let’s keep this going I know there’s more to learn from you guys
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Being indecisive, if you have the means and ability implement and move forward.
trying to do too much in too many diverse areas. Focusing on a couple areas has been a huge stress reliever and very profitable.
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My biggest mistake was not charging enough when I first started. I couldn’t understand in my own mind why people would spend a few hundred on window cleaning. After a time, the amount of work that it took to get great results was apparent that cheap labor is not success. Although those first few years was good experience for how to do good work. I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist at my work, so people were blown away at quality to price. Click! The light goes on. Restructure my pricing as I earned enough customers to struggle for more. It is lean times of getting established and asked for instead of doing the asking.
Lesson 1: Offer great service at great prices - to you.
Lesson 2: Return the phone call as soon as possible.
Lesson 3: No matter which form of advertising you use, do it well. Design, coverage, grammar, quality.
Lesson 4: You can’t control your pricing with a bargain hunter. (Occasionally accept their bargain so you can eat).
Lesson 5: Only look back at mistakes, and always look forward to solutions.
Lesson 6: Do not get stagnant. Invest in your business but keep it simple.
Lesson 7: Hire a GOOD tax preparer.
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I was hoodwinked into the golf/country club ad one year. As expected- nothing.
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Very similar to my story. Had no clue when I started what was a viable price. I also thought that I was making ‘so much more than when I was a cashier’ that it didn’t really matter to me at the start. Thankfully, I’d say a good 90+% of my dreadfully underpriced jobs are either gone or at a rate I can live with.
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Heres something for you all. For the dedicated businessman/woman when you FAIL its only
First
Attempt
In
Learning
So that means the next time youve hopefully got yourself in order.
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Failure is giving up. Learn, move on, and do better.
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I couldn’t agree more, and should probably have this tattooed on my forearm lol
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appreciate your comments guys, but I want to hear the raw details of real failure. it was Thor’s post about his failure in bidding on multiple buildings and having to raise his price and the customer rejecting it that prompted this thread because he learned a real lesson there about pricing things correctly the first time. That’s a lesson that I’ve really tried to put in practice because there’s been a few jobs where I’ve priced to “get” the job but then regretted the price each time we serviced it and had to wait until I felt we could raise the price. even then I didn’t feel justified in raising it as much as I wanted too because I thought the customer would reject us. That’s why it’s important to price it right from the beginning for example.
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This is key to why you should always be looking for the next job. There is any number of reasons to lose a customer. Might be your fault, might be theirs, but expect it to happen.
#6: Don’t get stagnant… Investing in your business is also investing in yourself and your value. You come to the realization that your pricing is askew - #5: Only look back at mistakes, and always look forward to solutions.
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these are real failures that happened to impact people in such a way that they remembered the lesson.
memorable lessons came from real consequences each individual will be affected very differently than someone else. just my two cents
we generally have plenty of work to replace any job we lose, but i take the relationship too personally. we’re dealing with one job now. we inherited 2 grocery stores (1 customer) from the business we bought. one is priced at $145 and takes us about 75 minutes. the other is priced at $60 and takes us about 60 minutes. i’m worried that we can’t raise it to where it should be ($100-120) without her reacting poorly. I guess i’m worried she’ll go online and give us a 1 star review and tell everyone we “doubled” our price and since she won’t explain the context it will just make people think that either we’re way too expensive or greedy. it’s probably mostly in my head. I think i care too much about whether people “like” us personally
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The $145 doesn’t seem like such a concern. The $60 one, perhaps just find a way to explain that you inherited that price and they are the only one at that reduced rate? Could just raise them $20 after first of the year and be done with since it is just one stop. I wouldn’t sweat one or two bad invoices if all the other ones are where they should be.
i feel like if we’re gonna raise it $20 (33%) that’s a significant of a jump that we should just go all the way. otherwise we’ll have to do 20 more next year and the year after that to get them to where they should be.
I try to look at stuff like that with a bigger view in mind. Is the job less per hour than you would like? Likely yes. Do you have some accounts that exceed your hourly expectations? Likely yes. Does it average out in the overall? If so, don’t sweat it too much.
Not every service or product will generate the same markup. But, if in the end you are getting the bottom line that you want, you succeeded. Don’t just live by the job, live by the day. Don’t fixate just on the day, but look at the overall week or month.
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i look at it differently, why should we have a job where we make $30 an hour when every other job is $60 an hour? they are the outlyer and we’re going to either raise their price and be happy or we’ll raise their price, they will quit and we’ll replace it with a $60 an hour job. after all, how low would you let it go? would you do a few jobs each month for $10 an hour?
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Well you’re kind of mixing prices. Would I do a few jobs for 10/hour? No. Would I do one for 30? Sure, why not. Esp if I was afraid of the one star review, which you seem to be. There all kinds of things that go into deciding if I’m going to keep an account or drop it. Do I even like the job? Will I take a hit in the public relations department? Will I lose other work because of it? Do I have other jobs that I cannot get to because of this low paying one?
The very fact that you are entertaining dropping it means you are ready to let it go. If I recall, you posted your financials for the year and you are a big baller this year, so you can afford the loss. If you think she’s going to throw shade your way online, you have to decide if it’s worth it or not.
It’s all big picture stuff. And your big picture is yours alone.
we hate the job 
yes
i do want to drop it, my only hesitation is if she decides to complain publicly, but i shouldn’t let us be bullied (even if only in my mind) into keeping a low price.
Most of the reviews allow you a rebuttal. I had one that was a bit outlandish. I rebutted with my response and what really happened, then moved on. Haven’t looked back since.
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Drop it nicely and proffecially , and give her the last service for free . she shouldn’t give you a bad review for an advance notice .
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