specializing in one thing?
- Thread starter zappy
- Start date
- Status
Buck Parrish
Senior Member
- Location
- NC & IN
Panel changes can be profitable. And ussually involves upgrading the service. You will have a hard time staying busy. Because all your competitors want these types of jobs , too.
You would have to find something others don't want to do.
You would have to find something others don't want to do.
electricalperson
Senior Member
- Location
- massachusetts
its better to be well rounded than just do one thing. instead of being an electrician your just an installer
ultramegabob
Senior Member
- Location
- Indiana
windmills, solar panels, and generators and put on your salesman shoes.....
bphgravity
Senior Member
- Location
- Florida
If I didn't enjoy being a code official so much, I would likely start a business specializing in ONLY lightning protection.
Specializing is easier and more productive but, the more diversified you are, the easier it will be to adapt to things like changing markets.
I would LOVE to have a business that sold ONE thing and people would come and pick it up.
Contracting/service work is a hard, hard way to earn a living.
I would LOVE to have a business that sold ONE thing and people would come and pick it up.
Contracting/service work is a hard, hard way to earn a living.
brian john
Senior Member
- Location
- Leesburg, VA
I specialize in being a specialists, batteries, IR, grounding, resolving ground fault issues, working on bolted pressure switches, power quality, ATS's, generators solving problems others can't and testing all components of the electrical distribution system; has worked so far.
ceb58
Senior Member
- Location
- Raeford, NC
How many calls did you get this year just for panel change outs or just do lighting? I know one EC who did nothing but custom homes. He did such good work he had GC's waiting months for him and his 55 employees. Now with the down turn it's him and 1 employee. He did not learn to branch out into other markets. Unless you have a very specialized niche in which there is very little competition you will be hungry. The only ones I have seen that survive are the HVAC guys that do nothing but service work and change outs. There picking up the calls the others can't get to because they are installing duct work.
peter d
Senior Member
- Location
- New England
I specialize in not specializing, in the sense that I like to know about and understand every type of electrical system I come across even if I may never see, install or work on such a system ever again.
I'll probably never wire a gas station or high rise building in my life, but I sure like to know what's going on in them and what code rules apply.
I'll probably never wire a gas station or high rise building in my life, but I sure like to know what's going on in them and what code rules apply.
Rampage_Rick
Senior Member
- Location
- British Columbia, Canada
I agree. Why else would you go to medical school to become a proctologist?
Fulthrotl
~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
- Occupation
- E
i specialize in only doing work for people with the money to
pay for it.
it's becoming a niche market.....
ultramegabob
Senior Member
- Location
- Indiana
Yeah, like wiring hog barns, the new installations are okay, but maintnance and troubleshooting in
them sucks
Last edited:
ptonsparky
Tom
- Occupation
- EC - retired
Doing one thing all the time is just to boring. Lots of coffee and ADD helps me cope with reptition for a few minutes.
Yeah, like wiring hog barns, the new installations are okay, but maintnance and troubleshooting in
them sucks
You don't prefer TSing your own work?
charlietuna
Senior Member
I had a guy working for me quit to go into business ! He was a good mechanic. As he left he gave me a card-- His specialty was "PIPE BENDING" ! He had come across a large hydraulic pipe bender and refirbished it. I told him i had my doubts about his idea ??? About a year later he was back working for me..... Said he had a dump truck size pile of bent pipe from mistakes on his part and on the part of contractor's requests!
brian john
Senior Member
- Location
- Leesburg, VA
ultramegabob
Senior Member
- Location
- Indiana
Have you ever done any work in a hog barn? once it is full of hogs I dont care who originally wired it, the work sucks big time.... you have to take a shower "before" you go into the hog area even if you just leave the building to get a tool or material off the truck, (you have to take off coveralls and rubber boots to leave, and re-shower before you re-enter), and there is hog excrement all over "EVERYTHING" you touch, and some kind of nasty little flies that swarm your face, and the area where the baby pigs are kept is like walking into an ammonia factory..... if you can handle a really nasty work enviroment, you can keep busy working for hog farmers.....
Yes, I have done hog barns. How nice they are to work in is dependent on how well they're designed and maintained. Some are, for the lack of a better term, a pigs' stye. But others are about a clean as a typical city sidewalk.
Cow
Senior Member
- Location
- Eastern Oregon
- Occupation
- Electrician
We do work for a VERY large dairy. I enjoy it, sure I get a little crap on me sometimes and some of the other guys hate it but it doesn't bother me. Having folks that own a dairy might of been part of it.:wink: Put on the rubber boots, watch out for the automatic lane flush, and wash your ladders off when you're done. Don't forget to park far enough away from the cows either or they'll lick your truck to death.
Only thing is, I HATE it when they send me to a residential service call right afterward. Time to change clothes and make sure the ladders are spotless.....
Only thing is, I HATE it when they send me to a residential service call right afterward. Time to change clothes and make sure the ladders are spotless.....
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