How to kill the overhead monster

[TrillPhil]

Jeff... did you dump a 200t? just kidding

 

[sgreanbeans]

Try a $613.00 dump fee of palm!
Jeff

I remember that!, when I worked for Dean Sutton, We went to that dump in San Marcos/Escondido, we had three trucks, I'm not real sure what the bill was, but Dean was PO'ed!The head guy was suppose to take us to this private residence where they wanted the junk for some project! can ya say OOPS!

What about budget sheets, do you guys identify your direct/in-direct expenses?
keeping tabs on the little line items can help you prepare and steer them down hill.

 

[ropensaddle]

I have found taking a stick and wacking the advertising agent very rewarding. It may stop them from wanting to meet with you and they will be careful about calling something a deal! This year they got smart on ole rope and sent a babe, now you know ole rope ain't hittin no chick lol. If it were not for the buzzards we might make a dollar, now I gotta pay for Obahma drama, as I was fearing. I think I will put Alah's campaign contribution in the memo on the check lol. Or DC. scoundrels . Insurance goes up every year, jobs; to stay busy go down! I am wondering if I can qualify for a non- profit business grant

 

[beowulf343]

If the "equipment check" was a bonus above and beyond your regular pay I would definitely go for that as an employee. Sounds like a great deal to me. Would give an up and comer a chance to acquire the gear they need.

I assume your boss weeds out the losers who would purchase inferior equipment and blow the rest on coke and hookers? Your production is largely based on your equipment and his bottom line depends on it being top notch. Seems he runs a good show and that's pretty smart if he has a means to approve of, or require a certain amount of equipment.

The equipment check is on top of our regular pay. The boss's number crunchers have some formula for figuring it out and it's different for different crews-i'm a climbing crew that does removals and crane work, so require more equipment and thus get a larger check than say a climbing crew that only does trims. As for the weeding, i think there are only three or four of the bucket removal crews that do it this way, but almost all the climbing crews prefer it this way. Of course, the boss doesn't expect a new climber to supply all his gear, and a climber will usually use company equipment for two or three years before he gets offered this way of doing things. The boss has managed to put together a reliable bunch of climbers somehow that have been loyal for years, so guys blowing their equipment check on coke usually hasn't been a problem. It basically boils down to if you don't have the equipment to do the job, then you aren't doing the job and you will be looking for a new job. Our safety guy inspects all the crew once a week and he checks for damaged gear and that we have the minimum amount of gear we are expected to have. If we don't have something, it gets pulled out of the company store, if it's not back in the store in a week and replaced by us, that item gets gets deducted from our equipment check. Same thing if something gets red tagged as too dangerous to use, although i've never seen a climber's gear get red tagged since we check it ourselves daily, for obvious reasons.

Their are a couple pros and cons to this from the employee's view. We are expected to replace stuff, so if we cut a rope in half, we just can't grab a new one out of the company store that night. So most of us keep a pretty good backup supply of the more commonly used items. Instead of just one climbing line, i carry two with a third at home, etc. About the only time this can get difficult is with saws. One climber this summer had a bad couple days and crapped out four saws. He had to borrow a couple till he got them fixed instead of just dropping them off at the shop and grabbing another one. (One thing the company just started doing a couple years ago that helps-during the summer we often work dark to dark six days a week thus leaving little time to drop off saws at the dealer for repair. Now days we can just leave them at the shop with a tag that has our name and the problem and a shop runner will drop them off and pick them up when done and the dealers sends us a bill-very handy.) The company does have stuff like big saws, or grcs's, or extra bull ropes in case we need them for a specific job. But this lead to a big pro-most of us have been there long enough, we all have this stuff. Almost every climber has his own grcs, big saw, etc. It's great, instead of being stuck with the one brand of saddle, and the one brand of spikes, and the one brand of rope, and the one brand of saw the company supplies, we can customize to our liking. If a new saddle comes out and the safety guy approves it, we can get it. And if you are careful, the equipment check is enough to cover your needs-over nine years i've accumulated about $15k worth of stuff in the back of my truck, with another $4k in my garage, adding in 4 or 5 new saws, a half dozen ropes, and other odds and ends for replacement purposes every year, and i've still got a couple grand in my equipment fund right now, even after picking up a new 395, four bars, and a roll of chain this week.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

What about budget sheets, do you guys identify your direct/in-direct expenses?

You have to look at your own game and see where it is all going. Since you are small enough, look at course numbers and break down those that look too big to find what is going on.

Can you eliminate a phone line, or take a data plan out? If you look at parts and see that chains are a big issue, can you hoard almost dead ones for stumps and chipper use?

Look at numbers both monthly and annually, $50/mo is 600/yr.

Maybe invest in having an accountant go through the expenditures so you have a good spreadsheet to use.

Often overlooked, avoiding the road tax on fuel.

I think there is a line on the 1040 where you get a credit for off road fuel purchases. Fill up separately and file them that way too. I have a client who uses different credit cards for on road and off road.

How about interest payments, have you looked into a biz line of credit to pay off cc-cards when you need to carry a balance? I know people who use the BLOC to pay the CCC's then pays off the BLOC just to use it and work his credit score and a little float too if it is in the BLOC language.


The 3/4 ton Chevy is paid off this month! that is 6.5% and $500/ month not going out... or going somewhere else...