starting business help, where to start?

[petersonra]

A one-man band still has to pay his income taxes, and both sides of the social security and Medicare taxes. The thing is a lot of one man bands don't have much in the way of income to pay taxes on.

 

[ramsy]

A one-man band still has to pay his income taxes, and both sides of the social security and Medicare taxes. The thing is a lot of one man bands don't have much in the way of income to pay taxes on.

For those filing an IRS Schedule-C, this Self-Employment tax is modified only by % business allocation to a spouse, per state community-property laws.

Not the industry practice of Journeymen doing Side Work not reported, permitted, or payrolled. Especially when employees already filie a W2, collect unemployment much of the year, perhaps from multiple states if traveling across state lines.

 

[Jerramundi]

A one man show doesn't need workmans comp nor does he have to pay his share of payroll taxes, unemployment tax etc. and he might just have lower overhead expenses in general compared to a company with even just one or two employees.

Yessir. That's why many prefer a one man show. @petersonra makes it sound like the one man show is just skipping these expenses because they're cheap, but why would you NOT try to minimize overhead, especially in the early stages of business development? It allows you to keep your price point competitive.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. If you put a 50 yr. electrician up against a 10 yr. electrician and force them to compete at the same price point, the 10 yr. has zero, and I mean ZERO chance. The only way to get your foot in the door is to find a way to offer a competitive price point, which you get by minimizing your overhead.

You can keep renewing a license just to keep from having to test again

We have this PROBLEM in Illinois. I was honestly shocked the first time I was ALLOWED to renew without having to retest.

Theoretically, every renewal period that coincides with a new edition of the NEC should REQUIRE a retest. However, contrary to that idea, for one, it takes time to get up to date on newer editions of the code. You can't logically retest on the 2020 NEC in 2020, lol.

Also, if municipalities are allowed to decide what version of the code they are on (e.g. there are still municipalities on 2005 or earlier) ... why can't we as EC's?? Why can't we renew our license for the current year, but have it clarify that we've only tested as far as say, 2014? I think that would be a better system.

 

[petersonra]

I would be willing to bet the 50 year electrician could not compete against the ten year guy, just from a physical standpoint. A fifty year electrician is going to be 70. That is one old electrician.

 

[AC\DC]

Could be a 50 year established business.
With new blood running it.

 

[Jerramundi]

I would be willing to bet the 50 year electrician could not compete against the ten year guy, just from a physical standpoint. A fifty year electrician is going to be 70. That is one old electrician.

Well that's only part of the overall equation. The 50 yr. guy is going to have connections, resources, buying power, capital to play with, etc. As for the physical side of things, I don't know about you but I've worked with some up in age like that and they would surprise you. A lot of those older independent guys I've worked with are built like tanks, lol. Tanks that carry around a spare tire or two, but tanks nonetheless.

 

[kwired]

Yessir. That's why many prefer a one man show. @petersonra makes it sound like the one man show is just skipping these expenses because they're cheap, but why would you NOT try to minimize overhead, especially in the early stages of business development? It allows you to keep your price point competitive.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. If you put a 50 yr. electrician up against a 10 yr. electrician and force them to compete at the same price point, the 10 yr. has zero, and I mean ZERO chance. The only way to get your foot in the door is to find a way to offer a competitive price point, which you get by minimizing your overhead.


We have this PROBLEM in Illinois. I was honestly shocked the first time I was ALLOWED to renew without having to retest.

Theoretically, every renewal period that coincides with a new edition of the NEC should REQUIRE a retest. However, contrary to that idea, for one, it takes time to get up to date on newer editions of the code. You can't logically retest on the 2020 NEC in 2020, lol.

Also, if municipalities are allowed to decide what version of the code they are on (e.g. there are still municipalities on 2005 or earlier) ... why can't we as EC's?? Why can't we renew our license for the current year, but have it clarify that we've only tested as far as say, 2014? I think that would be a better system.

You don't have any kind of CEU requirements before you can renew?

What I was getting at for here anyway is you can keep renewing even if not actively working/contracting, You still need to take the required CEU's before you can renew. The retesting thing would come up if you didn't renew (during the pre expiration renewal time period) and let your license expire. I think they give you up to six months after it expires, should you let that time elapse you will have to retest to get a license again.

insurance is not required to hold a contractor license, is required to apply for permits though.

 

[Jerramundi]

You don't have any kind of CEU requirements before you can renew?

What I was getting at for here anyway is you can keep renewing even if not actively working/contracting, You still need to take the required CEU's before you can renew. The retesting thing would come up if you didn't renew (during the pre expiration renewal time period) and let your license expire. I think they give you up to six months after it expires, should you let that time elapse you will have to retest to get a license again.

insurance is not required to hold a contractor license, is required to apply for permits though.

The municipality that issues my license never requested anything. I just get a letter at the end of each year telling me to pay this amount by this date and pick up my new license. I always thought it was kind of odd.

I've made efforts to keep up on code changes, purchased materials from Mike Holt, watch his videos, participate in discussions on this forum, etc., but it's all at my own discretion.

I looked into it after I first found this forum and read about CEU's, but as far as I can tell, Illinois does not require anything because our licenses are NOT controlled by the state, but by individual municipalities.

