Well, we've been busting our butts for more than 4 years now doing only residential and we're still busting our butts...and we're still struggling to pay the bills...and we're still being treated like second class citizens by custom home builders. And you know what? We're still paying a monthly bill to stay in the Blue Book and getting lots and lots of ITBs everyday. So we're getting serious and deciding to get more aggressive about landing some commerical work. So here I am hoping to get some input from you guys.

I have three very experienced electricians. Two of them are licensed, two of them are commercial electricians, and one of them is highly experienced in residential and better than he'll admit at commercial. He's definitely not a stranger to it. The three of them together have about 60 yrs experience combined. That said, the field work is not my concern, winning the jobs and dealing with the "professional" end of things will be the trick.

I have no problems being professional but I need to figure out what GCs are going to expect from us as the electrical contractor. Some questions I have specifically at this point are (and these would be for anyone who is a small company doing primarily commercial work):

Do you typically sub out concrete cutting and patching or do GCs farm that out from the get-go?

Same with Fire Systems. Do you sub it out or are they already getting bids from Fire Systems installers separately?

These days, particularly in retail, are you supplying fixtures and lamps or is an owner or GC supplying those?

Its a few starter questions anyway. If anyone wants to help me out in this process simply by providing me with some input, it would be so appreciated. This is seriously a matter of life and death for us. I've been told time and time again that "you can't make no money doing houses son!" I've just had such a hard time breaking into the commercial jobs and I'm reaching out for help.

Thanks guys!
Mike