Garage door industry magazine for garage door dealers, garage door manufacturers, garage door distributors, garage door installers, loading docks, garage door operators and openers, gates, and tools for the door industry.
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TECHNICAL Time is Money Part 2 by Ted Billman This is Part Two of "Time is Money". In this section we will deal with the "Residential Market". To reiterate from the earlier article much emphasis is put on the cost of product, supplies, travel, etc. which are tangible. The intangible is labor – the management of time. Identifying chargeable time is necessary and is crucial in determining a unit of measure. In the case of new construction it should include unloading product, setting up on the job sit, installation, clean up of waste product and fi nal inspection. It does not include travel time which is variable due to distance and convenience. Thus travel time should be added as a separate line item in your quote. You further need to take into account whether a door is to be removed (retrofi t). Additional time needs to be allocated for removal of existing product. But before this is done, you need to determine if lead paint is present. All of that should be done when the job is fi eld inspected by the sales team. Another factor is whether a safe work space is prepared by the homeowner. We all know that we cannot depend on the homeowner's dependability of creating such a work space or his/her perception of the space needed. There are cases, such as in California, where one needs to be cognizant of the one-piece door market. In many of those cases a stem wall is present. This generally has to be removed to make room for the track setting. This additional time needs to be factored in when a quote is provided to the homeowner. Given the condition you need to add 4-6 hours to a normal installation. Just as too much emphasis is put on product cost and mark-up as stated in the fi rst article regarding Commercial Sectional Installation, the same holds true in the residential market. We can- not have the thought that • My time isn't worth anything. • I was going to go that way anyway. • Loading and unloading product is part of the necessary evil. • I CAN'T charge for that. • And fi nally, I will get that on the way home so I WON'T charge for travel time and mileage. Remember, business is knowing costs and how to charge for those costs. VOLUME 45 ISSUE 4 2012 Continued on page 38 37