I know I have mentioned this in other posts but I am a new Contractor in my area and I am trying to build up some business. Anyone have any tips as to approaching builders and potential clients?

By the way - if you are in Central Ohio and have an excess of work I'll be happy to take some overflow

Happi-man
Unless you have unlimited funds, try advertising locally like newspapers and word of mouth. I am from Ohio too, a small ad in the yellow pages runs from $1200-1800 dollars per year and the bills come everymonth even when things are slow. Getting the first year out of the way is the longest and the hardest part.
Oh and by the way Good Luck
-Mark-

Mark-

Definitely don't have unlimited funds. Luckily, I have a mother-in-law who is a retired small business owner and willing to fund our first six months of health insurance. W ehave been at it for nearly a year now but only having weekends and evenings and working our full-time jobs as well. Its been a bitch if I may be so blunt.

As soon as the Insurance is set up we will get one guy going full-time, try to build business and then pick ourselves up as we go...

Thanks for the good wishes and advice!
Mike

Go right out and get the work. If you see a development or a house going up find out who is in charge and talk to them. Sometimes it really is as simple as that. In my opinion spending alot of money for advertising can be a financial burden when strting out. Send out some introductory letters to local builders and such. Small postcards listing the types of jobs you do are cheap and cost effective. I have also searched recent real estate transactions and sent postcards out to those people. I have also called general contractors on the phone to introduce myself. All of theses things worked quite well for me.

EMS - that is exactly what I plan to do as well. Call people - cold calls - it might be all I have right now. Luckily I am also an intermediate graphic designer so at least I can develop some marketing tools (flyers, brochures, etc) on my own without having to pay someone...

One time I was driving by a lot where they were just starting to break ground. I didn't know what they were building so I stopped to find and talk to the super on the job.

I asked him what he was building. He replied "A hotel".

I asked "Is it going to have lights?"

He said "As a matter of fact I think it will."

I asked "do you have an electrician?"

He said "No".

I said "Well how convienient, thats what we do!"

I got a set of prints, bid the job, ended up negotiating the job and was awarded the job.

So see, sometimes it is that simple.

We get most of our work throug word of mouth, but you have to start somewhere. One thing I've done is "scout" subdivisions on the weekends when nobody is on the job. I look for the houses with sloppy work. Then during the week I'll go back and find the super/ builder( I like the personal touch rather than phone to introduce). I ask him/her if they are happy with the electrician and point out a few problems and tell how nice our work is. Generally they will ask what we charge and I tell them that every electrician charges differently but if they will give me a copy of the other electricians bill I'll compare it and let the know what we would charge. You'd be suprised, but most will gladly give you the bill. I don't try to beat the other guy's bill, I generally will figure out how we can come in near the same or slightly higher and point out what we are giving them that the other's aren't.

Side Note: Most builders couldn't care less about the quality inside the walls, so you have to give them things that you can see after the walls are closed in. Assuming you're wires are neat, you can point out that they can use this to sell a buyer in the framing stage.

Hope this helps

Word of mouth and recommendation is pretty effective in the rural area where I am.

Many local shops/businesses around here have a bulletin board on which for a very small sum (e.g. less than £1 per week) they'll keep a business card or small ad.

yup, the posters here are right, ya gotta beat the bush....shakin' hands.....kissin' babies...buttton that top button....make eye contact...(insert entire boy scout creedo) .......

10 I just noticed an ad for a 'customer-based referral service for finding service professionals' on one of our local TV/news stations' website: http://www.servicemagic.com/servlet/RedirectServlet?m=worldnow&D=SUPERCAT&entry_point_id9 - My first thought was "Wow, that'd be useful. To know that other customers would know who did decent work and then pass that info on to those looking for qualified/reasonable/capable [fill in the blank]." It looks like you (the service professional) sign up and then your customers can search for someone (you) in their area.

2) The other avenue for information that I personally have found useful in terms of knowing what needs to be done and what to look for (quality-wise) was through my home inspector who mentioned several things that needed improved that I wouldn't have known:
- sliding glass door was not tempered glass (not good w/ 3 rowdy kids)
- 'new' window install wasn't done right - no vapor barrier up to window edge. (The idjuts didn't even finish their work as the stucco was never redone but it made the other issues easier to find.)
What this indicated to me was that at least there was a knowledgable source of info to help me improve my home. It was kind of nice to hear advice from someone who didn't have a 'vested interest' and wasn't going to make recommendations based solely on his own profit motive.

3)I've suggested here before that through church or civic organizations you can become a known entity by offering a free short course on 'what to look for' in your field of expertise or do a quick handyman's ministry kind of thing (call it a complimentary service call or a senior citizen's advocate visit or an annual safety check if you're not comfortable with 'ministry') - just do something free, nice, quick, simple, etc. for your fan/customer base and they'll remember you.

4) Trade fairs are a good place to start. Rent a table or booth, hand out cards, flyers, fridge magnets, and set up a display to show things that need annual visual inspections or things to check for safety, quality vs. poor quality in electrical installs, hazards to warn children to stay away from - anything that your local population may not be aware of or may benefit from.

5)Career days at your local schools:
- teach the little kids to look (but don't touch!) for unsafe conditions in their homes and you'll have a whole platoon of little tattle tales to send business your way, I guarantee it!
- Go to the Jr. High or High School and offer to help with a class project, supply or loan tools for the day (with your supervision, of course), hand out a 'door prize' to a student or two, they'll remember you and so will their parents. I am a huge advocate for mentoring and apprenticing! (One of my all-time fav memories is getting coveralls for a birthday & using my dad's tools to tear apart a couple of engines. He used to call these kind of projects 'therapy' for a motor-mouthed grease-monkey kind of girl.)

