I will be starting to work on my own within the next few weeks as my corporate filing and licensures are finalized. I was thinking of working with just myself and a helper, when my service manager approached me and wanted to bring him and our other top service electrician in to work for me. I am considering this, but I can't come to a rate of pay for them, because I'm not sure what kind of day to day business I will have myself.

Has anyone ever paid electricians as subcontractors, and at what commission?

A word of advice... don't go there it wont work like you think it should.

Thanks for the input ITO....

Good advice!

Hope your not depending on any residential, work to boom, it's starting to nose dive, and the banks are on the run, if it's anything like the 70's bust, it took 2 1/2 years to recover, try to have some solid contracts, before you jump in the pool. Commercial is still pretty strong, but that may feel the pinch soon.

Service is great where I'm at....

I wonder how this mortgage fall out will effect the Service business?

It will spread, if they don't let the market adjust, the feds just printed up some money today, to prop up an already retreating market.

Many of this present generation has not seen the economy run backwards, it's been a while.

Back in the 70's we had contractors taking jobs in plants, working at anything they could find, the work just dried up, and the few that were working, were at reduced hours.

I remenber well because, I went to an auction almost every week, back then.

At least here in CA, if a person is told what to do, in what manner to do it, what time to show up, is supervised, is provided material and does not have contractors license, then that person is an employee and can not be treated as a sub contractor.

If the same person is given a set of plans,the total amount is aggreed on, the finish time is stated and the person has a contractors license then the person can act as one.

In TX, you cannot be a subcontractor w/o first being a licensed contractor.

To hire anybody other than an employee, they must be licensed as a contractor. Having a JW license or even a masters license does not make them a contractor. Contractors are required to have workers comp, liability insurance etc.

If your insurance company finds out your subcontracting out work they will require to see your sub's insurance. If they don't have it, your insurance company will bill you for the added risk to carry the subcontractor.

It's unlikely you'll have enough work to start a business with serveral employees on day one. I wouldn't want to do it even if I could have.

Thank you all for your input.

I'm not very quick on financial matters, but I think the printing of large quantities of paper money is the definition of inflation.

Dave

As LK said:



I remember that well, also.

Although I was not a Contractor at the time - actually I was still in School, but my Father is an EC whom I had been working with since birth
(joking - almost seems that long back then... more on this later)

During that time period of recession, he was taking anything that was available to bid on, and fortunately won some Contracts.
Through this period, a few good GCs gave him leads, which kept us from living in Cardboard boxes.

Eventually, things began to brighten up, and the Banks (long time Clients) started to do things again, which brought in lots of work again.

Then 1990 came around, with another recession and drammatic drop in Construction & Developement.

Scott

The CA CSLB (Contractors State Licensing board) requires 24 months of experience vouchers, in addition to a 4-yr college degree, before allowing me to test for a C-10 or bonding.

With about 18 months of these vouchers, as both a US TAX form# 1099 "independent" from C-10's and commercial clients, directly under the "handyman" classification, I've worked with city inspectors, plans engineers, the utility, and do so legally under my state's "Business & Professions Code", without being classified as an employee.

These State codes are listed on my working agreement, along with a description of the legal-business environment on the back side.

For those insisting its illegal for a state certified JW to touch electrical as a 1099, handyman, or submit these clients as CSLB vouchers without a US Tax form# W2, feel free to print and critique both of these pages, at www.NoFixNoPay.info

If sub $500 projects aren't paying the bills, vouchers from W2 employers will be needed, but under the General Public License (GPL), I offer this independent template to anyone seeking a legal transition from employee to contractor.

Explain how staffing agencies supply you workers if they do not have a contractors license? That one blows my mind. Maybe a loop hole?

Employees can come from anywhere, even if they're undocumented.

The law the allows this in my state is the "Bus & Professions code §7044." this allows owner/builder employees who does not control the tasks or schedule to make over $500 per project. But, the shop/employer must assume state workers comp. insurance, unemployment insurance, taxes, and payroll deductions.

Ramsy, from your document.



The exams are not the same, and there isn't any even a requirement or classification for maintenance. There are General Electricians, and Residential Electricians





The reason that they do not know what version of the NEC the City of Fullerton is on is because they are on the Fullerton Electrical Code, not the NEC. The Fullerton Code is amended in only a couple of areas from the 2004 California Electrical Code, still not the NEC, which is adopted from the 2002 NEC in and is in effect in the entire State of California.

There's no reason to go down to the building dept and read the book. The City's website has the entire Municipal Code, including the Electrical Code.

Do yourself a favor, get a license, and get legit.

BTW I'm a C10 from Fullerton.

Electure, many thanks for those corrections, and for considering my best interests.

Getting my license would be very favorable. $10k cash is now saved toward the $12k bond, and I believe 1 year left to go for experience vouchers, unless CSLB counts 3 years in the Union? The exam would be history if I had started collecting vouchers 5 years ago.

Further advice welcome.

Ramsy,
I've edited out your links to the other forum.
We discourage linking up to other forums, as we have no moderation capabilities in them (other than some of our mods that moderate for multiple forums). They all have different levels of rules and what's permissible, and we would like to maintain ours.

BTW you don't need to post a $12,500 cash bond yourself. Mine is under $200 for 2 years through a bonding company. What you DO need to do is go to the CSLB website, or better yet, contact them, and get the information on what's required of you for a license. I'd have to agree with some of the others that you are a trainwreck waiting to happen at this point.

Electure,
I will ask CSLB about using Union experience and bonding companies. If I do get scheduled for C-10 testing, of all the remarks so far, yours was the only direction capable of averting a train wreck to the right track.

BTW
Handyman laws were not my invention, but my legal model for independent-Journeymen wiremen may have been the first published to the public domain.

Of all the proprietary handyman models, the most interesting may be HandymanConnection. This service network is currently on yahoo hotjobs offering bonding and insurance to guys with 2-5 yrs experience, in the residential market. If thats not a train wreck waiting to happen, then its a weapon of mass destruction.