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sparky #185245 03/06/09 07:27 PM
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,392
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oh btw~

there's some stimulus $$$ going to the green machine

a newsletter here has details

funny how that word stimulus has taken on a whole new meaning lately eh....?

~S~

Latest Estimating Cost Guides & Software:
sparky #185252 03/06/09 11:15 PM
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 7,381
Likes: 7
Member
WE here in the Garden State here that AFCI's will only be required for new construction/additions/re-wire jobs, which is a blessing. As soon as they get around to adopting the '08.

IMHO, doing a service change/upgrade could turn into a nightmare......am I on the right track??

I heard a lot of cr*p when I did a '08 changes CEU seminar, guys were all over me regarding $$$, AFCI, TP/WR, etc.

Change is tough for some. "Guys, I don't write it, I enforce it!"



John
HotLine1 #185345 03/11/09 08:00 PM
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,392
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yeah well, there's nothing like trying to sell $1000 worth of code safety where it isn't enforced HotOne...

but anyways, i wanted to post what might be good news here, seems 23% of our grandkids stimulus $$$$ is going to go to small biz (correct me if i'm wrong, but doesn't the SBA consider that 500 or less....?)

Here's the article

copy/paste for those of you who don't have a Wall St Journal script....




ENTERPRISE MARCH 10, 2009 Opportunity Knocks and Uncle Sam Is at the Door Companies Hope for a Piece of the Pie as the $787 Billion Stimulus Plan Looks Likely to Create an Array of Projects
Article
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By KELLY K. SPORS
Many small businesses, buffeted by declining revenue and tight credit, have set their sights on a possible new customer: the government.

The $787 billion government stimulus promises to create a bevy of federal, state and local government projects that would give small businesses an opportunity to win contracts and cash in on a slice of the stimulus dollars.

There could be plenty of opportunities: By congressional mandate, the government aims to award 23% of all contract dollars across all agencies to small businesses every year. State and local governments have their own rules.

Attendance at contracting expos and seminars is up as more companies try to learn the intricacies of government contract work. Many government contracting consultants are also reporting a surge in new inquiries from small companies looking into contracting for the first time.

Coldsweep Inc., a Mountain Green, Utah, company that provides dry-ice blasting to clean things such as industrial equipment, recently won its first federal contract cleaning two power generators for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Montana. Randell Heath, the company's president, learned about the contract job -- valued at about $56,000 -- from an Army engineer who called after finding his business online. The Corps was so pleased with his job that they asked Mr. Heath to submit a bid to clean a third generator this spring.


Coldsweep Inc.
A technician for Coldsweep working in Flathead Lake, Mont. Coldsweep recently won its first federal contract.
Mr. Heath says he hopes the stimulus money heading to the Army Corps of Engineers, as well as to the building of clean-energy technologies, will result in more opportunities for his company to get work cleaning government-owned property and equipment. He has started scouring government databases for other contracting opportunities. Mr. Heath also is looking into applying to get his business on the General Services Administration schedule, a list of pre-vetted companies that government agencies can use to find contractors.

"We see a lot of government [uses] out there for our technology," he says, "so we're very excited about this."

Diana Dibble Kurcfeld, a Bethesda, Md., government contracting consultant, says her office has seen 50% more meetings with small businesses interested in government contracting, compared with a year ago. But while there may be a "blizzard" of federal, state and local contracting opportunities on the horizon, she says, many small businesses are unprepared for how time-consuming, expensive and bureaucratic pursuing contracts can be.

Related Story
Treasury Plans Small-Business AidA business first must figure out what federal or state agencies, if any, are buying their products or services and then network with the right people at those agencies. Then they often must submit lengthy proposals. It can often take weeks or months to hear whether a company has won the contract. Given such hurdles, Ms. Kurcfeld says, small businesses are often at a disadvantage compared with larger businesses that have a staff well-versed in the intricacies of government contracts.

Shelby Scarbrough, former president of the Entrepreneurs' Organization, an Alexandria, Va., executive-networking group, says many times it is better for a small business to start out as a subcontractor on government projects to get a sense of what government work is like.

Inexperience with contracting isn't stopping One to One Leadership. The Pelham, N.Y., management- and sales-training firm is hoping to reverse its fortunes by winning a slice of the government stimulus spending aimed at retraining workers who have lost their jobs. The four-employee firm has seen revenue fall by 50% in the past six months, as many large companies slashed their training budgets. It had roughly $500,000 in revenue last year.

"In my industry, there's a lot of concern about what our world looks like not just this year, but next year and the year after," says Sean O'Neil, One to One's 39-year-old principal. "Even tapping a little of that stimulus money would be a big help right now."

