wlhequipment
Senior Member
Random thoughts about business and money.
I remember my first year out on my own. It was about 10 years ago now. You could darn near hear the crickets. That changed eventually, and business has been growing since. I didn't even slow down much during winter. Maybe a little. Business has slowed recently though. This winter is worse still. Q4 last year was the worst in 4 or 5 years. Q1 is on the same path, so far. Fixed costs go up every year, and profit margins are going down. It's getting harder and harder to keep a shop profitable, but the truck is fairly profitable. In fact, running the truck is what is keeping the shop alive, really. I don't want to lose the shop, because there is nothing else even close anywhere near here. Not to mention the massive effort to clean all my crap out of it, and give it back to the landlord. I feel like I'm a little hamster running in his wheel keeping it going though. I raised my shop rates last year. It looks like I'm going to have to raise em again. I guess it's a good thing the price of new machinery is through the roof, so my existence stays justified. I wonder how long that will last.
I remember my first year out on my own. It was about 10 years ago now. You could darn near hear the crickets. That changed eventually, and business has been growing since. I didn't even slow down much during winter. Maybe a little. Business has slowed recently though. This winter is worse still. Q4 last year was the worst in 4 or 5 years. Q1 is on the same path, so far. Fixed costs go up every year, and profit margins are going down. It's getting harder and harder to keep a shop profitable, but the truck is fairly profitable. In fact, running the truck is what is keeping the shop alive, really. I don't want to lose the shop, because there is nothing else even close anywhere near here. Not to mention the massive effort to clean all my crap out of it, and give it back to the landlord. I feel like I'm a little hamster running in his wheel keeping it going though. I raised my shop rates last year. It looks like I'm going to have to raise em again. I guess it's a good thing the price of new machinery is through the roof, so my existence stays justified. I wonder how long that will last.