I have a mentor that is of good status. He said the same thing about hiring a businessman to take care of the customers. I sound upset in the posts but in actuality I love having my own business. I feel so much better working late hours for myself than for someone else that won't notice anyway. I can turn up the XM and jam after hours or whenever I want.
The "people" I referred to earlier is one person in particular, not my general clientele. I actually had someone tip me $50 because he was so happy with the stainless grille I made for his skylark. So this haggling is not generally what happens. What bugs me is there is a million friggin retirees around here that have the retirement money coming in so they can give a good hourly rate in the shop in their back yards. What I have to explain to people is that a cheap hourly rate+slow work is worse that a normal hourly rate+fast work.
If I cut the rusty floor pans out of your car and weld in new ones in a week, that's better than 6 months regardless of the cheap rate. That's where I get most of my business, great work with a quick turnaround.
There are 2 things that I combat almost daily. One is that people have been scuu-rewed, and two, 2 years later the car still ain't done! So I usually get "the look" where they size me up. Getting used to that, it's now humorous, I laughed at the last guy who did that! Then until it's done, I get questions as to the durability of the product and so forth. That's all fine and dandy. There is a saying around here. "It's better to be known to do bad work than to not be known at all." Because people will still take their cars to get bad work done!
My question to you guys is do I tell people to get lost if they want "git-r-done" kinda work, or do I take all I can get? I am trying to build a rep here.
I have thought about it and came up with this. I make small decals and put them on the products that I was allowed to do good work on. Plain and simple. So when they see my mark of approval, they know, job well done.
No decal, that's what the customer wanted.
Thanks again for the responses. I am getting the insight and wisdom and encouragement I was looking for.
Micah
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