Brutally honest opinion please

[Torch]

It costs at least $60 per hour to run a shop if you don't have any employees making over $10/hour.
That's in a cheap location with low taxes and no regulation...
Unless your doing a lot of charity work or working out of your house and making less than $20/hour
Any skilled trade is worth at least $20/hour (after taxes) and in most cases $20/hour of payroll and $15/hour on top of that for a total cost of at least $35/hour per employee.
dummies with no skills wont work for less than $10... and a $10/hour guy with no insurance still costs you $15.
you can't live off less. You can stay alive as a homeless person on less but you can't live on less.
Believe me, the money is there but you have to have a little capital to work with
And if you can't make good money working for someone else you sure the hell can make good money starting your own business doing the work yourself and taking their customers away.
You don't necessarily need a bosses permission to make more. sometimes you just need to take it from them. this doesn't mean robbing them it means being better and offering a better deal and winning their customers. They don't own those customers, it's a free market...
A free market except if the company your undercutting is partially owned by state and federal pension funds insurance companies or has union money invested in it but that's not a discussion to have here.

 

[darkk]

It costs at least $60 per hour to run a shop if you don't have any employees making over $10/hour.
That's in a cheap location with low taxes and no regulation...
Unless your doing a lot of charity work or working out of your house and making less than $20/hour
Any skilled trade is worth at least $20/hour (after taxes) and in most cases $20/hour of payroll and $15/hour on top of that for a total cost of at least $35/hour per employee.
dummies with no skills wont work for less than $10... and a $10/hour guy with no insurance still costs you $15.
you can't live off less. You can stay alive as a homeless person on less but you can't live on less.
Believe me, the money is there but you have to have a little capital to work with
And if you can't make good money working for someone else you sure the hell can make good money starting your own business doing the work yourself and taking their customers away.
You don't necessarily need a bosses permission to make more. sometimes you just need to take it from them. this doesn't mean robbing them it means being better and offering a better deal and winning their customers. They don't own those customers, it's a free market...
A free market except if the company your undercutting is partially owned by state and federal pension funds insurance companies or has union money invested in it but that's not a discussion to have here.

The OP asked for brutally honest opinions. Well, this is my brutally honest opinion like it or not. If you are doing one set of parts, there *may* be some merit to your view. Most if not all companies group like items together, otherwise you are wasting time and money by not working constructively. I have managed a successful body shop for over 17 years. I do understand cost management. There is no ill will or insult intended. And I stand by my comments.