[1033]

After reading quite a few posts this morning about vendors overcharging for parts or shipping, I thought I would write this to help others understand:

I can tell most of you are not self-employed. How do you think you employer pays your wages? When I work on a client's vehicle, I have to charge $1.08 per minute or $65 per hour and work for free while invoicing or billing(no charge for paperwork!).

Things like computers, paper, packing supplies, software, electricity, rent, tools, insurance, advertising/web sites, EPA licensing, taxes, and employee's wages(vacation, holiday pay, and health insurance) cost money. They are all needed to opperate a business(costs of doing business). It is only after all of these are paid that the owner gets paid.

If I spend 1 hour driving to the post office and waiting in line to ship something out, I loose money because I could have made another $65 in that time! Not only did I loose $65, I loose the little profit I would have made on the product. I have to sell at a low price or loose the sale all together. This is why UPS picks up at my shop!

I don't mean to rant, but this is a soft spot for me right now because I just finished my year-end analysis. I got to keep less than %30 of my gross sales. Then I have to pay income taxes on that!

Can someone remind me why I started a business?

Just think about this when you buy quality products from our Suzuki specific vendors or anyone for that matter. If they don't at least make a few bucks after the bills are paid, there won't be any products to buy sooner or later!

If you want or need my service, you must pay for it.

Most of us can't work for free!

So, the next time you guys bitch about the shipping or what a product costs, think about how much time it would take to drive there and get it or make it yourself!

 

[1918]

Very well said Crazycooter. One thing to remember is that most all aftermarket Suzuki stuff is already generally cheaper than for other trucks. Most Samurai owners have very little invested on a whole than anyone else on the trail. We really have it pretty good.

But alas, everyone knows that Samurai owners are cheap (not criticism, just an observation).

 

[1033]

Thanks!

I too am always looking for a deal, but I still believe that a man's time is worth something.

My Nomex suit is on, so let's have it!

 

[Guest]

Crazycooter,

That is what makes this board (and this Country) great: The right to the freedom of speech.

 

[945]

preach on brother

thats why most of the time i dont make it until i pre-sell it

nothing like spending several hrs on a custom part and then they back out or it sets on the shelf because people think it too much money

it has been stated before zuk people are cheap

thought about getting a rust out heep just for a model
because heepers will pay more money

 

[945]

yeap freedom of speach

just ask the dixie chicks about it

everybody burned their stuff and the local 2 radio station have banned thier playing due to all the complaints
from the pubic

 

[1033]

GA ZUKI, I didn't know you made Zuk parts! You are now added to my Zuk favorites folder.

 

[ackerdackerly]

CrazyCooter:

This, unfortunately, is an important reason why there will not be a ZookiMelt 2003 video from me.

I came close to breaking even the first year. The second year, production costs left me in the hole.

This year, I was excited and motivated at the Melt. Then the thought of losing more money this year added on to the other, more important, problems I had solve in my family life killed the project completely. I like making the video and I like the idea that folks can see action and events that they missed during the three days we call ZookiMelt. I don't like throwing 2-3000 bucks down the crapper for the experience.

People gotta understand that, whether it be bumpers, adapter flanges or videos, the price of the product has to do more than just cover the cost of manufacturing the product or there won't be a product.

PS: I am still open to handing the entire project over to someone who wants to complete my work (90% done) or create their own version. I have all the video on tape along with captured video on a hard disk. The only charge will be for the media that it is all on.

If interested, email me at [email protected]

 

[2041]

At this stage of my life there are 2 things I think should be mandatory:

Be self-employed for 2 years.

Serve in the military for 2 years.

If everyone had to do this there'd be a lot less bitching and a lot more respect.

Self-employed for 16 years and have heard all the smack. Still hanging on...

Was 18 in 1975...not the best of times to enlist. After seeing the positive changes in my Air Force son I wish I would have anyway.

 

[2961]

GA Zuki, where is your shop located at. I would like to come by and check you out sometime. I'm in Villa Rica.

 

[945]

it's in my back yard but you are welcome call me on my cell 678-468-8911 i'm in lithia springs

 

[Guest]

Yep, i'm hearin ya.
And by our stds US stuff is dirt cheap. Just the X rate and shipping kills it.
But yes zookers are tight bastards who'll crawl over broken glass to save a dollar. But then you want to try sellin stuff to Kayakers. Boy they'll open your eyes even further.
A.

 

[daxe]

In reply to:

If I spend 1 hour driving to the post office and waiting in line to ship something out, I loose money because I could have made another $65 in that time! Not only did I loose $65, I loose the little profit I would have made on the product. I have to sell at a low price or loose the sale all together.

[/ QUOTE ]

Maybe there's something to be said for being a smart businessman, too. If I had this situation (and I am self employed, by the way) I would hire somebody for $10 to stand in line for me and still make $55 with that time.

~daxe

 

[zuku26]

Hey GA zuki I checked your site but only get the homepage. There are some boxes to the right but are not working. I would like to see some of your products.

 

[1033]

Daxe, I think you missed the point.

Daxe wrote>>Maybe there's something to be said for being a smart businessman, too. If I had this situation (and I am self employed, by the way) I would hire somebody for $10 to stand in line for me and still make $55 with that time.<<

To pay a man $10 hr. would cost $20+hr. after taxes, Workers' comp. insurance, and other benefits. So now to ship said parts, I would have to charge at least $30 to make the sale profitable. The idea is to profit from the sale, not "break even" or loose money.


I would be better off not having an employee, not making the sale and just doing stuff that is profitable. See what I mean now? Someone has to pay, and in the end, it is the consumer.

Have you shopped for workers' comp. insurance in California lately? If you have, then you know what I'm complaining about.

