Minimum charge.

Just curious how some are handling walk ins and small jobs. There is no job to small for my established customers but it seems like I always have a small project on the books that we don't have time to get to for someone trying to launch a new product or startup. I am thinking of implementing a minimum charge of $1,000 or just having to say no all together.

My minimum charge per job is $200. Seems to work for me. This is just my side money gig.

Set the minimum charge to suit your business, but I would definitely have one.

$500 min.

No walk-ins, period

In Ohio you need a Vendors license to collect and submit sales tax on purchases. Since I didn’t have one I tried doing walk-in work for beer or pizza or something. No one ever came back with pizza or beer.

Now I just tell them they need a tax exempt form and they go away pretty quick.

For my best customers, no amount is too small. I have an unpaid invoice for 31.50 currently. For infrequent customers $100 min.

$250 is our minimum.

We don't do any outside work, it's all internal, that said with labor, insurance and general overhead sky rocketing, I don't know how anyone could touch a small job for under 250.00
An exception would be a person working out of their garage/hobby shop then charge what makes you happy.
There's all kinds of formulas for determining shop time cost and profit that gives you a idea what it costs to run the show by the hour. Sooo then when your done farting around for two hours on some small project that walked in the door you realize your working for free.

Walk ins... UGH....

Inventors that want to "cut you in" on some of the profits when it "really takes off".. UGH..

"Well, BUT, I can buy one from XXXX for $100".. Well then, what the F* are you even doing here???
Go buy the freaking thing!!!!! Idiot..

I hate walk ins.. I really do.. I keep a really really low profile. Nobody knows what I do here.
So if somebody shows up here, they know somebody.. Had one that actually panned out the other day.
$120, had to do some paperwork to become an "approved vendor".. But in a backwards way, we had
a connection, and I had met him before. Might be a few dollars here and there down the line, never
going to be a million dollars, but.... ??? 20 minutes of setup, 24 minutes of run time. 20 minutes
to become "an approved vendor".. I HATE!!! paperwork!!! Tolerance of "Yeah that looks good".

Minimum charge.. Well that is a whole other can of worms.. $200 sounds perfectly fine when you
have to do the standard BS paperwork, the CoC, the inspection report, quote it blah blah blah...
Even if the job only takes me 5 minutes.. The Bull Shit takes $190.

Then.. There are other customers.. The ones that are never going to make your rich, but will never
make you want to shoot yourself in the head. The ones, where if its a complicated part, will be sketched
out, otherwise, some Sharpie marks and a mating part, and a tolerance of "make it work"... I got a 36x48 inch
piece of paper, freshly drafted, BY HAND off of a drafting table last week. And its work after work after work..

COD.. But I just save it up. Check when I need it.. Some little stuff is $15 total.. Some is $3000. Some turn around
is NOW!!!!!(3 times today) Some of it is months.. A lot of it easy, a lot of it I have programs for. A LOT!!! of it
is F'n Keyways.. I have that shit down to a science. And its farmer tolerance. Super deep, super wide. So like 2 to 5 wide, and 15 to 25 deep.

Its cool when you walk in (4/10's of a mile down the road).. And say, "Hey, can I get some money today".
And they reach for their back pocket, pull out their wallet, and say "how much you need"? ... NO, an invoice,
and a check.. "Sure you don't need anything right now?"...

Best customers EVER!!!!! I say customerS because its a father and son. Very rarely do I quote.
I try to keep the prices low when its part of an assembly they have going out, but they let me know
when its a pass through and I can really hammer it.. Been more than once, repair parts were needed
as a pass through, and it was casually mentions that some of those same parts would be needed for
a machine coming up in a few months.. Cool.. 15 parts(plus setup) at $50 and 35 parts at $10(on a
separate invoice)...

