Business question

[Hammermechanicman]

the local deere dealer has a box truck completely outfitted for mobile mower service. The owner almost begged me to be a mobile tech since i retired. Why should i work 40+ hours a week for a third of what i made before i retired. He hasn't has a mobile tech for years. PT don't undervalue yourself. At 35 an hour be sure to bill all the time and set a minimum of $20. I sharpen blades at $7/blade and $7/chain off the saw $10/chain on saw. Any work on equipment is $20 minimum. I also have a small standard markup on parts. It takes time to lookup parts and place orders. I also have a pickup and delivery charge.

 

[PTmowerMech]

the local deere dealer has a box truck completely outfitted for mobile mower service. The owner almost begged me to be a mobile tech since i retired. Why should i work 40+ hours a week for a third of what i made before i retired. He hasn't has a mobile tech for years. PT don't undervalue yourself. At 35 an hour be sure to bill all the time and set a minimum of $20. I sharpen blades at $7/blade and $7/chain off the saw $10/chain on saw. Any work on equipment is $20 minimum. I also have a small standard markup on parts. It takes time to lookup parts and place orders. I also have a pickup and delivery charge.

I'm new to the area, so I gotta keep that in mind. Barely anyone knows me.

 

[Hammermechanicman]

Advertise, warranty your work, be honest and treat people fairly. You will develop a reputation. People would rather pay more for honest quality service than a lower price for poor service. Word of mouth in a small community will make or break you. One of the things I do is pressure wash all the mowers i service and then spray them down with WD40 and wipe them down. Makes equipment look really good. I buy WD40 by the gallon. Customers love the way that old mower looks when i drop it off. Don't be afraid to invest in tools. I probably have $15K worth of tools in the shop and that is not a lot by some shop standards.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Thanks for that. I was thinking about putting a sign out front. BUT, also thought about the tax collector seeing it. LOL..

And the labor rate thing, that's pretty smart. If I noted it at $60hr, doesn't necessarily mean I'm gonna charge that much. Like right now, I'm running a winter special of $15 oil change and blade sharpening. That's labor only. Trying to coax some folks to get their mowers out a little early. The weeds are green & growing.
Oil changes aren't going to actually take more than about 10 to 15 minutes. That includes sharpening the (2) blades. Unless King Kong installed the blades.
Valve adjustments are usually about $35. Unless the valve covers come off clean.
I usually only get into the full labor rate when I'm having to chase wires, weld decks, valve jobs and things of that nature that takes an actual hour or more to do.

It is a perception thing you right down $ 35 / hr and most are going to think you have no idea what you are doing.
I have a couple of old scheduled fee service books ( warranty work ) and regardless of how long a job takes, in most cases the customer gets the scheduled hours @ $ 60/ hr
I do not sharpen blades, except for the commercial customers who drop off a 1/2 dozen sets every week.
Min fee is $ 30
Fitting fee of parts supplied by customer is $ 20
Chain saw prices are about the same as Hammer adjusted for Aus $ / USA $.
Commercial customers get them done for $ 5,00 a hit if they drop them off on their peg.
I sharpen then then put them back on the peg & they toss the cash in the letterbox.

Same as Hammer, I hit the gear with cheap spray degreaser, followed by a pressure wash and a finish off with Innox or silicon spray.
Innox & WD 40 get bought in 5 gallon drums & i use a triger sprayer, pressure sprayer & oil can to apply it depending upon the job at hand.
The local cheap car parts retailers regularly sell degreaser for $ 1.00 / can so I buy a couple of cartons at that price.
For hand helds a spray with the degreaser followed by a rinse from a pump up sprayer works wonders & costs next to nothing .
If foam prefilters are not falling apart they get a run through the ultrasonic cleaner then returned to the customer with instruction to swap & wash them monthly.

 

[Hammermechanicman]

Wow Bert, you don't sharpen blades except commercial customers. I sharpen lots of blades. I used to use a Bradley S20 grinder. Does a good job on flat blades but takes too long to sharpen a blade and won't do mulching blades. I switched to the All American Sharpener. It uses a 4.5" angle grinder. Now i can sharpen a blade in seconds not minutes. A little technique sensitive but once you figure it out it works great and fast. 36 And 60 grit flap discs are cheap.

All American Lawn Mower Blade Sharpener

We provide high quality lawn mower blade sharpeners at an affordable price. Our products are made in the USA and built to last. We also provide video tutorials about the best way to use our jigs to sharpen your blades.

www.allamericansharpener.com

One of the best things i bought for the shop. At 62 years old this thing is my friend. Between this and an impact gun and the All American Sharpener i can do blades quick.

