Tis the season. No calls coming in

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LarryFine

LarryFine

Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
Location
Henrico County, VA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
e57 said:
Hope you weren't offended by the comment - but as stated - why would that matter...
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Not at all. Didn't occur to me to take offense for even a moment.

I don't take anything personally, even when I should. :)

Just thought it funny that he hand signs nearly 600 christmas card a year. A bit more than your average bear.
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I guess you could consider it respect for individual freedom of choice.


Happy Holidays to all!
 
cowboyjwc

cowboyjwc

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Simi Valley, CA
I've always found that historically it's slow this time of year. Just before the holidays everyone is trying to get their house in order, but from about November until after the first of the year, people are spending money on different things and don't really want their house torn up.

If it picks up, you should start seeing it after the first of the year.

They guys that have stayed busy, have mostly been lucky, a lot of banks pulled the financing on projects and closed equity lines. The money is just not there anymore and I think that we had better get used to that idea.
 
S

satcom

Senior Member
cowboyjwc said:
I've always found that historically it's slow this time of year. Just before the holidays everyone is trying to get their house in order, but from about November until after the first of the year, people are spending money on different things and don't really want their house torn up.

If it picks up, you should start seeing it after the first of the year.

They guys that have stayed busy, have mostly been lucky, a lot of banks pulled the financing on projects and closed equity lines. The money is just not there anymore and I think that we had better get used to that idea.
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A good number of the last group of new license holders in my area are working at local holiday jobs, picking packages, working at home stores, or just collecting unemployment, the making it big in contracting dreams will have to go on hold for a while, I was talking to one of these guys a few weeks ago, and he said he left his electricians job of 10 years to go on his own, he thought his boss was making a killing, with all the nice tools and new trucks, now only after making the move did he discover, his old boss was living off his wifes income, he is lucky, he found a job pumping gas, and running for parts. The holidays are always slow for the reasons you noted, we can just hope things do pick up after the new year.
 
cowboyjwc

cowboyjwc

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Simi Valley, CA
satcom said:
A good number of the last group of new license holders in my area are working at local holiday jobs, picking packages, working at home stores, or just collecting unemployment, the making it big in contracting dreams will have to go on hold for a while, I was talking to one of these guys a few weeks ago, and he said he left his electricians job of 10 years to go on his own, he thought his boss was making a killing, with all the nice tools and new trucks, now only after making the move did he discover, his old boss was living off his wifes income, he is lucky, he found a job pumping gas, and running for parts. The holidays are always slow for the reasons you noted, we can just hope things do pick up after the new year.
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And I hope for all of our sakes that it does pick up with the new year.
 
LarryFine

LarryFine

Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
Location
Henrico County, VA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
"I mean like, so many positive waves, maybe we can't lose!" ~ Donald Sutherland as Oddball in Kelly's Heroes :)
 
B

blueheels2

Senior Member
Location
Raleigh, NC
Occupation
Electrical contractor
Got laid off last Thursday but fortunately I had been looking for a job already. Started my new one today making a lot more money.
 
busman

busman

Senior Member
Location
Northern Virginia
Occupation
Master Electrician / Electrical Engineer
cowboyjwc said:
I've always found that historically it's slow this time of year. Just before the holidays everyone is trying to get their house in order, but from about November until after the first of the year, people are spending money on different things and don't really want their house torn up.

If it picks up, you should start seeing it after the first of the year.

They guys that have stayed busy, have mostly been lucky, a lot of banks pulled the financing on projects and closed equity lines. The money is just not there anymore and I think that we had better get used to that idea.
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For me it's just the opposite. I'm swamped from Halloween to New Years. Everyone wants everything done for the Holidays. From Jan. 15 to March 15, they realize how much they spent on the Holidays and it's dead. Around March 15th, the Tax Refunds fuel things back up. Just my experience, but I'm booked all the way thru the end of January.

Mark
 
E

emahler

Senior Member
busman said:
For me it's just the opposite. I'm swamped from Halloween to New Years. Everyone wants everything done for the Holidays. From Jan. 15 to March 15, they realize how much they spent on the Holidays and it's dead. Around March 15th, the Tax Refunds fuel things back up. Just my experience, but I'm booked all the way thru the end of January.

Mark
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that's the service work schedule...cowboy is an inspector...not too many inspections called for for service work:D
 
I

ishium 80439

Senior Member
Location
Denver foothills via the Horn of Africa
The only way I can think of to describe the current climate is weird. The past year and a half have been flat. I have been punctuated with stretches of being crazy busy. Right now I'm steadyish but heading into what is typically a slow season. I generally see it sputter to a stop in in December and stays pretty dead until late March.

The thing that is so maddening about this is that it is impossible to plan for the future. For the first several years of running my own show I was really torn between trying to generalize (low margin, high volume) or specialize (high margin, low volume). I think the only reason that I'm able to still cling on to hope is that de facto I chose the former. In the past 2 months I've wired a PRV valve for a water district in the mountains, did a TI at a Rec center, wired some hot tubs and today I'm going to look at a faulty receptacle in someone's home. Throwing the net wide has helped the phone ring a bit more than if I had all of my eggs in one basket.

In general though the phone has slowed considerably. The beginning of the year will be interesting. So far the only thing I have lined up for after the holidays is 2 days worth of work rewiring a kitchen.
 
Mule

Mule

Senior Member
Location
Oklahoma
Our calls are a minimun right now also, but we have enough work to carry us through it, and we're thankfull that we do....
 
R

ramsy

Roger Ruhle dba NoFixNoPay
Location
LA basin, CA
Occupation
Service Electrician 2020 NEC
emahler said:
that's the service work schedule...cowboy is an inspector...not too many inspections called for for service work:D
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My service clients trickled in gradually, the trend of 1-4 new clients per month does not appear seasonal, or industry related.

The affordable ad source that got me started, favored by mature audiences, dried up in 2009. Perhaps the local readership is now saturated, or fixed incomes stressed by other costs.

Poaching my web site, advertisers --desperate for my money-- ring my phone an order of magnitude more than anyone offering me work. My promise to put their best offer in my Rolodex for future reference --with no further follow-ups-- gets most of them off the phone.
 
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