Going to Waco this week end mr electric

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most small contractors, unfortunately, spend way more days working when they planned on being off than you can imagine...
 
roy g

roy g

i looked into Mr Electric franchise a few years ago. at that time you purchased a franchise for countys or citys. The franchise fee was based on the population of the city or countys you were authorized to operate in. The particular county my shop was in has a population of 70k and is essentially a bedroom community for the larger metro area which was owned by another franchise. for the 18000 dollar fee + 8% of gross sales and to be shut out of the larger market, it wasn't a deal for me.
 
8% of gross sales seems a bit high to me, what do you guys average for a profit on your gross? I have heard from my boss we aim for 7-10%.
 
JohnME said:
Gross 100K a year? You must have a heck of a profit margin to be able to feed yourself.
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that's what the working wives are for...average 1 man shop around the country is lucky to gross $150k....very few over $200k...way more under $150k....

2000 x $65 = $130k...how many bill out 2000 hours?
 
JohnME said:
8% of gross sales seems a bit high to me, what do you guys average for a profit on your gross? I have heard from my boss we aim for 7-10%.
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it's overhead...it's a line item for your pricing...no different than a van payment...
 
My business partner and I went to Waco 4 or 5 years ago and decided not to join up. It was all hugs and kisses while we were there and we were about to pull the trigger. After they thought they had us locked in and we got back home everything seemed to change. We couldn't get our calls returned and they couldn't seem to get our reimbursement check for our flights to us. Kind of got the feeling we were not going to get the best customer service after the deal was done. It might have just been the sales rep we had, but my internal radar started going off and we backed away.
 
Coming to Waco to talk to Mr. Electric? If I'm not entirely mistaken, he has only one service van here in town (yes, Waco). I know he hires people out of a local temp agency, Journeyman electricians for $15/hr. What a joke. Going rate around here is $19 to $23/hr, and upwards of $30/hr on up if you want to drive to Ft. Hood. I don't believe in franchises. You end up paying the guy who came up with the idea of "Mr. Electric" the money you should be paying yourself.
 
I don't know how hard they lock you in but, can you work it for a couple of years and see if you like it. If not just dont renew. Worst thing I guess is that you might learn some good business practices.
 
MJW said:
My business partner and I went to Waco 4 or 5 years ago and decided not to join up. It was all hugs and kisses while we were there and we were about to pull the trigger. After they thought they had us locked in and we got back home everything seemed to change. We couldn't get our calls returned and they couldn't seem to get our reimbursement check for our flights to us. Kind of got the feeling we were not going to get the best customer service after the deal was done. It might have just been the sales rep we had, but my internal radar started going off and we backed away.
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Did you ever get reimbursed for the travel?
 
G & G Electric said:
Coming to Waco to talk to Mr. Electric? If I'm not entirely mistaken, he has only one service van here in town (yes, Waco). I know he hires people out of a local temp agency, Journeyman electricians for $15/hr. What a joke. Going rate around here is $19 to $23/hr, and upwards of $30/hr on up if you want to drive to Ft. Hood. I don't believe in franchises. You end up paying the guy who came up with the idea of "Mr. Electric" the money you should be paying yourself.
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last I heard, he was running 4-5 trucks under Mr. Electric and a few under his other company. All this in Hewitt TX, not exactly a thriving metropolis.

one thing to keep in mind is that you pay for everything...you are either going to pay cash for the ideas, principals, and education....or you are going to pay with time and trial and error....typically the latter costs way more than the former...

but, it's easier to drag people down, than pull them up...a little misinformation here, some useless information there....pretty soon you are the new Minister of Information for Iraq...nice 1st post by the way...
 
at one time I worked for the 2nd oldest construction firm in DC. A real family outfit, and old school company. I notice that a lot of the upstart/yuppie/wannabee bigshot companies of the "new age" treat their employees more like office chairs than people, and it makes me sad to see. (Its not what makes a good company) Anyhow, this is a great clip about the right stuff - I applaud these folks, they have their heads in the right place.

http://www.comcast.net/data/fan/html/popup.html?v=952567986&pl=952449357.xml&plc=952449357&launchpoint=Cover&cid=fancover&attr=default_headline&config=/config/common/fan/default.xml
 
Brady Electric said:
I agree, (INVEST IN YOURSELF)
Semper Fi Buddy
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that's just it...not saying Mr. E is the right choice for everyone...but for a good percentage of people, buying into Mr. Electric, Mr. Sparky, ESI, Nexstar, etc is the best investment in themselves that they could ever make.

they are investing in education to let them build a better company for them, their family, their employees, employees families...etc

for many EC, it's throwing money down the drain...but that's because of the EC's not the systems...if you don't have the answers, investing in yourself (as implicated by many) is a bad investment...

the myopic view of electrical contractors is frightening...we are trapped in 4x4 junction boxes and can't see beyond the walls...

there is an outfit in our area that is a member of Nexstar...5 yrs or so ago when they joined, they were running less than 10 trucks between plumbing, electric, and HVAC...today they have over 50...if joining Nexstar wasn't an investment in themselves, what was it?

good luck.
 
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