Husqvarna YTH1842 compression issue?

[Hammermechanicman]

Not sure how any of you guys can stay in business...you are getting hammered from all sides....65-72 dollars?? an hour here on long Island no one is charging less than 100...with prices going up from there...and I mean up!!!! Try haggling with your doctor...everyone wants it done yesterday for nothing!! I really appreciate the wisdom that is given here so freely and for FREE I have learned a lot from these masters!
Thanks Happy Easter season to all now go raise some prices.. no this AIN'T the SIXTIES anymore!

It all depends on your needs and the market. At $40/hr i actually clear more profit per hour than a big dealer charging $100 per hour. My overhead is near $0. Other than my liability insurance, website and business cards i have no other overhead. No rent, utilities, employees, health insurance, advertising and a dozen other things. I pay cash for everything and i have no debt so no loan payments. I am thinking of going to $50/hr to cover increased shop costs. The big shops have plenty of business and so i.

 

[bertsmobile1]

If I charged by the time I actually spend , some jobs would work out at $5 /hr
Big box shops have a lot more fixed costs than small one man shops do let alone mobile businesses like me
It costs the shop up the road around $ 200,000/year ( aus) before he can open his front door and let a customer in.
It costs me $ 8,000 so I have a lot less to cover in my labour mark ups.
On top of that the profit on new sales is between 50% to 100%
Profit on repairs is down to 15% to 30%
So big shops do not want anybody to repair anything unless it is a warranty claim and the workshop is really there for pre-delivery assembly and the profit of from repairs hopefully covers the cost of the pre-delvery .
Shops who make a living from repairs have much lower labour rates than big box franchises because they want to do the repairs where as big box stores do not .

 

[mmoffitt]

If I charged by the time I actually spend , some jobs would work out at $5 /hr
Big box shops have a lot more fixed costs than small one man shops do let alone mobile businesses like me
It costs the shop up the road around $ 200,000/year ( aus) before he can open his front door and let a customer in.
It costs me $ 8,000 so I have a lot less to cover in my labour mark ups.
On top of that the profit on new sales is between 50% to 100%
Profit on repairs is down to 15% to 30%
So big shops do not want anybody to repair anything unless it is a warranty claim and the workshop is really there for pre-delivery assembly and the profit of from repairs hopefully covers the cost of the pre-delvery .
Shops who make a living from repairs have much lower labour rates than big box franchises because they want to do the repairs where as big box stores do not .

Yes Bert you are the hardest working man in Mower repair thanks for all you give you are the King!

 

[Hammermechanicman]

For a shop to hire a mechanic for $20/hr that's $40k for salary plus SSA tax and unemployment tax health insurance and admin overhead that mechanic will really cost around $70k a year. So his real cost is $30/hr. So the shop gets $70/hr for his work. Assuming he bills 8 hours of labor a day. Out of that $70 comes all the operatimg overhead before profit which is probably around $50 of the$70. So if the shop is lucky they will get $20/hr towards profit IF the mechanic bills 8 hours every day. Add in a couple weeks paid vacation and you lose possibly 80 billed hours, $8k plus the $1600 vacation pay that 2 weeks cost the shop more than you would think. Never take a mower to a shop that pays mechanics flat rape. A small shop with low overhead can charge less than the big shops and be profitable.

Had a big dealer want to hire me. I told him i would work as a contractor for $30/hr with no benefits and i bring my own tools so every billed hour is $70 for the shop as i would be no additional overhead. Owner liked the idea but wouldn't hire me because if the other mechanics found out what he was paying me they would quit.

 

[ILENGINE]

For a shop to hire a mechanic for $20/hr that's $40k for salary plus SSA tax and unemployment tax health insurance and admin overhead that mechanic will really cost around $70k a year. So his real cost is $30/hr. So the shop gets $70/hr for his work. Assuming he bills 8 hours of labor a day. Out of that $70 comes all the operatimg overhead before profit which is probably around $50 of the$70. So if the shop is lucky they will get $20/hr towards profit IF the mechanic bills 8 hours every day. Add in a couple weeks paid vacation and you lose possibly 80 billed hours, $8k plus the $1600 vacation pay that 2 weeks cost the shop more than you would think. Never take a mower to a shop that pays mechanics flat rape. A small shop with low overhead can charge less than the big shops and be profitable.

Had a big dealer want to hire me. I told him i would work as a contractor for $30/hr with no benefits and i bring my own tools so every billed hour is $70 for the shop as i would be no additional overhead. Owner liked the idea but wouldn't hire me because if the other mechanics found out what he was paying me they would quit.

And that is assuming a 100% mechanic efficiency which in reality would be closer to 80% as a goal, but real world would be around 60-70% for some jobs. Came across a OPE dealer profit chart a few years ago that highlighted the different aspects of a growing OPE shop. And the figures were enlightening. For a small shop doing under 100k per year the take home profit margin is around 30% but for a multi million dollar dealership is around 5% after everything including depreciation. And for the growing business you are safe up to about 500k but once you cross the 500k mark you have 12 months to exceed 1M otherwise the overhead and additional cost will put you in bankruptcy.

There was a period of about 20 years in my area that every shop that put up a new building was out of business within 3 years.

 

[hlw49]

Well I wish I had the space but returning sooner does make the customer think the next time that maybe they let the professional do the work. I have had customers to try to get me make them whole again buy buying their used parts. Not going to happen. I had that installed a new starter. solenoid, voltage regulator, stator, and new battery before bring in the mower where I found a fifty cent wire terminal bad. He still got a bill for an hour's worth of labor and the terminal.

Now on those Briggs OHV engines I do keep a couple days but that is for the RTV to fully cure before attempting a restart after valve adjustment.

Have you ever heard of Loctite The Right Stuff? It is instant with no cure time. Kohler sells it and it is good stuff. They call it a 1 minute cure. Use it put it back together and put it back to work.

 

[StarTech]

But I am cheap and waiting a day is not a problem. Why pay 4x for a product when I can wait 12 hrs. I am not slap it together shop as I do check over the equipment for other obvious problems while waiting.

 

[bertsmobile1]

For a shop to hire a mechanic for $20/hr that's $40k for salary plus SSA tax and unemployment tax health insurance and admin overhead that mechanic will really cost around $70k a year. So his real cost is $30/hr. So the shop gets $70/hr for his work. Assuming he bills 8 hours of labor a day. Out of that $70 comes all the operatimg overhead before profit which is probably around $50 of the$70. So if the shop is lucky they will get $20/hr towards profit IF the mechanic bills 8 hours every day. Add in a couple weeks paid vacation and you lose possibly 80 billed hours, $8k plus the $1600 vacation pay that 2 weeks cost the shop more than you would think. Never take a mower to a shop that pays mechanics flat rape. A small shop with low overhead can charge less than the big shops and be profitable.

Way back when I was an occasional engineering clerk we costed labour out at 3 times the workers hourly rate
If they were contractors then it was 4 times to cover the extra supervision needed ,

 

[DHook]

Would any mechanics be willing to work on an engine if I walked into the shop with just the engine instead of the whole mower? Just curious. This would be to fix the ACR cam problem.

 

[mmoffitt]

$$$$ Talks why not?