6) Find the summer day-camp coordinator and set up a 'let's do a seminar' kind of 1-day thing. Send each kid home with a card, a flyer, a photo of them with the project/tools/etc. Your name will be first on their lips.

7) Offer to do a series of short informational columns for your local paper. An example might be "Aluminum wiring: is mine safe?" and address what to look for, what to do to reduce the risk of a problem, etc. Another example is "When to call an electrician." and give examples of situations the home owner should or should not tackle without professional assistance. Our local realtors have been doing this in every Sunday issue of the paper regarding the real estate realm and it has been very interesting and enlightening.

It doesn't necessarily require a big financial investment - just become someone your community looks toward for your field and be someone they can trust and rely upon.

Try becoming a member of a local builder’s exchange (plan room)
The exchange I belong to has about 250 jobs at any given time some estimators set up shop doing take- offs all day long. Eagle, please don’t promote GC to shop bids

Happi.

See if there's a local Contractors' Association that you can join and go to the meetings. Bring some cards to pass out to anyone that asks. You could make some good contacts over Coffee and Donuts there, and stay on top of what is going on in your area.

You should also be able to get discounted group rates on Insurance through them which would more than cover the yearly membership dues.

Another idea might be to make contacts at your local realtors

Bill

I cant tell you how to build your business but I can tell you what worked for me. Make lots of freinds in the other trades! If you buddy up with a plumber or an HVAC man it will come back to you. Go out of your way to look out for the other subs when you starting out. Do'em some favors and they'll remember you when there out on the slab and the GC says he's trying to line up the other subs. This brought me a bunch of work when I started out a few years ago. I was fortunate to work for a good business man while traning but more fortunate to work for a bad business man. I really learned from his mistakes. Here is my list of what I suggest to do.

1 Join home builders assoc.

2 Get your name out. Truck signs, yard signs and biz cards. If you want to deal in new construction DONT get an ad in the phone book.

3 Show up on time as promised (duh)

4 Keep you trucks clean and in good working order. If you cant see the bed of your truck you need to either get busy and install those materials or clean it out.

5 Keep your help clean! No ear, nose or tounge rings. Company shirt is a must, NO EXCUSES.

6 Bill out on time! Turn in your draws as requested. Make sure the builder knows the fee schedule. In residential I use 60/30/10. Youre a little ahead on the money by doing this but it can save your a**. If you don't get your draw, don't go back. I include a job total and balance on my invoices.

7 Get changes in writing and charge for them immediately.

8 Leave the job cleaner than when you got there. Boy this really sticks in a builders head. We broom clean each job before we leave and put all trash in one pile. It takes ten minutes to do, your work looks neater, and you wont believe the things you'll find. Tools, parts and so forth.

9 Make sure you have your ducks in a row. Get all your supplies for the job there the first time. Takes a good bit of prep but it keeps you there working. There's not a whole lot of money in driving to the supply house on a contract job.

Do all this and you too can be an overworked electrical contractor!

[This message has been edited by arseegee (edited 06-15-2002).]

arseegee;
golden advice there...
i took a broom outta my truck and the carpenters made fun of me for a hour, asking if they taught me 'broom' in my apprenticeship, which end does the work..etc...

yet i get along fairly well with said crew now....

arseegee,

I do everything that you just said except for the builder's association. The only reason that I never joined the buildes' association is because, as I mentioned in another thread, we can't compete with the "electricians" wiring homes around here. (Remember, no license required in PA)

I do everything else and am still not busy. Been doing it for 10 years.

Wish I new what the secret was.

Master66, it's hard to have fair play when there are no rules. That is something that I would have to take up with my state gov. If you dont have any licensing now it's not gonna help you much in the immediate future because IF they implemented statewide licensing they would probably grandfather all the jacklegs in without any testing. This is what GA did in the mid 80's. So we still have some guys that don't really qualify but are in the trade just because the sent in an application before the dead line. I spent years as an apprentice and started helping my uncle in my teens. Then went back to school after college to prepare myself and learn what I didn't in the field. All of this makes me proud to say I'm licensed and I take it very seriously. I still get the low baller from time to time and say can't do it for that. I had a contractor call me today and tell me that a customer wants to remove a wall in a house that we just roughed. I asked him what he had alloted to move all the switches and recepts and he said nothing. Thats when I about lost it so I replied "$50 dollars per drop once conductors are installed and I think there are 9 drops". He could not believe that and said he wasn't gonna pay it. So don't think you the only one who's getting no respect. If you could stand the heat and the gnats I'd say come on down here.

arseegee,

Thanks for the reply.

Maybe one day I'll make it down your way.

Master66, have you tried to get into a special nitch. One of my buddies who started from meager beginings is one of the strongest companies I know, just from falling into the right nitch. He got into wiring fuel dispensing equipment and hooked up with one of the companies that handles the gas pumps for minute marts. He handles nothing but the pump wiring (explosion proof), canopies and signaling system. Only wires the whole store if it's close to home. He does it with a crew your size and the money is great. He did just under seven digits last year.

Another point:

If you have the capabilities and there are no licensing problems in your particular area, try to cover installation of telephone, TV, alarms, and any other similar systems as well as just electrical power.

I've had several jobs in my area where someone has been "doing up" a place and was quite pleased to learn that I could handle all of this stuff so that they wouldn't have to call in a whole load of other people to take care of it.