Mr. O'Neil recently spotted a notice on FedBizOpps.gov, a public online database that lists federal contracting opportunities, seeking bids to offer training to child welfare administrators through the Department of Health and Human Services. The project is so involved, however, and requires providing feedback to the government on its effectiveness that Mr. O'Neil is talking with other companies about teaming up to pursue the opportunity.

Small Business How-To Guide
Get tips and info from The Journal's reporters and columnists:

Hiring and Managing EmployeesStarting a Business with a PartnerSome contracting experts say the small companies best-positioned to take advantage of the stimulus money are those that already have established relationships with government officials and have experience doing government contracting work. Walton Construction Company LLC, a Kansas City, Mo., construction firm with about 550 employees, currently gets about 60% of its revenue from public and government projects such as constructing military barracks. Chief Executive Dan Frisbee says his company has seen the number of inquiries from prospective subcontractors double to more than 300 in the past six months.

But even with his experience, Mr. Frisbee says the process isn't easy. "The government has a lot of regulations you have to be aware of," he says.

Sometimes, all the time and money spent on trying to secure a contract doesn't pay off. Shajahan Merchant, chief executive of Intellectual Capital Services Inc., a New York software-development firm with 33 employees and contractors, has submitted full-length proposals for about three state and local government contracts since last summer. He has yet to win one.

Mr. Merchant says the process sometimes requires numerous photocopies of 100-some page proposals packed with information about his firm and previous work it has done. One proposal to create a software program for a government agency took 2½ weeks by two employees to organize. Several weeks later, the company received a two-sentence letter that thanked Mr. Merchant for submitting his proposal but said that his company wasn't selected.

Mr. Merchant says he has become somewhat disillusioned with the government-contracting process, though he will continue to seek opportunities with the stimulus package and plans to attend a contracting seminar. "All the doors you have to knock on and all the government agencies is a bit mind-boggling," he says.




















































sparky #185349 03/11/09 08:19 PM
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 47
sbi Offline
Member
Things are really slow here. We had one big comm/muncip. contractor close the doors last week. Things are looking grim for now


when in doubt jump it out
I happily work for slumlords
sbi #185352 03/11/09 10:38 PM
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 7,381
Likes: 7
Member
Sparky:
Guess if you hire one of the 'consultants' to assist with the red tape.....

Jumping thru hoops? 100+ pages of copies?

Perhaps the 'consultants' have gov. contracts or contacts!


John
HotLine1 #185361 03/12/09 04:46 AM
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,392
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Member
well yes HotOne, this is very true

btw~just gotta brand new type of telemarketing call, one that alludes to 'federal stimulus work'

lots of times if it's a blocked call, or 800# i just pick up the phone without an intro, and let 'em get into their sales pitch a bit, then i foist my 'achmed the terrorist' voice on them claiming allah with strike the infidels dead jihad! jihad!, etc ad naseum...

i love getting tele-fools to hang up first.....~S~

sparky #185367 03/12/09 01:21 PM
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 5,445
Likes: 2
Cat Servant
Member
I'd ordinarily chastise folks for getting off topic, but ....

Things have been dire enough, for many, that there is a very real risk that they will be tempted by some of the amazing offers that pop up in such times. The current "stimulus" money is but the latest fodder in the campaign of fraudulent claims.

DON'T go for the bait. Never. Period.

How does government spend money? By contracting with you ... NOT with some middleman. These dollars are doledout by specific agencies, for specific projects - they're not just tossing money out the windows as they drive past - and they're certainly not hiring middlemen to do the tossing for them!

Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,392
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well Reno, the economy in all it's granduer is gernmaine to anyone who is asked

In fact, i can't stop for a cup of coffee , and not hear about it these days , even in short meet/greet exchanges

the 'how's it goin?' , 'what irons have you in the fire?' , or similar talk have proliferated even the shortest of social graces

up that ante' among my trade peers to asking if help is needed. I have a stack of resume's right now from apprentices who are basically asking 'Are you Busy?'


i feel a tad obligated to respond to them, or anyone else who would ask, with simply a dry yes or no

that said, i do love how we can change the meaning of words here. i've noted everything from stimulus car rebates to stimulus burger specials

no doubt there's a few EC's who've jumoed on that bandwagon as well....

~S~



sparky #185448 03/14/09 11:20 PM
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 1,273
T
Member
It's starting to look like the carbon tax is going to be blocked in the Senate. Whew.

Does anyone have any good links into getting up to speed in the PV business?

BTW, anytime you read about a large veteran outfit shutting its doors that's very good news for the survivors. If you can stay alive until the rebound you'll have the opportunity to recoup your losses as margins and sales rebound.

