Re: grass-fed lard? - raising prices anecdote - OT

[Guest guest]

see comments below - warning: long post

On Tue, 20 Jan 2004 20:02:17 EST

ChrisMasterjohn@... wrote:

>Hi Sally,

>

>One of our local farms www.mhof.net sells organic lard from pastured pigs.

>Unfortuantely, I'm sure she's out, since there are very few producers, and many

>people who want lard. Fortunately, she's been raising her prices and

>hopefully she will continue to price-gouge us until other folks get in on the

job and

>start producing quality lard.

>

>Chris

Are you suggesting that once others realize that she is making a nifty

little profit that others might get into the market and - god forbid -

increase the supply and drive the prices down via competition? No way!

You mean the market can provide a net benefit to us, even with healthy

food? LOL!

This reminds me of when I was attending college in California. I had to

work in order to support myself since I essentially showed up

with $400 in my pocket and no idea where I was going to live or how I

was going to pay for tuition.

I ended up getting a place with some fellow prospective students in the

LRD - the low rent district. In other words I was sleeping on the floor.

But at least I was warm, had a roof over my head, and was staying with

some like minded folks. However there was still the matter of getting

work.

Well I absolutely *hate* applying for jobs and worse, I hate the pay of

jobs. I hate being what I like to call a " wage slave. " Every time I got

a paycheck it would depress me. What? This is what I get paid for

busting my butt for 40 hours (or more) a week?

Well I learned early on that the only way I was going to remedy that was

by going into business for myself or doing piecemeal work. At least if I

earned chump change it was on my terms and on my schedule.

Anyway while I was pondering what to do, one of my new roommates was

having the same problem, only he was worse off than I was. In fact we

bought him dinner for about a week or so. None of us had much money but

we weren't about to let anyone go hungry.

One day, frustrated with his situation, he went and knocked on a real

estate office door and asked if anybody wanted their car washed. He

figured since agents used their cars for work and often didn't have time

to go to the car wash, that they would appreciate having their car done

on site at the office.

Someone asked " how much? " , he said " $15 " . Well you can imagine the

response. $15 to have your car hand washed in the state of California? This

guy was no fool. He knew a gift horse when he saw one.

Later that night, I never saw a guy in my life so happy to have some

money in his pocket. He went out and bought himself a very modest meal

for dinner. You should have seen the joy on his face as he ate.

Naturally we asked where he got the money. He said he went to a real

estate office and offered to wash cars. I said, " that's interesting. How

much did you charge? " My immediate thought was " $15?! you have got to be

crazy. " Then I thought, " wait a minute, he is on to something. " My

other roommate must have been thinking the same thing because we

both immediately volunteered to go out with him the following day.

The next day there were three of us washing *and* waxing a car, this

time for $35. It took us about 4 hours. So that came out to about $12 a

person. Well was quite disillusioned and dropped out. Said he had

never worked for so little money in his life.

Craig was just happy to be earning some dollars. But me, I saw a little light

at the end of the tunnel. I had a slight inkling this might be a fun and

perhaps even a lucrative adventure. At any rate I knew it beat any *job*

that I could find.

So the next day Craig and I went back out to do an appointment he had

set up earlier. But 4 hours and $35 dollars was too little compensation

as far as I was concerned, even with just two people. Besides, at the

time we had no competition. We were the only game in town. But I hadn't

figured that out yet.

I told Craig from now on let me take care of the negotiations. And I

also told him we needed to take our profit (what little there was) and

go and upgrade our equipment rather than buy food. California folks with

nice cars don't want them waxed with Turtle Wax.

Someone else asked us to do their car. I said " sure for $50. " He didn't

even blink. He told other people and we had all the business we could

handle. We were doing four cars a day and were backlogged in our work. I

" price gouged " by raising the price to $75 but it didn't matter. We

still had plenty of work.

It was fun. We were out working in the California sun all day long. We

met lots of very attractive ladies. We got work outside at offices and

later at homes. School wasn't in session. We went from being broke to

netting over $100 a day per person in a matter of a few days.

Not bad for students. But we were busting our butts. Some cars took

5,6,7 hours to do. Our slogan was " we will make your car showroom new -

again. " But something was wrong with this picture. It seemed to me we

were putting out to much effort for too little return. We bought some

motorized detailing equipment (a shampooer and a buffer) but that still

wasn't the answer.

Then I figured it out. Because our prices were so low we were getting

people who never otherwise would have considered having their car

detailed. So when someone pulled up in a 3-5 year old car (or older)

that was never a priority to them in terms of detailing it took a *lot*

of work to get that car looking " showroom new. "

It became crystal clear to me when one day an agent pulled up with this

beautiful Jaguar. She asked me how much we charged and after I told her

she politely declined. Later I found out she thought something must be

amiss because our prices were too low. Imagine that!! So there was no

way she was going to let us near her car, LOL!

I learned a very valuable economics lesson: when you want to upgrade

your clientele, raise your prices and take cash only.

I did some checking. I was low alright, by a longshot. Not to mention

that I was the only game in town when it came to *mobile* detailing.

