Planning a start-up.

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jimmyglen

Senior Member
Location
St. Louis, Missouri
I would tell you to go for it!

just always keep in mind that you may be a great electrician but thats really only around 1/2 of the skills you will need to be sucesssful

One of my electrical instructors is a great electrician..... I wonder why he teaches and doesnt run a large contracting compnay ..................?


keep us posted
 
petersonra

petersonra

Senior Member
Location
Northern illinois
Occupation
engineer
Its possible to do mostly smaller jobs during non-standard working hours, but its not easy.

As most of your experience seems to be industrial, and most of the smaller jobs are likely to be residential or commercial remodeling, you may have a learning curve to go through.

Not a whole lot of successful businesses started out as hobby businesses like this seems to be. but you never know.

OTOH, this is the good ole USA. And people who are willing to work hard, and put the extra effort in, sometimes get rewarded for it.
 
Rewire

Rewire

Senior Member
Location
Lake of the Ozarks
petersonra said:
Its possible to do mostly smaller jobs during non-standard working hours, but its not easy.
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Late nite working a new house I was in the crawl space pulling wire to the kitchen island when I hear footsteps,I think that someone was probably steeling my copper.

I turn off my flashlight and crawl quietly out the crawl space and slip into the back door I am looking for something better than the kleins I had to defend myself.

I see their light comming from the fron room so I slip down the hall pop on my flashlight and yell freeze police

The flashlight turns my way and I here "you freeze I'm the sherriff"

Turns out someone saw my light and called the sheriff he actually had to call the owner to verify I was allowed on the job after hours

PS I was younger and braver at the time
 
B

BroadviewElec

Member
Rewire said:
Late nite working a new house I was in the crawl space pulling wire to the kitchen island when I hear footsteps,I think that someone was probably steeling my copper.

I turn off my flashlight and crawl quietly out the crawl space and slip into the back door I am looking for something better than the kleins I had to defend myself.

I see their light comming from the fron room so I slip down the hall pop on my flashlight and yell freeze police

The flashlight turns my way and I here "you freeze I'm the sherriff"

Turns out someone saw my light and called the sheriff he actually had to call the owner to verify I was allowed on the job after hours

PS I was younger and braver at the time
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That's a good one! I'll have to keep that in mind. :D
 
L

LawnGuyLandSparky

Senior Member
Another ditty to consider...

I've seen all kinds of people go out on their own, from project managers to large shop vice presidents to retired or outsed ex-business agents to large-job (10 million plus only) foreman, and they've all failed. (And this is in an area with a very large market, during the "good times.") One commonality I saw was each had some kind of "in" to a big job and they thought they could ride that "in" or "wave" or "business contact" to success.

That said, your comment: I would like to keep my full-time job, my hours are 6-2 so that gives my some hours during the week to work and also work on the weekends. suggests you seek a level of safety while testing the waters. Contracting is like being a cop, just because the shift is over doesn't mean you stop being a cop. If 6-2 means 6am to 2pm you're going to find that is prime time for contractors when it comes to supply houses, customer contact, working out issues with inspectors/manuf. reps, etc...

Contracting is difficult enough without having the added distraction of another fulltime job. Just something to consider.
 
Rewire

Rewire

Senior Member
Location
Lake of the Ozarks
At what point will you jump in full time?Many of the small jobs are 90-120 days most of the jobs you will be able to do part time are 1-5 days at most.It is very easy to get booked up working part time It might take you a week to fuff ahouse part time were working full time two days.

Testing the waters is like slowly entering cold water it is very easy to talk yourself into getting out but when you just take the plunge after the initial shock you find it aint so bad.
 
growler

growler

Senior Member
Location
Atlanta,GA
Folks in this area of the country it's real common for electricians to run a side business and much work is done in the evening and on week ends.

The only problem is that most of these operations are illegal and under the table.

If the OP wants to run a legal side business then I'm all for it. There are some negative things about running a side business but also some positive.

If he is only doing this part time then this is not his primary source of income and he will not be as tempted to take every job that comes along. It's also easier to invest in tools and equipment if doing something as a legitimate side venture. Don't want to show to much income so it's more beneficial to invest as much as possible back into the company or individual retirement account. Anything to keep Uncle Sam from getting his paws on it.

