The EstiMate Software Blog

Designed For Mac OS X and iPhone

RateMate Hourly Rate Calculator is a port of our ProfitWatch Software from Microsoft Windows to Mac OS X and the iPhone.  Mac and iPhone lovers can now determine their hourly rate in style using this new release.

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Setting The Scene

I live in a really beautiful part of the country — near Asheville, North Carolina — on a relatively rural road with gorgeous views of the backside of the mountains in Bent Creek that I can see from my bedroom window every morning. The other day, I was heading out to the grocery store when I passed a coroplast sign in the front yard of a small home.

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Some years back I was speaking with my accountant about burnout and how grateful I was to do some monotonous work now and again because it didn’t have to engage my brain.  The equivalent when I was making signs was those nice long afternoons when the phone wasn’t ringing, but I had plenty of work, and I just had to assemble 10 banners or something while watching TV or listening to good music.  You know, “brain dead” work that kept me happy and busy but didn’t require too much real thought.

I said to my accountant, “I feel guilty because I feel like I should be doing more valuable work, but sometimes I just need downtime.”

And she replied, “well, what’s the highest and best use of your time?”

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In a recession, you need to make smart money decisions.

Dropping prices is one of the worst choices you can make.

It’s so, so tempting in this economy to price low in order to get what little work is going around.  It’s also the fast track to bankruptcy.

First of all, let me say that I remain convinced that this economy will rebound quickly as soon as we all get over the shock of how fast it imploded.  I predict that even if we are not back to the levels we were a year and a half ago, by summer this year we should be back to a place where credit is freed up and money is moving through the economy again.  Until then, what do we do?

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Note: This article is written from the sign shop perspective, but is applicably to any small business where time and materials are the bottom line.

The wrong hourly rate (or “shop rate”) can be like a hidden cancer for your business.

How do I know?  Because I almost killed my sign business this way in 1995. Obviously, now that EstiMate Software is my gig, I’m not making signs anymore.  I grew up in the business, though, and ran my own shop for 8 years — so I know a thing or two about how to keep it going and what matters.

One thing I know for sure is that the wrong shop rate can kill your business.  Especially in times like these. The very worst thing you can do is work for cheap.

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