Anyone interested in givng advice for failing EC

[Palmbay]

I am not hitting the mark to stay in business. I know my costs, I attempt to pay myself. I can not get awarded projects that hit my costs. I am usually 10% to 35% off winning bidders. If I hit those marks I would not get paid, and eventually go out of business. I get calls everyday for electricians looking for work, so I know getting a job would be tight, probably have to relocate.

I have been active in some peer groups, and have been getting more leads from that, but the leads amount to, your price is too high XXX will do it for this, and XXX gets the work.

Would anyone seasoned like to chat privately, or offer some mentoring. I would appreciate it. Being competitive is important to me. It is hard to find an unbiased point of view from someone in this position, to get advice, for that matter one that will offer it.

I have taken alot of great information from this forum.

Thank you to all that contribute.

 

[Rewire]

Sometimes when you come up against a wall the best thing to do is turn left.

 

[bradleyelectric]

what type work are you bidding? What size company (number of employees) are you? How long have you been in business? These answers may give information needed to determine who may be qualified to give apporpriate guidance.

 

[bphgravity]

There are litterally hundreds of EC's going belly-up in Florida during this construction slow-down (stop). So you are not alone, though I am sure that doesn't make you feel any better.

My suggestion is to re-tool yourself, and I don't mean handtools. Now is the time to get some new training and education so that you may expand into new areas or go into new ventures you may have not ever thought about doing before.

You may need to give up on bidding projects or going for new construction work all together. There is way too much competetion and its cut-throat. Look into the foreclosure market. Get with realtors, insurance companies, and banks. Go to HO associations, gated communities, high-rise business offices. Look into maintenance contracts and inspection services. Get with a similair sized HARV/HVAC and Plumbing Contractor to go into bids together as a package deal.

Just some ideas.

Good luck!

 

[charlietuna]

My favorite saying to these people with unrealistic prices was " i can leave my truck in the driveway and break even" ! Understand, things are tough right now, people will work for nothing--these people will be gone in three months. Spend your time on home jobs that don't cost a lot of money, but will leave you alone in three months when you are busy!!! Or jobs in your shop to make you more competitive in the future--get thin--IE: buy only what you have to and ride this bad economy out. It will turn around and you will make bigger profits which will make up for this time. Don't just sit idle and waste this time--stay busy!!!

 

[Palmbay]

what type work are you bidding? What size company (number of employees) are you? How long have you been in business? These answers may give information needed to determine who may be qualified to give apporpriate guidance.

Currently only getting requests for residential renovations and high end new construction. Very small stuff like how much to move my florecent light into my laundry room, to 15000 sq ft new homes. April 2004 established. Currently 2 employees including myself.

From what I gather from looking at other EC bids, they are only paying there guys $10 per hour and not marking up materials. At that rate, I figure I need to have 10 employees to cover my salary and some office help to turn a profit. That kind of employee is not what I want to be chasing all day and fixing and baby sitting.

I hope I am missing something obvious.

Thank you for replys

 

[Palmbay]

There are litterally hundreds of EC's going belly-up in Florida during this construction slow-down (stop). So you are not alone, though I am sure that doesn't make you feel any better.

My suggestion is to re-tool yourself, and I don't mean handtools. Now is the time to get some new training and education so that you may expand into new areas or go into new ventures you may have not ever thought about doing before.

You may need to give up on bidding projects or going for new construction work all together. There is way too much competetion and its cut-throat. Look into the foreclosure market. Get with realtors, insurance companies, and banks. Go to HO associations, gated communities, high-rise business offices. Look into maintenance contracts and inspection services. Get with a similair sized HARV/HVAC and Plumbing Contractor to go into bids together as a package deal.

Just some ideas.

Good luck!

Good stuff

I have been focusing on education and mind expansion.

I like the similar sized business partnerships idea.

 

[aline]

My neighbor started selling life insurance.

He has no work and many of the general contractors he was working for went bankrupt without paying him. He had a lot of general contractors that would take 60 to 90 days or more to pay. Now he has no chance of seeing the money.

