1st Serious Post

I first wrote a real long post and then thought it might not be best to discuss the whole problem here. But with time I probably will end up spilling. I would just like everyone to be thinking about my business as a serious event happened today which will me a major wrench in the gears at work. If the worse happens I may have to make some real serious changes and it won't be good. So be thinking as I would appreciate all prayers.


murph, I would put a smiley here but I can't find one that fits how I feel. I will be up all night I am sure worrying as that is my nature.

Murph......... I have you covered, and I hope and pray that it isn't so serious as you make it sound. In business, there are good times and bad times, and just when you think that everything is going perfect, something happens to try to knock you off track. I have faith that you will be back on track shortly and that all will be well again. No one ever said that owning your own business is easy, but in the end, all you can hope for is that when you retire, you can look back and say that it was rewarding. Junk...

My thoughts are with you as having been in business myself I know that the ups and downs can be quite traumatic.

Murph, I wish you the best.. Hope its just a weather driven thing that will change for you soon.. Good luck..

Like HGM, I hope it is weather driven or something that will change with time. The way you worded it though, and knowing the past employee issue you had, you have me concerned that it is more than something that will pass with time. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

No doubt you'll make it work out, but I'm wishing you the best too.

Hope things work out you Murph, you sound pretty down.

johnday said:

Hope things work out you Murph, you sound pretty down.

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Yeah I am down. Things have not been good for the last two years and just about when you started to see the light at the other end of the tunnel someone may have pulled the rug out from underneath me.

murph

That stinks. Too bad you aren't on the west side of the state. I wouldn't have any advice, but we could discuss it over a beer anyway.

Murph I know first hand about the ups and downs in the HVAC industry, including employees jumping ship and migrating to the larger shops for more perks. I sincerely hope that it all works out and comes together for you my friend.

thcri said:

Yeah I am down. Things have not been good for the last two years and just about when you started to see the light at the other end of the tunnel someone may have pulled the rug out from underneath me.

murph

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This may not help, but remember what they say...
"If it doesn't kill you, it'll make you stronger."

My thoughts and prayers go out to you.

Rick

Well I finally was able to rest the problem at hand here. What my original problem was my largest builder had mad a decision to go out and get prices from 5 other contractors. He told me that if we were even $5.00 dollars more than the other guy he would be leaving us to go to the other guy. It was tough because our company grew with him over the years and built up a lot of overhead just to keep up with his demands. The last two years this company dropped in sales by over 50% just due to the economy. This is typical of the market in our area and now he was going to take the last 50% over $5.00. These jobs job around $4k each and he was expected to do about 75 houses in this project. If I drop my price then I only have to work twice as hard to make up the loss profits, if I don't lower my price then I close my doors. So it has been a tough battle this last 3 or 4 weeks but we finally settled. We have not given this builder a price increase in 3 years despite metal and plastics going up as much as they have. We finally settled yesterday. I had to drop my two year old price by about 5%. We went to our suppliers and hit them really hard and gave them the same threats we got, either get down or loose. We also told our employees that we will expect ten hours cut on each job. Ten out of a total 40 is going to be tough but we have to do it. We still had one other contractor that beat us by a couple hundred dollars per house but I did hit the contractor with the fact of the service we gave over the years. So I am still in there but have to work harder.

I want to thank all of you that had me in your prayers and thoughts.

murph

Great seeing you made things work out!

but I did hit the contractor with the fact of the service we gave over the years.

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Long term service and business relationships can and do mean more than short term profits......Just never give up and quit trying and things will work out. Glad it worked for you in the end.

Sorry to hear you have had problems, I didn't get to read your post until today, but I am very relieved that things are working out for you. Life has a nasty habit of hitting you when you just start to think that you are turning a corner after a bad patch

Congrats Murph!
I'm glad to see it worked out okay for you & your company. Past service has to be good for something and in the end the general contractor knew that also. Guess it's all part of the negotiation. Now if only you can hook up with an different contractor so all your eggs aren't in one basket that would be a good thing ......I understand that is much easier said than done.

Doc said:

Now if only you can hook up with an different contractor so all your eggs aren't in one basket that would be a good thing ......I understand that is much easier said than done.

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That was the whole problem, when we grew for this contractor we also stopped taking on new contractors because we could not handle all the work. Now these contractors when we call them they say "well we asked you before but you were too busy" But that is one thing I have always been worried about. The eggs in one basket. But we will keep pluggin away.


murph