again some are just more trouble then they're worth and you've gotta throw them back.

I think it will always be tough to have a "standard" policy on minimums because it totally depends on the current situation, which as we all know in the tint world, seems to change frequently. :twocents

WearTheFoxHat · October 31, 2014

GOTTA have a minimum charge.

All the hidden estimation ,paperwork,administration, accounting,phone calls are all examples of "invisible " time that needs paid for!

Devil with bad attitude · October 31, 2014

What value does everyone put on their time?

It's as hot as hell here at the moment. Lately I can book as many cars into the workshop as I want, all paying top dollar for my best ceramic film.

At the same time I am getting bombarded with requests to go out and tint just 2 panes of glass in a house or any number of small jobs. I have never seen so many requests for small jobs come in before.

I am already working 12 hour days 6 days a week, to even look at a job like these I would have to say no to a better job and so the subject of a minimum charge crops up.

What is everyone's take on this and is there a certain size job that is just not worth getting out of bed for?

Goodonya Rocky with that mindset.....I'm with you 100%.

Reading my post "customers are so demanding" is you all over up north.

You've got to think like a Ferrari and not like a Holden and pick the most lucrative profitable jobs out there and leave the crumbs for your other tint people in your locality.

I even struggle with a minimum charge because customers still say "I'll have it" so I tend to not even bother or pass it on to other friends,

And you can sense a time waster on the phone and I'll give you 2 examples from the last couple of days.

1. A very old woman rang up to get a quote for film as her dilapidated home which was falling in around her had her sun blind blow off the building and was lying on the balcony.

I could tell she has grandiose dreams but no reality but as it was only 3 kms away I went around.

Well you should have seen this dump.

The room to be tinted was a vagrant's tip and had never seen any cleaning since the day it was built in 91....I walked out politely and said it wasn't for me. :facepalm2

2. A guy rings yesterday with a request for film on his home...you could just tell he was a bogan with no moola and then after giving him a $800 idea he procedes to ask to quote for a tishbox Vectra and not be outdone a VT as well.

Both cases I could have spent copious amounts of time face to face but you get to develop a third sense of tint which qualifies genuine time wasters and dreamers,

I think if you have work coming into your shop without you going anywhere for it, then that's the business you want and will do very well with.

The crumbs may be sweet if you have nothing to do but they do cost you as you've found out when you are flat out.

Devil

TomTint · October 31, 2014

We have a minimum charge and have for a number of years. It started at 250.00 and now is a quite bit higher. For homeowners our minimum is 75.00 more than for our commercial repeat customers. The commercial guys understand that there is a cost associated with man and materials and time. There are multiple times a month where we schedule all minimum jobs for the day, and at the end of the day we have a pretty good take. Usually with scrap or minimal material expense.

RockyDaz · October 31, 2014

All good points above. I guess my problems are if you put a minimum of your 'opportunity cost' amount, say the price of the car you can't do because you are running all over town to tint 2 panes, then you cop a mouth full of abuse and get derogatory comments posted online these days for being a 'rip off' . And you feel like a heel sometimes for charging a motza when your custy turns out to be a lovely old octogenarian.

I agree with Fox, you gotta have em, but I reckon I'll be taking a leaf out of Eastwoods book and offer to put them on a call list. Then it will be their choice if they don't want to wait and I'll avoid the verbal bashing.

Dev, I can always count on you to have the best stories to eloquently illustrate your point. Lmao. Half your stories should be in the Horror Stories thread. :lol

Here's one of my own, yesterday I had a typical bogan sounding bloke ring up, one of my lovely female staffers answered, he wanted a price on just r&r ing the rear screen on his cruddy 10year old Falcon. I had already upped my charges for this type of time consuming work a few days prior to about 2/3 the price of what I would charge to tint the whole car from scratch. He gets the price and explodes on the phone that we are a rip off, he can get it done for a Hundy cheaper elsewhere and he's going to badmouth us to all his mate. My staff was just too honest and told him ,politely I will add, that the reason we are that dear is because we are so busy tinting new cars properly with a film that won't prematurely fail like his has, that we really don't want his type of work. Well didn't that just set him off for round 2. I'll have to have another chat to my staff about being too honest I think :lol

RockyDaz · October 31, 2014

Sorry Tom, I was typing mine as you were typing yours.

Why is it I wonder that all the guys that run successful businesses understand minimum charges?

I don't have a business as large as yours Tom so my policies are flexible but get enforced stringently when I am flat strap like now in peak season.

But I am still getting told from my customers that my 'competition' will do the job for a pittance and I run the risk of getting a bad rep for enforcing my minimums. Obviously the penny hasn't dropped for them. :lol

MikeMN · October 31, 2014

$250 is our lowest.

TomTint · October 31, 2014

We have one commercial customer that has us in atleast 3 times a month to tint 1 or 2 , 24x30 door lites. It has been going on for a few years. I gave up asking him if he wanted to gather up a bunch of them, and we could do them all at once. They can't get us access to them that way so we just bill them minimums every time. .. They understand and expect it. And we get almost 70.00 PSF to hang film

Devil with bad attitude · November 1, 2014

But I am still getting told from my customers that my 'competition' will do the job for a pittance and I run the risk of getting a bad rep for enforcing my minimums. Obviously the penny hasn't dropped for them.

The only reputation you are enhancing Rocky is great work and great product and who cares what others think.

Adopt my line when someone rings up like that...." I never lose a job to the competition because I let them have it."

Many a time I've just had to say it's purely not economical for me to do that but if I happen to be passing at some stage...I can't guarantee when, then I'll slip it in.

Devil