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[PTmowerMech]

It is a perception thing you right down $ 35 / hr and most are going to think you have no idea what you are doing.
I have a couple of old scheduled fee service books ( warranty work ) and regardless of how long a job takes, in most cases the customer gets the scheduled hours @ $ 60/ hr
I do not sharpen blades, except for the commercial customers who drop off a 1/2 dozen sets every week.
Min fee is $ 30
Fitting fee of parts supplied by customer is $ 20
Chain saw prices are about the same as Hammer adjusted for Aus $ / USA $.
Commercial customers get them done for $ 5,00 a hit if they drop them off on their peg.
I sharpen then then put them back on the peg & they toss the cash in the letterbox.

Same as Hammer, I hit the gear with cheap spray degreaser, followed by a pressure wash and a finish off with Innox or silicon spray.
Innox & WD 40 get bought in 5 gallon drums & i use a triger sprayer, pressure sprayer & oil can to apply it depending upon the job at hand.
The local cheap car parts retailers regularly sell degreaser for $ 1.00 / can so I buy a couple of cartons at that price.
For hand helds a spray with the degreaser followed by a rinse from a pump up sprayer works wonders & costs next to nothing .
If foam prefilters are not falling apart they get a run through the ultrasonic cleaner then returned to the customer with instruction to swap & wash them monthly.

I was just trying to find labor rates on the shops around here, (online) and could only find 2 that was within an hours drive from here. And both were $35 to $45hr. I'm gonna stick with the $35hr.
The equipment washing, I used to do that at my old shop. But the few that I didn't get a chance to wash, the customers didn't even care. Everything I touched, got wiped down or blown off (the deck).
The used equipment I sell, is usually spotless. Top to bottom.

BTW, I didn't know you could put those pre filters in the ultrasonic. I'll have to give that a shot. I've got a couple I washed with dawn dish soap and water. But they don't look clean.

 

[ILENGINE]

I don;t know where you are PTmowermech, but that sounds low for most areas. In my area the range is $68-125

 

[Rivets]

In my area we are the same hourly rates as IL posted. Pick up and delivery ranges from free (new large units) to $150 (large units over 75 miles).

 

[PTmowerMech]

Bert check out Adminsoft accounting with Auto Manager. I think you will find it is more of what you need for shop software. Just be aware that the payroll module is for the UK only. Even without the payroll module you should find it rather robust software especially for zero upfront cost program.

PTmowerMech, As for my shop I kinda lucky to be 20+ miles from of the local shops. Because most of them are not that good a repairs does help too. Even the JD shop has rather bad rep on repairs of lawn care equipment.

As for advertising if you do good work then word of mouth referrals are the best. In the 10+ years I have been in business I have yet to advertise the business other than a sign in front of the shop. The winter months are the roughest for me so I started learning ATVs repairs with customers understand that I am new at the repairs so it takes me a little longer than most shops. But considering most of the ATV shops are running at 1-2 behind and I get one out in a couple weeks isn't all that bad. The new tools are the biggest headache at the current time.

As noted watch the repair costs vs replacement costs. Some things are just not worth the headaches if it is not something minor. As buying or just getting it gave to you used broken equipment it is a good way to learn new procedures on without guinea pigging your customers equipment.

Now my business nearly went under in 2014 but it wasn't the lack of business it was that my mother developed dementia and it was a full time job taking care of her. No regrets though.

I'm just looking at this software you posted. Watched a couple of video's about it. Is it at easy at that? At the moment, I'm just logging customers into separate files, with their names as the file name. But on a different file, there's the parts I've order. On another is the supplies I've bought. I'm starting to get a lot of files. I'm using Open Office spread sheets for the parts and supplies. And it's pretty easy. But it doesn't tell me how many of what I have.

Does this adminsoft do a lot of that for you?

Logging in all those receipts....... I'd rather have a root canal without novacaine than log in all these receipts.

 

[StarTech]

My advice is to just give it a try. You run along side your current system and see how it works for you. At first there is quite a bit data entry but it is store it is easily access. I believe once you use the software you find it quite useful and saves a lot if time. Everytime you order parts via PO it is as receiving them and then invoicing to accounts payable. All stock items are automatically updated as you receive them and when you book them out on a work order. Just got remember to keep your price files up to date.