Subject: Re: Current Shop Rates?

From: [email-masked] (J.A.Harvey )
Date: 9 May 1996 15:27:43 GMT

In <[email-masked]> [email-masked] 

>i have a shop here in kentucky an we sure can't get some of the rates
>i'm seeing here. i have a full shop from new lathes to auto surface
>grinders to radial drills heat treating an such . the most i ever
>charge is 25.00 an then the people think you've robbed them. i guess
>that just goes to show how different parts of the country are in fact
>different! oh that also includes some wire edm work.

Interesting point. I wonder what your rent is at your shop. This goes,
I think to the differences in cost of living, and doing business in
different parts of the country.

Here in New York, if you charged $25.00 an hour for machine work, you
would quickly be out of business. When you have employees who are
making that as an hourly wage, it makes it pretty difficult to charge
that as your labor rate! I would imagine that In the Major cities
around the country the situation is the same.

We spend time in other parts of the country with our racing, and I am
always amazed ( and not a little jealous ) at the cost of operating in
other states. Last year, while in Arizona, we saw a piece of property
with 14 acres, a 2500 sq foot shop, 2000 foot hangar, a paved runway
and a 4400 sq. ft. home for $300,000.00. That property, if here in New
york would easily run over 1.5 MILLION. I could do $25.00 an hour work
in a place like that!

I also believe that shop rates can't be carved in stone in this day and
age. If you have a normal shop rate of $50.00 per hour or $20.00 per
hour, you are going to run into situations that common sense ( and good
business sense ) will require you to modify your rate. If one of my
customers needs a hole drilled and tapped, we will often do it for
free. A guy coming in off the street might get turned away on such a
small job if we are very busy ( but we would send them to someone who
could do the job for them).

Jim Harvey
[email-masked]
http://hre.com/

---

From: [email-masked] (Don Clarke)
Date: 12 May 1996 02:04:24 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
   [email-masked] (Richard Hager) wrote:

>> >       --Most shops in my area, doing subcontract work for The Big Guys
>> >here in Silicon Beach, charge around $60 to $80 per hour and most have
>> >1-hour minimums...

>> Gene Olson wrote:
>> Which is why the 35 - 50 charged in the midwest seems like such a
>> steel:-)

Hey, I charge $50 just to turn a welding machine on! And then I also charge 
for material... 

Have to do it because once that machine is on, the little dial on the hydro 
company meter is turning at faster than light speed.  {GRIN}

That's one of the reasons I "don't" encourage people to stand around watching 
me work. I know it's "their job" and they are paying for me to do it, but I 
can work a lot faster without having to worry about them burning out their 
eyeballs when I shut mine and zap a tack... and I don't have to stop and 
explain why I'm hitting their [insert your choice] with a large ballpeen.

Seriously, I once had an elderly couple giving me heck for hitting their oil 
pan so hard. They were afraid I'd damage it worse than it was! I was 
astonished, because they had their Honda in a friends shop to get the oil pan 
repaired AFTER they had ripped it open on a rock! I explained that "yes, I had 
to hit it hard because the rock had bent it already and I had to bend it back 
into shape before I fixed the hole!" 

Did I charge extra? No, but I laughed like hell for a few days...

I'll stop babbling now and go back to work...