How do you pay yourself? Accounting tips?

[BannerJohn 1,324]

The quote was for about $100k liability. I was only able to actually get one company to give me a quote, because they said that the type of stuff that I was doing was high risk. Every company that I talked to pretty much told me NO as soon as I told them what kind of business I had.

maybe I'm missing something but what is high risk about installing lights on police cars,fire trucks,etc...you don't do it while they are moving.

[bk2design 1]

but what if the lights don't work for some reason while they are going through an intersection

[Dellrose Custom Lighting 0]

Mainly because of our law suit happy society. They said that if just one light was to fail while running emergency traffic enroute on a call and the vehicle was involved in an accident, they could come on me, as the installer, and say that I did not install it properly or some other kind of BS.

[rebjr 0]

FiveStar..

I hang out at a local computer shop, and do contract work for him when he needs the help. You are close to his charges. He is at $55.00 an hour for in shop labor, and $70.00 an hour for on-site labor. Additional charges apply for mileage outside the local area, nights, and weekends.

I rented an office space from him and that is where I have set-up my 33rd attempt at a career. I enjoy computer diagnostics, bnringing them back to life, making them purr, but my experience and heart has always been in graphics. I specialized in corporate logo recreation so that it could be used in other medias besides business cards. So, now I got the best of both worlds.

D-rose,

Been there, seen it, done it. The best you can do is keep charging full bore ahead and try to get enough business to be able to afford the insurance. Or .... choose a different enterprise. I had a display in a mall once, simply a glass case, no doors, no windows, and I ended up losing a ton of money when the mall decided to force me to get a million dollar insurance policy. They said that somebody might trip walking over to see my display. I argued that the floor space belonged to the mall, not to me, and that if somebody tripped on the floor space that it was the mall's problem. Long story short, they wrote the book, so I lost. Or they did, nobody rented that display after I dropped it. They sued me for breaking the lease, at least I won that, as insurance was not required in the initial lease.

[Dellrose Custom Lighting 0]

but what if the lights don't work for some reason while they are going through an intersection

Exactly!!

[Dellrose Custom Lighting 0]

FiveStar..

I hang out at a local computer shop, and do contract work for him when he needs the help. You are close to his charges. He is at $55.00 an hour for in shop labor, and $70.00 an hour for on-site labor. Additional charges apply for mileage outside the local area, nights, and weekends.

I rented an office space from him and that is where I have set-up my 33rd attempt at a career. I enjoy computer diagnostics, bnringing them back to life, making them purr, but my experience and heart has always been in graphics. I specialized in corporate logo recreation so that it could be used in other medias besides business cards. So, now I got the best of both worlds.

D-rose,

Been there, seen it, done it. The best you can do is keep charging full bore ahead and try to get enough business to be able to afford the insurance. Or .... choose a different enterprise. I had a display in a mall once, simply a glass case, no doors, no windows, and I ended up losing a ton of money when the mall decided to force me to get a million dollar insurance policy. They said that somebody might trip walking over to see my display. I argued that the floor space belonged to the mall, not to me, and that if somebody tripped on the floor space that it was the mall's problem. Long story short, they wrote the book, so I lost. Or they did, nobody rented that display after I dropped it. They sued me for breaking the lease, at least I won that, as insurance was not required in the initial lease.

Dont worry, I havent given up hope yet. Installing lights and sirens is one favorite pass times. I have had 'em on my last 4 vehicles and it dont stay the same for a very long period of time.