Just ran some numbers on my shop rate and it stung a little

I was going through my books this morning for last quarter and realized I have been charging $65 an hour for CLA work. After I pulled out all my costs for parts, rent on my small shop in Portland, and the time I sink into sourcing hard to find bits for old Nikons, I am barely clearing $22 an hour on average. I found this out when I broke down 11 repair tickets from January and added up every minute of bench time. It is making me rethink if I need to bump my rate up to $80 or just get pickier about which jobs I take. Has anyone else run the real math on what you actually make per hour after expenses?

2 comments

2 Comments

rowanellis9d ago

You said "barely clearing $22 an hour," is that before or after you pay yourself for sourcing those hard to find parts?

vera_murphy8d ago

Nah, I see it differently. That $22 is what I take home after all the sourcing and hunting is baked into the cost, not before. If I added a separate fee for tracking down parts, it'd just push the total past what people are willing to pay.