How to pricing the rental equipment

[kcollinsdesign]

You should be capitalizing on your core capabilities. You are wasting your time if you are trying to do things that don't make you money. You make money by subcontracting not only by marking up the service or collecting a project management fee (remember, they don't need to pay a salesperson when you are spoon-feeding them work), but by freeing up your time to do whatever it is that pays best for your time.

In my case, that is design work. I make a lot more money designing and engineering than I do racing around trying to rent an installation tool. My sign buddy across town can't draw a straight line, but he has a crane and two bucket trucks. His core competency is installation, and he loses his ass every time he sits down and tries to design something.

I do not find my statement (#17) misleading at all.

Note: the only subcontractors I have had problems with are other sign shops that think I'm horning in on their business. Some of these shops actually despised me, and have actively tried to steal customers and disparage my reputation. This behavior almost always backfired, and the result of this attitude is that I just don't invite them to the party. Now days I don't even bother inviting them because they are out of business. The surviving companies are a pleasure to work with, and professional in all ways.

 

[player]

Watch out for subs that steal your clients. I was looking at an ad for bucket trucks. The cost in CAD (Canadian dollars) was from $2,500 to $5,200 per month (depending on the model) for 7 years. Then there was a 20% buyout. So say it was $4,000 per month. Over 7 years that would mean the truck would cost $336,000 plus insurance, repairs, certifications plus the 20% at the end if you want to own it.

Just the lease payments would be $4k x 12 months = $48,000 per year. At $90 per hour ($90 + 25 for crane operator = $115 per hour) you would need to bill 533 hours to cover just the lease payment.

 

[Gino]

WOW........ what kinda truck are you looking at ?? This guy only wants to do some simple installations.

 

[netsol]

i bought a "can't be fixed" 1991gmc bucket truck for $2000
put about $2500 into it (including a paint job, after all a sign company needs to have a decent looking truck)
runs great, reliable
should keep us from struggling to make the payments on a new truck & don't have to turn down small jobs.
gives me barter leverage with 2 electricians we know who don't have a bucket truck

 

[equippaint]

i bought a "can't be fixed" 1991gmc bucket truck for $2000
put about $2500 into it (including a paint job, after all a sign company needs to have a decent looking truck)
runs great, reliable
should keep us from struggling to make the payments on a new truck & don't have to turn down small jobs.
gives me barter leverage with 2 electricians we know who don't have a bucket truck

Be careful with that, they probably said it was unfixable for a reason. We do a fair amount of work for a lift truck builder and they have many accident stories with these old lifts. Even de-housing or tearing away away from the chassis while up in the air.

 

[bannertime]

I have a friend that owns an electrical business. I keep his trucks lettered for free, he loans me his bucket truck for free.

I honestly think this is the best way to do it.

This is very similar to what we did. We just write it up as a trade account though and not "free." You really should keep track of this. When we were a younger company we had an agreement with a landscaper that we'd do his signs and he'd do our yard. A year or two later he's in the store saying we need to give him our old truck for free (he was driving by and saw we just bought a new one) because we were a few thousand behind (he was oddly serious about it, too). Not our fault he didn't order enough signs. You know your relationships and you may be keeping track of it, but it's just a good habit. Might save you from a bad situation.