Parts Profit

[Bill Ballard]

>Standard markup is 100% from wholesale.  Parts pricing is a way to keep your
>hourly rate lower on paper than it actually is for big rebuilding jobs.   The
>less people know about how much money you make per hour the better,
>especially if
>they think you make more than you should!  Benches and other accessories
>profits
>help to counterbalance free service calls (estimates, call-backs, time on the
>phone).
>
>Rob Edwardsen


That's the "WHY" of it. My standard markup is a measly 25%, but at the end
of the job, I am sure glad for even that. I might consider a higher markup,
except that my estimates are based on such extensive time studies in my own
shop that I consider the NET labor hours estimated to be fair enough
compensation. (More candidly put, by the time I've done all my time studies
and then based the accompanying shop rate on a Standard Tuning fee earned
in 90 minutes, I'm 30-40% more expensive than the nearby metro-area shops.)

Have you ever clocked yourself during the "time on the phone"? It doesn't
start with the Phone Company's ticker does, when the other p[arty answers.
It doesn't start when you dial out. It begins when you scratch out the list
of the business of that phone call. That first morning of work on a
particular piano, when you do all the business associated you can easily
eat up an hour or two. I can do one $75 tuning and be on my way to the next
one in that time.

The Best class on shop time accounting I ever took was Norm Neblett's
"Figure It Out". The estimate for a simple hammer change included the time
to get the fly parts off and on so that you could pull the action.
Nickel-and-diming? Time is money whether it's your nickel or the customers.

Bill Ballard, RPT
New Hampshire Chapter, PTG

"No, Please wait, you're all individuals" Brain Cohen, exasperated
"Yes, we're all individuals"  the throng assembled in the street
                below his window, in unison
"I'm not..."  Lone dissenter.
       Monty Python's "Life of Brian"