Are Your Prices Up-To-Date?
Last month we looked at price increases since last year for the trades as estimated by a major insurance company. 

• Plumbing - 7.2%
• Heating and Air Conditioning - 9.7%
• Electrical System - 11.4%

Perhaps you looked at the numbers and thought that you could never increase your prices to match those estimates.  Your customers would revolt.  So let's take a longer view of your prices.  Here's a chart showing how prices have changed over the last 340 years.  Now that's long term!

OK, so your business probably does not go back to 1665, but it may go back to 1975 where a dollar was worth about 360% more than today's dollars.  We all know that our prices have to be higher now, but we don't really know how much higher.  Of course, the right way to know what to charge is to Crunch your Numbers and get your own accurate profitable number.

Using this table based on the Consumer Price Index, you can convert your old prices to today's price.  This assumes that you were charging the correct price in the "old days."  Remember that inflation has been pretty low during this period.

Here's how to do it using the table at right.
Let's say in 1990 your price was $65/hour.  To bring your price to 2005 levels, divide $65 by the conversion factor of 0.669.  $65/0.669 = $97.16/hour.

So, ignoring all of the costs you have now that you did not have in 1990, your hourly rate had to increase by almost 50%!

What is missing from this calculation is your increased costs that are not reflected in the CPI.  Do you use new technologies that have hardware, operating, and training costs?  There are probably a whole range of items you pay for now that you did not in 1990.

The bottom line is that you need to be sure that your prices cover your current costs plus a reasonable profit. 
Have you adjusted your prices to reflect your actual costs? 
Have you updated your Flat Rate Books to reflect your current profitable pricing?

Now is the best time to re-check your prices so you can start the new year confident that you are making the profit you need.  Take a few minutes and plug your up-to-date costs into your spreadsheet or Numbers Cruncher today.  Every day you wait, you could be losing money.

Measure Monthly, Adjust Quarterly
 & Achieve Annual Profit Goals

Renewable Energy Rebate List
As energy price increases ripple through the economy, your customers will become more receptive to new sources of energy.  Many state governments have set up programs to encourage the switch to high efficiency equipment and alternative fuels.

The Department of Energy has set up a web site with a comprehensive listing of these rebate programs at dsireusa.org.  You can search by state (just click on the map), so you don't need to go through a huge list. 

Many states have multiple programs ranging from traditional rebates for high efficiency change-outs to solar and wind systems.  Knowing what is available to your customers can be used as a competitive advantage.  Even most high income households will be interested in taking advantage of these programs.

Chances are your low-ball competitors will not know the details of these programs and will not use them effectively to sell their services. 

Numbers Cruncher Help 
A few users of the newest version of Numbers Cruncher have called or emailed with questions about basic program operations.  Here's a quick tip on how you can get your questions answered right away by using the built in help system.

The improved help system can be opened from anywhere in the program by right clicking on just about any item on the screen.  Or, you can the hit F1 key.  As you move around the program, this help screen will automatically show the details of how the selected item works.

Here is a partial help screen for the new Technician Productivity feature.    Since this is one of the new items added to Numbers Cruncher, even long time users will be unfamiliar with exactly how it works. 

Instead of having to open the manual, or calling the support line, you can right click on the field.  A complete explanation of how to estimate your technician's sales and profitability based on increased productivity instantly pops up.

You can easily scroll through the selected help topic and move to other related help topics.  With just a mouse click, you can reduce the text size to fit more information on the screen or make the text larger so it is easier to read.

This screen shows that by increasing the time sold for this technician by just 15 minutes per day will yield $3,500 in added profits.

You can get more information or place your order now at numberscruncher.com.