Quote Originally Posted by Cerberus View Post
That right there is exactly the problem. You have no right to complain about not making more money when you have not raised your price in 20 years! I have seen one of my vendors and one competitor close their doors because they did not raise their prices in 20 years. You know what I do? I watch my rates on every single job and adjust pricing accordingly. EVERY DAY, EVERY JOB. The old practice of holding prices for ten years are gone for me, my customers don’t hold their retail pricing for ten years so why should I voluntarily forego profit so they can boost theirs? Fuck that. We provide high quality, on time delivery, top rate customer service. We bend over backwards to keep their business running smoothly and most of our customers love us for it so they pay the small increase. My shop runs a small profit margin but it has remained steady because of this practice, my crew bust their asses and we all earn our paycheck so I make sure that we get paid for our work.
Keep in mind they are not really buying the product, they are buying from the artist, sell yourself not your glass. I hear all the time on this forum how the shops don’t appreciate your work, learn from that. Be polite, smile, be on time, be presentable, don’t be stupid. Don’t show up with a 420 shirt and smelling like smoke, swearing and complaining how hard you work. The saying goes, don’t dress for the job you have, dress for the job you want. Like it or not people judge by the cover. I’m not saying dress shirt and leather shoes but you know where I’m going. Don’t sell your product sell your service, any more thats the only thing that will set you apart and justify higher prices. I don’t have any idea how anyone else presents themselves so I’m generalizing here, maybe y’all do this already, I don’t know.
Human society is complex and complicated but humans are simple, we buy with our eyes.
To that point, Nomad your work is clean and consistent but boring, when i see your (endless) racks of W/R i see import glass and your big accounts probably do too. In my opinion you really are competing directly with China/India and bro, YOU WILL NOT WIN THAT GAME.
I gave up competing with offshore machine shops years ago and that was the best decision I have made yet. Included in that is giving up customers who shop 20 vendors for every order, there will always be someone who will do it cheaper so let them work themselves into the poorhouse.
I just realized I got suckered into another Nomad hijack...Doh!
I have actually been wearing my suit. I mean I wear jeans and a denim shirt with my vest and suit jacket and dress shoes. I have been really professional lately.