Just starting up as contractor and could use help on where to begin with low budget

Status
Not open for further replies.
I have been extremely busy this past 4 years. Working seven days a week to first pay off debt for a business failure that left us in debt. Then after paying our way out of it, my job with my current employer was iffy so my wife and I dug a bit deeper into our personnal business. At that time I was a journeyman and I already had taken a pay cut and was offered a weekend shift or being let go. I took the weekend and continued to work hard on our own. This past spring I past my masters test and decided to go the route of a contractor. I have 4 jobs to date, but am unable to get set up with the supply houses, and am not sure why, it is not that they are saying no but moving extremely slow. Need to get some bids out there. My boss called me today and told me I could leave immediately or give my two weeks because I am a competitor now. They did restore me to regular pay I should say within the last 1 1/2, but time and choices have led us here. My wife and I have built a small business and it can pay the bills, but is seasonal, and now being our only income and supporting two households from it money is going to get tight. Transforming the garage into a parts shop, and two cars and a utility trailor. All the hand tools and good meter, along with very limited wire stock, benders for emt, drill, holesaws, bit of flex, and a good scope of ladders, is about all we have. Oh yeah and a good work ethic. I'll never claim to be smart but been in the trade for eight years and have an working understanding of code, and a bit of theory. I'm going do my best to honor the trade and regain some family time. 7 days a week is tough no matter how you put it. Sorry for rambling, but asking for advice on where to start, from tools to vehicles, to advertising, and how to get an account with the supply houses in SE North Dakota. Thanks.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Being an Ace Electrician is no guarantee that one will be an Ace Businessman. There is a whole list of expenses that one has to include in your price.
Take the Ellen Rohr weekend course. Some swear buy it. Fulthrotl is one of them. Best of Luck.

Welcome to the Forum
 
Last edited:
I started my own business last June while still working my full time maintenance job. I paid $5k cash for a retiring contractors van and only had basic hand tools.

My credit was jacked from my divorce so I started a cash account at the local supply house and only did small jobs for a while. After 3 months I had to beg for a $500 credit account at the supplier and got it with the agreement I could open job accounts for bigger jobs.

I have a laptop, bought Quickbooks Pro and manage pretty well.

It's definately a big learning curve on the business aspect which I had 0 experience at...

Good luck
 
Just starting up as contractor and could use help on where to begin with low budget

I have been battling between getting a van or a truck, and have been leaning to a van also, we have about a 50,000 a year business at this point, enough to pay the bills if we are frugal.
I should have went just the cod route with the suppliers probably. I requested a 500 limit but maybe they are not willing. Just wonder why they wouldn't call and offer. Time is short lately, but going to call and find out thanks.
Watched a short video on Ellen Rohr. And we started a dirty job. It is busy work and I do like to work, but need the challenge of a trade. Maybe should look into her course also, being as time is opened up a bit.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Watched a short video on Ellen Rohr. Maybe should look into her course also, being as time is opened up a bit.

take the word "maybe" out of that sentence,
and do the weekend business plan.

she charges $10 for the materials.

sitting down with your wife, and getting both of
you on the same page is the most important thing.

do the entire weekend business plan, even if it seems
hokey.

something you may want to consider, as it's portable,
and you can do it anywhere, is to learn and become
proficient at programming lighting controls. two weeks
ago, two of us from here sat thru the nLight starter course.

the people i know who do this type of work normally
command $1,000 per day, plus expenses. you need a laptop,
and a wireless hub.

there are lots of opportunities in the world.

good luck.
 
take the word "maybe" out of that sentence,
and do the weekend business plan.

she charges $10 for the materials.

sitting down with your wife, and getting both of
you on the same page is the most important thing.

do the entire weekend business plan, even if it seems
hokey.


.

This sounds very reasonable, and I agree wholeheartedly that being on the same page is priority. Thx



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I am gathering that it is not so much the tools and equipment, but the finding the field that you want to work. Work the field and make your house accordingly. I like the concept. For me unorganization is a killer and a consumer of profit. Getting a service call and having to make multiple trips rather than one, or worse yet compromise a standard because I did have the right fitting. Jobs at hand. Add outlets, doorbell, move submersible well control, change out lighting on a 60*42 out building. Going to buy material as I go to fit the need. But 60 feet of number 6 then to feed a sub panel, do I buy 500 ft. Spools and sit on it for a year to build up supply, or do I caught it exact and buy for each job? I have worked for a large company and parts were there at shop and we picked them as we needed.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I am gathering that it is not so much the tools and equipment, but the finding the field that you want to work. Work the field and make your house accordingly. I like the concept. For me unorganization is a killer and a consumer of profit. Getting a service call and having to make multiple trips rather than one, or worse yet compromise a standard because I did have the right fitting. Jobs at hand. Add outlets, doorbell, move submersible well control, change out lighting on a 60*42 out building. Going to buy material as I go to fit the need. But 60 feet of number 6 then to feed a sub panel, do I buy 500 ft. Spools and sit on it for a year to build up supply, or do I caught it exact and buy for each job? I have worked for a large company and parts were there at shop and we picked them as we needed.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

