unzenfull day

This is part of an on going email conversation that I am having with some one who wants to start a company
a bug shop no less
The biz side of things 
You need to look at at the hidden cost that need to be factored in to you pricing. You have the paint, abrasives, fillers, thinners, cleaners, cost, ( your cost) do you mark up your cost to the client?, or do they get it for what you buy it for? If thats the case, Do you charge them for the time to order it, and get it? What about the fuel that you pay for when you pick it up?or the time that it takes you? What about the cost of the power that you are using while working on the client car, you pay that... your tools, how do they get payed for? who pays when the compressor goes down. what about the building that you are in, does it need maintaining, who pays for that. both mat and time? Licenses, insurance, how bout the te-shirts and jeans that get ruined , ( thats why we went to dickies work shirts) It all ads up All that stuff is overhead, the cost of doing biz. Then there is your time, what is it worth? What is your knowledge and skills worth to you?How many years/decades of learning do you have under your belt got to figure all that up something to think about.....
Then can you really charge what it should be vrs what the client will pay with out going in to shock If you want to make a living doing this, then this is the price, If you want to do it on the side, or as a hobbyist then you don't need to think about any of this. It doesn't matter what a company does, if it doesn't pay for it self, then its the government.............. i.e. you pay


This got me pondering..
With out the priv sector none of this crap is posable . My job at AirkooledKustoms is to make sure that the company has enough coming in to cover what's going out. Just like every other company, with out that basic job duty the company will not exist...


Now with all that being said
I have to do that part of the job to
do the fun parts

fall cleaning

Well we are almost a week away from Bugs n Brats IV. I have been doing a 'fall cleaning' this week and installing a few pieces of equipment that we have bought and not installed, and uninstall a few old pieces . Cleaning out the misc pieces of VW's that seem to collect and multiply all over the shop and get tucked away in the dark corners of the building. I started in back area of the shop and just worked along each wall and keep going till its all done. As of this morning I have on more wall to go, then the front pad. This process takes about 60 to 70 man hrs for the whole shop. the nice thing is I have to do this anyway, ( for my own sanity) . But with Bugs n Brats IV fast approaching, I have to stage the shop with what we have been working on and what process its in and how we do things. We will be having quite a few guest , clients , potential clients and lots of friends over. I like doing this little show. I would like to get our parts room cleaned up and organized my if I get my office cleaned up that would be kool.

On a personal note, Congrats to My brother and my sister in law , they are going to parents again. I love you guys.

one more milestone

One of our long time restos is nearly complete, a 75/76 vw transporter, Nice ride, We have had our share of issues with this resto. Some time projects will fight every step of the way, and this one has. But one more step is completed. M Harney aka Dr. Dell has made a few trips down from his shop in Nashville to help out with this build, from re-casing the motor, ( new block for a already new motor, with a crack in the case. to building the carbs, to tuning. Today he did the drive test, where he hooks a AFM to the tail pipe and drive the bus around watching the air/fuel mix, and stopping a few times to make small adjustments till he is happy with what he is feeling and what he is seeing on his meter.

As far as stopping..... new master cyc is on its way up from the parts house in huntsville.

Mad Props To Just Jim

Let me tell you about my buddy Super beatle JimJust Jim, or JJ .

he is one talented dude!!! He is a car guy, he owns a 69 camaro ,

lifted stepside 4X4, and a 79 convertable bug. and all are nice, but

that is just his hobby. In real life he is a defense sector graphic artist .

 I don't really know what that is , but I do have an idea of what he does

cause of a promo vid he did for the shop. 

 See we are growing a bit, and  are helping to sponsor a few shows

this season. the first one will be Bug a paluza 11 anyway... part of the deal is

the shop gets a vender space, and need draw peeps in, this is in all fact a 

temp store for the shop, so After talking with Master Gumby, the other 

owner of the shop, we decided to get a dvd made for display of the shop,

a 5 min commercial if you will. Now  Jim is a member of the vw club

and hangs out at the shop once in a while, and I was talking about this

in passing about 1 month ago, and he offered to help out and give it a try.

 well this is the result .