I've been on my own for about 10 months. Mostly residential service work. Thinking about contacting some builders this winter for the opportunity to bid some work.
I was thinking about sending a introductory letter out with a business card. Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated.
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I worked doing new residential build for many years, high end stuff down to small SFD.
If you're doing OK with residential service I recommend you take a good hard look at the New Construction side of things before you go down that road.
For what its worth I'll share the pros & conns of new residential and why i decided to leave it years ago.
New Resi Pros:
-larger jobs = more work over a longer period of time
-cleaner working environment
-easier work with less problem solving
-can use apprentices or helpers
-General contractors may give you regular repeat business
-Less interaction with homeowners
New Resi Conns
-lots of unpaid time quoting jobs
-knowledge of how to price jobs CORRECTLY (ie to actually make money)
-more competition
-larger job = lower profit margin & higher risk of loosing money
-longer job = higher probability of something going sideways (again, loose money)
-poor payment terms (be careful or you will end up financing the job)
-lots of additional work that will be difficult or impossible to quantify and bill for (ie home owner makes small incremental changes on the daily. Spends even more time talking to workers about said changes!)
-incomplete information and drawings to bid from
-incomplete informations, specs and drawings once the job has started.
-heavy reliance on others to complete your job efficiently (expect many unpaid "emergency" calls to fix a cable some apprentice plumber or carpenter has cut through.
-Very little loyalty or value for quality and reliability: The lowest price always wins
-And here's the big one IMO....when you get busy with a bunch of new construction jobs, you won't be able to look after your service customers anymore. All those loyal customers you've built relationships with, well you'll have to tell them that you're just too busy for them and they just arn't important anymore. (because trust me, no matter how you sugar coat it, that's what they hear.)
If you still want to chase after new builds, then I'd suggest you make sure you know how to price your jobs CORRECTLY and get paid UPFRONT!
Micheal Stone has some great books on the subject and I would highly recommend anyone to check them out along with his blog.
https://shop-markupandprofit.com/products/profitable-sales-a-contractors-guide?variant=32150199564
Also, if you want to solicit builders and ask them for work, just call them and meet with them face to face.
Buy them a coffee or lunch and get to know them (or bring coffee and doughnuts to the site!).
Let them know you're not after all of their work, but you'd like them to consider you if their regular guy isn't available.
Forget flyers and emails: they're impersonal and will go directly into the trash along with any other junk mail the contractor receives.
(if you were them, would you bother to read that letter?)
Remember: when it comes to the "big jobs" all that glitters is not gold.
I had to learn that the hard way, though I got out before I went bankrupt....others I've know were not so lucky.