By the looks of it you live in a fairly populated area of your State. That helps. How close is the nearest supplier? Build a relationship with them. It takes time. You will not get good pricing by buying 60' of 6 thhn at a time. They can roll a full spool out to your truck in less time than it takes to measure the 60'. Same thing at your big box stores. A 25' spool of 12/2G NMB was within a few dollars of the 250' when I was needing 10' the other day. My shop was 20 miles away.

The best way to start an EC business is to make sure the significant other has a good job with full benefits.
 
Just starting up as contractor and could use help on where to begin with low budget

Get a bigger shop, unless you do all your work 70 miles away.

They do deliver and there are two with different routes that bring them through different days of the week. Which is a plus.
I am a bit cautious of trying to get into something that the business cannot support. I realize you have to put out there in order to get it back, but first business venture went bad because we were trying to build a mansion when it could only support a shack in the back yard. It crumbled under the burden.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Something you might consider getting into is the limited energy/communication side of electrical work. I started out doing hotels/motels, and the work is very easy, all things considered. It's also easy to bankroll extra stock for jobs; if you need 21,000' of coax, it will probably come out cheaper to buy 25 rolls, which is usually a price point break. If you can, try to upsell the owner on going with conduit to future proof the building. Again, if you need 8,500' of ENT, and 400 3/4" fittings, it'll probably be cheaper to buy 10 spools and 500 pieces.

Commercial v/d/v work of that nature sounds like you'd need a big bankroll and crew, but, with few exceptions, every hotel we did from 65-145 rooms was a 2 man job.

Price shop materials as much as possible. The above mentioned fittings can vary almost 25c each, or $125 total. Little things like wire nuts, Wagos, NM fittings, boxes,and so on can vary in price a lot as well

I've found 3M/Hilti firestop that sells for $15+ a tube at a bb store/supply house for $2 on ebay. Expensive tools like roto-hammers and bits can be found cheap there too.

One of the things I used to watch my previous employer struggle with was keeping enough of 'trivial' materials on hand/in the truck to complete a job w/o going to the supply house. That the nearest one to you is 70 miles away means you absolutely cannot afford to run out of silly things like blank cover plates, cut-in boxes, switches, receptacles, etc. You may have to do some more planning/digging for small jobs; say you get a call to add 3 receptacles for a HO. Make sure you ask them things like 'what color are your devices?', 'what style?', dont assume all white, and standard, lest you get out there and find they have light almond Decora and your stock doesnt match. and always buy at least one more than you need, that way when the HO says "oh, while you are here, could you add another receptacle in the garage?", you have it covered.

In two words: be efficient.

Organize your work vehicle like crazy. I learned this very quickly as doing commercial work, my truck might be up to 600' from the building. If I had to send my helper for materials, I needed to know exactly where to tell him to look, and at the end of the day, everything had to go back in its place as space was at a premium.

Back to v/d/v for a moment, the tools are a bit expensive, and many electricians do not mess with it. If a HO calls for a recessed receptacle for a wall mount TV, you should be able to upsell moving the CATV to be hidden as well, and have the tools/know-how to do it. Please do not construe my post as condescending to a master electrician (gratz btw!); just in my experience many are not proficient or lack the proper tools to do that particular work.

It also helps to have stock to show the customer for upselling. Keep a few LED trims on you; if you see a customer with can lights and CFL or incandescent floods, pop one in to show them the new technology. Explain how they save money on power, and last a long time. Books or flyers or a tablet (internet) that show the product are helpful as well, especially for things like floor outlets that are expensive, vary greatly in styles, and may not move that much.

On the subject of van vs truck, Id take my 1994 extended cab 8' bed w/camper shell GMC truck over a Sprinter any day. I put eye bolts right thru the shell to hold ladders (so no expensive ladder racks, better clearance, and you dont need a ladder to get to the ladders), and built simple custom boxes inside to hold materials efficiently.

"For me unorganization is a killer and a consumer of profit. Getting a service call and having to make multiple trips rather than one.."

Brainstorming for 10 minutes over every possible thing you may need will alleviate a lot of those trips. Do not think of this as unproductive time; as the saying goes, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure".

Finally, it is tempting when you have a low budget to buy cheaply made materials and tools. Dont. I have seen cheap cat5e cable with counterfeit UL markings, and tools to terminate the cheap, crappy keystones of the same fall apart quickly or take 3x as long to use as good ones. I dont think this is as much a problem on the 'electrical' side vs communications, just beware there is some absolute garbage out there.

