Except for the Mexican immigrants! They work hard and do all of the jobs that Americans won't do.

To quote Max Brooks:

"Nobody at college ever said they wanted to make a living picking lettuce as a career" (or something like that).

yep.. rarely ever visit or post here anymore but it looks like someone still interjects his political comments anywhere he can. Yet another reason to bail on this industry, can't even have a discussion amongst a group of peers without someone interjecting unrelated bullshit..

I was just about to comment that political discussion isn’t welcome in this thread. This topic literally has nothing to do with that. I argue politics enough on Twitter and Facebook. I don’t come here for that crap.

I’m seeing some good insight in the replies here, and am unsurprised that the happiest people are the ones who got out.

I have been working on an exit plan as well. 59 is way too old to be crawling in attics. Very few youngsters are willing and able to do this job. No work ethic from their parents. My two older boys have worked for me, but I do not want them to follow in my footsteps. One got a job in IT, the other one is still in school.

About the only way I see going forward, is to tighten the belt, raise your rates, and start skimming as much cash as you can from the business. I am looking in to real estate, sales skills are still sharp as ever, and there has never been a better time to be in that industry in Texas.

Lot of things available if you want to work.

my nickle,
RR

My opinion fwiw. As pertains to small 1-3 person shops.

Unless you have a substantial RMR built up (i.e. security monitoring), your business probably won't be worth much. Salad days are over.

Electronic inventory is probably only worth .10/1.00 due to constant obsolescence. Start working now to get rid of it.

Your vehicles, tools have some value, tools less so. If you think your tools are worth a lot, just look on Craigslist and eBay for that reality check.

Your customer list might be worth a little. Some competitors in your area might be interested in acquiring your customer base. But do they have the staff to immediately handle taking on and servicing an additional 50-200 customers (or how ever many you might have)? We all know, it's not easy to pluck anyone out of the labor pool and plug them into our jobs. And how many of your competitors are flush with cash to simply buy a "customer list"?

I don't know if there are any national companies that would buy a small 1-3 person operation, no matter how profitable you were. But maybe, depending on the market area you service.

It's a difficult transition to make. And if you really care about your customers (most of us truly do), it becomes even harder to ensure they are taken care of during the transition and after you've left. Invariably, some of your customers are simply not going to be properly serviced after you've left.

I made this move 2 years ago. It was a difficult transition. And had you asked me 15 years ago, if it would play out the way it did, I would have not predicted it.

I'm not saying what others haven't also stated here. But I do speak from recent experience.

If your company owns real estate (mine did), it's the one tangible asset that can be sold and have something to show for your efforts. I chose to keep most of my tools and vehicle. I purposely let my inventory dwindle to a minimum over the last 5 years. So that wasn't much of a factor.

Btw, I don't regret the decision. Started doing CI in 1990. Watched it go through many changes. Some good, some bad. It's easy to get burned out. Just like relationships, business suffer from the 7 year itch. It makes it tolerable if you find ways to reinvent your business ever 6-8 years. It helped me. But I finally needed to get out and I did.

I think this is very true, I've seen it over and over around here anyway, maybe not in some areas of the country.

What are you doing now FP?

More than anything, I think the manufacturers in this industry need to wake up.

Talent is leaving rapidly and new talent is not replacing at the required pace to keep up.

That means sales will fall off the cliff because there will be no one to sell the items and nobody to install the items.

Many reasons for this out of their control, but what is in their control is the constant issues with the garbage products they place on the market.

My favorite part of this industry is that now you have to learn/know more so that you can earn less at each project. I also think we need to crate a new job title called the "APPifier". Thats a guy whos only job is to sit there all day (or week) configuring every product and app with user names and passwords. He can handle alexa skills and all the other "smart" consumer stuff.

I'm all apped out. Dealing with so many apps in a business is a race to the bottom.

Wow, a lot of good things here.

The problem with hiring people to grow is that you will find out quickly how many hours you have to pay them for, and you will realize how many hours you don't bill for. There's a large commercial AV company around here that services the Stadiums, Under Armour, etc.... They don't bill very high rates, but bill for 10,000 hours on a job, they make it in volume for their installs.

Hell, I'm home today posting here, set up a network to get installed tomorrow, didn't make any real money, but I keep such a low overhead I can manage slow weeks.

When I get busy and money is coming in, I make a point to save what I can and fund my retirement account and buy stocks. I just hope that the old fashioned way of saving and investing in the market does what it is supposed to do. My main plan is that my house will be paid off when my daughter turns 18. I'll be 51 then, I'll try to keep it up till I'm 60, save all I can and call it a day.

I've raised my rates, I figure if electricians and plumbers can charge $125 an hour, why can't I? I know more about their jobs than they do mine. I've pretty much shed all of my original customers when I was at $75 an hour and I'm moving forward. Even If I were to call it quits, every client that has a car in their garage that costs as much as my house I'll still service.

Leave it to davidcasshole to bring nothing to the discussion...

Burning out is very real unfortunately and can affect every aspect of your life which sucks. The way I have figured out to stay in an industry I love, actually get a check for it, and work something that looks like normal hours was to go into commercial working for someone. Depending upon where you are located there may be some opportunities to do that and still have a quality of life. As much as I miss resi, I miss very little of the BS and enjoy looking at my payroll deposit every week that someone else pays. I'm fortunate to work for a good company with a manager that is flexible and knows I'll get the work done when it needs to get done.

Regarding higher hourly rates, it is always instructive to keep in mind that we can’t work for everybody.

I’m glad I posted this thread. There’s a lot of really good takes from angles I wasn’t thinking about, as well as a few comments that echoed some thoughts and ideas that have been rolling around in my mind. And a lot of familiar sentiments being voiced by others at least makes my current frame of mind feel more validated.

I am glad you posted as well.  I know that I am not alone in the way I feel.