Business question....state of massachusetts.

Status
Not open for further replies.

pmoney44

Member
Location
MASSACHUSETTS
Good evening, my issue here is I am trying to live the American dream and start my own business as a master electrician. I am currently employed full time for a company. I am employed by them as an electrician. I am afraid of all of a sudden jumping into the business world. Having a wife...house and two small children. I currently do a lot of work on the side..after hours...weekends.. I want start to advertise with a different name that is on my license. As I know you have to change your name legally through the state with certificate. Now if I change my name legally does that mean that the license I use currently for my full time company have to be my new name? If this is true I think my company wouldn't appreciate it if I was employed by them and them paying for all my renewals and cont. Ed with my business as the license I have to use. Any suggestions?? Where I can try to build my business and stay employed??? I hope this makes sense and I could get a few responses and some help.let me know if anything confuses and I will try to make sense. Thanks in advance.
 

John120/240

Senior Member
Location
Olathe, Kansas
Are you the sole "License Holder" for your current company ? If so YES your current company will have a lot to say.
If you are the "License Holder" you should be a partner in the company & share in the profits.

You can be an A+ cracker jack super electrician, but how are your business skills ? Do you have any experience in bidding jobs ? Will you take out a SBA loan or will you finance the first three months with your own cash ? The list of questions is endless..... Others will chime in...Best of Luck
 

Fulthrotl

~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
Good evening, my issue here is I am trying to live the American dream and start my own business as a master electrician. I am currently employed full time for a company. I am employed by them as an electrician. I am afraid of all of a sudden jumping into the business world. Having a wife...house and two small children. I currently do a lot of work on the side..after hours...weekends.. I want start to advertise with a different name that is on my license. As I know you have to change your name legally through the state with certificate. Now if I change my name legally does that mean that the license I use currently for my full time company have to be my new name? If this is true I think my company wouldn't appreciate it if I was employed by them and them paying for all my renewals and cont. Ed with my business as the license I have to use. Any suggestions?? Where I can try to build my business and stay employed??? I hope this makes sense and I could get a few responses and some help.let me know if anything confuses and I will try to make sense. Thanks in advance.

a generic response here.... honesty is the best policy.

if you traded places with your employer, how would YOU
feel about this? your employer might have one reaction to
you doing small stuff on the side, and quite another if you
are advertising, and doing the entire nine yards.

is the work you are contemplating stuff that is in his scope
of work that he goes for?

if you are considering changing your name to prevent him
from finding out what you are doing, that's a stall horn in
the cockpit to me.

he finds out that is your strategy, i give you odds that you
won't have to worry about the conflict of interest after the
next pay cycle.
 

69gp

Senior Member
Location
MA
Everything you need to know about licencing for a business is in the MA code amendments. Basically if you only have a journeyman license you cannot hire another journeyman you can only hire an apprentice . You cannot have a company name associated with this type of license. If your name was John Smith then all advertisement letterhead and wording on vehicles would need to be listed as follows. (John Smith Electrician).

In MA a masters license allows you to hire journeyman. When you first get your masters it is issued to you in your name. If you want to do work under a different name then you need to form a legal business and file all the paperwork with the state board, you must be listed as an officer in the corporation. They meet once a month to review all applications if everything is in order they will issue you a licence in the name that you requested. When the new licence is issued it will now have the new company name on it such as (JS Electrical contractor) your name would be listed right below the company name.

Good luck it's a lot of work. Filing taxes, workers comp, general liability. Running a legit business is a lot more work then doing side work after your regular job.
 

mkgrady

Senior Member
Location
Massachusetts
It sounds like you are a licensed electrician working for a licensed electrical company where the owner or some partner holds a masters license. The fact that you are also a master electrician means you can hire electricians to work for you. You don't have to change anything about your masters license. When you received the ML you indicated a name for a business such as John Smith Electrical. You can take that name as your business name and start working as that business. If you choose a different name for your business you will have to re-apply and transfer your license to a new company such as Smith Electrical Services, Inc.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top