Right now I'm doing some industrial control work.
Building machines panels and controls and PLC progamming.
Not as many people are capable of doing this type of work and I'm working with another guy that does the fabrication of the machine.

 

[Palmbay]

My favorite saying to these people with unrealistic prices was " i can leave my truck in the driveway and break even" ! Understand, things are tough right now, people will work for nothing--these people will be gone in three months. Spend your time on home jobs that don't cost a lot of money, but will leave you alone in three months when you are busy!!! Or jobs in your shop to make you more competitive in the future--get thin--IE: buy only what you have to and ride this bad economy out. It will turn around and you will make bigger profits which will make up for this time. Don't just sit idle and waste this time--stay busy!!!

I sometimes think this is the hardest I have ever worked. Man it would be nice to just put my tools on a make a pay check. Its like I didn't even have to think when that was the case. Instead I concentrated on going out on my own in those days.

Your 3 month projection would be nice to believe. Currently the decline of my business started late 2007. 2008 and 2009 has been hunting and pecking. I have worked on the house. I have just been getting closer and closer to having to go look for a jobey job. In hind site, I did know the times were turning, I just don't think at this point that I cut pricing to costs quick enough. I have missed out on many projects because I was trying to keep my prices high as long as I could. I think I was behind the curve. I did make a lot of money the first 3 years in business, and I would not still be a business if that had not been the case.

 

[Palmbay]

My neighbor started selling life insurance.

He has no work and many of the general contractors he was working for went bankrupt without paying him. He had a lot of general contractors that would take 60 to 90 days or more to pay. Now he has no chance of seeing the money.

Right now I'm doing some industrial control work.
Building machines panels and controls and PLC progamming.
Not as many people are capable of doing this type of work and I'm working with another guy that does the fabrication of the machine.

My uncle is doing this in virginia.

Good direction.

 

[sparkyway]

I'm relatively new as an EC (4+ years) but a long time master electrician. I can totally relate to your situation. The local economy here is so very slow. There are so many licensed electricians working off homeowner permits for very low pay and homeowners don't realize they are untimately responsible for all work performed by someone they may not know. Builders who are pushing forward have their established EC's and homeowners are few and far between. I opted to remain a solo act just because I could see the economic instability and I can do residential work as a solo act. I know its hard but hang in there and you might help your workers find a temp job once you've explained your situation (just out of courtesy). I do have bills to pay like everyone and an idle truck won't get it done. Right now I have contacts to call and work for doing whatever it takes to get by between jobs. You can tighten your company budget only so far and it really is better to do small jobs than to loose everything with a bid you know will be too cheap. Trust in yourself and be great at what you do... thanks.

 

[petersonra]

There is currently an oversupply of EC for the amount of work there is in much of the country.

You either find a way to survive for the time it takes things to get better or you move on to something else.

Obama recently signed an XO all but banning non-union companies from federally funded projects. In any case, it won't affect stuff that is already in the pipeline, but stuff coming down in the next few years will be affected. Depending on your union status, that may, or may not, be of some help to you down the road.

 

[Rewire]

I remember starting my business on Jan 1st I sat in my little rented office that was right next to the state license office I knew it was a high traffic area and everyone in the county had to renew their car license so they would pass my door. The space was small and rented for $250 a month I knew when I started I wanted to keep home and business seperated. My first "job' was hanging a ceiling fan for a little old lady that stopped in my office and asked if I had "time" to fit in a small job,I told her no problem while on the inside I was going yippee !!!! Well this small job led to another small job and soon I was doing alot of these small jobs in fact enough to need help. I always joked about our first year we did 365 on day jobs. Today our main focus is on these smaller jobs it has gained us a very large customer base and tons of referals and repeat business.In my original business plan I was going to start with the small jobs then make the jump to the large projects now looking back I am glad I followed this path.

