I grossed 170K last year... Not to shabby for a one man shop. I pull in other subs when I land larger jobs and stay lean the rest of the time
all depends on what type of work you are doing.
some stuff can get pricy very quickly, and yet the profit isn't huge cause
the material costs are very high.... there is a lot of dollars flowing thru
the checking account, but at the end of the day you make 20% of the
gross.
now, if i was doing 170k a year in data drops, after material costs, my
profit before costs of doing business would be roughly 135k...
if i was doing motor controls, that same total revenue might have
100k in hardware costs. the percentage of markup on large ticket
items usually isn't as high... marc used to have a markup based on
unit price schedule around here, and that seemed pretty typical.
i've got a family member who is pretty successful, and he summed
it up this way.... "my job is to walk into their office and ask for as
much money as i can without being laughed out of the office."
that's hard to do. most of us don't do it very well, which is why
he lives in newport back bay and i live in huntington. not really
much reason other than that.
unless you count his willingness to work continuously without
stopping until he makes his goal, whatever it is, and then work
continuously without stopping to maintain it.
that may have something to do with it as well.