The Household Chronicle

Practical guidance, without the sales pitch.

A corner of the house

Business & Trade

Practical guidance, without the sales pitch.

18 pieces gathered here

  1. A tape measure, a flat carpenter's pencil and a clipboard resting on the hood of a pickup truck
    Clauses That Earn Their Space: The Estimate Wording That Decides Who Pays for ChangeAn estimate is usually treated as a price. It is also the document that settles every later argument about scope, and a few sentences do nearly all of that work.
  2. A whiteboard eraser and a dry-erase marker resting on the ledge beneath a blank whiteboard in a shop office
    Busy, Booked, and Guessing: What a Shop Loses by Not Knowing Its Break-Even WeekA shop that cannot say what it has to bill in a week to cover its costs is making every other decision without the one number they all depend on.
  3. A ten-key adding machine on a desk beside a metal spike file holding paper slips
    Has a Price List Stopped Working? The Month It Happens Looks Like ThisSet out as questions a bookkeeper is asked and answered here in the publication’s own voice, since no individual was interviewed and nothing is quoted.
  4. Two pairs of worn work boots and a set of knee pads on the tailgate of a pickup beside a cordless drill
    When Does Bringing On a Helper Stop Being a Decision You Get to Make?Most one person shops start with a helper paid as a subcontractor, and most of them never check whether the arrangement they chose is the one that applies.
  5. A job trailer desk with a hard hat, a rolled set of drawings and a two-way radio resting on it
    Offered Work on Sixty Day Terms? The Questions to Ask Before You AcceptA large customer offering long terms is offering a loan arrangement in which you are the lender, and the price of the work has to reflect that or it is a loss.
  6. Switching to an LLC in June: The Accounts and Records It Quietly TouchesForming the entity takes an afternoon. Moving a working business into it partway through a year touches more accounts than anyone warns you about.
  7. A clipboard and a pen resting on the passenger seat of a work van beside a folded high-visibility vest
    First Employee Starting Monday? The Paperwork That Has to Exist Before They ArriveHiring the first person converts a business into an employer, and several of the obligations that come with that have deadlines measured in days.
  8. A work truck parked at a curb in early morning with extension ladders racked on the roof and a wheelbarrow leaning against the tailgate
    A Full Schedule and a Full Account: Why Spring Is the Wrong Time to RelaxSpring arrives with deposits, a booked calendar and the best balance of the year so far, and almost none of that money is as available as it looks.
  9. A wall-mounted workshop telephone on its hook above a bench, with a closed spiral notebook and a pen on the bench below
    Raising Your Rates on Customers You Like: Sequence, Wording, and Who Actually LeavesThe hard part of a price increase is never the arithmetic. It is telling the people who have been loyal, in an order and a form that does not cost you them.
  10. An open metal cash box on a desk with a rubber-banded stack of paper receipts and a bank deposit bag beside it
    Profitable on Paper? Where the Money Actually Went in a Month That Left You ShortA month can close with real profit on the report and less money in the account than it started with, and nothing has gone wrong. They measure different things.
  11. A pickup truck bed with the tailgate down, loaded with a portable compressor, coiled extension cords and a steel job box
    The Line Items That Fall Out of a Quote: Where the Cost Actually LandsNothing on a quote is wrong. The trouble is what is missing from it, and every missing item is paid by somebody, generally the person who wrote the quote.
  12. A row of open tool bags and gang boxes staged on a concrete shop floor at the start of a shift, with a hand truck beside them
    The First Ninety Days on a Crew: What Decides Whether a New Hire StaysWhat follows is assembled from how small crews actually run rather than from any one person, because nobody was interviewed and nothing here is a quotation.
  13. An empty locker room bench in a work building with folded leather work gloves and a hard hat resting on it
    The Ninety Day Trial Period: What It Protects and What Employers Wrongly Assume It DoesA probation period is widely treated as a legal shield around the first three months. It is mostly a calendar, and the protection it seems to add already existed.
  14. A cork board on a workshop wall with a clipboard hanging from a nail and a pen dangling on a string beside it
    A Job Ad Works Better When It Talks the Wrong Applicants Out of ApplyingAn ad pulling sixty applications is not outperforming one that pulls eight. It has moved the sorting problem onto the person who has the least time for it.
  15. An open metal filing cabinet drawer packed tight with unlabeled hanging folders, one pulled slightly forward
    The Business Structure Argument: Why the Difference You Feel Every Month Is AdministrativeThe differences that get argued about online are tax differences. The differences an owner actually notices are administrative, and they turn up every month.
  16. A pocket calculator and a sharpened pencil resting on a stack of blank index cards on a scarred wooden workbench
    Quoting by the Hour? What That Hour Has to Cover Before Anyone Gets PaidA rate is what gets charged. The cost is what the hour has to carry first, and most people who price by the hour have never worked the second number out.
  17. A wall calendar hanging in a workshop, turned to a winter month, with a checkbook and a pen on the bench below it
    A Good Fourth Quarter Can Still Leave the Operating Account Thin by Late JanuaryA strong fall does not become spendable money until well after the year turns, and the bills waiting on the far side do not care that the work was profitable.
  18. A stack of prehung interior doors leaning against a bare wall in an empty room, a pneumatic nailer and a coiled air hose on the floor beside them
    Hourly, Fixed Price, or Day Rate: Who Absorbs the Week a Job Runs LongThree quotes for the same work are rarely three prices. They are three offers to carry the same risk, and the difference shows up in the week nobody estimated.