Intro / Outro 0:06

Welcome to No Strings Attached, untangling conversations about shady topics. Hosted by Roger McGuellis, this podcast pulls back the curtain on the window covering industry with expert insights and a splash of Brazilian flair. Whether you're an installer, designer, dealer, or just fed up with crooked blinds, get ready for real tips, industry know-how, and plenty of laughs. Now, let's get untangled.

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Roger Magalhaes 0:34

Hello, hello, welcome to another show of No Strings Attached. My name is Roger McGallis and I am your host. If this is your first time here, welcome to the show. And if you have been here before, welcome back. Today we are going to talk about profits or lack of it. But before we do that, I just want to remind you that Blinds Online is our sponsor. Blinds Online has a great selection of products at very affordable prices. So check them out. BlindsOnline.com, our sponsor. So today I am going to talk about the main reason everybody goes into business, which is making money, obviously, right? But the thing is not every job is going to be profitable. And a lot of people don't realize that when they decide to work for themselves. Obviously, this is the main reason why you want to work for yourself, why you want to work, open your own business. But what people don't get it is the fact that some jobs, no matter how hard you try, it's not going to be profitable. Let me let me explain these a little deeper. So obviously, you learn from other people, from people that be in business, from coaches, from you know other business owners. The whole reason you go into business is to make better money than working for as an employee, right? So they tell you you need to account for your overhead, for your expenses, for this and that. Let's come up with a number,$100. So that's your cost per hour to do business to cover your expenses, right? Now you add your profit on top of that. You add all the money you want to make, and you come up with a let's call$150 per hour. So technically, if you make$150 per hour, you are going to make you know enough to cover for all your expenses and also to pay taxes, and finally have a leftover surplus to put in a bank. That's in theory. But what happened is sometimes you're gonna come across a job, and depending on in your industry, I'm gonna use mine as a window covering as an example, but this can go for any any industry, to be honest. So come to a job, and your ideal number is$150, but then there's competition, and then the other guy for whatever reason charges less than you. But you're really hungry, you need that job. So sometimes you need to lower your ideal number a little bit in order to compete. So you lower your number and you hope you're gonna get the job, and then you got the job at less profit, but you're happy because you still can make some money out of that project. Then you mess it up, you take wrong measurements, you buy the wrong material, you car break down, and so many things can go wrong. You have a helper, the helper, you screw up something in the house, and then goes your profit. You already understand that, but that is a conversation that a lot of people that start or like newish to any industry don't understand, they just think because I'm gonna work for myself, I'm gonna make a ton of money, and that is not always the case. Give an example. So I did this job a few years back, and I have a helper help me out. At that point, I already had a good cushion from that job. Everything was gonna be fine, enough money to pay the helper, pay profit, and this and that, and everything else. So as we are doing the job, this is a roller shade, and I take the valence, uh fascia rather, aluminum fascia out, I handle over to my helper to lay it on the floor so I can remove the the roller shade out of the out of the the place. My helper, instead of putting the fascia on the floor, he leans the fascia against the wall. And before I say something to take him off and put on the ground, the fascia started running sideways and ended up hitting the piece of furniture of the client. Guess what? It was a Italian bureau, whatever, all of these bells and whistles that has a scratch and a dent now. So I have to call the design. It was just me and my helper at the house at that time. I called the designer, I explained the situation. We have to order new furniture five thousand dollars later. I lost all my profit on that job. I did everything right, but is still not making a profit. And that goes, everybody in business long enough has a story or two or three. Sometimes you think your job's gonna take two hours, and for one reason or another, you think it's gonna be a quick install. You get there, there's no surface to mount your shade to, there's hollow walls behind. You take three hours, four hours. Maybe the collar you messed it up, you didn't get the right collar, you ordered the wrong thing, you still need to honor your word, make it right for your client, and there goes all your profit. So, what you should do is just build enough profit on every job, and then when you get paid for that job, you set a little bit of money aside, like an emergency fund, and that emergency fund is going to cover things that you have no clue are going to happen down the road, and that's why it is called an emergency fund. This is going to be a fund that's going to save you down the road when things happened. So, here's my advice for you today set the expectations right because not every job is going to bring money. If you take those contractors, I experienced these firsthand moving to Florida and get hammered by the hurricane. So I couldn't find contractors at a time. I eventually found someone to come to the house. He stopped working. Next thing you know, he didn't show up anymore because, whatever reason, he found either job someplace else or had enough money for the time being for one day paid, and then he walked away, went someplace else. So this could happen. It wasn't my case, but it was how he ran his business. You know what I mean? So some people, if they don't think well throughout the process, they're gonna end up on a red, they might walk away. I know installers in the in this business that just walk away from the job because they didn't make enough. Do I think it's right? No, totally wrong. But everyone runs a business in their own way, right? So that's my story for today. So I hope you do the right thing and plan ahead and save a bit of a little bit of money for those times when they come. Thanks for listening. If you have any comments or questions, please send my way. I always read every comment and I respond to everything. Take care and I'll talk to you later.

Intro / Outro 10:22

That's a wrap for this episode of No Strings Attached, untangling conversations about shady topics. If you enjoyed today's discussion, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share this podcast with fellow industry pros and window treatment enthusiasts. For more expert insights, follow Roger on social media and visit Shades in Place at www.shadesinplace.com. Thanks for listening. Until next time, keep your shades stylish and your conversations shady.