ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Business Related Discussion one man service business

first let me give you some back ground, i am going to retire from the air force in oct 2010 after 30 plus years. my first 21 years i was an interior electrican, the last 9 have been working in the safety office. about 10 years ago i passed the master electrical exam in the state of virginia (where i will retire) i have kept my lic. current. my question, to whom ever is willing to help, is this: is it possible to get 500 billable hours of work, just operating a single truck doing service calls? i have no desire to wire entire houses, i have had a good bit of luck doing generator installs, small editions, etc.
i have already gotten the class c lic, llc and ins.
i am planning a billing of $50 per hour plus material.

any help will greatly appreciated
cheers
mark

You just discribed my business. I just put on my 1st employee after 15yrs of service and small jobs. I find service to be very enjoyable. It is possible to bill more if you use a min charge. You will find it very benificial as travel and expenses will add up.

I am a one man show . I had one employee last year , had to lay off . Now my wife does books and I do the rest .
It is entirely possible to bill 500 hours , basically two hours a day , right ? The question will be , will you get that much business this year .

I've been on my own for 12 yrs now, once in a while i hook up with a little help, but mostly i'm solo. There's a world of beruacractic baloney that flying alone aviods imho

The downside is how much can you bite off? It's always a juggling act , and there's always attrition

Talk to your peers Mark, they were and still are a great asset to my start...

& good luck

~S~

Building a service business can be a long difficult process.Can your market area sustain another service company?Many national chains require minimum liability and workmans comp even on an individual.Will you work after hours and weekends?Were do you want your business to be in 5 years, 10 years.Are you prepared to lose money the first year, and not realize a profit for several years.One of the biggest mistakes new contractors make is under capitalization.I can always spot the new contractor that just landed his first big job he will be driving around in a 2010 crew cab truck.

When I was working I used to say "It costs $100 to start my truck"(minimum call charge). That may not be enough today. If you provide a quality service experience, "call customer with ETA, on time response, 'first time fix' and clean up after yourself" they will see it as a bargain.

thanks for the inputs, sounds like i am making a good choice in going it on my own. i am sure that i will be asking for more advise in the future.

cheers