i just had the accountant review my financials for this year.

the one thing that stands out is that the autoglass sales last year at the end of june i think, were 51,000,,,,,,this year sales are around 28,000.

sales from labor on autoglass were only 800 dollars less than the labor total for last year.

i knew it was not good, but it still kind of came as a slap in the face. the gross profit percentage has gone from about 48 percent to around 35 percent, obviously that is before expenses of any kind. So that would be proof that cost of goods has risen as well, not to mention energy costs, wich come out down further on the paper.

i think it is bad karma to wish bad luck on other people, but i sure hope the people who stuck us with this network system are experiencing the same pain.

bachman says if you advertise you can see a difference in a week,,,wish i had the money to give that a shot.

oh well tomorrow is another day,,,its a wonderful life.

And to make matters worse the rumor is that NAGS is lowering the list prices again!

Time to think about a fuel charge!

My accountant was in yesterday. Income down 31% compared to this time last year

28,000 a month or 28,000 for a year??????????

Ralph seriously if you email me i will point you in the right direction for a very in expensive way to gain business through marketing, and noting expensive. I promise i want nothing out of it except for you to succeed.

Whatever your sales were this year or last year your gross profit margin is way to low. You are working way to hard for far to little. Working at those gross profit margin rates enables the networks to continue driving prices down. Insurance work is still the best profit margin going. Like it or not, network pricing is directly linked to the cash prices that are available. I used to be a mid -size glass co. Had 3 mobile techs, 4 including myself. The Safelites of this world didn't screw up my business. It was the guy working out of his pick up that may or may not know how to install autoglass correctly but was clueless as to how to look at a profit loss statement and understand it. Still allot of them coming and going out there. The national co.s don't like the pressure from the insurance industry anymore than we do. They are just trying to be with the prettiest girl or guy (girl in my case)out there. We need more pretty girls. I love this business. I was born into it, but I think there is just as many problems on the independent side as there is on the corporate side. We need to quit trying to bash the heck out of them and figure out how to beat them at their game. We need to raise the bar, get educated. They realize they will never make us go away. They just want us to continue being bottom feeders. The only way to really hurt them in the long run is to keep raising our industry's standards and take as much insurance work as possible while keeping cash prices within whatever the % the networks are charging insurance companies to handle the claims.

I agree with you larry, as far as these mobile only guys working out of the back of a pickup, they have very little overhead. Safelite and Triumph may be able to get glass at a low cost, but they still have large overhead, with a sales force management and insurance. it is the mobile clowns that are driving prices down.

What were your goals for this year?
How did you plan on reaching them.
What did you do differently this year than last year?