cost of having a tank

[stribbelldk]

I had to goto the dentist today, what a way to spend Saturday morning, and they asked me if I wanted their fish. I am not into the community tank but I asked why. They have a company come in twice a month to maintain the tank, do water changes , tests, fill the auto-feeder, clean the glass....... BLAH BBLAH BLAH. All normal stuff when you have a tank. This is only a 55 gallon tank.

Their bill for this is $300 a month and does not include the food , fish, chemicals,or filter replacement parts. :shock:

Is that normal or is it extremely high??? Might be time to start a week end business.

If I found 20 tanks to clean every two weeks and charged $300 but included everything I could make an extra $6000 amonth minus supplies. So say $4000 take home. I could kill two birds with one stone, make money and feed the MTS!!! :smokey:

Derek

[T Dawg]

I had to goto the dentist today, what a way to spend Saturday morning, and they asked me if I wanted their fish. I am not into the community tank but I asked why. They have a company come in twice a month to maintain the tank, do water changes , tests, fill the auto-feeder, clean the glass....... BLAH BBLAH BLAH. All normal stuff when you have a tank. This is only a 55 gallon tank.

Their bill for this is $300 a month and does not include the food , fish, chemicals,or filter replacement parts. :shock:

Is that normal or is it extremely high??? Might be time to start a week end business.

If I found 20 tanks to clean every two weeks and charged $300 but included everything I could make an extra $6000 amonth minus supplies. So say $4000 take home. I could kill two birds with one stone, make money and feed the MTS!!! :smokey:

Derek

Labour, transportation, insurance(Don't underestimate the cost and need for liability insurance), random government BS (business license, WCB, etc), and add a book keeper a few hours a month and costs do add up, but the soak a dentist factor should not be under-rated.

Off the top, an hour a week @ $50, plus auto and travel so charge $75 to $100 for visit, 4 visits a month. So $300 seems reasonable, they must be billing less than $50 an hour, but as an example the $50 an hour get nibbled by above so probably netting $30 an hour, and not billing anywhere need a full 8 hours a day needing time to actualy run the bussiness and not being 100% booked by clients.

Someone is making an OK living, but not cleaning up metaphorically. Then there is the finding clients, and possible related costs. Doing one or two under the table totally different then going legit as with many business like office cleaning.

Edited May 23, 2009 by T Dawg

[Guest Master of Puppets]

Holy thats a crazy amount to pay.

[Medicdude]

I agree with all T Dawg's comments but think it's a little pricey considering they are only coming out twice a month. When I had my company it was $60 per hour on a weekly service and $75 for anything else. I did not charge travel but did charge a minimum 1 hour per visit. $150 per month plus supplies would be reasonable. Depending on the client though sometime's you have to add a PITA charge (PAIN IN THE *SS)

[stribbelldk]

P.I.T.A charge -roll-

I just found out that they dentist was also getting charged for fish. Everytime I went to the dentist there was different fish! The company that was "maintaining" the tank told the receptionist that the fish got too large for the tank and had to be switched out. The recectionist also states the she was told that all fish will continue to grow and would never stop. Hence the reason to switch out the fish.

I feel, in my opinion, that this company was just out to make some easy money from another company that knew diddly about fish other than they a pretty.

It is a shame that a very reputable company would do this. But they have lost my business.

Derek

[Medicdude]

Unfortunately there are companies out there in all industries that routinely take advantage of people like that.

[T Dawg]

Unfortunately there are companies out there in all industries that routinely take advantage of people like that.

Rotate the fins, align the eyes, monthly colonoscopy....

[RTG_Gerry]

Dentists make a bloody fortune. It's a service and they're paying for it, just like you pay through the nose for their services. I'm happy for the guy who can make a go of tank maintenance. Why would you want to do it for nothing or next to nothing, especially for a guy who is probably making a quarter of a million bucks a year?

[stribbelldk]

Dentists make a bloody fortune. It's a service and they're paying for it, just like you pay through the nose for their services. I'm happy for the guy who can make a go of tank maintenance. Why would you want to do it for nothing or next to nothing, especially for a guy who is probably making a quarter of a million bucks a year?

That being said, should a gas station jump the price of gas because the see someone who is driving a big rig???

Dentist go to school for 7 years to make that big bucks. They deserve it. Why does the grade 12 drop out deserve to make $70- $80k as a labouror in the patch??

Just because some one makes a large amount of money or has a nice house or fancy cars does not mean that a business has the right to soak them for services.

Derek

[RTG_Gerry]

Dentists make a bloody fortune. It's a service and they're paying for it, just like you pay through the nose for their services. I'm happy for the guy who can make a go of tank maintenance. Why would you want to do it for nothing or next to nothing, especially for a guy who is probably making a quarter of a million bucks a year?

That being said, should a gas station jump the price of gas because the see someone who is driving a big rig???

Dentist go to school for 7 years to make that big bucks. They deserve it. Why does the grade 12 drop out deserve to make $70- $80k as a labouror in the patch??

Just because some one makes a large amount of money or has a nice house or fancy cars does not mean that a business has the right to soak them for services.

Derek

Guys who bolt cars together make 100K a year. Lawyers who charge upwards of $250 an hour. Psychologists, who go to school for at least 7 years, make 65K. Policemen and firefighters, who put their lives on the line, might end up making 60K. There's just no making sense of it sometimes.

