A dry cleaner in St. Louis showed me my payroll math was off by 12%

I was at a dry cleaner picking up my work uniforms and got talking to the owner. He said his biggest problem was figuring out how much each job actually cost him in labor. That got me thinking about my own pressure washing business. I went home and ran the numbers on my last 3 big driveway jobs. Turns out I was undervaluing my time by about 12% because I wasn't counting setup and cleanup. Now I add a flat $45 fee to every quote for that prep work. Anyone else realize they were shortchanging themselves on labor after a random conversation?

2 comments

2 Comments

wendy_mason8611d ago

Start paying attention to those random chats, they usually point to something you've been missing. It's funny how a dry cleaner owner could teach a pressure washer guy about labor costs... it's like the universe sends you hints through the most unexpected people. Once you start noticing these small lessons everywhere, you realize most of us are just winging it with our numbers until someone wakes us up.

rosel8311d ago

And exactly how long did that dry cleaner charge you for the life lesson? @wendy_mason86 you're right that random chats are like little hints from the universe. Just wish the universe would stop sending them through people who charge me for it by the shirt. I swear if the universe sends me another hint through my tax accountant I'll probably owe back taxes on top of it. At least your $45 flat fee sounds way better than whatever hourly rate that dry cleaner was calculating in his head. Maybe the real lesson is that we should all be charging more for just existing and thinking about labor costs.