 

[jimmyglen]

I made a thread back in Nov - asking if anyone was interested in sales

the answer was ....not too much

http://forums.mikeholt.com/showthread.php?t=106688

my question for you is what are YOU doing to be proactive and SELL (yes thats sales)

 

[GUNNING]

same here.

same here.

YO. Same story here. I started advertising again ALOT. Tripled my add $. It got some results but not enough. It has been getting better here. The local Utility has started a buy back of power from low voltage PV systems. Noticed the state has started a new licensing category called LV. They seem to have a nitch cut out for them and a ready market supplied by the PECO. They did the same thing for the local AC contractors here with AC upgrades finance and rebate incentives. There is still work just not like it was. My advice is start advertising, alot and effectively. It helped me get gas in my truck but not beer in the cooler.

It is getting better in spite of the budget cuts. Look at your overhead. Make hard decisions now.

 

[GUNNING]

idea

idea

Another thought. I was thinking of putting a sign on my truck that says." want to save on your electric bill? call ..." It would get you calls and might be a bother but it would get you traffic. Give you a chance to get your foot in the door. Get a list together of energy saving devices and selling points. You got to pay the phone bill might as well get use out of it. Get an A/C contractor onboard to make house calls if they have an old a/c unit for an a/c upgrade. See if they will pay for leads might get there hook up business. Just an idea Ive been bandying about. Good luck.
Get a copy of Gorilla marketing. It will give you some ideas.

 

[Dnkldorf]

Obama recently signed an XO all but banning non-union companies from federally funded projects.

Maybe, maybe not.
Bob, please don't edit this.

The federal government, as well as state governments have to abide by certain laws in contracting. The still have to meet this ugly word called "quotas" when it comes to contracts and how the prime contractor must have certain particpation goals in regards to women, minority and now veteran and disabled veteran owned businesses.

Regardless of whoever is in office and what they try to do, certain aspects of this must be maintained, and the government doesn't want to be drug into court anymore than me or you.

Some guys signed their business over to their wives, so they could qualify, some are forming joint ventures and teamng arrangements with other firms and going after what is available together. This is what the governments likes to see. The government is not always a low price shopper. That sentence is key. Remember that.

I could get more involved with this, but there is not enough server space for this.

Bottom line, this maybe an avenue for you to look into. I am not suugesting signing over your business, but rather look for these disadvantaged businesses, who are going this way, and team up with them now.

In 6 or 8 months, federal, state and local work may become available, and if you start positioning yourself now, who knows where you will be in a couple years.


As always, this is free internet advice and should be taken as such.

 

[petersonra]

You do what you have to do to survive. I am not sure how long the survival mode will have to last.

I do know that the minority and women contracting thing is routinely abused by otherwise non-complying contractors to get government work.

On that note, I would like to relate a humorous anecdote. At a former place of employment, a manager managed to claim a substantial cash bonus for his efforts in minority and female hiring at the professional level. He managed to do it without even hiring any new employees. He just claimed one guy was an American Indian (the guy's last name sounded like an American Indian type name) and reclassified one female from a level 13 to level 14 employee with no change in pay. Because she was now classified as exempt, she no longer was eligible for as much OT, so she lost out in the deal, but manager got a large cash bonus for dramatically improving the percentage of female and minority professionals in his department.

 

[Pete Benoit]

There is currently an oversupply of EC for the amount of work there is in much of the country.

You either find a way to survive for the time it takes things to get better or you move on to something else.

Obama recently signed an XO all but banning non-union companies from federally funded projects. In any case, it won't affect stuff that is already in the pipeline, but stuff coming down in the next few years will be affected. Depending on your union status, that may, or may not, be of some help to you down the road.

Obama said today there is a shortage of electricians!

 

[CopperTone]

I can't win a bid either - I even keep lowering my baseline for figuring the bids and a few guys blow me out of the water with their bids. I cannot understand for the life of me how they are doing it.

They have to be slamming the GC with change orders and add ons. Learn that game and you'll do ok. Unfortunately you have to leave your "I'm a nice guy" coat at home.

Get a great attorney and learn the legalities of the contracts you sign.