Hey Kenny,

Everyone here in the Northeast is slow so why are your shops giving it away? There is no volume out there to recoup your ridicules prices! It just makes everyone else lower there prices and then we all lose more $$.


Wake Up, we have hit bottom!

what stare are you slow in?

Try New York, it's positively scary !

Dead in Alabama, but flat glass commercial and residential is booming.

This really must be the slow time of year. Gives me a lot of hope for the spring time.

Normally this is our slow season but luckily we've been slammed this month! Mostly due to the recent windstorms, and a lot of vandalism. We feel very lucky. Takin' all we can handle while it's there!
We are in the greater Seattle area.
The way I see it is to let them give it away. See how long they can survive. It doesn't change our prices any!

I want a shot at this long island work I am intrigued by the talk about it, I would like to come up there with my top guy and give it 6 months i bet i can show a decent profit in 1 month.. who knows, as long as you do not have me shot I might give it a whirl :)

Larry the low ballers on LI make you look like Tiffanys.
Come on in lol the humility lesson will do you good.

A good business man can make money anywhere . Its all in the marketing ,service and products (just ask Larry )

Also it dont take a lot of money to market a auto glass company.You would be amazed what you can do with $25-$150.00 not counting all the freebies.

I think anyone can compete with the big boys if you provide quality products and service and you are not lazy. You just have to apply you self. Safelite used to run 5-10 mobile techs in our area a day now we have one once every couple days. They dont even wholesale glass in our area anymore becasue everyone stopped buying from them. Diamond even moved out of the area to a location over 75 miles away so we never see a dt truck anymore unless we are in thier area so when I hear guys say its slow that just means you have more time to work on the marketing and the service levels you and your employeees provide

Larry, you're not even a factor in the States you are in already. I've lived in the Phoenix area for 35 years and in the insurance field for over 10 and had never even heard of your company until you posted here.

And with you giving away glass as shown below from your website, I don't think there's anything to worry about if you do decide to go into NJ
--------------------------
"Your quote on a 2000 Chevrolet Pickup C2500 2DR Extended Cab is $105 (plus tax where applicable).

To schedule work to be done, fill out the form below and click the 'Schedule Work' button. During normal business hours, you will be contacted within an hour."
---------------------------

It is appreciated by all here when you help someone out or add good information, but you were given 2 eyes, 2 ears and only one mouth for a reason. You should use them to that proportion.

Larry,

New York is the 2nd largest glass market in the country. ( after Los Angeles )

Do you suppose that the fact that non of the large chains/groups aside from DT and Safelite, have opened up in our area means anything?

Nah, I guess not

C'mon up !!!!!

Hey I wanna come too if its the largest glass market in the country!! I love new england! I was born up there!

Yeah, come on by. I'll even buy you a map ( Last time I checked, New York was not part of New England, but who knows???)

I've heard New York included in New England sometimes and sometimes not. Kind of like Virginia...some people say it is the southern most state of the Northeast...others the northern most state of the Southeast. Then there are those who just call it mid-atlantic (me.) Who knows??

I'll definitley need the map though...I've only been to New York once and its a big place.

LOL AGN New York has as much to do with the New England State as spagetti sauce and peanut butter.
But hey they are both edible

Hey Sglass,

you mean you never has peanut butter fra diavlo ?????

No but one time when we combined Hanukah & Christmas on the same day my Mom made Lox parmigiana..

Hey...what do you want...I'm just a dumb auto glass installer. I guess New England is New Hampshire, Mass, Vermont, Rhode Island and Coneticut. Oh well. I was born and raised in New Hampsire.

I am in new hampshire & I AM DOING VERRY VERRY WELL, How much would you like to bet, that I can open where you say it is so bad, and in 2 months have 2 installers doing 7 a day there? I am willing to bet you, I like to fail, you know why? Its a learning lesson, I have only failed one time and that was in indiana , I welcome the opportunity to fall on my face in front of you, but if i do not, what are you going to put on the table :)

Like drag racing you gonna put the pink slip to your biz up for grabs :)

Larry

OK Larry you win.
You are the best that ever was and ever will be.
Sorry, what issue of Fortune magazine were you on the cover of? I must have missed that issue.

Hey Larry, Is that 2 installers doing 7 per day each or together?

Shouldn't making a decent profit matter more than how many jobs you get an installer to do. Give your jobs away for free and it's a little easier to fill up the schedule.


JAC

Selling 1341's for $105.00 Installed? Some body is not making too much money. And I bet they're not getting too many repeat customers either. So, Larry, how many warranty call backs do you do a month?

1341's for $105 is R-E-T-A-R-D-E-D. I guess you believe if you are busy you are making money. Two different things, Larry. I dont think he is so much a businessman as a philanthropist.

