Licensed contractor renting themselves out...

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khixxx

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I posted this on another board but got little response so here goes. has anyone rented out their guys to another company? For example I am licensed to be a contractor. I work outages at power plants in the spring and fall. I was wondering if you could, and how to approach a company to rent yourself out and would it even be worth it. I pay my own medical, workmans comp, SS ect. I just bill the company for X amount of dollars for a 40 hour week. Has anyone done this? If so how would you determine a rate? example a Jman is $20/hr do you think $25/hr,or $30/hr is a good rate? what types of things would I have to consider to determine a rate? I guess instead of a company calling looking for temp work they can call me. just looking for some input. I want to do this because I have summers and winters off (Not to brag or anything :) ) They do get a little boring.
 
I have a friend who goes to a temp. service and they find him work doing electrical work at different factories and small business. I see nothing wrong in this, it might even be interesting because you never know what you are get into.
 
wages

wages

I?ve seen this, a local institution allow licensed electricians to hire there own help as they satellite people directly into there work pool, or work directly with the
this electrician.
Your price is low; they bill the institution, active rate, taxes, SS, Etc, and a flat rate. I believe a good measure is to ask an employment service there going rate and work from there.
 
"Leasing" of inspectors/plans examiners is actually a common practice in this area. On the occasion a building department in one jurisdiction is unable to handle the plans review/inspection load and/or a jurisdiction loses an employee, they may contact another local jurisdiction to fill in for awhile or for a pre-determined time.

After the Hurricanes in 2004 and 2005, it was common to see inspectors from all over the state.
 
I have worked for two companies that leased out some of their employees on contract. Both times it was industrial type work. Some construction, remodeling and building maintenance.

They would bid on the contract to furnish a minimum number of electricians for a given amount of time ( contract duration, two to five years ). This was not in one of your higher paying areas of the country and 20 years ago I think the rate was around $35 an hour. When I asked about the rate I learned that the rate was across the board for both electricians and helpers ( they made most of their money on the helpers ).

The real money is made on these contracts by the volume of business. If you know that you are going to have 10 or 15 men working steady for 5 years on one contract it's bid a littler cheaper than short term T&M.

They pay even if there is nothing for the leased employees to do. We tried to look busy between projects. On the positive side, the checks keep comming in.
 
You are in the perfect position to become a "real contractor" with little to no risk & expense.
Summers & Winters off? You don't sound like your hurting for money just something to occupy your time.
You have a Masters License, so now print up business cards, get a DBA, register with the AHJ. put a small ad in the local paper, put flyers out, read all the other helpfull "how to's" be a contractor on here & ask questions.
Now its all marketing yourself & figuring out the rest of the bizness....which we are all still doing.
Good luck
 
Jeff Weissman Electric said:
You are in the perfect position to become a "real contractor" with little to no risk & expense.
Summers & Winters off? You don't sound like your hurting for money just something to occupy your time.
You have a Masters License, so now print up business cards, get a DBA, register with the AHJ. put a small ad in the local paper, put flyers out, read all the other helpfull "how to's" be a contractor on here & ask questions.
Now its all marketing yourself & figuring out the rest of the bizness....which we are all still doing.
Good luck
Click to expand...

Thanks for everyone replying. I am not hurting for money. I use to do work in the evenings, and weekends with my own licensed and insured company. I did not mind this work but you can sometimes make more money as a consultant than you would as a full time contractor without head aches. I was making 3-4k a week consulting. I had to go through an employment agency. I am looking to network myself to bigger contracting companies. I don't want to go through another organization to find employment. example would be they pay you $35/hr and bill the company $60/hr. I just don't see a reason to why I can't bill that company $50 or $60/hr. My over all plan is to be a project manager for larger construction projects. I am guessing the best way is to reorganizer my old company again and visit employer sites. I could even market myself to larger facilities for maintenance. Well I am just looking for thoughts and advice. Thanks guys.
 
I would sub myself out to a contractor once in awhile just to keep things rolling. I would go in as a company so he wouldn't have to pay my taxes and he wouldn't have to 1099 me either. I charged a reasonable rate and he was willing to pay it because he didn't have to hassle with any taxes or workmens comp.
 