If it's so much trouble working nights then how comes many companies offer 24 hr service. Part of that 24 hours is at night.

I have been on service calls at all hours of the night and even worked all night on different projects and have never had any problems. If the police show up then you just tell them what you are doing, they tend to understand because they work nights to.

I have had to do service upgrades at some of the strip malls at night because that was the only time that I could get an OK for power to be shut down. Lots of work gets done at night. In some of the bigger malls they will only allow work some types of work at night because they don't want the noise during business hours ( so all noisy work, drilling of concrete and so forth is done at night).

Being the guy that's willing to do a service call a 6-7 PM could be an advantage and not a disadvantage. The average customer gets home around 4-5 PM.

I don't know if it will work out for him but at least he can check it out for a minimal cost. He still has a job to fall back on. :smile:
 
Rewire

Rewire

Senior Member
Location
Lake of the Ozarks
I think their is a big difference between service calls at night and working on a job site at nite and an even bigger difference between working at night and running your business at nite.

I have worked at nite but I cordinated the work during the day.Most of the owners and subs are not around at nite so you have to see them during regular hours

Trying to run a contracting business after hours is a setup for failure
 
Dnkldorf

Dnkldorf

Senior Member
Work 6-2.

Meet with Score, read whatever you can worth a damn for 6 months.
Take on little jobs to build a cash reserve.

Make the plunge.
 
growler

growler

Senior Member
Location
Atlanta,GA
Dnkldorf said:
Work 6-2.

Meet with Score, read whatever you can worth a damn for 6 months.
Take on little jobs to build a cash reserve.

Make the plunge.
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Why make the plunge in 6 months. The best time to make the plunge is when the economy shows signs of improvement. He's in no hurry and doesn't sound as if he's old with a short time to live.

It's much easier to put to sea with the tide than it is against it. :D
 
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BroadviewElec

Member
Rewire said:
I think their is a big difference between service calls at night and working on a job site at nite and an even bigger difference between working at night and running your business at nite.

I have worked at nite but I cordinated the work during the day.Most of the owners and subs are not around at nite so you have to see them during regular hours

Trying to run a contracting business after hours is a setup for failure
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How about, for now, we call it a electrical service business instead of a contracting business? Until I make the plunge? I don't see myself doing any of the projects you refer to right away. For now lets say I only pick up jobs that I can pretty much complete in a weekend. Just doing business very low key just to get the feet wet, learn a little about the business end of things. Accumulating more tools and equipment as I go. MAybe avaoiding the huge business loan that I would need to jump right in full bore.

Just thinking out loud. Keep the replies coming please.
 
B

BroadviewElec

Member
growler said:
Why make the plunge in 6 months. The best time to make the plunge is when the economy shows signs of improvement. He's in no hurry and doesn't sound as if he's old with a short time to live.

It's much easier to put to sea with the tide than it is against it. :D
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Hey, somebody gets me! I'm 37, is that old? All I know is that I have 25-30 years left to work and I know for a fact I won't be at this job that long so I'm thinking there's got to be something else. And I've always had a dream of passing something like this down to my son. Wether he even would want it or not is beside the point. Hey, I can dream right? The main thing is I know how much planning is needed and I want to take my time and do it right so I'm not ready to jump right in. But why not do stuff on the side right now if I can? Start establishing it now, without the overhead. If I don't get any work the first month, who cares, I don't have a loan payment to make.
 
A

aline

Senior Member
Location
Utah
Quite often when a homowner calls and I ask them when would be a good time to schedule the appointment their response is; I don't get off of work until 5pm so can you do it after 5pm or on the weekend.

I think there's a market for doing electrical work, for homeowners, after hours if you can do it without charging more for the service.

I charge more for after hours and weekend service so once I let them know it will cost more they decide they can take off work after all. :)

You could call your company "After Hours Electrical Service" :)

Your Slogan "You Won't Pay A Dime For Overtime" :)
 
Dnkldorf

Dnkldorf

Senior Member
growler said:
Why make the plunge in 6 months. The best time to make the plunge is when the economy shows signs of improvement. He's in no hurry and doesn't sound as if he's old with a short time to live.

:D
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Exactly, if things turn around in a year, he might have a real advantage out of the gate.

Take at least 6 months to learn/understand the basics.
 
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