Myself, being a small shop just starting out, can't hardly afford to pay myself, let alone someone else and all the expenses and headaches that come with employees!

I need to raise rates to $90 per hour. Maybe then I could make a decent living! I could afford weed out the cheap bastard, work less hours, and make more money!

 

[2479]

Crazycooter you probably just cost yourself $20 worth of your time writing this out and posting it

your efforts are probably in vain because some people will never know eithier what being self employed or running a
business is like

hang in there, hopefully some of these people will appriciate what you do for them one day ?

Shane

ps. I hope if you got $90 p/hr you'd still drive a zook

 

[rockrat]

My Hats off to you CC. for trying but this road map leads to nowhere.. I will be in the shop trying to figure out how to waist time and gouge my friends.

 

[1100]

Interesting post....You should hear my wife's view!!!! ....or maybe you shouldn't! All I hear about from her is how I work way too much for too little....though I am a bit of a workaholic. I have been self employed for many years and prefer it to any other way of living, though it really is hard sometimes. Taxes do eat me alive, so does health insurance for the family, self employment tax, blah, blah blah.... I am not poor, but I have to work my butt off to get where I am and if I did not have my wife helping me do the shipping and delivery to the Post Office it just wouldn't get done. She also does my books and this is when she starts complaining about not making enough proffit for the amount of time I work....60 hours + per week.

In reply to:

Can someone remind me why I started a business?

[/ QUOTE ]
I started my business so I would have personal freedom from the jerkoff/cheapass bosses I would always end up working for. I can honestly say I am MUCH happier not having to answer to anyone....but my wife. HMMM..I think I am starting to rant as well. Sorry about that, but the truth is just that.

Sean (Being Self-Employed is not the easiest road, but it is the road I took to happiness and the ultimate American Dream.....PURE Freedom!) DeVinney
{FREEDOM FROM EVERYTHING BUT TAXES!}

 

[13337]

All of this is only made worse by the Wal Mart China Syndrome . It is human nature to want to sell high and buy low ......I ran my own small buisness for the last two years and I have decided to fold the "new parts " side of it . The magin is low to begin with and then you get the price shoppers who cherry pick an order . I will continue to sell parts , but it will be used stuff only .

 

[daxe]

CC, please take this as trying to be helpful, not just p!ss you off. I know how hard it is to start a business I've done it a couple times. I also know that my style of communication is kind of abrasive, especialy in this kind of forum, so take what I type with that in mind

In reply to:

Daxe, I think you missed the point.

[/ QUOTE ]

Maybe you missed mine. I know as much about running a business as you do and apparently enough to make mine profitable working only about 30 hours a week. MAYBE you should try a different business if you can't make ends meet with this one. You seem to feel that no matter how you run things, people should have to pay for it. That's BS.

I run a courier business that has been profitable from day 1 and I have been doing it for 14 years. If I decided I wanted to drive a Humvee that cost 80K and got 8 MPG, should I expect my customers to just eat the cost? Of course not. I drive a Toyota Echo, which would not be my car of choice otherwise, because it's really good on gas and really reliable and cheap to purchase and insure. Doing that helps makes my business profitable, Case in point:

In reply to:

To pay a man $10 hr. would cost $20+hr. after taxes, Workers' comp. insurance, and other benefits. So now to ship said parts, I would have to charge at least $30 to make the sale profitable. The idea is to profit from the sale, not "break even" or loose money.

[/ QUOTE ]

You don't need to hire a full time employee to stand in line at the post office. You can find some dopey kid or old retired person and hand them a crumpled up $10 bill out of your pocket to do the same thing. There's nothing illegal about paying casual help with cash out of your pocket. If they're standing in line 40 hours a week it's a different story, but you need to find a way to minimize the time spent in line at the post office. Find a post office that's less busy, for starters. Ship only a couple days a week. Look at hiring a third party to do your shipping. You seem to look for problems, not solutions.

It seems to me like you automatically search around for the most expensive and involved way to do something. You started by stating that YOU had to stand in line for an hour and lose 65$ by doing so. YOU don't. You can pay someone else a lot less to do it. So your response to that was to pump up the cost of an employee as far as you can. You don't have to do that. Try finding ways to do things that are cheaper and easier and you might find your profitability is a little closer at hand.

And really, if you can't find a way to be profitable from your business, then just shut up and find something else to do or go work for someone else! Where do you get the idea that anyone else needs to compensate YOU for your desire to do something basically unprofitable? You dont need to give employees benefits. There are plenty of people who will work hard for money without all that other BS.

In reply to:

I would be better off not having an employee, not making the sale and just doing stuff that is profitable. See what I mean now? Someone has to pay, and in the end, it is the consumer.

[/ QUOTE ]

And the consumer has a right to tell you to stick your overpriced stuff up your @ss without being called a "cheap bastard." How do you like being called a clueless business owner?

In reply to:

Myself, being a small shop just starting out, can't hardly afford to pay myself, let alone someone else and all the expenses and headaches that come with employees!

[/ QUOTE ]

I hear ya. But I presume you are aware of the reality that you should have at LEAST one years worth of expenses, both business and personal, in the bank before you try to start a business. Immediate profitability is really not expected in a small business startup. Trying to assure yourself of immediate profitability by blithely passing your costs along to the consumer is a good way to establish yourself as overpriced. I know you probably can't afford to eat the costs for a year or more until you establish yourself and get profitability worked in, but you might be shooting yourself in the foot by not doing it. Profitability is the responsibility of the business, not the consumer.

I wish you the best of luck with your venture, but be prepared for some thin times to get your foot in the door. Expecting anything else isn't realistic.

~daxe

Obligatory spelling Nazi rant: loose is the opposite of tight, not the opposite of win.