Fine line between profitable and greedy

I need some suggestions and advice from you guys. My mother in law works at a medium/large sized real estate office. Every year they hold an ewaste collection event on earth day. For those who haven't seen my other posts, I recently took the next step and formed myself an llc. When I mentioned this to the mil she told me about the event and asked if I wanted to host it. Of course, I said hells yeah. Lol. She talked to her work and they approved me as the provider for this year's event. Now, the best part is her company promotes it as a free event to the public. However, they pay the company that handles the event, in this case, me. And the best part is its on a per piece basis. So at least it's a little easier to estimate cost that way rather than a bundle for the whole thing. They're looking for me to give them an accept/non-accept list with prices by Feb 1st.

Now, where my dilemma lies is, obviously tvs are a loser so those will get charged for no matter what. But most anything else is a money maker once broken down. Do I charge a small amount on all other items, or take them all for free? I don't wanna be greedy and charge an extra 2 dollars on a computer that's gonna make me 5 or 10 bucks already, but when someone offers to do something free, it raises flags cause nobody does anything free. Lol.

My rough costs on properly disposing the crt tvs is .20/lb whole or .10/lb bare tube. I'm going to process as many as I can and take a few here and there to best buy but most will probably end up being paid for. I figure I'll charge 5 dollars for monitors, 10 for tvs under 32", 25 for over 32", and 40 for consoles and projectors.

Lcd's etc will cost about .15/lb whole and .25/lb if I steal the boards. So I figure 10 dollars under 40", 20 for bigger.

As for everything else I'm not sure what to do. I appreciate any input and advice. Especially from those that have done "free" paid events in the past.

i know how u feel

i used to get free stuff from some stores but it seems they realised that im making more money from ewaste than from just selling to the scrapyard, so they stopped giving me stuff

i think they dont know what to do with it themselves but theyre holding on to it in case they do work out where/how to sell it.

my advice- charge a dollar per item for everything beside TVs
and for the TVs/CRT monitors- it seems u have already worked out prices yourself


maybe other have different/better advice.

Best thing may be to ask them to see what the last company charged, since you are new at it and you don't want to charge them more.

First, figure out your event costs. You'll have fuel and time no matter what. Figure out an hourly wage for yourself, and the costs to host the drive (Fuel, advertising, and promotional items for example). That's what you should charge. Never assume that an event will bring in anything. You know it will, but it's impossible to guess how much or what. The host should pay the costs to hold the event, so if nothing comes in, you've broken even (Including your time- a 6 hour drive at $10/Hour is $60 right there).

It's not greedy to be paid for the cost of hosting the event. There was an outfit in Montana that wanted $15,000 to hold an event down here. I hosted that event, and charged them about $200 to do it (A lot of which was fuel). Asking for a large sum like they did is greedy, but covering expenses is worthwhile.

Now, don't charge for computers. TVs and CRTs- Yes, if you want to take them. Computers- don't. You'll have a lot more come in if there is free recycling.

I would not go cheaper than $10 a piece on monitors or tvs. Second of all charge a fee for the computers if your that worried about charge $3-5 per computer. You may be making that $5-10 in scrap but that is not enough considering you are expending money doing the event, breaking the computer down as well processing it to the final destination. You are looking at it from a break down aspect only. The same goes for the tvs they are heavy bulky and take much space up. They cost you money in regards to disposal and wasted space in your trailer that space comes at a premium and should be profited upon.

Thanks for the input so far guys. I had asked her to find out what they paid last year a couple weeks ago. She hadn't gotten back to me yet when I first posted this which is why I turned to you guys with Feb 1st coming fast. She actually just today got the details from last year. After getting a copy of the flyer from last year, whoever did the event was strictly a computer recycler. Collecting for free with the exception of monitors for 5 to 8 bucks each depending in size. Easy to do it for free when you only accept the good stuff. Lol. They also paid for light bulbs and document shredding service. Neither of which interests me. So now I'm back at square one. Gotta revamp my list. She did say they're willing to pay up to 5 bucks per item so I can probably get away with still accepting monitors. At 10 cents a pound disposal, that's 50 pounds a piece to break even. I think I'll send them 2 or 3 different pay schedules to choose from and see what they say. Ie, pay for tvs, everything else free/no tvs small fee for all other items/smaller fees for all items, customer can pay to drop tvs. And see what they say.

There are a couple ways you can do it, I know the issue of "Taking things for free makes other people think you are up to something...etc"
And then there is the catch of being paid for stuff or certain stuff or people accusing you of making them pay for something to be moved that your making money off anyway.

charge a fee, cover your overheads and let the people know that for every dollar, 1/2 will go to disposal the other half goes to a charity of the organizations choice. Dunno how it works out there in the states, but people will let the money flow if they also get a "feel good" motion out of it as well. Just a thought. This template can be worked many ways.

I'd charge $ for the CRT's, but everything else would be free.
Everyone knows it costs money to get rid of CRT's.

Its not a 'free' event if you charge for it. As 'free', people will bring in more stuff. = more $.
I hate the whole 'nickel & dime' thing.

People think this donations going to feed 'starving people in Africa'. But if they get charged, they think someone here is going to make the $ and the escraps going to be dumped somewhere in Africa and scrapped in third world style by kids over a smokey plastic fueled fire and contaminating the local water supply with heavy metals.

