[J. Baker]

I ,agree with all, but the free market part,
Ask the oil industry, how, the free market working,

Oil is a commodity. Commodities are a bit different. And I wouldn’t exactly say that oil gets treated fairly (without intervention) on the market. But commodity prices can be manipulated. I’m just going to stop there….. Go study up on commodities.

 

[gardiner]

Oil is a commodity. Commodities are a bit different. And I wouldn’t exactly say that oil gets treated fairly (without intervention) on the market. But commodity prices can be manipulated. I’m just going to stop there….. Go study up on commodities.

We can have different opinions, I feel electric is being pushed on me,
With the push to end fossil fuel,
Not letting the market decide,

 

[J. Baker]

We can have different opinions, I feel electric is being pushed on me,
With the push to end fossil fuel,
Not letting the market decide,

But that has nothing to do with the market. This isn’t a disagreement, it’s a lack of understanding how that particular situation is unfolding. If the market was allowed to decide, electric falls flat on its face. Always has. Legislation is dictating the products on the market. In the case of California and Wisconsin, where gasoline engines under 25hp are being banned, there is nothing the market can do, and the market certainly didn’t decide to ban itself. You can’t say that the free market doesn’t work when it is being interfered with. The problem is, it DOES WORK so it had to be interfered with to push an agenda. Hope you see this.

 

[TaraAnn]

There really is a difference between “quote,” and “estimate,” (whether or not the Client understands the difference between the two is irrelevant IMO). One is precise, and one is not. As previously mentioned by another Poster, verbiage is important here! If you quoted a price, stick to it. If you gave an estimate, have a conversation with the Client explaining where you’re at in the project, budget, and what still needs to be done (and the specifics of rest of that process as well), and ask for more money! 🤷‍♀️

“it never hurts to ask”
“askin’ ain’t gettin’”

 

[Gus McGee]

Was just going to say the same thing, you have to know when to estimate and when to quote. I stick to prices in my quote, even if I underbid them. When I have any doubt about a job, such as when unseen variables can drastically change the scope of a project, I write some caveat language into my service agreements and describe to my customer what can potentially alter the price of the project.

For example, we do a lot of regrading, seeding, or sodding projects. I give folks a quoted price on the basis that we do not encounter any unforeseen crap in the soil (buried concrete, foundations, timbers, tree roots, construction waste, etc). I also write language into the quote that if any unexpected stuff is hidden in the soil that can alter the scope of the project there will be an additional fee to deal with it.

Quite a number of times that language in the quote saved me from huge losses or angry clients trying to hold me to a fixed number when we encountered something that is about impossible to quote prior to beginning the work. If you have any doubt because there may be a variable that is impossible to quote with 100% certainty, write something into your contract to cover your behind and/or discuss it with the clients before proceeding.

 

[mitchgo]

As I said...only you decide what to do with your brand and reputation. I stand by my opinion that a customer will interpret all those words as being the same thing. It is up to you (and only you) to do what is right

What is right? Your way only?

 

[mitchgo]

I want to ad, on the flip side I ate a bunch of money on a retaining wall rebuild last summer. I wanted the job because it was on a main road through the town with tons of exposure. It was more involved than I had anticipated, but the only way I could get it was to stay within my estimated price. During the project plans changed slightly and I told the customer the cost would go up accordingly. He agreed. I finished it, he paid my bill and everyone was happy, even me with the loss. While I didn’t expect to lose money, and in reality I didn’t, I just didn’t make much profit, I don’t regret taking that job. Because it was on a main road, I got more jobs out of it by exposure. Also, the customer wants me to do more work for him this year. Only this time, I will price it higher.

I'm just curious from a number perspective what kind of leads you would think to gain by that? To be upfront, I'm not in the landscape business- so I want to be fair and say I don't know the numbers . If I may wildly guess..! In my opinion these kind of cold call is a very tough form of advertising. Lets say -you were there for 2 weeks, -40,000 vehicles passed by - if its rural ' main road' 40k cars= about 100 cars passing back and forth per hour (More so 300 peak 12 hours- for every 60 seconds, 5 cards passed by... and 2/3 less at night at night or less) that time and you had 13 calls saying ' I saw you your truck and am interested in a project'- you quoted all cold calls ... Now- Because they weren't fully interested to begin with as it was just a passing by 'thing' ----- You then landed 4 jobs -in 2 weeks grossing $2-15k . . Average that- that's about $25k because you were showing your company name on a project in a busy area.

Now please tell me if Im just way stupidly off, I'm just curious if the willingness to eat a project to gain others, is worth it?


Word of mouth is one of the best ways for advertising.

 

[mitchgo]

I ,agree with all, but the free market part,
Ask the oil industry, how, the free market working,

So how did they start? Only government supply? You are comparing - A methed out person screaming on the bus to the quiet old lady reading a book. No body, but the people allowed that to happen. Back then, they all, we all agreed and accepted what was infront of us. That is the will of the free market my friend. Some tower and power over others and others will fail / loose it all. The free market will choose. We could all choose to stop driving, what would happen to the oil industry?

 

[steve45]

I ,agree with all, but the free market part,
Ask the oil industry, how, the free market working,

gardiner, can you explain what you mean by this comment?

I've retired after over 40 years of working in the oil & gas industry. I worked in exploration & production, as well as refining and pipelines.

Are you complaining about the cost of gasoline? Of course, I'm sure you know that the oil companies don't set the price of gasoline. Rather it is set by the New York Mercantile Exchange, just like they set the price of pork bellies.

 

[J. Baker]

gardiner, can you explain what you mean by this comment?

I've retired after over 40 years of working in the oil & gas industry. I worked in exploration & production, as well as refining and pipelines.

Are you complaining about the cost of gasoline? Of course, I'm sure you know that the oil companies don't set the price of gasoline. Rather it is set by the New York Mercantile Exchange, just like they set the price of pork bellies.

People in general have absolutely no idea how commodities work. Oil industry isn’t all that different from farming. Neither industry sets the price of the goods they produce. Only control they have are input costs, and they don’t even have much control of those either.

 

[J. Baker]

We could all choose to stop driving, what would happen to the oil industry?

It would power the energy infrastructure to make the electric power you would be using instead.