It's honestly made me reconsider my position on decentralization, which I used to think was the greatest idea in the world... but now-a-days, I would almost prefer a state license. It would be much easier to maintain everything.

 

[kwired]

The municipality that issues my license never requested anything. I just get a letter at the end of each year telling me to pay this amount by this date and pick up my new license. I always thought it was kind of odd.

I've made efforts to keep up on code changes, purchased materials from Mike Holt, watch his videos, participate in discussions on this forum, etc., but it's all at my own discretion.

I looked into it after I first found this forum and read about CEU's, but as far as I can tell, Illinois does not require anything because our licenses are NOT controlled by the state, but by individual municipalities... and yet, there are state regulations to follow, haha. It's the wild west. It really is and it's a freakin' headache.

It's honestly made me reconsider my position on decentralization, which I used to think was the greatest idea in the world... but now-a-days, I would almost prefer a state license. It would be much easier to maintain everything.

Well things do vary from place to place though there are some things that tend to be somewhat common in a lot of places.

Here the State AHJ has authority over the entire state. There are municipal AHJ's but they must comply with state rules, they can be stricter at times with some things than state is but in general can not be more relaxed. One example is the receptacle spacing requirements - NEC will require a receptacle on a 24 inch wide wall space, I know of a city where they want one if it is 18 inches. They can make that change but can't change it to say 30 inches. Those municipal AHJ's do not issue licenses, you use your state license. Some maybe still want you to be on a registry with them to work in their jurisdiction and with that often comes sending them a copy of your state license, as well as renewing that registration every time the state licenses expires, which is Dec 31 of every even numbered year for every license holder and is regardless of what date you obtained/renewed it.

 

[Jerramundi]

You don't have any kind of CEU requirements before you can renew?

What I was getting at for here anyway is you can keep renewing even if not actively working/contracting, You still need to take the required CEU's before you can renew. The retesting thing would come up if you didn't renew (during the pre expiration renewal time period) and let your license expire. I think they give you up to six months after it expires, should you let that time elapse you will have to retest to get a license again.

insurance is not required to hold a contractor license, is required to apply for permits though.

The municipality that issues my license requires that we be actively engaged in the act of doing electrical work in order to maintain our licenses. At least, I believe I read that in their municipal code. They won't allow us to renew if we're not actively working.

It would be nice to be able to take some time off and just re-coop and study, which is part of the reason I prefer to work for myself - so I can have control over my own schedule and just not take a job for a week and rest and study.

I did it for a while where I was working full time AND going to school, but it burnt me out fast, lol. People always tell stories about the hero/heroine that works three jobs and raises a family. I say good for you, but that sounds like torture to me. I don't think anyone should have to go through all that to live a decent life. You gotta do what's best for you and what's best for me is to have some control and be able to take some time off when I prefer to. I'm sooo checked out of the rat race, lol. I just want to take my time and do the best I can.

 

[kwired]

The municipality that issues my license requires that we be actively engaged in the act of doing electrical work in order to maintain our licenses. At least, I believe I read that in their municipal code. They won't allow us to renew if we're not actively working.

It would be nice to be able to take some time off and just re-coop and study, which is part of the reason I prefer to work for myself - so I can have control over my own schedule and just not take a job for a week and rest and study.

I did it for a while where I was working full time AND going to school, but it burnt me out fast, lol. People always tell stories about the hero/heroine that works three jobs and raises a family. I say good for you, but that sounds like torture to me. I don't think anyone should have to go through all that to live a decent life.

Do you have to test to acquire the license, or just prove a certain amount of experience or other qualifications?

I think probably is a majority of places your license is good indefinitely as long as you keep renewing it "on time" when it expires. Renewing however may require some CEU's before they will renew it. Some people may hold licenses in multiple states, local jurisdictions, etc. and need to do whatever is necessary for each one of them to keep it. Some CEU's are recognized by more than one jurisdiction though, so is smart to try to use ones that cover all the places you hold a license in if possible. Most the local ones I have gone to have sign in sheets for surrounding states if that applies to you, so that class will count for all the states that recognize the class.

 

[Jerramundi]

Do you have to test to acquire the license, or just prove a certain amount of experience or other qualifications?

All of the above. I took my exam through Pearson Vue, which I found on the ICC website, and it was a proctored exam.

 

[kwired]

All of the above. I took my exam through Pearson Vue, which I found on the ICC website, and it was a proctored exam.

Since they apparently don't require the CEU's to renew, they maybe figure being active with your license must be sufficient enough for keeping up on things? But if not remaining active they won't be as willing to renew the license.

I know of guys that go to CEU's for license renewal purposes that simply don't want to lose that license even though they might not really be utilizing it much or even not at all in their regular employment. Some maybe do have a contractor license, don't really contract full time but still do some side work at times, this would still allow them to file permits for that work as long as they also do have insurance. Insurance isn't all that expensive if you not doing a lot of work - those policies are often based on annual receipts and type of work done so if it is a side gig the numbers won't generally be that high, unless maybe you are selling quite a bit of high price items, though that isn't typical of side work either.