Shop rate survey

[52 Bill]

I know that many here are independent repairers that are working out of their homes with little or no overhead, but some of us are working in stores with rent, utilities and insurance. Labor rates need to cover all of these costs as well as the salaries paid to the techs.

Shops like Enzo's have a large inventory of parts that mean faster turn-arounds and in some cases he might have parts that are no longer available.

While the chances of something happening are small, what happens if there is some sort of loss of a customer's amp due to fire, theft or flood? How much will your homeowner's insurance cover for the loss?

[Chuck H]

I know that many here are independent repairers that are working out of their homes with little or no overhead, but some of us are working in stores with rent, utilities and insurance. Labor rates need to cover all of these costs as well as the salaries paid to the techs.

Shops like Enzo's have a large inventory of parts that mean faster turn-arounds and in some cases he might have parts that are no longer available.

While the chances of something happening are small, what happens if there is some sort of loss of a customer's amp due to fire, theft or flood? How much will your homeowner's insurance cover for the loss?

Not being a technically qualified repairman, any repairs I've done haven't been solicited by me. They were done by people who asked me if I could look at something for them. There just aren't any options on the island and it's about two and a half hours and a ferry ride to Seattle (adding about seventy bucks in gas and ferry plus five hours of lost time to any repair). So I've done some. I'm uncomfortable with not being a certified and uninsured shop. I thought about setting myself up but I really don't want to do repairs anyway.

Not sure why, but I felt the need to qualify my offenses.?.

[nosaj]

Not being a technically qualified repairman, any repairs I've done haven't been solicited by me. They were done by people who asked me if I could look at something for them. There just aren't any options on the island and it's about two and a half hours and a ferry ride to Seattle (adding about seventy bucks in gas and ferry plus five hours of lost time to any repair). So I've done some. I'm uncomfortable with not being a certified and uninsured shop. I thought about setting myself up but I really don't want to do repairs anyway.

Not sure why, but I felt the need to qualify my offenses.?.

Would that be Whidbey Island?

nosaj

[Chuck H]

Would that be Whidbey Island?

Yep.

[Mick Bailey]

One feature of the economic recovery in the UK has been more businesses of all kinds being set up as solo operations, often working from home. To run a dedicated repair shop here isn't generally feasible - the overheads are crippling. Quite a few of my family members have run high-street businesses of all kinds and all have eventually moved on to do something else. Even the locations in run-down areas are too expensive.

You can see the high failure rate down every street. New business opens and 12 months later its gone. One thing about repair work is you can't buy a repair off DealExtreme on the web, so the competition is purely local.

[Enzo]

One way around renting your own store front is to rent a room inside a music store. You get cheaper rent, they get available service for their customers, and you get built in repair business.

[g1]

Just make sure you get the sound proof room.

[nsubulysses]

I can relate to this but probably worse. I am next to the live room of a recording studio and some amps cannot be worked on when bands are tracking -- you can't hear them

And I can't be too loud because they are recording

Guess this is what happens when you're not in a shop and still just one of those "hey, I know a guy" guys

[T9c]

One way around renting your own store front is to rent a room inside a music store. You get cheaper rent, they get available service for their customers, and you get built in repair business.

This is what I used to have back in the 80's-90's. g-one's suggestion is spot on. My room was near the main floor and it drove me nuts guys playing amps at high volumes or guys noodling for 2 hours straight. I hated it and after 14 years of it, quit and got a starter computer guy job. That led eventually to 65k/yr when I got laid off in '08 and in '09 started doing repairs for the same store again, but this time in shop at my house. What I once thought was a negative - pick up, take home, repair, return - is actually very positive. Couple that with the people skills I learned as a computer help desk guy, I'm starting to realize how good I have it these days. I do let some guys come to my shop if they ask and I have a good feeling about it, but otoh I don't HAVE to talk to everyone who walks up to the door in the store like before, usually ending with the same old advice: "bring it in and I'll take a look at it". I also like working at night mostly. Can't do that in a store.

I have 3 charges for labor. $20 for simple 15 min. jobs. $40 for most fx pedals and the the like. And $75 for all major repairs. The store adds an extra $10 to the customer. I don't, well never charge more than that, even for spending many hours on a single repair. There's one well respected shop in town that charges $100/hr. and up. Maybe he's got lots of overhead. I don't, so my price reflects that. These days I stay as busy as I like to and enjoying it more to boot.

