[TheForge] Prices

[Andrew Vida]

GRAF wrote:

> Not at all. I am a bit selective as to who I do it for, but have created 
> several lucrative customers, losing money the first time.
> It is part of a strategy of course. While I have my foot in the door, I 
> chat them up and maybe show them a few things I've done.
> It works for me . In the end I do well enough.

	In the end, that is what counts.
>>
>>> That depends for me whether or not it is a "tuition piece".
>>
>>     I am not at all sure I would buy into this idea.  Work is work.
> Sometimes the work involves learning to do something new. That is where 
> the tuition comes in.

	For which customers are customarily charged.  A somewhat related 
example: I was to bid on a job for 2 bronze water tanks.  The job 
required TIG, so I threw in the purchase of a $9K welding outfit.  The 
customer had to pay for equipment needed in order to get what he wanted.

	Nevertheless, whatever works for you is OK.  The problem I see is that 
many (most?) smiths are operating in ways that do not work for them.  My 
nervous nellie partner was a prime example of this - his mindset was to 
pay the next set of bills only.  He could not see himself doing better 
than that.  I did what I could to show him another way but it never 
stuck.  The same was for an ex-girlfriend's father, a very capable 
machinist.  I worked for Stefan for several months in 97 for nothing 
more than the pleasure of being in the shop all day.  He too, underbid 
most jobs.  One day a job he really didn't want came in.  I told him to 
charge double or triple just to get the guy to leave.  The "guy" bit. 
Stefan was befuddled, but did the job.  Actually, *I* did the job. :) 
He didn't get the lesson and eventually went bust and sold off his 
machinery, including my baby - a Hardinge HLV-H lathe.

<big sigh>