ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Business Related Discussion My Truck Repair

I don't see taking small jobs as side work. It is just expanding the scope of your business.
I usually think of "side work" as when an employee is doing work on his own that his employer is not willing (or never gets a chance) to bid on.
As an employer I always found that troubling, particularly if the employee didn't talk to me about it first.
If someone came to me and said he was helping his brother and sister in law wire their house I wouldn't have a problem with it but if this guy is running a part time business on the side I would suggest it is time he sought other opportunities away from my company and I would escort him to the door if he insisted on continuing.

I do agree with that Greg, I work now (for the next 2 wks anyway) inside maint. So no conflict.
When I was younger The contractors I worked for would not look at residential under $1.5M. So no issue was ever raised. And I would not do the comm. Ind. stuff, I would pass it to my employer.That was in my best interest.

When you work for big companies this is a lot more straight forward. IBM makes you sign an intellectual property agreement with an air tight "no compete" clause.
I wrote a couple programs on my own time to make my job easier. I was not really even a programmer but IBM went out of their way to point out to me, they owned those programs.
In the case of the online test program, they said it was so our competition couldn't use it. I really think it was just to remind everyone, they owned your thoughts.

Non-Compete-- Thsi can be tricky.
If worded right/wrong (depends on perspective) You May not be allowed to work in your choosen profession.

I'm an Electrician. My fire alarm employer,once wanted me to sign one. This would have excluded me from almost any position in my field. I declined, and they re-arranged it.
I still did not sign.

Where I am now, a fellow employee (plumber with handicapped daughter) worked with some professors and came up with a great device, the college holds the pattern, he got a little something. Thats understandable, He used their resources. No problem.

I think were all discussing the same basic issue: a failure to communicate. Call it the "Cool Hand Luke" paradox.

The customer fails to communicate to the vendor what they desire.

The vendor (us) fails to communicate to the customer that we are in a position to fulfill their desires.

Often, we need to overcome a pre-existing bias. I had assumed that the place I finally -out of desperation - would be arrogant, "full up", and expensive. I assumed that I would by 'strip mined' by wholesale parts changes, additional charges, and pressured to authorize unnecessary work. I was 100% wrong.
They, to be fair, seemed to assume I was a professional, who really needed his truck, and was an adult who would happily pay a reasonable amount to get it fixed. (I'm glad their assumptions were better then mine!)

I recently did a gas station / mini mart job. The customer told me afterward that he had discovered me purely by accident, through the GC. The customer told me that everyone he had asked had recommended a certain competitor - a fine firm, that has pretty much sewn up the 'gas station' market in this town. Many folks assume this other EC is the only guy who can do 'haz loc' installations.

The fact that I was, at that time, building a CNG plant for a major fleet operation was generally unknown. People - including this customer - were not aware that I was qualified, and interested in doing, such work. That almost became my loss.

I experienced something similar when I purchased my first 'utility body' truck. Suddenly, I was a "real" electrician, and not just another handyman. That nothing had changed - not I, nor my tools, nor my stock - well, that didn't matter. The big truck did.
The truck is a two-edged sword. Some folks feel better when they see the truck, and are happy to pay more for a 'real' electrician. Others see it, and assume that I simply must be out of their price range.

We need to recognize the expectations of our intended customers, address those concerns ... and make sure they know about it!

You've hit the nail on the head Reno when you say that failure to communicate is a basic issue. It really is true that no matter how you slice it, "perception is reality".

Andy

Quote: "These guys (understandably so) can't make a days pay on these jobs, therefore can't be botherd, with changing out MRS Jones' dinning rm fixture. or repairing that door bell."

That may be true of some commercial, or industrial only shops, may say they can'r be bothered, but for many years these small jobs have been our bread and butter jobs, and many of the small shops in the area, depend on them as well.

The contractors that I have as friends, that do residential. They have 1 maybe 2 guys,that this is all they do, Service, This leads to the bigger projects.. Yes we do compete, and yes we're all stil very close friends.
We don't share numbers, only stories.:)

So how do you communicate it besides being and having employees that are approachable by homeowners, consistantly do a good job at what you do and put it on the side of your truck? This is what we do and it seems to be working for my small growing business.

I've seen "No job too big or too small!" included in contractors adds before but I've yet to see that phrase in a yellow page ad for a dealer mechanic.

My experience with my dealer's service dept. hasn't been pleasant. After repeated visits totaling hundreds of dollars the 2002 Tahoe still rattles and makes bumping noises. They can change the oil but apparently they can't hear. I believe I'm done with them.
Rant off/

My previous employer was so busy with new construction that he encouraged me to take the small ones on the side. He even let me use his tools and materials, within reason of course.
The only problem was that we were working 10 or 12 hour days 6 or 7 days a week at the time so there wasn't much of me left to go around.

When I went out on my own it was because I was tired of having one GC after another's poor planing or schedule hogging keep me from having any kind of a life outside of my job. I was always one phone call away from losing Saturday or even Sunday too. They didn't flinch at replying "Sunday will be fine." when you told them that was the only way you could get there before the middle of next week. Oops--rant off again/

With that my plan was to try and keep about 50/50 new construction and service work, thinking that when the GC's were all over me I could get some breathing room by saying no to service work. Scheduling is still tough (it's hard to say no you know) but up until recently it's worked out pretty good. Now as new construction is slowing way down I'm glad that I built up a decent word of mouth network for my service business. I don't even have an ad in the phone book. Yet.

I recently finished a new house and shop for a lady who originally hired me a couple of years ago to change a fan on a tip from a local lighting store. They keep a stack of my cards handy.

Working with her GC led to me now having a set of plans on my desk for his next project, a 3500 sq. foot custom house.

As I was typing this I received a call for some minor service from a man who works with one of my clients.

I guess where I'm going with this is that communicating your capabilities doesn't always require a lot of banging the drum. But I guess it might if you wanted to grow really big. I don't.

And that small work leads to big work (not that wiring houses would be considered big work by many of you) and vice versa and having both can provide a little insulation from the economy.