For Hire...

For Hire...

I know companies in this town that do that all the time. Most electrical contractors are union or registered with the IEC (the non-union union). Through that network, I have recruited guys before. You just put a call in for help, and all the contractors that have a membership get the call.

Standard j-man rate back then was $23 / hr. I know that the companies were charging $34-$40 per hour. This was to cover all the insurances and taxes. Then the renting company made about $2 / hr off each of the guys.

Like someone stated, it is a volume issue. $2 per person / per hour isn't much, but it adds up after a while.

Greg :cool:
 
Thanks Greg. Yes this way I can create a business and still have the benefits of a business with not as much head aches. I just don't want to over price myself, but I don't want to cut my own throat. I was thinking of marketing myself for $35/hr minimum 8 hour days. I don't want to compete against companies I just want to offer a service. Like I said I work outages and make about 10k-18k a month for 4-6 months out of the year, but these summers and winters get a little boring. Plus I hate the travel. I am currently reorganizing my company and creating a list of contractors in my area that I could help.

Ken
 
Subbing out...

Subbing out...

Ken,

Jeff makes a valid point. You don't like to travel. He does. Since we are all contractors in different areas, we are not really competitors. If you get an offer in one of our areas, let us know. You bid it and then sub one of us out. I'd work for you. Just know that we probably would want to run the show.

You'd be the background guy (which is probably what you would want anyway.) and we'd be in the spotlight.

You'd reap a few dollars an hour off of us, never have to pay taxes or insurance on us... Heck, you can't beat that kind of deal!

Greg :cool:
 
Greg Swartz said:
Ken,

Jeff makes a valid point. You don't like to travel. He does. Since we are all contractors in different areas, we are not really competitors. If you get an offer in one of our areas, let us know. You bid it and then sub one of us out. I'd work for you. Just know that we probably would want to run the show.

You'd be the background guy (which is probably what you would want anyway.) and we'd be in the spotlight.

You'd reap a few dollars an hour off of us, never have to pay taxes or insurance on us... Heck, you can't beat that kind of deal!

Greg :cool:
Click to expand...

Except it sounds like that's paying his bills at the moment, hehe.
 
I work for the I&C shops for nuclear outages. They only have outage work in the spring and fall. Unless something comes up. I got a call the other day about working at the new site in south east NM at the new facility they are putting in.I don't like the nuclear because you can't see the radiation but it is one of the safest places to ever work. I don't bid nothing out. I just get a call and I pack my stuff out and I don't see home for 2 months. That is the point. I work for a recruiting company. they locate the work and call me. I just got done with 2 months of work. I could have done more but you work 6-7 days 12 hour shifts. you stay at a no tell motel. not much time to do anything else. Yes the money is good. I made about 24k on those 2 months but I had to cover expenses so it's not really that much I guess that is just overhead. but the per diem is tax free. I am not in the union so I can't work in some states. I called local 5 up and the guy told me half his guys are laid off. I told him I just want a card so I can work out of state. we'll see how that goes. He seemed really interested in me then. some guys get jobs in St. croix something like that. paying 42/hr $770 a week perdiem working 7 12 hourdays. any way. I just don't like the travel. I figure if I can work 2 outages a year and do this other temp work I should be fine. I would like to get in as a project manager/estimator. Not sure if you can post links or not but www.roadtechs.com is a place that advertise this work. you need to get on the list early. I am lined up for a AL outage end of sept. 2 months long. www.nukeworker.com is another site to get information. They are building I think up to 30 new nuclear reactors. not sure how this will effect jobs, but I hear that is when you make the real money. I know of some guys that make over 5k aweek. those are the highly skilled techs or highly good brown noises.

Thanks guys.
 
TIC stands for The Industrial Company.

They are a turnkey company that works all across the US. (Even Alaska!)

They do mines (gold, mineral, gas), industrial facilities (intel, hospitials, etc...) and just other gigantic jobs (usually $50M or more)

Anyway, they have their own electical company AND their own I&C company... just curious.

Greg
 
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