I agree with Larry, I also think that a good installer (not a lazy one) and word of mouth can make any business successful. With the right marketing and a few little things like $105.00 in shop only 1341 or 1217's even if all you make is $50-60 a job 5 -10 a day in shop no fuel costs not counting the normal priced mobile installs with two mobile guys and 7-10 a day each @ 125-150 off each job that adds up ,slowly but it still ads up)

I'm with AHAG and Larry. I wish I could price every job as high as I want, but I can't because I wouldn't have any work.

Being a one man show its better to go out with 4-6 jobs making $60 - $75 per job then not going out at all and making nothing.

I understand that is much harder for you guys with shops and employees to pay, but thats the facts of life for me.

Yes pinky and not giving the glass away either

Here Ladies & Gentlemen is the reason for the deterioration of the auto glass industry. As long as AGR people think of themselves as unskilled, uneducated, low class day laborers we will continue to decline.
WAKE UP…We are educated people. It takes intelligence to run a successful business.
We are craftsmen. To do the job right is a learned skill.
You should be proud of what you do, have dignity and realize your work has value.
Realize that doing a good job and insuring people’s safety in their cars is a responsibility.
We have a right to make a decent wage and not feel glad to just get what we can for our talent and labors. Stop being grateful to be allowed to work on a person’s car for minimal money.
I haven’t seen any plumbers, carpenters, electricians or roofers debasing themselves financially just to get a job and WE are every bit as good as they are.

That is so foolish to do any job for $105.00. Wouldn't it be smarter and easier to make 150.00 each on two jobs than 50.00 each on 6 jobs? So what if you get repeat business on a 105.00 dollar job? The next one will still be 105.00 dollars too. We fix a lot of these $105.00 jobs, I hope the owners know they get what they pay for.

AGN-

Just to run out your $60-$75 scenario:

If you do 5 jobs per day, 6 days per week at a $60 gross profit (pre urethane) EVERY WEEK of the year, no vacation for you, no holidays either -- you will Gross 93600.

From that 93600 we take.....

5200 for fuel
1200 for vehicle expenses
2000 for business / truck ins. (a bargain)
1200 for computer stuff (also a bargain)
5000 for advertising / yellow pages (drop in the bucket)
2000 for phones
6000 for health insurance
3600 for shop stuff (non urethane)
12000 for kits (about 7.50 each * 1560 jobs)

You are left with.....drum roll please.....55,400 pre tax.

For that 55K, you worked 3120 hours (8 hours installing 6 days + 3 hours per day adding up the riches, paying bills, ordering stuff, making sales calls and dunning networks.

for a grand total of..... 17.75 per hour straight time, or $15 / hr if your pay yourself OT.

For that you get...
A marginal insurance plan
No retirement
No Work Comp
No Vacation
No Paid Holidays
No short or long term disability
No shop to work out of when it is cold
No Safety Net
The bare minimum stuff.

I guess if you want to be independent at that level, it is appealing, but it seems like a hell of a lot of risk and work for less than you can make as a normal Tech.

Divide the 94K by $100 per job and you have to do 400+ fewer jobs per year, pay less for kits, shop supplies, fuel, vehicle wear and tear and work 30% less and live a few more years.

I'm with Glassgod on this one.

DL and Glasssgod,

Appreciate the break down. I do not do work at $105 per job. I try to mark up $100 above cost when I can, but thats not always possible. Having just started out I am doing a lot of work for little car lots right now which requires me to be cheaper. I do not plan on that always being the way it is. I am working on building a competent auto glass business and am still learning a lot of things. As always I remain open to any suggestions people may have. Feel free to e-mail me anytime sometimes this forum is a hard place to get your message across.

Also...my $60 - $75 per job was after the cost of Urethane. I figure that in to every job along with the cost of the glass.

Hey Larry I don't think you realize that the cost of insureing a business in NY & CT is triple what it cost to insure what you have up in the hills, & another FYI on the d/t pricing practice is that they like most big company's buy thier glass by the pound not by unit so the cost is greatly reduced & thier margin of profit is similar to your everyday shop profit. One more thing that I hope all you readers know is that d/t was just another glass warehouse that went retail just like Lear Siegla or as known today as safelite.

So your saying we should all become distributors and start installing our own glass

s-glass--call around to electricians, carpenters and plumbers, and I guarantee you will get some of them to debase themselves to get the job. We just built a house and the quotes for various jobs varied widely. All skilled blue-collar workers have the same pricing and cometition problems that the AGR sector has.

I agree with d-boy. I have been active in building several houses and a commercial project and he is right. There are "dregs" in every industry.

The reason it seems like the AGR industry is filled with them more so then other industries is because of the easy in and out. There is no license req'd to get into the industry, no lenghty apprenticeship and you don't spend days or weeks on one job. Lets face it...as long as something looks good when its done...most of the people who have a windshield replaced are clueless as to any other issues there could be. Just my humble opinion.

