yeah i understand your guys point but i still do free estimates for two reasons one we were all dreamers once with our cars and look at us now,and two ive bought alot of cars from dreamers,.
so- you will travel for freee AFTER a bunch of calls and email etc- isnt your time worth somthng to you? What if you did all that and the guy STILL goes to the next shop? How mauch time did you wasteon His potential jpb that you could have made $$ on an existing job in the hsop? I have recently begun to charge for my estimates I drive to and yes Ill apply it to the escrow when the customer brings the car in or to his/her first invoice. If the guy wants to come to my shopo, Ill give them a quick verbal 1/2 hr estimate for free- its been working well. Of course, if its a small job (And YES we do those -some people dotn thin we do) I have no pprblem chatting just over the phone or havign the gy stop by to show me the rotted floor or door area he needs welded... I also charge mileage on an appraisal done outside my shop (according to the IRS guidelines of 50/5 cents a mile right now). My time is money to me and I value my work . The last thing I want to see is the guy who has me come to their house, spend an hour there telling him all the things he can do to the car (or how to do them if he thinks he knows what he wants) and then never hear from him again because I gave him enough information to bring the car to someone else with a list of hwat and how things need to be done. makes me "CHAPPED' just to think of it...lol
Me again, Maybe I am wasting some time and money doing the free estimates but I do gain from them as well. I have given estimates before and a year down the road bought that car for a parts car for one of my customers. So you really never know. I think that the biggest secret to this business is just be honest, have some integrity and remember that the good customers we get is what makes us want to do this everyday. I do write my mileage off on taxes for the estimates as well. Kind of cool hearing from other shops and how things are done. Might be a good thing to talk about other policies as well. Its amazing how some cars are shipped from the west coast to east coast for work and how I have done a truck from North Carolina while having a shop in Oregon. If any of the shops out there are looking for some parts or something I can help with on the west coast let me know. We got to stick together. Thanks x41gasser www.99westcustoms.com
NO ESTIMATES, billed monthly. The customer usually comes in to the shop at some point and I walk them through and show them what we are currently working on and how much has been spent and will be spent on each project, I explain to them that once the vehicle is dissasembled and stripped the whole game changes. They can usually figure out their own estimate from that, the biggest problem is trying to explain that rust comes from the inside and if it is showing on the outside then the inner structure is also rotted
I think the answer somewhere between how badly you need new work, what time of the week you do the estimates, and how much it actually cost you out of pocket to look at a potential job. In my experience, 80% of all calls are BS. Daydreamers. The other 20 % know what they want and are actually shopping around for the best value. As a shop owner you need to determine where the caller is on the BS scale. Keep in mind that the higher the cost of the job, the longer someone might take to actually get the car into the shop. Salesmanship goes along way toward getting the car into the shop. Desire and financial means, on the customers part, insures progress. None of this really helps, does it?
I run a welding shop and most of the work I do is rust repair or custom fabrication. After a while, you get a feel for what is going to have to be done, my estamates are pretty close to actual invoice. When in doubt, I estamate high. Want a life time customer, send them home for less then the estamate! 90% of the estamates I have to go out and give don't come in as work! If its in too bad of condition to bring in, most won't want to spend the money to fix it. I tell the potenenial customers that same thing. If they can't or don't want to bring it in, most serious customers actually offer to "give me something" if I will come and look at their car. That "something" will be about 1/2 of shop rate for the time spent looking at the car or whatever, and it will happen before or after shop hours. I have a 1 man shop and I would have to close to look at their job at their house during business hours, but if they want to bring it in, the estamate will be free. You would be amazed how many can find a way to bring the project in. 4 things happen with every job. Customer is informed of these policies up front. 1) The customer and I have a very good idea what the final cost will be. We have already discused the variables. Most people hate surprises when money is involved. 2) Money for parts/ material up front, before the job arrives. I want the paid for parts sitting here before the job comes in the door. 3) Big projects are labor paid weekly or by-weekly by billed shop hours according to what the customer can or will pay. (If I have some reservations about a customers ability to pay, the labor is paid for in advance.) Not paid in 2 weeks, its leaving. Customer is informed of this policy up front. 4) Everything is paid in full before it leaves. If its not gone in a month, I will sell it for the bill against it. I'm not running a bank or a storage facility. Haven't had to sell anything yet. Been working for 15 years. Gene
Owned a surveying business for 18 years (I know... way O/T) and did all of our estimating. We never charged for them and often spent days doing them. In that industry, it is kind of par for the course. Talked with the body shop owner down the street last week about paint for the '38. He wouldn't even give me a ball park until I brought it to his shop and let him spend some time going over the work I've done to date. He was showing me a 53 Chev PU bed he is painting and all the work that he was going to have media blasted off and redone because his name was going on the final product and he didn't want to build on someone else's errors. He was saying that his original estimate was $5-6,000 and they are up to $7K already and haven't even come close to starting paint. There are a lot of things that go into estimating but I don't believe that charging for the efforts should be one of them. You build that expense into your billing rates just like secretarial and book keeping and electricity.
The Jalopy Journal