Good luck and I hope some of this post was helpful for you.
 
On the subject of van vs truck, Id take my 1994 extended cab 8' bed w/camper shell GMC truck over a Sprinter any day.

I truly cannot even begin to understand why you want to crawl around in a pickup bed looking for stock vs standing up in a dry van. :huh:

I drive a Ford transit and our ladder racks bring the ladders down to the ground. I have never had it so easy getting a ladder on or off a van.
 
This is a fascinating topic in an of itself. You may want to start a blog and podcast to document the entire effort. Don't forget the GoPro :).
You may also consider starting a kickstarter campaign. Just the process might bring in a wave of ideas. The only major drawback with the electrical industry is that it is highly overregulated 80+% vs the tech industry 20+%. Like Peter Theil said at the Republican Convention "The government does not regulate bits but they do overregulate atoms".
 
Something you might consider getting into is the limited energy/communication side of electrical work. I started out doing hotels/motels, and the work is very easy, all things considered. It's also easy to bankroll extra stock for jobs; if you need 21,000' of coax, it will probably come out cheaper to buy 25 rolls, which is usually a price point break. If you can, try to upsell the owner on going with conduit to future proof the building. Again, if you need 8,500' of ENT, and 400 3/4" fittings, it'll probably be cheaper to buy 10 spools and 500 pieces.

Commercial v/d/v work of that nature sounds like you'd need a big bankroll and crew, but, with few exceptions, every hotel we did from 65-145 rooms was a 2 man job.

Price shop materials as much as possible. The above mentioned fittings can vary almost 25c each, or $125 total. Little things like wire nuts, Wagos, NM fittings, boxes,and so on can vary in price a lot as well

I've found 3M/Hilti firestop that sells for $15+ a tube at a bb store/supply house for $2 on ebay. Expensive tools like roto-hammers and bits can be found cheap there too.

One of the things I used to watch my previous employer struggle with was keeping enough of 'trivial' materials on hand/in the truck to complete a job w/o going to the supply house. That the nearest one to you is 70 miles away means you absolutely cannot afford to run out of silly things like blank cover plates, cut-in boxes, switches, receptacles, etc. You may have to do some more planning/digging for small jobs; say you get a call to add 3 receptacles for a HO. Make sure you ask them things like 'what color are your devices?', 'what style?', dont assume all white, and standard, lest you get out there and find they have light almond Decora and your stock doesnt match. and always buy at least one more than you need, that way when the HO says "oh, while you are here, could you add another receptacle in the garage?", you have it covered.

In two words: be efficient.

Organize your work vehicle like crazy. I learned this very quickly as doing commercial work, my truck might be up to 600' from the building. If I had to send my helper for materials, I needed to know exactly where to tell him to look, and at the end of the day, everything had to go back in its place as space was at a premium.

Back to v/d/v for a moment, the tools are a bit expensive, and many electricians do not mess with it. If a HO calls for a recessed receptacle for a wall mount TV, you should be able to upsell moving the CATV to be hidden as well, and have the tools/know-how to do it. Please do not construe my post as condescending to a master electrician (gratz btw!); just in my experience many are not proficient or lack the proper tools to do that particular work.

It also helps to have stock to show the customer for upselling. Keep a few LED trims on you; if you see a customer with can lights and CFL or incandescent floods, pop one in to show them the new technology. Explain how they save money on power, and last a long time. Books or flyers or a tablet (internet) that show the product are helpful as well, especially for things like floor outlets that are expensive, vary greatly in styles, and may not move that much.

On the subject of van vs truck, Id take my 1994 extended cab 8' bed w/camper shell GMC truck over a Sprinter any day. I put eye bolts right thru the shell to hold ladders (so no expensive ladder racks, better clearance, and you dont need a ladder to get to the ladders), and built simple custom boxes inside to hold materials efficiently.

"For me unorganization is a killer and a consumer of profit. Getting a service call and having to make multiple trips rather than one.."

Brainstorming for 10 minutes over every possible thing you may need will alleviate a lot of those trips. Do not think of this as unproductive time; as the saying goes, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure".

Finally, it is tempting when you have a low budget to buy cheaply made materials and tools. Dont. I have seen cheap cat5e cable with counterfeit UL markings, and tools to terminate the cheap, crappy keystones of the same fall apart quickly or take 3x as long to use as good ones. I dont think this is as much a problem on the 'electrical' side vs communications, just beware there is some absolute garbage out there.

Good luck and I hope some of this post was helpful for you.

I like the idea of bringing a some products with that may be new in the market, or still room to grow. Was thinking of the upsell and is nice to have it brought out like that.

