Quoted from Zampinator:

Ron is one of our State Treasures! Great guy, with an unbelievable talent!
Ron,
Here's some advice from a guy that has owned his own business since (several along the way)he was 19.
1) you need an apprentice. Someone who is young, & can do the grunt work for an honest hourly wage, that is also interested in learning from "The Best". Your wasting your time building pallets & the such, you mentioned that, & your right. Your only making $ when your working on playfields.
2) You have to charge more. That's one of the reasons your so backed up. You want the customers who are willing to Pay for "The Best". The rest can go to the "other guys" & that's ok.
Just my $.02 take it or leave it.

Quoted from Zampinator:

Yes. But time = $
The auto body gets to charge for time plus material, why can't Ron?
One of my drivers this past winter bumped a Honda Accord in the rear bumper.
It cost me $910!
1) bumper skin $198
2) The rest was mostly labor (priming, painting, clear coat) $712
Seems like a pretty similar process.

Quoted from chessiv:

Absolutely nothing against you snaroff but Ron really shouldn't be taking $700 jobs with the work he does. Some math:
He can only do X playfields a year. Let's say x=30.
Current model:
Lets say his average price to restore a playfield is $700
30x700=21k a year
not including expenses
He also has a long backlog of customers and has to stop taking business because of it.
My suggestion:
Don't repair a playfield for less than $1100
30x1100=33k a year
Lower number of customers willing to spend but increased profits and quicker turn around time.
This doesn't take into consideration pure clear coat jobs.
33k still isn't a lot but it's a 63.3% increase in income and probably happier customers given turn around time. Sure he'll lose customers but I would bet he still has enough customers willing to pay that rate for a top notch job.