ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Contractor Business-solo or no?

I'm on my 5th year as a 'Lone Ranger' here.

how do i sum it up? well i guess it depends if you subscribe to the service call end of things , the contractual arena, or a combination.....

If service work is your game, then a stocked truck, pager & box of scooby snacks (with appologies to E-Scott) is all you need, and off you go....this is the 'kibbles & bits' end of the trade, not as lucrative, yet less a gamble due to the diversity of customer base.

Should you wish to try your hand at making GC's happy then find yourself 2 or 3 good ones , but prepare to blow off the serv calls proportional to what you take on here.
This can be the land of crap shooters, win big, loose big. Time constraints are always going to be a juggeling act, one must always think ahead for parts, plans, payments, etc.

In either case, know your resources....

Newbie here
Did you all take the test and then say I am now my own boss or did you work for someone else first?

I plan on taking the test...working 3rd shift in a factory and work days as my own boss. Is this a dumb idea?
I need some input from the veterans here.
Thank you

Amp,Ithink lots of sparkys start that way.

Rush jobs? Yes a little more $, but don't price yourself out the door. This BTW is a GC I've been working for years even when I worked as apprtc. under another EC. He has never questioned my bills just bottom line and cuts me a check. "You know" the "hand shake guy" that you can always bank on. I work in a small local area where everybody knows everybody, you land a builder like this you do your very best to keep 'em.

My story;

Majority of work over the years has been with my Father (he is licensed EC). Work done by no more than 6 persons at any time (includes me and papa!). Normal work staff was three people, four if the "Push" calls for it.

Worked for a bunch of other ECs - with crews ranging from 4 persons upto 40 persons.

Last company I worked with (which was a GC with inhouse elect.), had around 15 or so field electricians. I was bouncing between P.M. work, surveys, designing things, Installing, and broom pushing (I push a mean 'ol broom!).
There were about 6 Electricians that I would consider "Journeyman" level, 2 others that I would consider "Foreman" position. The rest were just pulled in from the construction side to do cabling jobs, and have very little knowledge of the electrical trade.

Not working for this company anymore (Thank Goodness!!! One of the most recent LOOOOONNNNNGGGGG stories!).

On this subject, I have been presented with a Kick-A## Career Proposal!!!
From another GC whom is involved with +95% Bank related work, this company wants to develope an In-House Electrical Division - much like the setup at the other GC mentioned before.
They would like me to run this new division!!!
Means a lot to me (duhh, huh??? ...)

I would like to post a new thread about this here, so I'll do so later this weekend.

As this forum has been a 100 fold increase in personal developement for me, I would like to hear from you all and get some opinions.

Also, as situations arise, it's nice to know that there is an area to ask questions and get good answers!

Scott s.e.t.

Macwire,

The funny thing about my business was that I didn't want to give it up. I had 4 full time men working for me. Most of my employees had their own lic. and 1 even had an inspectors lic. What happened was that 1 man went back into his own business. The 2nd man went back to being an inspector. The helper left me because some one offered him $1 more an hour. ( With me he got a truck and gas. With the other EC he had to use his own truck.) My foreman had just got his lic. so he would go out and do "side" jobs. Well he worked for me a week. Left for a week, worked a week, left for 2 weeks, etc. We just parted as friends. As a matter of fact he bought my business out when I became the inspector. BTY the town asked me to become their inspector, I wasn't looking for the job. My friend who was the inspector died. So I filled in for him.

Last question for the ECs, present and former.

harold, I read your reply about how your business fizzled. Wow, I guess having most of your employees quit would put the kibosh on that venture huh? Well, anyway, what is it that kept/keeps you going despite all the extra hassles of being a business owner?

People tout freedom as being the main draw of owning your own business and give the impression that the business owner is able to come and go as they please, etc., etc. I've talked to enough business owners to know better. I know that in many ways, it's a hundred times more work than just being an employee.

So what keeps you ECs going even as the work piles up on you (and I mainly mean the PAPERwork )

The MacWire

I can only speak for myself, but here is one main reason why I continue to work for myself.

I was recently looking at new houses. The work I saw was not up to my standard, and probably not to many others of this board. Yes,it had passed inspection, but I would have failed it mainly for that all too subjective "workmanship". I want to be proud of knowing that I did the work to the best of my ability and to the intent of the Code.If I could find someone to work for with a similar attitude I will continue on my own.

Macwire,

The funny thing was that as my guys were leaving me one by one. I was going to stay in my own business. I was talking to my brother who worked for me and we were either going to have to get more help or take on less work. I got a friend of mine, who was also a contractor, was helping me. We would work together, when I had my crew, I would help him, when my crew left, he helped me. Like I was saying, I would have stayed in business, and I most likely would have gotten more help. Then my friend passed away. I was surprised that the towns actually asked me to be their inspector. The 1 construction official asked me for a resume. I said, that I was self employed for 15 years and I don't have a resume. He said, DUH! Make one one. Then he told me what the towns wanted to know. I was self employed, I worked with scouts, zoninbg board, etc., etc. After that, I was surprised to get hired. The biggest difference I have now being the AHJ and being self employed, is the freedom of my business. I could come and go almost at will when I was self employed. Now I have to watch the clock, and whose time I am on.

I have been on my own for three years now. I was solo for about a year and a half. After reading more about being a businessman and learning how to make money, your interests change.

The goal now is to stay in the office (home) and do estimates and keep the company rolling smoothly.