drowning

[puckman]

became a ec about 4 yrs. ago after 25 yrs. working inside a plant. doing this was what all i could do at my age. so far it hasn't gotten any better trying to make it as a ec. i can't seem to get pass a pattern of doing 200amp. services and service calls, anything larger than this becomes a problem with estimating anyway. i go to the supply houses and watch as the ec buy loads of material for thier jobs and wonder where do they get all this work from, when i have a problem keeping one man busy.
i advertize in a couple of papers. i don't know why i'm posting this. am i alone here or are there other guys out there in the same mess ? thanks for listerning.

 

[~Shado~]

No, you are not alone. Alot of companys are haveing a hard time. With the way the economy is, and the fact that folks dont have the disposable income they did a few years ago, their not spending it. I for one am being very frugal with my dollars now. And therfore not spending it at the auto shop, home improvements, etc. Its a said afair right now.

 

[celtic]

I had about a dozen calls on my machine when I got in today....most of them were guys looking to be hired :roll:....and some bill collectors ....looking for the last guy who had this number ....and a job or two :smile:

 

[LawnGuyLandSparky]

You worked 25 years inside a plant, probably didn't do much networking. If you worked in construction you would have (hopefully) run lots of medium and large jobs and made a name for yourself in the industry.

 

[wireman71]

It's contacts and you need to work on your estimating. At least high ball some jobs. What do you have to lose? Contacst are the most important thing... Unfourtunately.

 

[charlie tuna]

it seem s to me you haven't found your niche in he electrical industry. as your in the supply house watching other contractors loading up material, consider the types of jobs they are doing?? many just do office interiors. some do gas stations. some do printing industrial work. some do fire alarms or data

 

[hardworkingstiff]

This is a tough time to get going.

Like others said, it's all about the relationship.

Try not to dwell on the problems. Look at the positives. Continue to emulate actions that get positive results. Shun the actions that lead to negative results.

PMA baby PMA (positive mental attitude).

Just keep a PMA and keep on trying. Just remember the little engine that could :smile: .

Good luck.

 

[bradleyelectric]

ask the guys your talking about where they get there work. stike up conversations with people. Give out business cards to everyone, where you eat, shop, get gas, if your not busy go out handing out cards. Banks, everywhere. Work tends to breed more work. If you are looking to get into new construction,, than start a list of contractors, look them up in a serch online, copy #'s off signs on job sites, and call them and ask them if they have anything they'd like you to take a look at electrically. Call them back every week. You have to catch them at the right time to get a look at anything. Once you get someone to give you a set of plans to bid, you can call the architec to find out who else is bidding that job and send them your price. Once you send them your price, you can call them back and say we bid the **** with you, do you have anything you want me to take a look at? You have to know how to bid to get into that.

 

[480sparky]

One of the most oft-asked questions in the electrical trade is "How do I promote my company?"

I'll throw out some of the ideas I have always maintained:

Besides print (newspaper, phone book) and electronic media (web sites, radio & TV), there's a lot of ways to increase your cash flow:

First and foremost, you need to create, and then spend the money on, an advertising budget. I don't think this can ever be stressed enough.

Join your local builders associations. Attend the meetings and other events.

Visit home shows and expos, with a wad of business cards in your pocket. Don't be shy about introducing yourself. And don't give out cards one at a time.... give each person 3 or 4: they're cheap, and you don't know who those people know!

Get on your local Craigslist site. Look for builders and handymen there who advertise "It's OK to contact them with other services or commercial interests." (This will be at the bottom of their listing) Drop them a short, simple email to introduce yourself.

And my favorite method: whenever you go to the Big Orange, Big Blue, or even the local hardware store (Ace, True Value, whatever) look for the trucks and vans that have "Fred's Home Improvement", "Handy Dave, Dan's Older Brother" or "Quality Construction" on them. And not just 'builders', .... landscapers, painters, roofers, drywallers, plumbers.....ANY construction trade lead can pan out. Stick a business card in the drivers window. The worst that can happen is they throw it away.

Real estate agents are another 'forgotten' source. Many people who buy an existing home immediately want to change it, so if you buddy up with realtors you can be 'first in line' when it comes to the new homeowners' upgrades.

If (or should I be more positive and say when) you do find a builder, remodeller or flipper, be sure not to forget the person or people who are paying them.... the owner(s). Make contact with them, introduce yourself, and by all means, give them a card.

Want to start doing commercial? Drive around town and find all those little strip malls and see if there are any empty bays. Contact the name & number on the sign (after all, it is for rent, isn't it?), and find out who owns the property. Contact that person, introduce yourself, and simply ask if it would be possible for you to submit a bid when a new tenant is found.

Many local stores have bulliten boards you can put a small print ad (easy to do today with computers and printers) or a business card. It's free, and you never know.

Be persistent. Be sociable. Be friendly. You will not get every lead, you will not get every bid. And you will need to learn to deal with rejection.

But most important: create an advertising budget. And stick to your advertising plan. If one method doesn't seem to work, drop it and spend your time and money on other ideas. Business cards are the cheapest form of advertising, and the easiest to use. They fit in your pocket, so there is no excuse for never having a card to hand someone.

It WILL take some time, but if you do quality work at a reasonable price, you'll keep busy. And by reasonable, I mean fair and profitable. DO NOT try to comptete on price alone. DO NOT promote yourself as Wal-Mart Electric. If you do, you WILL fail.

 

[haskindm]

The book
Guerrilla Marketing, 4th edition: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for Making Big Profits from Your Small Business by Jay Conrad Levinson (Paperback - May 22, 2007)
is an excellent source for low cost marketing. You must remember that your #1 job now is marketing. That is the one thing that you cannot delegate to someone else. You can hire electricians to actually do the work, accountants to keep the books, estimators to price the jobs, and assistants to answer the phone; but the only one that can market your business is you and you must be doing it 24 X 7. When you are at church, you are marketing. At your kids ballgame, you are marketing. Nobody should be able to talk to you for more than 2 minutes and not know that you are an electrical contractor. When you go out to dinner, leave your business card along with the tip. If the idea of doing that does not excite you and all that you really want to do is electrical work with your tools, then acknowledge that fact and go to work for someone else.
You don't need to be pushy, but you need to let everyone that you meet know what you do and that you do good work. Then show up when you promise, do good work, and things will hopefully start looking up. I have people tell me all of the time that they cannot "find" an electrician to do such and such job for them. Sometimes that means that they can't find someone willing to work for nothing, but often it means they just don't know who to call. Call your past customers and ask them if they are happy with the work that you did. If they are not, do what you can to make it right. If they are happy, ask them if they have any friends or relatives that may need some work done or if they have any other electrical jobs that they have thought about having done.

 

[Rewire]

I spent 30 years in the trade before jumping out on my own and like you I was doing alot of service upgrades and small service calls and longed for the "big " job then I noticed I was doing alot of service upgrades and small service calls and I heard from alot of customers how hard it was to find someone who could take care of the smaller jobs.I realized that these were just the crumbs that fell off the table but alot of crumbs were on the floor and I decided that this would be my market and I changed my outlook from one of this workis all I can get to one of this work is what I want.In 4 years I have a huge customer base and keep 3 men busy.

 

[puckman]

i'd like to take this time to say thanks for the positive replys from you guys. this forum is a great place to get help when you need it. i don't know where i would have gone sometimes when i needed answers doing some jobs. i never got to know any ec being inside for all that time so this forum came as a big help to me. i could always find a post about the same type of work i was doing and always got helped out. thanks again