Ito has a good point. My former employer and I worked together at a previous co. where he was gen supt. Then, he started his own co., with me as his MOR. Even though the GC knew him well, he was awarded contracts because his bids were competitive and low.

And one contract was constructed of several "give backs" or alternates. The give back is a loss as far as future income goes, but would not reflect on what he would receive for work done. But that's still a tough situation if a phase runs close to or over budget. The next phase you were counting on might have been given back and now you won't have that cash flow in a month, unless you're willing to match a lower bid on the next alternate. Or, they simply want to delete a particular item and there's no negotiation about it.

But my former employer is fast becoming one of the preferred subs because A) by his own admission, he excels at butt-kissing and BS and will bid low, and B) he has knowledgable, talented people who accomplish the work.

But he is scaling back to 2, maybe 3 schools a year to reduce his management workload, which means he will probably bring his margin up at least a point.

Even as I'm trying to start a business without a steady flow of work, I have an app in at another company as I've got to have some way of putting food on the table. I have enough money to pay bills for one month, and that's a result of working for this guy at less than what I should be making and having stretches of not enough work.

On the upside, I ran into an old workmate/friend who, also a master electrican, works for another big GC and he wouldn't mind helping me when possible. So, contacts are good and they are even better when you get that little piece of paper that says "pay to the order of."