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Hey guys, quick question as I draft up a contract to be delivered in the morning, what’s a good warranty period? 1 month, 3 months, 1 year?
Also what’s the “time is of the essence” clause mean? I’ve ommited it from my contract but have seen it mentioned here and want to know what it’s really about. thanks
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I have one year in my contracts....industry standard in my area anyway. Most folks I deal with know I will take care of it long after, unless they are abusing things.
*Ditto Same as above........
*Same here steve.
*I never write out the warranty period.. since i don't offer a written warranty.. I decided in the '70's that the Moss - Magunuson act wasn't written for small business ..if they ask , I tell them it's one year on the labor and we pass thru any mfr's warranties..""Time is of the Essence " is usually part of a contract that includes penalty clauses for being late...I don't sign contracts that include the clause...we do our best.. and we have plenty of references to back us up... this is remodeling... if i were building on spec... then i would expect things to be different..what works for me won't neccessarily work for you..I do know from personal experience.. that a lot of the guys who advertise "" warranty this "" and ""warranty that""... have left town and aren't around to honor ANY warranty.. so.. go figgerbottom line.. don't raise your customer's expectations beyond what you can deliver...
*Yah know Steve there was a real good heated debate about all of this a year ago ( it must be the season I gueess) disscussing the in and outs of time period, written or unwritten, and a warranty's value as a marketing tool. "Warranties, what do you provide?" created by jim "crazy legs" blodgett 8/23/00 10:18amAnd just for your information in that discussion where ever you read a post by a guy named "Dan Dear" those comments are really from Sonny Lykos. When the powers to be here at Taunton were tuning up these discussion forums somehow a lot of Sonnys comments were changed over to Dan Dears identity. A technical glitch I guess.
*Steve, a warrantee program, if designed properly, can be used as a strong marketing tool also. I'm presently working with my sons to finish up a program with a 3 year warrantee. I will make an inspection about 1-3 months after the job is completed. Another about 1 year later, 2 years later and the final about 3 years after completion.There will be a check list of what to inspect based on what we did for them. We will actually make a concerted effort to find something that needs to be take care of, even if it's just recauking something, adjusting cabinet doors, etc. Maybe even touching up wall corners. We did that in Michigan and if I remember correctly, with each inspection roughly half of the owners said something like: "While you're here, we were thinking of replacing all of our windows", or new siding, or a deck or remodeling the kitchen or roofing. Of course, there was almost never a competitive bid. Just how much and when can you start. CRMIt's no big deal to include an extra $500 for the above inspections in any job over say $20,000 to cover the inspection time and any minor "stuff."Can you imagine your clients telling their neighbor who complained that he couldn't even get his own original contractor to fix something, and this client tells him: "Not only does Steve give a 3 year warrantee, he even calls every year to make an appointment to do the inspection and takes care of anything right then and there." Guess who the "neighbor" is going to call when he needs something done? And guess who else these people will tell about this ""Outrageous Customer Service?"The worse the public's perception is our our industry, the easier it is to develop loyal fans simply because you represent a contradiction to the "perceived norm."We plan to do the inspections while we've in the area anyway so there's no special trip involved.Marketing AND CRM - a win/win for everyone involved. BTW, that type of CRM also allows higher margins due to the "perceived" increased "value" offered.Combine that with what you'll find with Harvey MacKay's "66-QuestionCustomer Profile" in his book, "Swim With the Sahrks Without Being Eaten Alive" and you have created a marketing coup over your competitors.
*OK, here's a marketing concept:i "always under-promise and over-deliver"is that an appropriate concept to apply to marketing your warranty?I'm thinking about what Mike S. said...i a lot of the guys who advertise "" warranty this "" and ""warranty that""... have left town and aren't around to honor ANY warranty.do you even market your warranty?is it in the contract? do you sell it? or do you just do it? which is more impressive?chrs, George
*George, the reason I had asked this is I'm a fledgling amongst the elders. I am just getting started and using the boilerplate contract you get at the office supply store. about a year ago or so Sonny posted a PDF file of his contract which I wish I could open again. (for some odd reason I'm having trouble with only that file) Sonny went to great lengths with it and I'm starting to bid "big jobs" (ha ha ha ha ha ha) around $2,000 and wanted to have a good (meaning fair to both sides) contract to use. up til now I've pretty much been doing little stuff at a time. Can you fix this? how much? ok,while you're here can you do this? how much? ok, etc. I'm trying to bid whole projects now and as the dollars increase I want to cover my butt. I read about guys doing $1,000 a week and dream of that. right now if it weren't for unemployment holding me up I'd be living in the street. I would love to market a warranty but right now I'll settle for getting any jobs I can get my little paws on.(btw I was raised to honor my word and if this doesn't work out and I end up back in engineering, you can rest assured I'd go in the evening, weekend or even take time off to set straight something I promised.)
