It's next to impossible to take any kind of extended break from work, especially in the last 18 or so months, and I'm finding in the COVID-era, I have to follow up with vendors and service providers 3 and 4 times to ensure everyone is doing their job which has been a huge, frustrating waste of time.

Yep. As soon as a customer starts with " well I saw them do this on HGTV/DIY Network"... I cringe. I'm like, ok so it begins.....


.

Its ridiculous how bad the back log is. I'm just finishing up a kitchen. 3 1/2 weeks for quartz counter top. Which came in wrong...... Now to start from scratch again. Said they would put rush on it. 2 additional weeks... which puts everything else on hold.
At least customer is semi-understanding, but still puts me not getting paid for a long time....:mad:

That's the reason I haven't quit making cabinets yet. I only fab them for my own clients now, no more selling them to other contractors and designers. Well, maybe one designer.

I am waiting for 4 slabs of Cesar Stone. Its going on for 7 weeks now, and its no where to be found, heard or ETA from them.

I have been dealing with Facetime inspection for the past few times. Very easy and the inspectors have all been very lazy due to covid so they sit on their fat asses.

To stay on topic, my employees all want more money due to uptick in labor and covid. My subs have tacked on 20% on most jobs. Customers aren't really willing to pay the differences. 20% on a bigger dollar job isn't exactly cheap so everyone is screaming except I do it inside my car with windows closed.

If I can take this opportunity to really gripe about my job.
The one problem, that I have never been able to fix , after all the years I have been in business is, that I cannot stop the constant flow of people in and out of my space in a days time . In the last 20 years, I rarely get a chance to replace brake pads, eat a sandwich, make a phone call, or use the facilites without being interrupted .
It has made me an angry middle aged man riddled with stress and anxiety .
No matter what I am doing , I will never finis------never mind, someone just walked in...fk

All Business is a quadratic equation in reality.

Supply & demand versus profit & risk

Corporations have teams of people to quantify the numbers for each variable on a constant basis.

I'm just a one man show with a laptop & MS Office

Better to be on your end of the spectrum than mine right now. My phone used to light up with people calling me wanting to sell me their used inventory. Now... not so much. I haven't bought a piece of equipment since February and have no real prospects in the coming weeks/months since used equipment is selling like crazy. I'm bored off my ass but I'm finding stuff to do to kill time.

Agree 100% , and very thankful for where we are at right at now.
However, a good description of most of my days would be : manic.
Trying to put a water pump in a Honda, , but on the phone, and someone walking in the door every 20 minutes, all at the same time .
Im pretty over it . Id love to complete a job , from start to finish, in solitude, and full concentration . That has not happened in years here .
I look forward to quiet peaceful days when I finally hang it up . Im 51, and going to try to make it to 60, then I will be a wal mart greeter

I have a real world business..... stress is what I would love to eliminate.....

I oompartmentalize stress, goals, and and risk. It's paying off. The real bummer is probably government intrusion and then an occasional employee causing drama. I eliminate those pretty quickly so that we can move on to important things.

Other than that, I think just being organized allows you to focus on the big picture and maintain high standards.

Fred, have you ever thought about what interruptions cost you both in time (real money) and aggravation (quality of life)?

PA minimum wage is $7.25/hour or $15K per year. It seems to me you could probably bill $30K more per year just having someone receive people, take calls, etc. They just have to be the right person.

And QoL is priceless. I'd spend $15K a year in a heartbeat not to be a "angry middle aged man riddled with stress and anxiety."

My $.02

My wife came on board 3 years ago when her company got bought out, She does a really good job of gate keeping and running the back side of it all, but man, there are still days .
I am directly involved with providing a service to the general public, it has its moments
Are people getting pushier and needier , or am I just getting older and grumpier ?
Thanks for the reply, and totally agree with you about qol, we both agreed that we are going to dial it back over the next few years, I have been really working hard for a long long time now . I said the same basic thing, Id give up some money to have a more peaceful existence,

yes... and yes.. :D

We are going to set base cabinets early next week prior to painting, for a template wednesday, or we can't get another appointment for 2 weeks.

I just got a customer text at 10:30 PM, response to a service visit 3 days ago confirming there was no problem.