Taking the plunge. My journey as an O/O.

For instance, in Volvos - the wire that adjusts the steering wheel position, the air bags height adjuster valve, or the upper radiator L-bow hose are Volvo's Achilles hills, and if you own a Volvo, more than likely these things will break on you sooner or later - and more than once - and the likelihood of being unable to move is quite serious. I always carry with me the whole set of radiator hoses, belts, the wiper motor, steering wheel wire string - once I learned a lesson about this paying over $300.00 to TA - they themselves had to figure out how to do it or just as much for a road call to replace the fan belt.

 

So how much money do you need to GROSS to pay the bill of $1300.00 to someone else?

bet I could take a whole week off work and I’d still come out ahead by putting the batteries in myself even if it took the whole week to diagnose it?

 

Plus you'd be at home for a week

 

He lives in his truck I think.

 

Still didn’t answer my question of, how much GROSS revenue do you need to generate to give that money to someone else?

$3000
$5000
$8000
$10000
????

I pay myself a salary of $800 a week so, your math works out perfectly. Yes, I could spend the whole week fixing it for the same result. But if I have to give someone else $800 also that means I have to double the revenue. So if I need to generate $4000 to pay myself $800 then I need to generate $8000 to pay myself AND give someone else $800.

I mean if I’m going to spend the $800 I may as well pay it to myself at least?

next question is? If the shop diagnose it wrong what happens? I mean they don’t take it off the bill? They just start the clock again for there next diagnosis which may or may not be right either. Your fooling yourself if you think they won’t charge you full shop rate when they mis diagnosis and repair things?

Again I’m wishing you the best of luck just trying to get you to see the alternatives.

 

Think about this, I had a 1” water line to my house break. I called the city out and they told me only one company in town could repair it. I called the company and had them come fix it.

They showed up the next morning and had it fixed that same day.

I later received the bill for $8000.00


Now, after receiving the bill I realized that it was 2 months of my total salary of the job I had at the time.

I was expecting a couple thousand dollars? Nope!

I could of quit my job and dug it out with a spoon and a flashlight from my basement in less than a week. One fitting and 4’ of PEX plastics tubing.

Yes it was less than 3’ in the dirt.

I was repairing the gutter on my building.i don’t like heights and my ladder isn't quite tall enough. So I call out an expert. Well the bill showed up and he charged me $600 for a lift and 8 hours labor at $120 an hour. On top of that he charged me a $100 delivery fee for the lift.

All the products used were already purchased and on site. Wife said he was not here 3 hours total.

I could of rented a lift from the place 1 block away and driven it here down the alley, finished the job myself in less than an hour for less than $300.

Nope instead I paid them $1700.

Point is we make these kind of decisions without understanding the ramifications till after the fact.

MY point is do you understand the TOTAL of WHAT it costs?

By the way, I’m done talking about this. I’m not your dad and you have your own business. Dont even know why I care?

But I’m sure your relived?

lol