The Brew Cabin

Posted: **Mon Jan 28, 2008 12:52 am**

Sorry to jump in mid stream as it were, but I think more freedom of information would or could be the way forward

The HSE publish notices and Prosecutions online so that you can take a look at the competency of a company and check their track history in regards H&S, so why donâ€™t trading standards and consumer direct publish similar data in relation to complaints, prosecutions etc

It would not only mean that you can get the measure of a company, but it might also encourage consumers as a whole to access these organizations as their input would be put to good use

It would or could mean that itâ€™s open to abuse by rivals or vexatious people

But surely if those responsible provided human interaction and actually set about investigating any claim made this should be kept to a minimum, and allow for a summary or case report to be added alongside each entry â€“ to help the consumer decide on the validity or strength of any black marks or entry against a company

Posted: **Tue Feb 05, 2008 5:59 pm**

As a pretty careful homeowner who tries hard to do their research and get lots of quotes complete with recomendations and going to look at the work one can still get pretty messed around by what seems to be a "good "company

Members of Interlay etc

Basically now I dont trust what they say

I even have a step by step contract detailing the layers /work to be done ..........but i wonder what excuse they will have when i ask

"wheres the permeable membrane "

Posted: **Fri Feb 08, 2008 9:53 am**

Grandmothers and eggs might come to mind so forgive me. Discounting is a very dangerous thing to do for your business. Here's an example:

If you have a gross margin of, say, 33% and overheads of 8% = PBT 25%

You do a quote for Â£11,000. It's February and a little quiet for your liking and the customer calls and says, "Thanks for your quote, we'd like to go ahead but we were hoping to get it done for under Â£10k. If you can do it for that, the job is yours." So you agree, thinking that maybe you could get it done quicker than you estimated and with slightly cheaper materials with a bit of phoning around. After all, it's only a 10% discount.

The job goes to schedule as estimated and the materials were bang on the estimate.

You should have made Â£3,630 PBT on the original quote but, with the discount, you made Â£2,630. Overheads have to be applied at the original quoted price (Â£880).

Your net profit is then Â£1,750 versus Â£2,750. The little 10% discount comes straight off your bottom line and has reduced your profit by a whopping 36%.

Bleeding obvious, right? The less obvious thing is to think of it in terms of time. Let's say that was originally a 10-day job (good money if you can get it). Â£2,750 / 10 = Â£275 therefore you need to sell another undiscounted 4-day job (concurrently because of the overhead) just to get back to where you should have been if you hadn't discounted...

The lower the target profit, the greater the problem. Big construction firms operating on sub-20% profit margins would be crippled by even a 5% discount.

Posted: **Fri Feb 08, 2008 12:15 pm**

...yet some of the housebuilders are demanding a a 5% rebate on all invoices raised by subbies because they (the housebuilders) had a relatively poor year last year!

I didn't notice them handing out a 5% bonus to the groundworkers, chippies, brickies, etc., when they were making umpteen million quid profit back in 2005.

As usual, it's the poor subbie that gets screwed while the big boys squander money placating their shareholders

The Brew Cabin

Material pice rises for 2008 are crippling us ! - Rising fuel has put prices up...