atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information Costed of running wire

QUOTE: "IMHO, If you drop your prices, YOU BECOME the YAHOO"

If you're find yourself losing alot of bids because of prices being too high, then obviously you lower them. You're not being a "YAHOO" of a "FLUNKIE" you're simply being competitive.

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| Telephone Systems | Voice & Data Cabling

If you are not making any profit then why are you doing it?

90 for cat5e
35 for cat3
125 for cat3/cat5
150 for cat5/cat5
includes labor insert faceplate and testing.
Patch panel, rack (or wall mount) required and extra.
But I just got under bid by a retired Verizon guy 40 for a cat5.
I told the customer give him the work atleast he has to do some labor in retirement he never did as a employee. We are the capitol of the retired phone guy do some work on the side. I also informed the customer this guy needs to be on site at the time of the cutover as we will not trouble shoot any cable or connection. If it works out of the switch it his problem and waiting time is billable.

If you're find yourself losing alot of bids because of prices being too high, then obviously you lower them. You're not being a "YAHOO" of a "FLUNKIE" you're simply being competitive.

There is no way you are going to compete pricewise with somebody that has no insurance, payroll, overhead and all the other expenses that come with running a legitimate business (assuming you run one). If you try to you will be out of business real quick.

I know it can be a hard sell sometimes to customers who think all you have to do is throw some wire in the ceiling, but you have to sell the customer on how you do it properly, why it is necessary to do it that way and how it benefits him.

Sometimes, no matter how you try the only thing the customer cares about is price and you should have no regrets about walking away from a job that you can't make a decent profit on.

-Hal

I totally agree.

My motto is I would rather do nothing than work for nothing.

And not all business is good business.

Mike

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| Business Telephones | Telephone Systems

I think you guys are mistaken. Just because you have competitive prices doesn't make you a lousy interconnect. Sure if I feel I can get away with higher prices that are competitive to the market I would definately charge more. Most of my work is for small to medium size businesses so being competitive or coming in just below someone elses bid is very important. I don't try to get rich on one job. On a side note, I do have insurance, just hired my first employee and am extremely busy.

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| Telephone Systems | Voice & Data Cabling

150 dual data
100 dual voice
but then all of the cabling I run is cat5E verified so if I need to move to ip solution I have the flexable structure to do it. Oh and on the Yahoo thing I am also small interconnect (just me and the boss) and the tailgate runners dont worry me the other small interconnects do thats were the price war is they see mine and lower and drop thats when you have to have faith that you have a better relationship with the customer than they do

I think here we all are feeling the crunch of the tech age comming.

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Altcomm @ A.S.E Inc