We’re Talking Dollars, Not Hours: Labor Hours Greenville NC

Labor hours or units are like Vegas gambling chips: They're easier to throw away than actual dollars. Retraining our brains to think of these hours as dollars, though, will lead to greater profitability

By Lee Amaradio Jr
11/1/2007

I’ve learned many things over the years, and one of them is that I’m a poor gambler. Because of that, I don’t gamble. But Las Vegas has a unique way of separating a man from his money, and one of those ways is to take your dollars and give you chips. Why chips? Because someone figured out a long time ago that we’re more likely to throw down a chip than our money. We understand dollars, but we don’t understand chips because we don’t immediately associate them with our hardearned dollars.

So, it’s much easier for someone to part with a $100 casino chip than a $100 bill. And it’s much the same way with collision repairers when we discuss labor hours or units with insurance adjusters. We allow them to cut .5 here and there without realizing that every .5 they take costs us $20 or more. Try this the next time you allow someone to cut your labor time: For every half hour you give back, take a $20 bill and light it on fire. This is exactly what you’re doing, because every half hour you give back is money you’re throwing away.

Retrain Your Brain
We need to retrain our brains to think in terms of dollars, not hours, because it’s that sort of thinking that will...