[Leo_Gnardo]

I have 3 charges for labor. $20 for simple 15 min. jobs. $40 for most fx pedals and the the like. And $75 for all major repairs. The store adds an extra $10 to the customer. I don't, well never charge more than that, even for spending many hours on a single repair. There's one well respected shop in town that charges $100/hr. and up. Maybe he's got lots of overhead. I don't, so my price reflects that.

Similar to what I do. Official rate is $75/hr, or $60 to 3 stores I do repairs for. Mostly the $75/hr is to scare away lunatics with their goofy projects/inventions/scrapyard-specials. Unless a repair is extra aggravating and time consuming, I stop "the labor clock" at one hour.

Local stores markup varies. One does a straight 60% (!), others just tack on $10 or 20 and that's it.

Some of the competition - whew - one guy demands $75 up front for rush service which in his terms means 3 weeks (?!?). That's a $75 tip, it doesn't apply towards the repair bill. That's why he's on the golf course in the Bahamas right now instead of shoveling snow and shivering. Must be nice, all that undeclared income. I get some repairs he's already "done" - and those customers are in no mood to spend anything after they've had their pockets emptied by this guy. That's the way the cookie bounces around these parts.

[g1]

and it drove me nuts guys playing amps at high volumes or guys noodling for 2 hours straight. I hated it and after 14 years of it, quit and got a starter computer guy job.

It was the drums that got to me more than anything else.

[Enzo]

Like many of you, I don't charge all the hours for things I ought to have figure ut in a few minutes. On the other hand, I don't give away the store.

If yuou get a 32 channel mixer in and the boards have to come out, it can take over an hour just to take all the knobs off and all the jack hardware. I overhauled a large Mackie board for a church once, plus it had the extender board for an extra 24 channels. it was a ribbon cable job, so every board had to come out. I counted over 900 knobs, all had to come off an then go back on with the right colors where they needed to be. Over 250 jack nuts on 1/4", two screws on each XLR socket, etc I sure as hell was not going to charge an hour.

[T9c]

3 weeks for a rush?!?

Some of the competition - whew - one guy demands $75 up front for rush service which in his terms means 3 weeks (?!?). That's a $75 tip, it doesn't apply towards the repair bill. That's why he's on the golf course in the Bahamas right now instead of shoveling snow and shivering. Must be nice, all that undeclared income. I get some repairs he's already "done" - and those customers are in no mood to spend anything after they've had their pockets emptied by this guy. That's the way the cookie bounces around these parts.

3 WEEKS, Holy COW!!!! When I did rush jobs I did it right then, if I had the parts and they'd take it with them. And it was only $25 extra. Course that was back when bench fees were only $40.

oh, the war stories...

[T9c]

Like many of you, I don't charge all the hours for things I ought to have figure ut in a few minutes. On the other hand, I don't give away the store.

If yuou get a 32 channel mixer in and the boards have to come out, it can take over an hour just to take all the knobs off and all the jack hardware. I overhauled a large Mackie board for a church once, plus it had the extender board for an extra 24 channels. it was a ribbon cable job, so every board had to come out. I counted over 900 knobs, all had to come off an then go back on with the right colors where they needed to be. Over 250 jack nuts on 1/4", two screws on each XLR socket, etc I sure as hell was not going to charge an hour.

Darn straight! Especially a mackie board. Price just doubled, at least! Those large format boards are a big pain in the ass. I repaired a 32x4x2 for a friend and it took hours. He brought me another one about 6 mos ago, no rush. Guess where it's sitting today? Well, he did say no rush. We trade repairs and he has fixed my truck several times.

[nsubulysses]

As much as I'm not here to defend a 3-week rush, maybe the guy has such a good rep as a repair guy that his typical turnaround is 2 months ???? Maybe whenever something is dropped off it's already 30th in line.

I'm a small-timer and even for me things sometimes sit for a week or two before I even have a chance to look at them. If the customer is nosey and poking around they might know you have to fix 12 things before you can get to theirs so they don't want to bring it in for a week or two as if they can just cut to the front of the line........ oh well that's a whole nother story/thread