It amazes me how many companies have no idea what their projects cost. The other day I was interviewing a seasoned concrete expert who has been in the industry for over twenty five years and he told a story about how the company he is working with now, is the first one to ever perform detailed job costing.

Up until working with his current company customer pricing was done by what the market would bear, square foot pricing and guessing. No wonder so many of the companies he has worked for are no longer in business.

Job Costing is actually an easy task that will provide a break-even number that guides you to where the selling price should be. It can be achieved in many ways, preferably with some automated software. An Excel spread sheet is a great place to start!

It easy fairly easy to achieve a “true cost” and determine a project break-even which is the starting point I recommend. Once you master that you can decide how exacting you want to be.

If you would like to have a discussion about your costing practices, no matter what stage you are in please feel free to give us a call.

Guy

Last week I was going to St Louis and when I arrived at the gate at Midway Airport I stoped at the counter to check how full the fight was. Usually Southwest has very full fights but this was my lucky day. The agent told me their were approximately 35 open seats and when I told her I was already A16 we agreed I need not upgrade. I was checking some emails on my laptop when I was summoned back to the counter by the gate agent.

STRANGE!

She handed me an envelope. I asked what it was inside and she said she wan’t sure, so I decided to open it on the spot.

Inside was a Thank You note from the three terminal mangers for Southwest. Their was also a SW luggage tag and a business card holder that adhesively attaches to your cell phone. Two mundane give-aways but they were SW branded. The Thank You was hand written and very thoughtful. Two morals to the story; first always remember the power of a hand written thank you note! Secondly, while other airlines were making news for disturbing passenger interactions, my airline was personalizing notes and giving away trinkets to their best customers. I’ll bet the total cost was under $2.00, but it was the personalized thought in an industry that has all but forgotten great customer service. Thank you Southwest for anther great experience.

The new Mazda Miata RF is a statement by Mazda about reinventing as classic brand with a totally new design. This is our first Mazda and we were lucky enought to lock in a “Launch Edition”.

Their is more to the story than a completely resesigned model that has a 25 year history and sold over one million Miata’s. It is a sales story about customer satisfaction and reoccuring purchasing!

The branding is unlike anything I have experienced in the many new vechicles we have purchased in my lifetime. We have purchased at least six new vehicles since 2011. Not one company communicated with us after the purchase except for a “product recall notice”.

Since we have purchased  the Miata RF we received and awesome Tourneau watch which was part if the launch addition.

Just the other day a smartly boxed package about the size of a paperback book arrived with a message from the CEO welcoming us to the Mazda family. It included other information about the history of Mazda along with other information on how to download their phone app and some information about other accessories and warranties. None of it was presented as trying to sell something.

So far we love driving the little car even though it only has a thousand miles on it, we are preparing to drive it from Orlando to Chicago on its first long road trip. Some owners may polish and garage their RF, not me, I’m going to do my best to wear it out. If all goes well I’ll buy another one in a few years and a hundred thousand miles from now.

Watch your thoughts for they become words.

Watch your words for they become actions.

Watch your actions for they become habits.

Watch your habits for they become your character.

And watch your character for it becomes your destiny. What we think, we become.

My father always said that… and I think I am fine.

–Margaret Thatcher