If I'm being hired to perform a professional service, I'll expect to be able to factor in the costs like T Dawg mentioned in his post. I certainly am not going to take up my time to clean a dentist's fish tank for minimum wage and he sure as heck is gong to pay my travel time. These sorts of costs are factored into all sorts of contract/service work. While you may not need a dentist degree to clean a fish tank, it does take knowledge and equipment.

I know a guy who does maintenance on a salt tank in a dentist's office as well as a 75 gallon freshie tank in a lawyers office locally. He charges MORE than $300 per month for each office. He is on call with his service. He does it part time because no one makes a living cleaning fish tanks. Just not enough business. Why give it away?

[Medicdude]

I agree Derek, morals and ethics come into play when making these decisions. As I said in my earlier post $60 - $75 per hour is reasonable and there are plenty of people making a living doing Aquarium Maintenance. In fact some stores started out doing maintenance only.

Edited May 27, 2009 by Medicdude

[stribbelldk]

I agree Derek, morals and ethics come into play when making these decisions. As I said in my earlier post $60 - $75 per hour is reasonable and there are plenty of people making a living doing Aquarium Maintenance. In fact some stores started out doing maintenance only.

Thanks Chris,

I would rather do 20 tanks at $75-$100 plus expenses than do 2 tanks at $300.

Custumer satisfaction and word of mouth travel fast. It can either build your business or ruin it in a matter of a few months.

I know Chris could have set up hundred of tanks and shown the business how to look after it. But for $75 buck I would rather have some one else do it for me. At $300m, I would learn, and fast.

Derek

[firestorm]

I service aquariums for a living and I make better money than any other job I have ever had. And no I am not a high school drop out either. I had my kids quite young and had to make sacrifices, so not all people who do it for a living are idiots. I do it because I enjoy it, heck I get to travel around all day rather than sitting at a desk in front of a computer screen, or hearing people complain about this and that. At least fish don't talk back lol. My boss has a great business going with it, enough to hire 2 employees and have free time for him to do the little details of it all. Mind you he does have over 100 clients, but he does make a living from it. You don't have to be rich to be happy, as long as you enjoy what you do and you earn enough to live off that should be a good enough reason

My boss charges clients differently. For marine it costs more because we service them every week, but freshwater we only do every 2 weeks. All of it includes food and any extras except fish. If a client wants more fish we will supply them but the client does have to pay for them. Imagine a client getting marine fish for free, that would be a huge expense that not even servicing charges would cover. I don't think his rates are quite that high though. Some clients pay for every visit and some every month. The ones that pay for every visit can lose out in the long run if we have to go there for any emergency calls or anything because they then are expected to pay for us going there. You have to realize that if the guy that services that tank has people working for him as well, he also has to pay those workers for doing the work, plus additional expenses like an accountant or book keeper, and he pays separately each month for our mileage. I can understand why they are frusterated with forking out that kind of money every month, but they are the ones who decided to have someone else come in to clean it rather than doing it themselves.

Edited May 28, 2009 by firestorm

[firestorm]

P.I.T.A charge -roll-

I just found out that they dentist was also getting charged for fish. Everytime I went to the dentist there was different fish! The company that was "maintaining" the tank told the receptionist that the fish got too large for the tank and had to be switched out. The recectionist also states the she was told that all fish will continue to grow and would never stop. Hence the reason to switch out the fish.

I feel, in my opinion, that this company was just out to make some easy money from another company that knew diddly about fish other than they a pretty.

It is a shame that a very reputable company would do this. But they have lost my business.

Derek

I completely disagree with what that company was doing. The only time we get a client new fish or switch fish out is if 1. they no longer want that specific fish, 2. fish die, 3.OR if that specific fish does actually get too large for the tank. I have a client that bought their own fish, it's only a small maybe 30 gallons at most. They have a fish that will grow to about a foot long, but he is still a baby and we have warned them once he gets too big he will have to be moved. I have never heard of a company actually switching the fish all the time for that reason. That is pretty pathetic.

[T Dawg]

Just because some one makes a large amount of money or has a nice house or fancy cars does not mean that a business has the right to soak them for services.

True, but you may sleep better at night having charged them more. I joke about the soak the dentist factor because they do tend to over pay, and like it. Some dentists are high demand and high toy factor, as their business is competing for clients. As with all generalizations, it is frequently wrong, don't flame me.

I can only talk about my own ethical choices. When I ran a computer consulting company all clients did not pay the same rate. I had a quoted rate. I then had discounted rates on a variety of factors. At the end of the day a dentist and a few an oil and gas clients were at my highest rate. Who got discounts? The charities I worked with, the clients that book regular service, the clients that agreed to accelerated payment terms, clients who were less demanding, the clients that gave me referrals, the groups that I felt needed a boost. Between my lowest and highest rate was the mean number I needed charge to make the factors I mentioned before work.

In the case of my dentist client, he was a great guy and he knew he was paying more and why. He was friends with a few of my other clients and we joked a few times about the soak the dentist factor. At the end of the day he wanted me at his beck and call 24/7. He may not have needed that, but he felt he did and paid more to have it.

In your example, I might say the guy in the fancy car may choose to pay more for mid grade rather than wait in-line for bronze at the pump, and when I was pumping gas I would probably go up to the car and say it’s only x more if you want to try a tank of the good stuff.

I know no specifics here, but it sounds like this dentist could shop for another service group. We need to factor in at some point no matter how shady we may view the situation from our view from the distance, at some point for some reason both parties entered in to it.

For many larger firms the time needed to lower costs is more costly than the savings so they more along at the higher rates. They can also afford to put more weight into “soft” factors over teh bottom line.