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- Dec 24, 2010
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- My Car
- 1972 Q code Mach 4spd
2004 350z
2005 Corvette
1971 Camaro SS/RS
M..I'm going to disagree with you on this..I ran multimillion dollar body shops for owners & took failing shops & turned them into profitable shops. Here's a good linkhttp://www.idealcomputersystems.com/extblog/index.php/how-to-determine-effective-hourly-labor-rates-in-your-dealership/ with SOME of the things it takes to figure a PROFITABLE labor rate. If your working on 15-20 percent profit margin you better pack it up & stay home..You will never get to the "pot of gold" at the end of the rainbow for all your hard work & investment. For a 10-18 percent profit margin I could take my money invest in "factoring" (other business's ) and make 10 percent with out working or any liability that comes with owning a business. My last shop I owned when I sold it was working on 45-55 percent profit & that's what allowed me to live the lifestyle I worked so hard for plus a return on my investment. A bank doesn't give you money without interest & a business owner is entitled to interest on his investment. Most business owners don't think like that although they should. Your method of figuring a labor rate is flawed. It's 1 of the reasons why many new business's fail. JMOI think that if a shop is performing restoration work, the rate should be $55-$65/hr and $85/ hr to paint.
If you break this down 35-45% would be over head.
15-20% would be profit margin.
30-40% would be wages / benifits etc.
You dont have this kind of overhead in your garage.
You wouldnt charge a profit margin on your own time.
You wouldnt charge taxes or enviormental fees.
$20-$30/hr would be a resonalble rate if you professionally do this for a living.
A professional body man or mechanic should have at least 100% higher productivity that a average weekend mechanic.
So $10-$15 should concider for you monitary investment.
So if your doing work your self you can take the extra hours to go way beyond the effort that a job shop would do.
I think my time spent on my car is priceless because i enjoy it and it gets my head out of the every day grind.
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