*Steve, I'll convert that contract to Word (I use a Mac), and email it to you. The formatting might not be exactly as typed, but you'll get the text anyway in proper order.George is right about promising less and providing more. However, that's really settle. I think most guys here do that, but I like marketing that is not only obvious, but that provides an occasional WOW - something they can really talk about to their friends.
*Sonny, if you could do it in wordperfect it would be better. my pc is a couple of years old and came loaded with corel and I can't convert any newer word files, they just come up as gibberish. thanks a million, Steve BTW I priced digital cameras and I'll be waiting a little bit before I can buy one of those puppies.p.s. I think you and my father are the only two people I know who use a mac. are you as happy with it as he is (he's very happy)
*Sonny, I am fluent in spanish, both conversational and technical. do you think this would be something I might be able to "market"? There seems to be an ever growing hispanic population and although there are alot of skilled hispanic tradesmen and most hispanic families would probably prefer to deal with "their own" (please I meant no disrespect to anyone by that comment)I still can't help but think that it couldn't hurt. what do you think?
*Steve, my old PC was an old, old, 8086. I bought my first Mac in around '94 when they came out with the Power PC Mac. Since then I've been hooked on them. Just the other day Jerry Hayes and I were talking about the fact that we both agreed contractors should use Macs now that nearly any software available on PCs are available for Macs. Macs are definately more user friendly and crashes are rare. The reason for our contention is that most contractors (as opposed the the guys here) are not very computer literate (like me), which makes a Mac more practiclal for them. Same commands regardless if they are using a word processor, spread sheet, graphics program or what ever. Microsoft also makes Microsoft Office for Mac also.I'm drooling cause I want a new Mac with dual 800mhz processors, built in NVIDIA GeForce2 MX Dual Display Graphics Card, CD-RW/DVD-R, 80 gig hard drive 2x 256 L2 cache and 2MB L3 backside cache - but it's $3500. It operates at a speed of 83% faster than the fastest Pentium system. Let's see, March 28 is the big 60 so if I hint around to my 4 kids and wife, just maybe......................... Virtual PC is the most popular software used to run Windows on a Mac. I would not change. Use an original iMac here at home, an old 6500/250 mhz desk top at tht office I upgraded to 350 mhz and last year bought a G3 laptop. We also use ong other 6500 at the office and three Dells Tom & Pete bought last year, just so Tom can use Chief Architect and Pete and Barb could use Quick Book Pro since they stopped supporting Macs.Mac LInk Plus is a conversion program so I can convert Mac language to PC Word, Word Perfect and about a dozen other PC programs, or vice versa.I'm teaching my 7 & 6 year old grandsons (Tom's sons) on my iMac on use of a computer now that he can do the basics of reading. Since Tom knows absolutely nothing about computers and every time I hear him yell out "DAD" I know his Dell crashed or he can't do something, so I'm learning more about Windows out of necessity. I want his son Alex to pass him buy in computer literacy by next spring.I can just hear it now: "Dad I'll fix it for you." as Alex climbs onto the chair. In fact I just remembered that we put two old 6100 Macs in the warehouse loft when they bought the Dells. Only a 750 meg hard drive but large enough for Alex to play with it and get onto the Internet at home.I agree with your assessment about spanish speaking people prefering to hire their own and there are load of them in the trades. Being fluent in Spanish will be a plus once/when you start hiring staff, and to converse with sub's employees if at your area they are like here - that is most drywallers, painters and tile setters have a lot of latinos. Personally, I find them to be very family oriented, honest and hard working people. I subbed out my house tile work to a son and his Dad from Brazil - choice people.
*My dad has a program that makes his iMac desktop mimic windows. he just got the iMac for christmas (that was before I got laid off and actually had money) because that is what he wanted. And yes I agree about the hispanic family bond. I met and married my wife while I was commissioning a hydro damn in Argentina in '94.(I was down there almost a year supervising the electrical installation of the turbine speed controls) She has had a tough time being away from her family. we brought her mom up in '97 for a month but round trip tickets are about $1,000.00 a person and seeing as her family is dirt poor (and I really mean poor!) all of the financial burden falls on me. eventually we will get back to visit but it won't be for a couple of years yet.Actually if I could get them up here they could go right to work. the mom can sew like you wouldn't believe and the father is a concrete worker. the problem they have is they live in a little town on the border of Argentina and Paraguay and there's no work there. moving is out of the financial question for them. oh well I ramble on. thanks again for the copy of the contract.
*We gotta do something about that situation.
*We need more immigrants. Truly
*steve, slightly off subject, but just came across this, might helphttp://www.jlconline.com/cgi-bin/webbbs/business/webbbs_config.pl?read=3268
*steve,
*yes Bob?
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Hey guys, quick question as I draft up a contract to be delivered in the morning, what's a good warranty period? 1 month, 3 months, 1 year?
Also what's the "time is of the essence" clause mean? I've ommited it from my contract but have seen it mentioned here and want to know what it's really about. thanks