Yeah, charge for the CRT's.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mike1286

Now, the best part is her company promotes it as a free event to the public. However, they pay the company that handles the event, in this case, me. And the best part is its on a per piece basis.

---

I believe he said that the company he is doing it for is paying him and it's free for everyone that brings the items in to him. Correct me if I am wrong Mike

I just wanted to point this out to everyone thinking that the people dropping the materials off have to pay to do so.

That is correct. The host will be paying me if at all, not the public. At least that's how I see them wanting to keep it. So I have 3 models in my head.

1 - free for everyone, no tv's

2 - free to public, company pays for tvs only. Everything else is free. (I will let the company know that "free tv drop off" will be a big bulky free for all pile of tvs. Aka, big bill at the end of the event. Lol.

3 - free to company. All items except tvs free to the public. Can drop off a tv for a fee. Fees based off my disposal cost. You can only drop so many tvs off at best buy before they get suspicious. Lol.

I think #3.

Because if you do #2 every scrapper and his dog and puppy's will find every CRT within 100miles and scrap them and you will end up with a huge pile of CRT glass and plastic casings.
I'm picturing a trailer filled with CRT glass and a pile of plastic casings on top of it, separated!
No boards at all......

With #3, the Real estate company pays for signage, yard costs and everything else you can think of.
Even a BBQ and bread and sausages......

But nobody pays to get rid of computers or such (what about washing MC's and driers, people think its 'escrap', its got a plug on it, it runs off electricity?)
You get to send all the CRT's away to (?) In a shipping container (real estate pays for shipping container) directly from the escrap site.

You get to take all the rest of the escrap home and scrap of down and sell it and keep the profit you earned by spending the time scrapping it all down, and your knowledge to do so.

Maybe the Realestate company pays you to get rid of the plastic too, or the costs of getting rid of the plastic.

Have fun, I can see some 14 hour workdays coming soon.... And a very nice and neat and large cheque.

Apply some business sense to this project, fist off the real estate company is probably promoting this green event by advertising, along with a drop off site all of which cost the company money. which by the way is tax deductible.

And here you are the FREEMAN, by not charging for this event your throwing a stick into the wheel that makes the American Dream work. Instead of charging per item I would suggest charging so much per hundred weight material collected.

I would ask that my LLC be included on all advertising sent out, also you may later reap some financial benefit via a finders fee for recommending to one of your e-waste customers who are looking to sell their home or business to use so and so as their realtor. It;s called a finders fee, back in my day it amounted to 10%

The largest finders fee I ever received was $3500.00.

When a small pebble is tossed into a pond many ripples radiate from its centre of impact.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hS-N9E8ctY

Charge on the CRT items and have a check written out for that. On the other material figure out a cost per item and then donate it back to them to give to a charity of their choice. Not only will you look good to the MIL but they will promote you to everyone else . Great way to start a business network.

I'd be handing out fridge magnets of your business card to everyone that makes a drop. Or at lest a small flyer that explains the free part of your service. What you do and don't take People like free. And I agree have fun make some money

Thanks for all the advice guys. After reading and thinking and reading and thinking some more, I think I'm going to try to avoid the tvs all together. I have a meeting with the host to discuss the terms on wednesday. I'm going to push the "free for all" model with one exception. I'm going to ask for a flat fee to hold the event and see what they think. Right now the only equipment I have is myself and my truck so I'll have to rent a trailer or two to haul everything. If I accept tvs, I'll probably have to rent 5+ lol. And since earth day is a Friday and most people work fridays, a 2 day gig will probably be the best bet. Friday to saturday. I figure 150 or 200 a day to cover gas and rental fees would be fair. I will definitely have business cards and flyers ready for handing out to stir up future business. I will definitely post back here and let you guys know how everything goes as it progresses. I'm so nervous and excited I don't even have words to describe it. But you gotta start somewhere. Fingers crossed, this will be my big start to a long and prosperous business venture.

Had my meeting earlier today. I'm officially holding the event overy 2 days. I gave a flat quote of 200/day without tvs, 400/day with. If tvs are accepted, it will be customer pays a fee. The host needs to hold a meeting with the full committee to decide which way they want to go as I only talked to the office manager by herself. But she seemed sold on the tv model. So, hopefully not too too many tvs show up and I get a decent amount of good stuff. But even if they do, the fees should cover my disposal cost. And even if nobody shows up, I'll still have a decent payday.

Also while there, I offered an ongoing business relationship if they ever have computers or copy machines etc that need recycling. Told them that business pickup will be free of charge. And I will also be making flyers for them to hand out to clients all year for stuff they don't want to move out or stuff left behind by previous owners when buying/selling a house.

So far I think I've set a nice solid foundation for what will hopefully be a large network of customers. And as long as all goes well with the event, it will be my flagship that I can use to show other business what I can do for them if they want to hold an event.

I did a microwave install for a guy a few weeks ago and he had his tile recently replaced. He told me his tile guy would drive to the job in a beat down old civic. Then one day his tile guy showed up in a big fancy truck, he said I don't want people to know I make a killing at tile work. He mentioned this to me because I came to install his microwave in my beat up ford probe. The hatch back and missing seats make it functional. But I never have to worry about people seeing that I'm making a fortune off of their junk.