Unemployment benefits story (sympathy or sob)

Learning the vendors?

 

Entrepreneurship. Pretty much every single person who is employed in this country is employed because someone decided to quit trying to find someone else to hire them and started working for themselves.

Of course there are a lot of people who don't have the basic skills needed in life and need help. But that doesn't mean BOOTSTRAPS doesn't still exist. Not only does it exist, it's something we desperately need more of in this country.

 

You've convinced me. I'm going to start making bootstraps.

 

I bet there's some good money in selling nice, homemade ones online.

 

If you want to give everyone 52 weeks, I would applaud that.

More than 99 weeks? I'm sorry but that sounds ridiculous.

I know nobody is going to get rich off unemployment, but giving people two years to find work is absurd.

I have a friend who was cut off after a little more than six months after losing a job where he'd been for 10 years.

But some people can get 99 weeks while others can only get 30?

The system is seriously fucked-up.

 

Rick, shouldn't you be overseeing you McDonald's franchises.

 

I couldn't hack it so I quit. I'm guessing my job's still open there if anyone wants it.

 

Thank you.

It's not $600 per hour. It's a one hour minimum. That's a big difference.

Also, part of what I get paid for is for stocking all of the parts necessary to repair a machine.

Yes, I make 100% profit on the parts, but i may have bought that part 6 months ago. (Plus I paid for the shipping.) And I have a parts inventory that's worth tens of thousands of dollars.

You pay for the peace of mind that I will come out to your store promptly. I will have the parts. I will fix the machine on my first trip. It will not break down two days after I am there.

Because of this, you will not lose sales.

I should also point out that I give good customers tons of freebies and don't always hold them to a one hour minimum.

I also offer free phone support to my customers & am often able to talk them through something over the phone.

I'm also more than happy to show people how to make simple repairs. Most don't take me up on it.

I've offered one of my biggest customers to hold free "classes" on simple maintenance & repairs. I've offered to hold it at my shop or at one of their stores after closing. I've offered to do it on back to back days so that anyone who wants to attend can. I've made the offer a number of times over several years.

They've never taken me up on it. It's not what they do. They serve food & beverages. I fix coffee & espresso machines.

Sometimes someone will ask me about a bill. They realize that I billed them $150.00 and that it only took me half an hour. Again, I'll show them how to do it. I'll offer to order parts for them so that they have them on hand. They don't take me up on it.

Hard water (and user error) is responsible for the vast majority of my business. If they're willing to do it, I'll show them how to test & change their filters. (It's super easy.) I've offered to put them in touch with my vendors so that they can purchase the filters at a discounted price and change them themselves.

They don't take me up on it.

It is what it is.

Most of these stores do not want to put their employees in a situation where they could burn or electrocute themselves. They don't want them to flood or burn down the store. So they call me.

Also, the $75.00 initial fee is designed to cover my time to and from the store. It's a flat rate whether you are 50 miles away or two miles away. (I do charge mileage of $0.27 to cover gas.) Since most of my costumers are corporately owned chain restaurants, it averages out for them and me.

The alternative is for them to pay for my time to drive their and back, but then they get stuck with a big bill if I'm stuck in a traffic jam. This way they know what to expect in terms of what the bill will be.

As it happens, this job yesterday was only a couple of miles from my home and I went by on my way home. It didn't really take me out of my way and it was a quick easy job, so it was ideal.

Not every job is like that.

You also have to realize that I give all of my customers terms. They have at least 30 days to pay their bills. (One of my customers has had cash flow problems. They are paying their bill steadily, but they are averaging 180 between when I do the work and when I get paid.)

It takes time to track and order parts, put together invoices, chase after people who don't pay their invoices, to pay my bills, to do my taxes and accounting.

I carry a very high insurance policy.

My bills reflect all of that work and overhead.

I'm also very generous with mom & pops who open their own restaurants/cafes. I rebuild old machines & sell them for about half of the list price. (These espresso machines go for around $14,000-$15,000 new.)

I fully warrantee my rebuilt machines and I often give them several moths and occasionally up to a year to make their payments. As long as they make them on a regular basis, I will work with them.

Trust me. I offer a very good service. I've never advertised. My business has grown strictly through referrals. I've never lost a client. (Though I've told couple of them to go away.)

If I was overpriced or didn't offer a valuable service, I wouldn't have the customer base I do.

My business is only 5 years old. They remember their old vendors. I'm better. I don't compete on price. I'm probably a little higher than my competitors, but it's not an outrageous difference.

This is how business works. Provide a good service at a fair price. That's what I do.

My customers are very loyal to me.

 

Spin it however you want, but $200 for a 20 minute job fixing a coffee maker is not fair and reasonable.

 

You are just being silly.

What is a lawyer worth? What is a doctor worth? What is an actor or a baseball player worth? What is a meal at a top restaurant worth?

Goods & services are priced at what others are willing to pay for them.

 

It is if they agree to it. If they don't like it, they don't have to use his service.