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Originally Posted by Indy107  Boy did you hit the nail on the head there. That's for dang sure.
Thanks for your reply Paul - I relate to alot of what you said. As far as the computer business - yeah margins suck. That's why I only do repairs now. But unless I can clone myself - I can't keep up and if I could - its still not enought tp pay both rent and a mortgage. My wife is very - I call it old school - get a job - work until you retire - job is secure - blah blah - we both worked at Intel - before they closed the plant  My business has been a good experience - and if I could just make enough money - I'd be happy doing this for a long time. But when you're broke, and stressed, and the bills start piling up - and you get more stressed - and the wife gets stressed - then things get ugly and you just can't think clearly anymore.
If I got a job - even temporary - I still have the lease to contend with until Aug. And as long as I have computers to fix - I can't look for a job - or take a day off - or anything else.
I had started an online journal - and forgot about it. I will get back into it. I had also 'lost' my whole positive attitude - thanks to stress - that the Secret, What the Bleep, and this forum had given me. The old programming is strong. I was seeing some amazing things happen - before things went bad - and thats when the idea came for my new business - like Jack Canfield in the Secret - the idea just came to me - so I acted immediately. I created a placeblog for my town, ala FresnoFamous, Baristanet, H20Town, etc. It's called Forest Grove Live. Response has been very positive so far and I finish my first 4 weeks tonight with about 4500 page views. It looks promising - but won't be paying any bills for awhile. So I come in early (630) and work on it until the shop opens at 10.
It's just so hard to stay optimistic, positive, have faith, whatever you call it - especially when the stress sets in. I understand my wife is stressed - I know she's working hard - but I just don't know what to do until my lease runs out - and then I'm not sure what I'll do. I may try and sell the business - that would help. Or I may move it to a cheaper location - if i can find one. I do have a pretty loyal clientele. The thought of looking for paid work scares the bejeebus out of me as I have been out of that loop for 8yrs. |
Here's an idea you might want to try. Raise your prices, but offer better service.
For example, the pareto principle states that most likely 80% of your income comes from 20% of your clients. Identify who they are and service the crap out of them. Find ways to raise your rates to accomodate those clients.
You deserve to stay in business. Keeping your rates cheap, so that you don't feel guilty charging clients, will just put you out of business altogether so just raise your prices starting April 1st, or something. There's nothing wrong with that.
Lots of places do it. When it comes to computer things, people very often think that you have to be the cheapest to get business. THat's totally not true.
Ie. if you're charging $50/hour right now and can't keep up, raise your prices to $125/hour or $119/hour for example. Yes, you might lose some of your lower end clients who can't afford you anymore, but you might suprise yourself with what comes your way.
A while back when I ran a web development company, we got a quote request from a company launching a new brand of beer. THey wanted a web design. We estimated it orginally at around 45-50k for the product they wanted, but because we really wanted the account for publicity reasons we quoted them 25k so that we would get the job. They received our proposal and said they would have to think about it. We waited and waited and nothing. Later on we found out that they were quoted $40k by a different firm and when they asked that firm why it's $40k since we quoted them $25k, they told them we're quoting $25k because we don't know what we're doing.
So we lost the contract because we were asking for too little. AAAAAAA!!!!
That happens all the time. You might be missing out on some higher end clientele because your rates are too low, and in the meantime you're too bogged down with your lower end clientele to stay in business.
Don't go overboard, but a price restructuring might be in order here.
If you want to package it along with increased service, that's even better. Like for example home delivery or a free mouse pad, or free power supply fan vacuuming every quarter,
Just another idea.
Or, better yet, use LoA to attract more ideas on how you can generate enough income to stay in your lease. All I've read so far in your post is how your lease costs too much and how you're "stuck" until it runs out. Who say's you're stuck? Who says your lease is too much? If you made 10x as much money per month from your business, would your lease be too much? Maybe you just need to look at the business with a fresh pair of glasses on.
Just some ideas.