Here's a scenerio, let me run it by you guys and tell me what you think.
So I ran my little garage shop for awhile. My labor rate was $45/hour. I have this friend who's brought me 2 of his friends to get work done also. One was big build, one was just a clutch job. So I tested his car early this year and determined he has bad #3 rings, he needs a rebuild. So he needed sometime to save money. In the meantime I dont have a concrete date from him so I book an MR2 and Pino. The while the MR2 is still here, but AFTER I booked Pino he tells me he's ready for his rebuild. So I book him after Pino. Fast forward a few months and the city comes in and tells me I'm in violation of home occupation and have to move all this stuff out blah blah blah. So I'm complying and I buy a shop. Now I have the overhead of a shop, cant work on people's cars for $45/hour so my new labor rate is $70/hr, however I'm not raising the price on Pino and the Eclipse I have here because their work has already began and you cant change price in the middle of a job. My friend that has been waiting for his rebuild still expects to get his original price of $450 for labor because I was giving him a 4 hour discount and only charging him 10 hours. I tell him I can still give the discount but at $70 since this sh@$storm with the city ruined the home operation. He says thats not fair and I cant change the price on him since I already gave him a quote. I tell him indeed it wouldnt be fair if I just raised the price for no reason, but I wasnt a legal shop before, I am now, and with that larger responsibility comes higher prices, for everyone, not just him. I offered to give him the 14 hour job at $45/hour which is less than the 10hour job at $70/hour but he still says thats not cool. I'm legally responsible to hold to my estimate I cant change the price on him in the middle of his job, but the thing is I HAVENT EVEN STARTED HIS CAR YET! I've told him that several times. I told him IF I was already in the middle of his rebuild with his car taken apart he's right, I couldnt raise the price, and I wouldnt, but I havent started any work on his car yet so unfortunately he misses out on that since I cant work on his car in the garage anymore and he has to come into my legit shop. I'm still giving him a HUGE discount with $25/hr off my labor rate because he is a friend and I want to help him out, good luck getting that anywhere else. But none of us were expecting this, sorry if it upset your plans, but believe me, it REALLY upset my little world even more and its something we all have to deal with. He has the option of accepting it and coming in or go somewhere else. I dont have the option of not dealing with it because if I dont, I get fined $15,000. So really its the city that screwed both of us up and its time to accept that and deal with it.
So what do you guys think? Do you think I'm not doing right here?
So I ran my little garage shop for awhile. My labor rate was $45/hour. I have this friend who's brought me 2 of his friends to get work done also. One was big build, one was just a clutch job. So I tested his car early this year and determined he has bad #3 rings, he needs a rebuild. So he needed sometime to save money. In the meantime I dont have a concrete date from him so I book an MR2 and Pino. The while the MR2 is still here, but AFTER I booked Pino he tells me he's ready for his rebuild. So I book him after Pino. Fast forward a few months and the city comes in and tells me I'm in violation of home occupation and have to move all this stuff out blah blah blah. So I'm complying and I buy a shop. Now I have the overhead of a shop, cant work on people's cars for $45/hour so my new labor rate is $70/hr, however I'm not raising the price on Pino and the Eclipse I have here because their work has already began and you cant change price in the middle of a job. My friend that has been waiting for his rebuild still expects to get his original price of $450 for labor because I was giving him a 4 hour discount and only charging him 10 hours. I tell him I can still give the discount but at $70 since this sh@$storm with the city ruined the home operation. He says thats not fair and I cant change the price on him since I already gave him a quote. I tell him indeed it wouldnt be fair if I just raised the price for no reason, but I wasnt a legal shop before, I am now, and with that larger responsibility comes higher prices, for everyone, not just him. I offered to give him the 14 hour job at $45/hour which is less than the 10hour job at $70/hour but he still says thats not cool. I'm legally responsible to hold to my estimate I cant change the price on him in the middle of his job, but the thing is I HAVENT EVEN STARTED HIS CAR YET! I've told him that several times. I told him IF I was already in the middle of his rebuild with his car taken apart he's right, I couldnt raise the price, and I wouldnt, but I havent started any work on his car yet so unfortunately he misses out on that since I cant work on his car in the garage anymore and he has to come into my legit shop. I'm still giving him a HUGE discount with $25/hr off my labor rate because he is a friend and I want to help him out, good luck getting that anywhere else. But none of us were expecting this, sorry if it upset your plans, but believe me, it REALLY upset my little world even more and its something we all have to deal with. He has the option of accepting it and coming in or go somewhere else. I dont have the option of not dealing with it because if I dont, I get fined $15,000. So really its the city that screwed both of us up and its time to accept that and deal with it.
So what do you guys think? Do you think I'm not doing right here?
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