Donor Beds

[Lo]

Happy Holidays All!

What wisdom does the group have related to recovering the attached? I have done dental and optometrist chairs before but nothing quite like these.



Any idea of time involved? I am hovering around a figure of $500-600 labor for each but have a few questions to ask the client beforehand (like who's in charge of dis-assembly and delivery?).

Also, has anyone else been asked to accept a '60 days net' on work like this? This would be a new client for our business and yet . . . still need to eat and pay the bills :-)

[MinUph]

Looks fairly simple. No moving parts and pretty straight lines. The channeled are in the butt section is going to be the hardest part but that should be that bad either. Dis-assembly and reassembly should be pretty easy also unless I'm missing something. You might need to glue down the butt area to hold it in place especially if there is a boxing on the sides which is what it looks like from the small picture. Also make sure to use a very good vinyl one made for hospital type use. There will be blood and sweat on these at times which will break down incomparable vinyl in a short while.

  Your labor sounds good but you can only be the judge of that for your market. Depends on quantity. I only see three.

  As for the 60 days that is up to you. Try for 30. Even if a 10% discount will help making the labor 550 - 660.

[baileyuph]

The question is a labor price under the constraint of a 60 day wait to get paid:

I would bid $675 labor plus materials and they bring it to me and pick it up.  Why the 60 day wait on pay?  Is it because they need two in service each day and can't give up all three at once?

There appears to be a matching headrest that has details.

If the 60 day constraint has to be in place, bump the price to $700 plus materials. 

$700 and the first one will take the longest, but all three should be done 3 to 4 days without interruptions.  A business has support cost, book keeping and the building.

Doyle

[Darren Henry]

I agree---you need to charge extra to "carry them" 60 days even if you aren't using borrowed money to do it.

This would be a new client for our business and yet . . . still need to eat and pay the bills :-)

I would do them one piece at a time with some "paid on delivery" jobs in between to smooth out your cash flow.Obviously you sell it to them like you have material arriving late etc...and can fit them in earlier with one, then made better time than expected on another job (or that material finally showed up) to space them out.

[sofadoc]

I rarely give more than 30 days to pay.

When I do, I only do it on the condition that there is no time constraint for getting the work done. I do it in my spare time, so when I do get paid, it's almost like free money.

If they're going to take their sweet time paying, so am I.

But if they want me to drop everything, and get their work done ASAP, then they can pay up on time like everyone else.

[gene]

5 to 6 hours each would be my guess. I have never done one of these so I am only guessing.


I think the 60 days may be so they can evaluate the quality of your work.

Or, and probably a better guess, they are hoping that in 60 days from the time you finish your work they will have the money to pay you.

Either way, I would not do a job with 60 days net.

I think that in hiring a small business person it is totally unacceptable for someone to even ask for 60 days net.

I'll bet $1.27 that those folks who own the chairs do not have a single supplier that allows them to pay in 60 days.

Just my opinion, which like belly buttons, everyone has at least one.

gene

[Lo]

Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions ... especially regarding the 60 days net. I agree it does seem inappropriate given the small business versus conglomerate profiles.

I have made arrangements to view these first-hand today along with the 'material'. From what I learned yesterday, the 'material' is not rolled goods but pre-sewn covers that they ordered from some company. Takes the seamstress part out of the equation but now adds questions regarding quality of seams and sizing ... guess it is like COM with a twist.

As they say, the story continues . . . 🗽

[baileyuph]

The winner of the contract will merely be an installer of pemade covers (upholstery);

That significantly changes the equation, it opens the gate for someone with installation skills only.  That said, it will be likely that a couple of people with mobile staple capability to merely go in and install the covers on site, in a day (all three units for less than our estimates of fitting/installing just one unit.

This scenario has been played out in other parts of our business, a great deal of our work today is installing mass produced items made off shore in auto restoration. 

Go for the installation, if the 60 day wait for pay is worth it to you.

Doyle