Carl, I don't know what prompted Shoe to open this thread, but he asks the question that occurred to me when I read your post. I have some hard questions that are probably offensive, but only to people who have never had to consider them in the light of staying in business or "retiring."

What business are you in? Do you feel protective of others in your business nationwide? Frankly, I am surprised that you got such instant open answers to your post! I kinda thought the guys who visit here would be a little hesitant to expose, nationwide, part of their ability to be profitable enough to stay in business. In doing so, they also exposed my ability to stay in business....

How would you feel if someone wrote an email to a website such as this that relates to your business, asking how to get around paying part of what keeps you and your fellow businesspeople in business? Remember that anybody in the world can go to this site and look it up....

In general, we need to make money to stay in business. Profit on wire helps keep the phones going, helps pay the rent, and helps cover all that other stuff that has to be paid before we can take money home ourselves. There is a sub-class of installers who can do all right without such profit; these are the trunk-slammers who will either NOT be in business when you need them again, or who will have to make some profit on parts, not just installation labor, just to be there the next time you need to ask them a question (remember: something has to pay for their time when you need to ask that question in six months).


Imagine that you are waiting at the Parts counter at Pep Boys (car parts and repair services). A guy comes in and explains to the counter man that he is going to do some work on his car, he is reading and learning how to do it, he is going to do it himself no matter what, so anything that the counter person tells him will not affect Pep Boys' bottom line. Then he asks where he can get all the car parts that he needs, wholesale. Oh, yeah, this conversation is being transcribed and written down on a web site for car enthusiasts and repair people, a site that people visit from all over the world.

See why I am surprised that you got such quick and open answers?

Ernie