Mark-up (was Steinway parts)

[Erwinspiano at aol.com]

David & David
  Chill my brothers.  I've heard that true artisans &  professionals are paid 
for what they know not  necessarily how much time is put in. How you 
ethically balance that is  based on ones own integrity of course but as an example.  
The voicing I can  put on a piano & transform it in one or two hours of intense 
labor  might take some less experienced all day. So was I worth less than the 
8  hour tech? 
  If I'm the only guy in 200 miles that can solve a problem like this  & 
travel a day to get there and solve the problem no one else could.... then  it  
should be worth a flat day rate even if the problem only required an  hour once 
I got there. Or if I'm the last Piano tuner in Calif what would my  worth be 
then? food for thought
 Maybe this is fuzzy math but  my point is in the intrinsic value  of a 
service not necessarily in raw hours alone.
  As for parts markup. I'm stunned at how many  have failed to due this to 
some degree. But to each there own.
  We don't charge a huge mark up but we do some  to cover cost,  continuing 
education & experience to know what parts work in what  ways.  Our continuing 
education is worth being rimbursed by the client  & usually leads to better 
service & less problems thereby costing our  clients less & providing a seriously 
competent service.
 When I went to the Porsche guy last week for a fuel pump he didn't  say the 
Labor is $80 & the pump is at my cost. This is how we pay for  experience & 
our facilities. BTW the pump was $440 & the labor  $80.00.
  Think he made money? hmmm
  Dale

 
On Feb 13, 2008, at 7:30 AM, David Love wrote:


If you are “padding” your labor to  some would find that as objectionable 
(or more so) than adding a reasonable  mark-up on parts.


Well...it depends on how you're holding it, David Love. If my team did  less 
than our best on every bid, if we didn't put countless extra hours into  the 
job, talking and thinking and experimenting about it when we're "off the  
clock,"  if it was a "pad" like defense contractors or Mafia guys put on,  just 
because they can, then your point is taken and processed. If you're  talking 
about me and my colleagues Dale Erwin, Steve Bellieu, and Phenoyd  Ezra, then 
please, please  don't disrespect us by putting our love, our passion, our 
artisan's fierce  dedication, our natural and constant "overtime," into that same 
smelly, thuggy  basket. I hope you're not doing that.


David Andersen



 



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