Hourly rates

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cowboyjwc said:
In-N-Out burger pays $8-$10 per hour McDonalds pays minimum wage, notice any difference in the quality of employee?
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I think the clientle is slightly different too....
 
emahler said:
funny part is, in my experience, when a guy works for someone else, he thinks he's worth $50+ an hour....then he goes out on his own (as a full fledged contractor) and bills out his time at $60/hr...effectively paying himself minimum wage at the end of the year:D
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Years ago my brother and I decide that we were going to set up a road side stand and sell water melons during the summer months. So we built a stand, bought an old truck and stated hauling water melon from Forida to sell in Georgia. We purchase the melons for a dollar apiece in Forida and resold then for a dollar apiece in Georgia and had a real good business going but for some reason we were not making any money. Then all of a sudden it occured to me what the problem was, " we needed a bigger truck".

A little southern humor. :grin:
 
growler said:
Years ago my brother and I decide that we were going to set up a road side stand and sell water melons during the summer months. So we built a stand, bought an old truck and stated hauling water melon from Forida to sell in Georgia. We purchase the melons for a dollar apiece in Forida and resold then for a dollar apiece in Georgia and had a real good business going but for some reason we were not making any money. Then all of a sudden it occured to me what the problem was, " we needed a bigger truck".

A little southern humor. :grin:
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Randall Hilton told a similar story;)
 
BryanMD said:
No, you do.

The point was about the value of a competent man for his time in the field vs the time spent by the company owner in the field (doing comparable work).

For *most* EC's... the owner (read: the business) is either way over paying for his time or way under paying for the employee's time.

I made a point about this issue in the other thread as well.
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the company owner in the field is almost always performing more than one job (ie..installer and secretary)...one must account for the combined salaries of the multiple hats that a small contractor has to wear...
 
growler said:
I think that story has been around since the punch line was " we need a bigger wagon".

It'll still have the same meaning 200 years from now. :smile:
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somehow I don't think he invented the story;) (Randall Hilton that is)
 
satcom said:
So you feel it's ok to put a burden on other area contractors including your boss, in order for you to make additional income at the expense of them loosing work from the area. You don't want to take the risk, but you have feelings about to other EC's in the area that are taking the risk, and your dipping into their pie . and maby making it difficult for them to meet their expenses, Just a thought!
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I work for a Manufacturing company by day and suppliment my income by night. I do not try to take food away from "Full Time" EC's, but rather fill a niche. I have a license, Insurance, and pull permits where required. I use it as a tax shelter more than anything. Your example is like saying if your wife works, you are taking a job away from another family. Most of the one man EC businesses around here have a wife with a full time job and benifits. The benifits part is why most good electricians are afraid to jump in. The key is - if you do a good job, they will call.
 
Driesterer said:
I work for a Manufacturing company by day and suppliment my income by night. I do not try to take food away from "Full Time" EC's, but rather fill a niche. I have a license, Insurance, and pull permits where required. I use it as a tax shelter more than anything. Your example is like saying if your wife works, you are taking a job away from another family. Most of the one man EC businesses around here have a wife with a full time job and benifits. The benifits part is why most good electricians are afraid to jump in. The key is - if you do a good job, they will call.
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First we are discussing the non-licensed non-insured guys, that do non-premitted side jobs.

"The benifits part is why most good electricians are afraid to jump in."

That is not a problem, if you run it like a business, you can pay yourself benifits, but too many try to work at the trade like it is a job, they will never grow the business, nor will they have any benifits.
 
Driesterer said:
I work for a Manufacturing company by day and suppliment my income by night.

I have a license, Insurance, and pull permits where required. I use it as a tax shelter more than anything.
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Can you elaborate on the tax shelter concept?
 
not a shelter

not a shelter

celtic said:
Can you elaborate on the tax shelter concept?
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It is not a "tax shelter". But, there are a bunch of tax advantages that a small business has that the average person does not. I can legally deduct expenses for tools, PC Software, mileage to and from jobs, etc. The money I make, I re-invest into my business so that when I am ready to jump in full time, I will be in a better position. I have an accountant so I am not cheating the system, just using the system as it was intended....to re-invest the money into the local economy.
 
Driesterer said:
I have an accountant so I am not cheating the system, just using the system as it was intended....to re-invest the money into the local economy.
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And here all along I thought that the intention of the system was to relocate all the money to Washington.
 
Driesterer said:
It is not a "tax shelter". But, there are a bunch of tax advantages that a small business has that the average person does not. I can legally deduct expenses for tools, PC Software, mileage to and from jobs, etc. The money I make, I re-invest into my business so that when I am ready to jump in full time, I will be in a better position. I have an accountant so I am not cheating the system, just using the system as it was intended....to re-invest the money into the local economy.
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Intresting, so you lease the tools and software, so you can claim them as an expense?
 
Driesterer said:
It is not a "tax shelter". But, there are a bunch of tax advantages that a small business has that the average person does not. I can legally deduct expenses for tools, PC Software, mileage to and from jobs, etc.
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Wish I could find the "bunch" of tax advantages in running a small business.The expenses I claim are a direct result of me being in business,I wouldn't need 4 trucks with tools if I worked for someone else.
 
satcom said:
Intresting, so you lease the tools and software, so you can claim them as an expense?
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Probably uses any profits to purchase, therefore showing no profit, therefore no taxes.

How many contractors went out and bought themselves an H2 HumVee for their personal transportation when you could write it off as a business expense? (It was heavy enough to qualify as a truck.) I know hundreds did it around here.

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Taxes/P97282.asp
 
LawnGuyLandSparky said:
Probably uses any profits to purchase, therefore showing no profit, therefore no taxes.

How many contractors went out and bought themselves an H2 HumVee for their personal transportation when you could write it off as a business expense? (It was heavy enough to qualify as a truck.) I know hundreds did it around here.

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Taxes/P97282.asp
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The bean counter told me not to do this as it would only be a one time deal it was better to stay with the seven year ammorization so I could offset income over several years as opposed to only one year .
 
Tiger Electrical said:
Rewire, are you saying this is a 1 truck deal, not a truck whenever you need one?

Dave
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No ,this was a tax deduction that could only be taken in the year you purchased the vehicle it allowed to take the entire cost in one year instead of having to spread it out over 5-7 years so if the vehicle cost 50K you could take a $50,000 deduction in one year to offset income instead of $10,000 a year for 5 years the benefit of this was to encourage big ticket purchases and if you had profit you did not want taxed it was good but it was only in the year purchased so the following year you had no deduction for this vehicle.
 
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