Yeah! no kidding! raise your rates man, take it from someone that has been where you are. You will get stuck with nothing but the amazon/best buy crowd and once your their its next to impossible to dig your self out. it took me the last 2 1/2-3 years to dig my self out of that type of client. They bring nothing but misery and suffering, especially when your "bidding" your rates are right along side BB's and a client that doesnt care and go with the "big box" or they will just go with the $99 craigslister

I just sent off a quote for TV installation,LEON sound Bar and Rear speakers with equipment located in the basement (directly below the TV) aside from the PS3 being in room. labor is $1399.99 (one man) not including remote programing. we all know that a sound bar installation is much easier/less time consuming then 5.1. received an email back and they are moving forward.

Im in the Philly market, which I imagine is about the same if not less of a high end market then NY...Good Luck Man! nice clean transit!

Good Luck!



+1 no offense :)

I appreciate the feedback. My line of thinking is/was that if I am busy most to every day it shouldn't be out of the question to make $300 in a day in labor alone. If I sell product, snap A/V is awesome, I'll make more. I don't have a storefront which is why I bought the nicer Transit. Give's me some credibility and my overhead is pretty low.

I have been/plan on providing excellent customer service and trying to get referals. I've been at it less than a month so I haven't seen any yet but have been told they're coming. Once I get busy enough to bring on a second guy I will have to raise my rates with their wage and workmans comp.

How far off do you think my rates are? It seems like my hang and bang is comparable to what people say on here. I thought my surround seemed low, what about 500 with an open basement?

Your business is a registered business and you will be paying taxes and all? The low rates will kick you in the rear later on. Your site is clean, nice truck, and you present yourself well. Do yourself a favor and raise your rates to the normal market rates. Also, I recommend removing them from your site. I have never seen a legitimate business post their rates on their site. It may seem easier to just have people come to you and say "I'll take that package", rather than sell them on your service. You will not get yourself to the next level doing this, and will not improve your selling skills. I (and I'm sure many here) was a tech first, business man second. I had to teach myself to sell. I'm still learning as I go. One thing I have learned is not to sell myself short. If the customer is not willing to pay our rates, it's not worth spending the time to take on the client. I know your thought process right now is to bring in as many as possible, but you have to be careful of who you bring in. Remember, you are selling yourself and your service. Can you afford to service a system you made $150 on? Return trip? Phone calls at night? Make it worth your while. Today I billed two customers a total of $600 for basic BS work (all labor) and was home by noon. The clients were very happy, and are excited about their next phase that we will be a part of.

As to your questions, I will say a normal tv hang for us runs $350. All wires concealed. I don't give rates for different sizes. If anything, I find the smaller sets to be far more of a pain in the butt. If a person comes to us asking for a basic hang and to just leave the wires hanging, we pass. We are not the right company for them, and they are not the right client for us.

I don't have set rates for specific tasks. Even the tv hangs will differ depending on what the job entails. A hang with surround sound will be north of 1K. If the house is all plaster, finished basement, or any other concerning factors the price will go up.

So please do yourself a favor and rethink your rates. The hardest thing I had to overcome was to stop thinking with my wallet. What I can afford and would normally pay is not the same as what my potential clients can afford and are willing to pay. Good luck to you. I can tell you have the right values to make yourself successful.

Goldenzrule said it well, for the past two years (epecially in the last 6 months) i have been saying NO! to alot of BS work like hang and bangs hook up a HTIB blah blah blah. in the beginning like you i thought with my wallet and it got me so deep into that type of clientele that I ended up paying them to do the job (not literally but you know what i mean) there is ZERO money to be made by the time you pay insurance, licenses, truck payment etc and at the end of the day maybe there is a few dollars left to PAY YOURSELF!

in the beginning I wasnt proud and took anything that came my way, now I say NO! even pre interview clients before I even open up outlook to schedule for a consultation. I do the first estimate for free without model numbers only brief descriptions and if they cry about model numbers I say I can provide you the list for $XXX.XX usually they will bitch and moan and at that time its time to part ways, others just say eh and ask how to move forward.

I actually dont do many TV's anymore, because i HATE INSTALLING TV's absolutely 100% despise TV's, the only time ill do them if its part of a bigger system. they just arnt profitable otherwise unless there is some custom stuff to go along with it.

Remove your prices from your website, its unnecessary and cheapens your company IMO.

you know it took me 3 years to figure this out, and when I started to say no it ended up being much more profitable, I now do some really nice systems that end up being very profitable, Sonos systems are really the lowest I go and they are hugely profitable for me and the word of mouth it generates is insane!

also one more bit of advice, I used to get excited when a client would say they have a friend blah blah blah or they have much more work down the line. But now when people say that i just smile and say thanks, we look forward to servicing them. Only when I get a call from that actual person is when i get excited. I take anything a client says that has to do with referrals etc with a grain of salt :)

hmmm, maybe i should increase my programming rates.  :p

You guys make alot of sense. I disabled my pricing page, again thanks for the feedback.

please don't

Which disty is it? I have a few Q50's in the field from a few years back with some issues. The customers love them, but they all have battery problems and a couple have broken the thumb wheels, etc. I can't find any new ones, any where.

my new rate is $165/device