I too am not a fan of cheap. Rather have smaller inventory then things that break and the frustration. I want to keep that professional image going.

Was up later last night putting together a shopping list for a customer and it is nice to see that I thought of some of the questions, but missed others.

Do you give the customer the choice of per say square d versus ITE, or do you just back one?

Thanks for your input


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Hang in there............

Hang in there............

Hang in there............

Do what you can, and make the wife go for parts runs.

I use a simple credit card for all my odd supply houses.(HD lowes, HVAC, store etc)

You seem to know what your market is , stick with it. (doubt if you will sell any "california required upgrades" there),

Stock up on standard stuff , tell others it will be a day or two for parts.

If the other guy has work, then take it, if you have something that pays better , he can wait.
 
letter

letter

By the looks of it you live in a fairly populated area of your State. That helps. How close is the nearest supplier? Build a relationship with them. It takes time. You will not get good pricing by buying 60' of 6 thhn at a time. They can roll a full spool out to your truck in less time than it takes to measure the 60'. Same thing at your big box stores. A 25' spool of 12/2G NMB was within a few dollars of the 250' when I was needing 10' the other day. My shop was 20 miles away.

The best way to start an EC business is to make sure the significant other has a good job with full benefits.
you need to put out a form letter to 30 contractors and tells thems about yourself, only way!
 
I truly cannot even begin to understand why you want to crawl around in a pickup bed looking for stock vs standing up in a dry van. :huh:

I drive a Ford transit and our ladder racks bring the ladders down to the ground. I have never had it so easy getting a ladder on or off a van.

Camper shell keeps it dry. And as I wrote above, I kept my truck meticulously organized; there was no "looking for stock". If you have to look for it, the truck needs organization imo. They also make slide-out kits for trucks so that you undo a few latches, and pull out the entire contents of the bed on a rack. I didnt have that but didnt need it either.

Tools went into the back of the extended cab. My ladders went on easy-peasy, tho at the expense of scratching the heck out of the top of the shell.

We didnt have the powered ladder rack on the Sprinter, which I'll admit, was a supreme pita. . Even if we did, I didnt like driving it, it's complete lack of traction on anything resembling slippery, nor the absolutely ridiculous maintenance costs on it, and the fact that we lost over a week's use of it over the course of two months for the dealership to repair the sliding door 3x, to the tune of $1700. Maybe other work vans are better.. well, I dont think any could be much worse. I also found the racks/shelves/trays that were installed in it a major waste of space and useless for many things an electrician regularly uses.. maybe they make newer/better cargo interiors more suited to our trade now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Family man, on panels we back one, price by that. We can install anything the customer wants of course, but some things (like panels) I feel there are too many options that would just confuse the avg customer.

One more thing I did commercially that I found saved time was "pre-work"; say it's time to do a hotel trim-out for v/d/v. There may be 400-800 keystones going in as well as nearly that many cover plates. Simply unwrapping that amount of material, busting the screws out of that little package, putting the screws in the captive plates, and throwing away trash takes hours. I did that in the air-conditioned hotel room instead of on-site in 100* (or 25*) weather. I stuck an F connector on every coax wallplate so they'd be ready to go. Took a 4V trimgun and backed out all the screws on 4-wire phone terminal plates so they were ready to go. putting ENT fittings in boxes. Putting lockings on ENT fittings... little things like that save time and make the job go much smoother imo.

A residential trim out with a ton of can lights, you can do the same at home, then there is substantially less bulk to toss at the job site, less junk cluttering the truck/van.

For service work, if you do, say, a receptacle addition a lot, put together all the materials to do that; receptacle, coverplate, cut in box, a buchannon crimp/green wire nut, a few tan/red wirenuts, maybe a few NM staples, next to short lengths of 12 and 14/2. Instead of having to grab 8 different things off the truck, you grab one and go. At the least, group all of those things together so they arent all over the truck/van. It's easier and faster to make one trip to the truck (when you leave) to return things not used than make 3 to it to grab this, that, and the other.

Image is everything tho; when we do a service call, chances are before the first tool hits the door we already have a shop vac, drop cloth, maybe a broom and dustpan setup. Clean clothes, mud-free shoes. If you're going in an attic or crawlspace, a Tyvek suit or coveralls. Have handi-wipes available so if you fingerprint their wall, you can clean it up. The place should look like you were never there, or better. Keep business cards on hand. BE ON TIME!! Always secure power; aside from safety, HO's do not like to see sparks flying out of things you are working on. Always ask things like "do you have on any computers?" before throwing breakers to secure power so they dont lose that presentation they've been working on. and if you do, apologize, then see if you can upsell a UPS or generator. ;)
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top