ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Business Related Discussion building your business

Do good work at a fair price. And I NEVER tape a wire connection. Isn't that a code violation???

Read Dale Carnegies book "How to Win friends and influence people" It is one of if not the best seller of all times for businesses and will pay for itself more than you could imagine. As BGaquin stated, (It's one of the main principles in the book) people are not interested in you, they are interested in themselves. Be interested in them and their life. "Call them by their name" often is another tidbit in the book. A persons name is the sweetest word they will ever hear. "Remember their interests". When you make them feel good they will spend their money with you.

Follow up in a couple of weeks after you complete a project and again later and ask if everything is still ok. This will keep you in their mind and often gets more work.

You will want to get a good estimating software. I use Conest Intellibid. It has an online pricing update service called Netpricer (on the internet at netpricer.com). Graybar is the company my system connects to for current pricing. They are very good at keeping things priced properly. If you get the go ahead months later or a year later you can click two buttons and have current pricing on all materials in just a few seconds except for gear and fixtures. It will save you time and make you money and make you more competitive.

Intellibid is the most cumbersome software I have ever used. That's $2k I'd like to have back. If all you do is estimate, it make work great for you.

Stick with EBM. You can learn it in a day.

PE: I don't particularly like Conest either but I can't see forking out another couple of bucks for McCormick or Estimation. I really don't know their cost though. However bad it is though, it beats the crap out of doing it on paper!

If I recall, none of them would let you do a trial period or have a 30 day guarantee when I purchased mine.

It is a PIB at times but when you beat your way through it, it does seem to be accurate if not overpricing jobs a bit. And crashes at least every other takeoff, though it never loses my data.

I'm in the midst of getting a Service Management software, likely going with Acowin. It integrates well with QB so you don't enter data twice.

However off topic that was...

Trevman,

The advice of talking with possible GC and owners is real important; if you don't get carried away the volunteering is also very good.

Two things that are very important is that you bid your work accurately. Do you have a good handle on your labor burden costs for employees? Don't wait to get them you should (in my opinion) be bidding as if you already have employees and allow for them in your bids. Do you know your overhead percentage accurately? Overhead at best is a guess and needs to be reviewed periodically, 3 to 4 times a year.

Estimating software is if used correctly very useful, if you use it incorrectly then it can be a disaster. When you get to that point demo lots of different systems to see which works best for you. Expensive does not always mean the best, but if the cheaper one does not do what you want then it is also a waste.

Don't be in a rush to get large, yes you need to pay the bills, but getting larger then you can handle could lead to bankruptcy. Use your slack time to organize, plan and learn. Do you have a written business plan? They are not as hard as some people make them out to be.


Seeing as your relatively new one item that you can easily implement is to track both your material cost and labor hours for the projects you do have. This may be a shocking experience. I rather learn on a small job then a large one.

Here is an Oxymoron for you, be aggressive yet patience

Join the local Chamber of Commerce. It will help to get your name out there.

I ran a small word ad under "Business Services" in the local newspaper every Friday. It was cheap and effective.

Hand out a business card to everyone you talk to.