Minimum charge on their stuff. $10.. If its a stand alone part, maybe $20 or $25. I'm thinking keyways
mostly. A quick little stupid thing here or there, I won't even charge them.. However, their $10 job, for
some of my other customers could easily be a $300 job, for the EXACT SAME THING.. 2 minutes to set it up,
2 minutes to run it.. $10... Add a pile of paperwork, inspections and paperwork and bullshit, $300.
It could be the EXACT same part, and I honestly probably pocket more money charging the 10 than
the 300 when all is said and done.

So.. The answer is.. it depends on the customer. I hate writing a single invoice for under $200.

The hardchromers used to get a lot of small stuff,so when the business was sold the new owners had a policy ..$60 for a quote....pay for a quote,and then they say there is a $600 minimum charge ......pssed off a lot of people,and when another guy started off with hardchroming ,people remembered being ripped off ,and gave him all their work.

Saw this on a store front once.

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Little old lady came in to my cabinet shop with a broken kitchen drawer. Not really broken, cheap glue failure. Hot melt repair and she asked me how much? Nothing, just took a few minutes, just doing a good deed. She came back the next day and dropped off a huge jar of pistachios.

I don't know the last time I had a PO for less than $1000.

I have 4 machines to keep running, anything less than that isn't worth my time.

Scruffy887 said:

Little old lady came in to my cabinet shop with a broken kitchen drawer. Not really broken, cheap glue failure. Hot melt repair and she asked me how much? Nothing, just took a few minutes, just doing a good deed. She came back the next day and dropped off a huge jar of pistachios.

Click to expand...

I like this, did it many times

It used to be called Goodwill in economics class

All that Goodwill propelled my business and kept us busy in lean and in good times

as to minimum charge I never did that, just no worked, unless I wanted into the work being asked about

I'm right there with BobW. I don't advertise so any new business is word of mouth. I don't want big companies and paperwork. I like whip your wallet out and done.

I also love trades. You own restaurants?? Great! My family likes to eat! You own a brewery? I drink beer! You paint cars? My wife dents cars!

Garwood said:

I'm right there with BobW. I don't advertise so any new business is word of mouth. I don't want big companies and paperwork. I like whip your wallet out and done.

I also love trades. You own restaurants?? Great! My family likes to eat! You own a brewery? I drink beer! You paint cars? My wife dents cars!

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When I worked down in town, there was a really good deli, and all his equipment was OLD, so occasionally
something would break, usually on a slicer. He'd pay cash, never complained about the price, and
sometimes he'd throw in an extra $20.. And then the next day he would show up with two 3 foot long
grinders, a bunch of soda, and 5 big bags of chips.. I liked it when his equipment broke.

AFAIK - bartering is still legal in the US, but last I knew they were frowning heavily on it at the very least.


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

I am now well off the beaten path, the only walk in is a neighbor, who I don't charge as he maintains the road including clearing snow in my driveway. As for established customer minimum, I really don't have one. For new customers minimum is $100.

My experience with motor shops, auto shops is $50 minimum to take a look. My wood saw sharpener charges like 30 cents per tooth with some kind o0f set up fee.
Bill D

yoke said:

I don't know the last time I had a PO for less than $1000.

I have 4 machines to keep running, anything less than that isn't worth my time.

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I'm a one man band, if I get a walk-in I just point to the machines that are running, "if I stop them to do your job I'll have to charge you the same rate as I'm making on them, £150/hr", they usually bugger off pretty quick.

Booze Daily said:

In Ohio you need a Vendors license to collect and submit sales tax on purchases. Since I didn’t have one I tried doing walk-in work for beer or pizza or something. No one ever came back with pizza or beer.

Now I just tell them they need a tax exempt form and they go away pretty quick.

For my best customers, no amount is too small. I have an unpaid invoice for 31.50 currently. For infrequent customers $100 min.

Click to expand...

I think the tax exempt idea is the way to go. Polite and it should eliminate 90% of the bs.

Ox said:

AFAIK - bartering is still legal in the US, but last I knew they were frowning heavily on it at the very least.


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

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You the cops bro?