[pianotech] Mileage charge

[William Monroe]

Charge whatever you want for a trip charge.  What the IRS allows only
dictates how much you can claim on your returns, not what your trip charges
are to your clients.

Daniel, I probably would have said something along the lines that there are
many ways to account for mileage and travel expenses.  My trip charges have
been thoughtfully determined, and are there for a reason.  It's not
arbitrary, and anything less makes the trip more costly for my business.

Periodically it's a good idea to look at the way you run your business and
ask yourself questions about whether what you are doing works.  Is it worth
your time to go that far for $50?  If my answer was yes, then I would
consider it and perhaps do it.  If it starts cutting into my profit and I
have enough clients that are closer to home to keep me busy, then I wouldn't
lower my trip charge and perhaps would risk losing those clients.  If I'm
not that busy, though and keeping the clients is important to me, again,
maybe I'd consider it.

William R. Monroe

On Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 12:01 PM, Daniel Carlton
<carltonpiano at sbcglobal.net>wrote:

> ok guys help me out here. i live in the panhandle of texas, and i travel to
> eastern new mexico to tune. not long ago i told a customer from that area
> that i divide my total mileage charge by the number of
> customers/appointments i get for that particular trip, and that if i only
> had three appointments the mileage charge per customer would be about $75. i
> just had another customer call me and in a very nice way told me that they
> don't want to lose my services in that area, so couldn't i just charge $50
> and wouldn't that cover my gas, and couldn't i just consider that an expense
> of running the business and deduct it on my taxes?
> i've been questioned about my mileage charge, but i've never had it put to
> me that way. i charge what i charge based on what other technicians have
> suggested. what would any of you have said in response to that question?
>
> right now, i charge about $1 per mile for mileage. i'm going up on my price
> if gas goes up again considerably. i figure that covers my gas, wear and
> tear on my vehicle, and my time to drive four hours round trip to tune *
> their* piano at *their* request.
>
> Daniel Carlton
>
>
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