I had planned on easing into my electrician business ever since I got my license. The few jobs I have done I treated like that was my only job since it would be easy to leave off some overhead/profit/cost etc. when not relying on the trade for a living. I Planned on seeing how it went before I jumped all the way in. Now, I don't have a choice. I was "downsized" from my job of 24yrs today so I suppose I am all in. I don't think I'm young enough to learn something entirely different, besides I like doing electrical work. Just need to learn how to go at it full bore.
well, looks like your source of work has been altered.
now, instead of wondering if your shop is doing well enough to be able to
keep paying you, you can wonder the same thing about your customers.
the 80/20 rule is one to keep in mind... 80% of your income will come from
20% of your customers.....
the part that is important to keep in mind is that those twenty percenters
usually come from a referral....... from an eighty percenter..... :-/
so, every customer is your most valuable customer, until they prove
otherwise, which usually doesn't take all that long... ;-)
it is also ethically and morally wrong to work for people who don't have
the money to pay you.
a "bad day" is showing up with $10k worth of material, and a signed
contract, and finding out that the general contractor who is controlling
the money flow hasn't paid a sub in 90 days, 'cause one of them is
in the parking lot screaming at him.
or googling a general contractor, to get their street address to send
contract documents to them, and seeing under the reviews stuff like
this:
"★☆☆☆☆
More fan mail
Jack K.
Too funny. I'm looking around the Internet trying to find out more about this company. They haven't paid us for work we did almost 2 years ago. They won't return calls. Phil won't ever take a call. Phil won't respond to emails. Sounds like I found my answer! "
good luck, don't forget your preliminary notices, and especially when you are
first getting the training wheels off, don't take any job you can't afford to
walk away from unpaid....