Everyone else required that you bring your car to their shop. The next

day my prices went up to $125 per car ( I say " my prices " because Craig

had left to join the college choir). Bigger cars were $150. Elite cars

(like a Rolls or Bentley) were $200. Planes and big rigs were negotiated

on a per item basis.

An interesting thing happened. I got rid of all the people with the

lower end cars who normally would never have them detailed. I suddenly

got all the high end and very high end car business. I picked up lots of

clients in Hollywood who lived out in my area. My workload went down. I

went from 4 cars to 2 cars a day, but my profits stayed the same.

Actually they went up. You see, where it took many hours to do a car

that wasn't normally detailed, the high end cars were detailed all the

time and the average was two hours work on them. Some cars took me only

about 45 minutes. Instead of working 14 hour days doing 4 cars, I was

working 4 hour days doing two cars and earning more cash.

I worked hard to make the cars sparkle. As a result I got offers for

other types of work. One guy wanted to know if I could pinstripe cars.

Another wanted his windows tinted. Another guy wanted to know if I could

renovate an investment property he had just bought.

I didn't know how to do any of this but I gladly accepted the work. My

policy was to never turn anyone down. If I didn't know how to do it I

would simply go find someone who did and pay them a lesser rate than

what I was being paid and pocket the difference. It was a lucrative time

to say the least. And it all started with a $15 car wash.

Ahhh the joy of price gouging (whatever the hell that is!), LOL!

Superhero Bush Rescues Marriage

http://tinyurl.com/yvrn6

[Guest guest]

so michael, what do you do now?

(and by the way i learned the same lesson with the pork! i *agonized* over

charging 6.50/lb for our pastured pork, which, since we just started up and

had a lot of expenses, was actually a loss. but - i ran out of pork and no

one said it was too much money!)

At 03:15 PM 1/27/2004, you wrote:

>I didn't know how to do any of this but I gladly accepted the work. My

>policy was to never turn anyone down. If I didn't know how to do it I

>would simply go find someone who did and pay them a lesser rate than

>what I was being paid and pocket the difference. It was a lucrative time

>to say the least. And it all started with a $15 car wash.

[Guest guest]

On Tue, 27 Jan 2004 16:19:45 -0500

katja <katja@...> wrote:

>so michael, what do you do now?

I'm am independent marketing consultant.

I work with companies large and small in helping their employees retain

affordable legal services for all the various life legal events -

divorce, contracts, child-custody, traffic issues, IRS, lawsuits,

business startups, even criminal defense, etc. - that impact employee

productivity and morale.

These issues often create huge problems because most really require a

lawyer. Yet most people find competent legal counsel out of their price

range and attempt to navigate the waters themselves, often to their

detriment. And they normally do so by taking sick time - an average of

seven days a year - to deal with legal issues. The man hours lost are

phenomenal.

So it is an elegant solution for the employee - they get competent legal

counsel at a very reasonable price with negligible impact on their

attitude and work - and the employer who gets a far more productive

employee.

>(and by the way i learned the same lesson with the pork! i *agonized* over

>charging 6.50/lb for our pastured pork, which, since we just started up and

>had a lot of expenses, was actually a loss. but - i ran out of pork and no

>one said it was too much money!)

Oh dear! Raise your prices! If you operate at a loss too long you will

be out of business and then no one will have access to your pork.

Thanks for asking!

Abolish the FDA!!

http://tinyurl.com/25nu8

" They told just the same,

That just because a tyrant has the might

By force of arms to murder men downright

And burn down house and home and leave all flat

They call the man a captain, just for that.

But since an outlaw with his little band

Cannot bring half such mischief on the land

Or be the cause of so much harm and grief,

He only earns the title of a thief. "

--Geoffrey Chaucer, The Manciple's Tale

[Guest guest]

>

>

> >so michael, what do you do now?

>

>I'm am independent marketing consultant.

><snip>

is that one of those legal " insurance " plans? they just offered that at work...

(work, where i still write software to finance our farm-starting. i prolly

already said that, i can't remember)

> >(and by the way i learned the same lesson with the pork! i *agonized* over

> >charging 6.50/lb for our pastured pork, which, since we just started up and

> >had a lot of expenses, was actually a loss. but - i ran out of pork and no

> >one said it was too much money!)

>

>Oh dear! Raise your prices! If you operate at a loss too long you will

>be out of business and then no one will have access to your pork.

hee

we will. farming is hard

-katja

>Thanks for asking!

>

>

>Abolish the FDA!!

>http://tinyurl.com/25nu8

[Guest guest]

On Tue, 10 Feb 2004 16:06:43 -0500

katja <katja@...> wrote:

>is that one of those legal " insurance " plans? they just offered that at work...

Yes although depending on the plan (and the underwriter) the mileage can

vary greatly.

>(work, where i still write software to finance our farm-starting. i prolly

>already said that, i can't remember)

Oh you dirty little capitalist you......

Liking

http://tinyurl.com/3d8n5

" They told just the same,

That just because a tyrant has the might

By force of arms to murder men downright

And burn down house and home and leave all flat

They call the man a captain, just for that.

But since an outlaw with his little band

Cannot bring half such mischief on the land

Or be the cause of so much harm and grief,

He only earns the title of a thief. "

--Geoffrey Chaucer, The Manciple's Tale