What do you do when your jobs go south? Hopefully, you were able to get a deposit that at least covers material so the lost job is revenue lost but it didn't take it right out of your pocket. People are cutting back and they are cutting back wherever they can which includes home repairs and custom woodwork as well as everything else. When you don't have the money, you don't have the money. I have had a few jobs lost, several rescheduled that I suspect are also lost. I get a deposit to cover material when I accept a job, and that deposit is not refundable. In most cases people understand that because I am upfront about it. Occasionally I get a customer that doesn't understand why I won't give them back their money since I didn't do the work. I take them out to my shop, show them the material that was bought and my tickets for time and costs to get the material to my shop. They go away. Some are still mad but all understand that I am not trying to beat them out of their money, I am trying to keep myself from being beat out of money. Every job you bid costs you time and effort and a lot of us don't get paid for that time and effort unless the job gets done. Having the job cancel means you get zip. If you have already bought the material, you really lose unless you got a deposit.
What got me thinking along these lines is I have been out in my shop putting up a screen. The wood stripping I am using is 1/4 x 3/4 oak. I have a good amount of this material from a job that went south. I had already bought the material and ripped it into strips and planed it when the job got canceled thanks to the economy. I made nothing for the time I had invested but I didn't have to eat the material costs as well. So, I get oak stripped screening in my shop and I can piss and moan over the job lost or, I can devise some nifty use for all this oak stripping and turn my lemon into lemonade. I prefer the lemonade, how about you?
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Last update : 13-08-2009 07:47
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