reading people

those of you in business for yourself may understand this, its the guy's like me and you who work half days, 7:00am to 7:00 pm who when you hire someone to do work for you, when the guy is finished you ask how much do i owe you? and alot of these guys will kick you or your helper a $100.00 tip for getting the job done. What brings this up is i have a guy broke down from Detroit in his 44ft Carver and basically he is at my mercy, Now to own a 44ft Carver you have to have some coin laying around. and with no prejiduce the wife has the star around her neck (this is where to reading people comes into play)The first thing the guy says is how soon can you get my boat fixed so we can continue our month long voyage (in which he'll probably burn 10g's in gas) now here is where it gets good, he's goes on to explaining on how he is now retired and on a fixed income and doesnt think he can afford the boat any longer and this may be his last trip. (what this means is he is trying to prime me early to reflect the price on the bill) Well having a little "star" in my blood Im starting to counter prime him with the way i see it... well if Caterpillar does this job you'll have to dry dock the boat and cut the deck...you'll have to pay a $1.50 a mile and so on, so to make a long story short when all is done and said i will figure out my bill the way it should be and tack on an additional 25% because I know when I give him the bill he will insist on a discount.....and usually its about 25%

BFN, oh he can afford it believe me, I guess the point was that the working class guy like me and you never bicker the price, the bigger the boat the more the bickering...thats why they have the big boats

you hit the nail on the head, i grit my teeth sometimes, but i divide things up in 2 ways:   1. necessity 2 Pleasure
necessitys are everyday things such as milk for the kids, gas in the car
Pleasure: boats, Merecedes Benz's, 5 carrot diamond rings
Once i realized this after that point I never have a problem handing a guy like above a bill and it comes back to learning to read people, my first conversation with him was that his trans is broke and my second conversation was how broke he was
Btw.... since your a hippie have you ever went to a Pagen fest? my brother was told everyone walks around by choice completely nude and he had a chance to work one of the booths with a friend and he said clothes were definitly an option

just babbling this morning, nursing a wedding hangover its 68 degrees out and raining

The transmission business is pretty unique, not alot of guys doing it and it isnt industry driven and the insurance companies cannot dictate pricing, I just finished up an insurance job and of coarse the underwiter called for explanations on the bill, after a lengthy conversation and a half hour on the phone and of coarse my inflated bill because they beat me down to where i need to be. Its give and take, you inflate the bill they think they are getting a discount and everybody is a happy camper along with the guy at the top, just as long as they think they got one over you they are happy

Hey eric; Come on down and visit. Bring a swim suit. 98 here NO clouds and we ain't seen rain in I don't know how long. Almost to hot to be outside, definatly to hot for the bike. 68 and rain on a Sunday huh? Man I don't miss the weather.

john

Eric,
I enjoy your stories, and being an independent businessman can relate. I however, dont inflate anything nor discount anything. It is what it is. I tell my customer's, "If I am not working on your equipment I'll go work on some one elses." bj

Hasbeen, when you do work for this certain type of person again without prejiduce, it is in no way about the money, its about getting a discount or getting something extra done for free, so my intentions were to make him feel like he is getting a discount and im throwing in a free alignment on the other engine.....but of coarse it will be in the bill somewhere. the only people i discount work to is my grandmother and guys from this site lol   eric

John, it was not by choice, I finally rented a Disney World car to get around and the first day after the ac fiasco i went to the campgrond store for a 6 er, and they hit me for $11.63 for a 6-pack of bud cans. My wife and mother planned this whole thing and i showed up, My idea of a vacation, well you know

cant offend me, some of my close relatives are from the region

the mountains of Jeruselum lol, Ya know John there is alot of fatherless kids with blonde long wavy hair running around Brunswick with strangly enough...your last name

I figured you'd say that, these kids said thier daddy denied them and lives in Fla.

guess I'll see ya soon then...if you are coming down to spend some of that 1800 clams...should just about cover a Disney trip.




john

eric lavine wrote: DW is to much like work

Amen, brother.

Actually, DW was like a triathlon length obstacle course. I had to go to work to rest up.

I'd be happiest to never return to the happiest place on earth. With 3 young girls - fat chance!

Eric, I want to send you an E-mail with a few questions regarding some things I have observed on my 1:1 BW and since my past relatives are from the hills of Jerusalem, yet I dont wear any little star around my neck, I dont want to fall into the local transmission rebuilder without having any clue of what my tranny issues might be.
Also I can expect to be left boatless for a month so I wanted to check it is really worth doing. Would you mind giving me your E-mail or shooting me with one?

regards
Luciano from Argentina.

Once again i got a call for some trans work, ive been at it for years so your name gets out there, anyways i get to this guys place of business because earlier in the year i diagnosed the problem at the marina and told him to wait till we dry dock the boat in which he did.
anyways i get there and this guy's business takes up 3 blocks in a local suburb and i asked him how many employees he has and he told me 350.. So on one end of the building there was a 10000 square foot addition added for this guys and his sons toy's. in it was a 440 sea-ray a 50 sea-ray sitting on custom made trailers a merecedes ive never seen before, a 69 rt hemi charger with 20000 miles and of coarse complete living quarters.
This guy is 82 and you would never know it and would hop down in the bildge with me to help if i asked. this all goes back to reading people and i would of never of guessed this guy was this high up the food chain. after i got done looking at the boat he offered me a beer and i didnt turn him down and from that point we sat there all night me and him shooting the sh*t from fishing to hunting and family. this guy has more cash than god and i wouldve never of known it and you could tell he made every dollar he had the hard way