In my area the bulk of the super-sized contractors were launched as one-man-bands in the Great Depression. The same situation will reoccur on the other side of this Greatest Depression.

BTW, unemployment in California is over 10% ( U3 statistic ) it is over 20% if you throw in all the other categories of unemployment + the massive job loss by illegal immigrants. Yes, we've already reached Great Depression numbers in unemployment here in California.

The government refuses to count job losses by illegal immigrants though the numbers and impact are huge. Without work, many have gone home. So now we're reading about extremely troubling times all along the northern zone of Mexico. And at some Home Depot locations it's getting so that store customers are being practically mobbed by out-of-work illegal immigrants seeking work. That is exactly what happened in the 1930's.

The relevance to us in the trades is that the General Contractors out here used 100% illegal immigrant labor to construct residential tract housing.

I found them tough competition when they bid on commercial work. They may not have spoken English, but they sure could talk low bid. Of course, this was un-permitted screamingly un-code-worthy stuff. The entire building code went out the window along with all matters legal. It was impossible to compete against rock bottom labor and a no-overhead outfit.

That flood of cheap labor kept my prices on the floor and made it impossible to accumulate reserves.

I'm still trying to find a port in this storm.

Green projects may be the solution. Congress is apparently giving a snappy tax credit (30%) for such items.


Tesla
Tesla #185454 03/15/09 09:57 AM
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,392
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Member
Quote
It's starting to look like the carbon tax is going to be blocked in the Senate. Whew.

Does anyone have any good links into getting up to speed in the PV business?

well we have the NABCEP on the east coast Tesla, probably many of us are eligible to test than we realize here .... this cert is usually required to obtain the rebates states offer...
NABCEP Solar PV Installer Certification
To qualify to sit for the NABCEP PV Installer Certification examination, a candidate must demonstrate that he/she meets at least oneof the following minimum entry requirement tracks:
A. Experience installing PV systems occurring at some point in the two (2) years prior to submitting an application for the exam in addition to completion of a board-recognized training program (see definition in Sections 3.2.2 and 3.2.3 below); OR
B. Be an existing licensed contractor in good standing in solar or electrical construction-related areas with experience installing PV systems occurring at some point in the two (2) years prior to submitting an application for the exam in addition to completion of a board-recognized training program (see definition in Sections 3.2.2 and 3.2.3 below); OR
C. Four (4) years of electrical construction-related experience working for a licensed contractor, including experience installing PV systems occurring at some point in the two (2) years prior to submitting an application for the exam in addition to completion of a board-recognized training program (see definition in Sections 3.2.2 and 3.2.3 below); OR
D. Three (3) years experience in a U.S. Dept. of Labor-approved electrical construction trade apprentice program, including experience installing PV systems occurring at some point in the two (2) years prior to submitting an application for the exam in addition to completion of a board-recognized training program (see definition in Sections 3.2.2 and 3.2.3 below); OR
E. Two (2)-year electrical construction-related, or electrical engineering technology, or renewable energy technology/technician degree from an educational institution or four (4)-year construction-related or engineering degree from an educational institution, including experience installing PV systems occurring at some point in the two (2) years prior to submitting an application for the exam.



Quote

BTW, unemployment in California is over 10% ( U3 statistic ) it is over 20% if you throw in all the other categories of unemployment + the massive job loss by illegal immigrants. Yes, we've already reached Great Depression numbers in unemployment here in California.

The government refuses to count job losses by illegal immigrants though the numbers and impact are huge. Without work, many have gone home. So now we're reading about extremely troubling times all along the northern zone of Mexico. And at some Home Depot locations it's getting so that store customers are being practically mobbed by out-of-work illegal immigrants seeking work. That is exactly what happened in the 1930's

well the old adage is there are lies, da*ned lies, and statistics Tesla, our governance openly admits this btw, note Table A-12. Alternative measures of labor underutilization from them. I'll refrain from any shadowgovernment links in this forum, no need to stir the tin hat bridage here....


Quote
The relevance to us in the trades is that the General Contractors out here used 100% illegal immigrant labor to construct residential tract housing.

I found them tough competition when they bid on commercial work. They may not have spoken English, but they sure could talk low bid. Of course, this was un-permitted screamingly un-code-worthy stuff. The entire building code went out the window along with all matters legal. It was impossible to compete against rock bottom labor and a no-overhead outfit

tell me about it......i live in the whitest most-english (actually redneckian) speaking state in the union, until there's a substaintail job. But the immigration canard wasn't propagated by the little guy, all the nefarious legislation behind it was engineered by the fortune 500's to crush us little guys. About the only business related avenue i would suggest that has a handle on this might be the NFIB

~S~

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