A big Jim Cramer Booh-yah fellow business owners! Let me tell you a story from a day in the life..(its gonna help you get rich)
Yesterday, I dug a huge hole in the ground at the shop so I could save a $1 per gallon installing and filling a 500 gallon tank with sodium hypochlorite. It'll last all season and it cost me $1800 to construct and fill it but that extra $4 per job I was spending was just wiping out my profit margin.
After I was finished with that project, I drove 22 miles to save 10 cents per gallon on some gas and diesel! With the 250 gallons per month I go through, taking the trip 4-5 times per month with two vehicles that average 10 mpg is worth it to save the $25. Don't you agree? Hell, whats a wasted 6 hours of my time per month? At least those greedy oil barons aren't getting my extra $25 !
I had some daylight left so I did some pm on my gear. The China-made QC's are all shot and that hose is looking a little iffy. Even though I replaced them just last month, I have more on hand because I was smart and faxed an order to the company with no customer service. No customer service+imported parts=cheap. Thats good, no? So an American manufacturer won't see any profit from me, thats not my problem. (I'll just post "God Bless America and our soldiers" later on and I will redeemed) I have a whole boxload of these China-mades and they cost me $2 less per coupler. You can't be that with a stick. I do hope I have enough to get through the season though. The hose.. I'll just pray holds out.
At night, sitting analyzing my numbers and thinking about the next day's work I see we have four deck strips. I'm wondering if we can get them all done. The new stripper I bought is not quite up to performance of what we used to use. So a little more dwell time and higher pressure never killed anyone, right? I'll tell the guys they have to work an extra hour tommorow. Crap, I'm one of those guys. Oh well I saved 25 cents per gallon on the cheaper stripper and that adds up! Tommorow alone I will save $12. Oh wait a minute, the extra payroll is going to cost me $60.
Crap. I though I was smart ordering all that stuff to save shipping. I better add rearranging my shed yet again to my task list.
For next year, I have a really good idea. The local guys are killing me on machine prices. I don't need service right? You guys here at TGS will help me if I have any issues I can't figure out. Throw away those Landas and overpriced workhorses you guys say... Cheap is the way to go! Okay, I'm on board. Should I factor down time into the equation? I mean I figure I will have to spend some time fixing design flaws and waiting for parts to ship back and forth right? But I will save a bundle in the long run. My local shop may have me back up and running in under an hour on any given day but I am not giving those guys $75 an hour anymore. Crooks.
I'd like to thank all the guys who so often post about saving a dollar here and there. You have opened my eyes. I had been previously wasting my time figuring out how to maximize profits through upselling, closing sales and refining my marketing.
Here it was all along.. the key to success is buying right. Screw the local businesses. I'll just milk them and expect them to hire me. Why should I give back and perpetuate my local economy when I can wear the badge of honor that says I can buy it cheaper than you can?
Now if I could just figure out where to spend all this extra money I am going to make in '07.
A big Jim Cramer Booh-yah fellow business owners! Let me tell you a story from a day in the life..(its gonna help you get rich)
Yesterday, I dug a huge hole in the ground at the shop so I could save a $1 per gallon installing and filling a 500 gallon tank with sodium hypochlorite. It'll last all season and it cost me $1800 to construct and fill it but that extra $4 per job I was spending was just wiping out my profit margin.
After I was finished with that project, I drove 22 miles to save 10 cents per gallon on some gas and diesel! With the 250 gallons per month I go through, taking the trip 4-5 times per month with two vehicles that average 10 mpg is worth it to save the $25. Don't you agree? Hell, whats a wasted 6 hours of my time per month? At least those greedy oil barons aren't getting my extra $25 !
I had some daylight left so I did some pm on my gear. The China-made QC's are all shot and that hose is looking a little iffy. Even though I replaced them just last month, I have more on hand because I was smart and faxed an order to the company with no customer service. No customer service+imported parts=cheap. Thats good, no? So an American manufacturer won't see any profit from me, thats not my problem. (I'll just post "God Bless America and our soldiers" later on and I will redeemed) I have a whole boxload of these China-mades and they cost me $2 less per coupler. You can't be that with a stick. I do hope I have enough to get through the season though. The hose.. I'll just pray holds out.
At night, sitting analyzing my numbers and thinking about the next day's work I see we have four deck strips. I'm wondering if we can get them all done. The new stripper I bought is not quite up to performance of what we used to use. So a little more dwell time and higher pressure never killed anyone, right? I'll tell the guys they have to work an extra hour tommorow. Crap, I'm one of those guys. Oh well I saved 25 cents per gallon on the cheaper stripper and that adds up! Tommorow alone I will save $12. Oh wait a minute, the extra payroll is going to cost me $60.
Crap. I though I was smart ordering all that stuff to save shipping. I better add rearranging my shed yet again to my task list.
For next year, I have a really good idea. The local guys are killing me on machine prices. I don't need service right? You guys here at TGS will help me if I have any issues I can't figure out. Throw away those Landas and overpriced workhorses you guys say... Cheap is the way to go! Okay, I'm on board. Should I factor down time into the equation? I mean I figure I will have to spend some time fixing design flaws and waiting for parts to ship back and forth right? But I will save a bundle in the long run. My local shop may have me back up and running in under an hour on any given day but I am not giving those guys $75 an hour anymore. Crooks.
I'd like to thank all the guys who so often post about saving a dollar here and there. You have opened my eyes. I had been previously wasting my time figuring out how to maximize profits through upselling, closing sales and refining my marketing.
Here it was all along.. the key to success is buying right. Screw the local businesses. I'll just milk them and expect them to hire me. Why should I give back and perpetuate my local economy when I can wear the badge of honor that says I can buy it cheaper than you can?
Now if I could just figure out where to spend all this extra money I am going to make in '07.
Share this post
Link to post
Share on other sites