AGN here in CT we all have to have a license to install & sell auto & flat. The industry needs to push this issue so that we could start stating our own worth & not let the bigger company's dictate our worth!

Hey John L,

I agree, but what makes me afraid of the gov't getting involved is what has happened to the "real estate industry". The only thing state licensure did for real estate was serve to create another side industry for classes and tests etc. As well as opening it up to all kinds of state taxes and fees for getting a license.

If it were done correctly (i.e. requiring an apprenticeship and certain number of years expereince before being able to operate on your own etc) I would support it.

I guess my point is that it cannot be a half-assed attempt or else it will only make things worse.

E-mail me more info on how it works in CT...I'm interested. Thanks.

Hey AGN

You correctly say - "There are "dregs" in every industry."

Welcome to the bottom!

What are you going to do when someone else in your area decides that $45.00 - $50.00 per job is enough for him?

When you pick up business by cutting prices, you lose it the same way !

Wake up friend, you are poisoning the water that we all drink.

Long Island,

I'm not even going to dignify those remarks with an intelligent response. Have a nice day.

Just because your not the large chain doesn't mean you can't be profitable. I know Larry and no matter where he goes he does well. Even in states people say you can't make money. He has one thing alot of you don't BRAINS!

This is more like it, keeps you reading. This forum had got so boring I wasn't even logging on anymore. Must seem like I thrive on discord, not really just healthy debate. BUT seriously on the LJ issue, "industryinsider" is right about one thing LJ has shops in what 6-7 states and is successful at what he does, he doesn't cry about the TPA's and insurance companies and while I see everyone's point about how low prices hurt the industry as a whole, it's still good to sit down to a real meal and not pork-n-beans. Let's face it alot of shop owners are in serious trouble because, between TPA's and NAGS and especially STEERING the whole **** conspiracy we've been lowballed to death, unless you have some good fleet, commercial and a solid base of regular repeat customers LJ'S way may be the way the industry is turning..............like it or not. Or like our company you just stick with flat and private pay's and dealer/fleet and forget insurance. I finally got one answer to the mysterious "DIRECT BILLING" issue, but it's too late to matter when the greedy theives have stolen all the work, we got a total of 7 insurance jobs in December 06, none so far this year, December 05 (62), sad uh?
AND ANOTHER THING, LEAVE ALONE HE'S A NICE YOUNG MAN TRYING TO START A BUSINESS TO BETTER HIS FAMILIES FUTURE, LET HIM LEARN, ADVISE HIM DON'T INSULT HIM THAT'S JUST RUDE AND HELPS NO ONE!

Just curious AGN, how long have you been installing?
I started in this industry when I was 21 as a summer job, and never got out. I have noticed that autoglass is like the Mafia, "I try to get out and they just pull me right back"!! I think most of you will agree that we are all brutes for punishment.

Wow we really made Dave mad. I still think that the $105-$150 IN SHOP ONLY is a good idea FOR A LIMITED TIME for a business that has been around for 5 -10 years.

Now if you are just starting out and mobile only you can still run deals like this just limit the number per week so you can still take on the better paying jobs.

I've been in the auto glass industry since I was about 19. I started out delivering windshields for a distributor and was eventually hired as a trainee after getting to know a lot of techs.

I think any small business owner has to have a somewhat self-destructive side!

Just the way things are. I've been in other industries along with auto glass and I've been around small business my whole life...Its not very pretty sometimes, but at the end of the day it beats the hell out of working for "the man".

$105 is REAL low for my area. I think $125 would get their attention nicely. If you only did this on parts that you paid very little for it could work out nicely.

If you could get 5 - 10 replacements each at a few construction companies with it you'd be doing okay.

If you can get in the door by doing it, get 'em used to you and used to calling you then it worked. They'll have other vehicles you can charge more for, not to mention the referrals you could get out of it.

I have ben at this for 35 years good custermer service and a job well done will cary you a long way No snow Lots of compitition = slow Flat glass is very buisy here in newengland

I think it must be slow here to. Hopefully it picks up. I ran into another of the independents from our area on the road today and he was saying he was pretty slow too. He was "joking" about finding another job if it didn't get any better...I wonder if he was really joking.

I definitley like the idea of ditching NAGs and going to a cost + type of system. That would work for both cash jobs and insurance jobs.

The only problem I could foresee with the insurance is that the jobs may get sucked up by the bigger chains because they pay less for glass.

Somebody PLEASE get the soap box for Larry. He is at it again. I'm glad my ego is not so weak that I have to TELL everyone how great I am.

I wonder if the manufacturers and distributers would be the way they are today if the insurance industry hadn't legitimized a less than desirable manufacturer's quality standards and created an avenue to move their less than desirable products?