Arkansas HVACR NewsMagazine March 2022

HVACR NewsMagazine March 2022

and prices have gone through the roof. We’re now suppose to know everything about ventilation and SEER ratings are on the way up effective 2023. How are we to keep up? Another thing that is crazy. McDonalds is paying $15 an hour for folks that can almost walk and chew gum. I hear unbelievable amounts that retail stores are paying for entry level employees. Three years ago, I thought $15 an hour was absurdly high. Today, it almost seems cheap; but I guess that is OK because President Biden says that we should cut costs not labor. OK, OK, I’ll stay off the national politics. 1. Recalculate your cost of materials monthly. Prices are changing too fast to do an annual reassessment. 2. Recalculate your cost of labor at least quarterly, maybe even monthly, when you send Uncle Sam the employment taxes. 3. Re-price. You cannot carry the weight of increasing costs on your shoulders. 4. Revaluate what it will take to keep your employees and adjust cost accordingly. If you do not, your employees will find a company that will value them. 5. Revaluate your “BRAND”. Who are you in your market. Is that who you want to be? 6. Get with your accountant. Have them set up your books so you can easily accomplish 1, 2, 3. If you don’t, you’ll be worried about more than where the customer keeps their money. YOUR NEW MODEL MUST INCLUDE---

A New Model for Business

Posted in the drive through window of a “restaurant”. Yes, it is real and I won’t say which restaurant or which town because I don’t want to risk embarrassing anyone; but, I am sure that some of our readers could identify it. Our point is not to poke fun but to illustrate that everyone is getting serious about how they run their businesses these days — at least they should. In this case, a burger and fries could no longer be paid for with money stored in private or, shall we say, unsanitary locations. It is particularly funny to me because as a teenager I was a delivery boy at a drug store. Many of the sweet little ole’ ladies would reach down their bra to retrieve a little lace hankie. That is where they kept their money — a few bills and even some change. It embarrassed me; but, at the same time it was “interesting”. I guess “what ever works for you.” How does this apply to our industry? Welllll---times they are a changing. Defaults no longer work. We are perplexed by the sudden proliferation of mold and equipment is in short supply