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Some of you have been following my trials and tribulations of the last few months and know that I have been having some trouble breaking into the industry on my own against established players.
Well I started looking at the want ads this last weekend as I was starting to think maybe I’ll have to go to work for one of them. I called one home builder first thing monday morning and got an interview for that night.
When I got there I started out by telling him that I was trying to start my own business but as he was probably aware it is not a real easy thing to land those first few jobs and getting connected with the right clientelle and that I had to do something to support my family. I also told him that one thing I would like to do was be able to keep my business going but on the side as long as there was no conflict with his.
The company owner agreed and said he appreciated me being upfront about that. we started to talk about my changing from engineering into this field and I explained that working with my hands was my passion. as the conversation progressed he asked me how fast I was and I replied that I could improve a little and would with experience. I don’t like to lie about what I can do because in my mind it only comes back to bite you later on.
anyway he suggested working for a 1099, in other words as a sub. I told him that I would really like that as I can keep my company entity and he could avoid the tax/benefits issue. he also stated that as a sub if I took a little longer to do something that was fine with him because it wouldn’t affect his bottom line. he said he would start by having me bid on a few things in about a week and we would see where it went from there.
So I got to thinking and tuesday called all the companies that were running ads for carpenters or helpers. figuring these guys have the work and are short handed or they wouldn’t be advertising.
I met with the second builder today. actually it was the guy who sells the jobs and sets up the crews and subs for the builder. he said that this would be an ideal situation because they are always in need of people to do smaller projects and that alot of times they have calls for a door installation or window job that for them is not practical to pull a guy off of a crew on a real big job to do but they could just refer them directly to me. this guy was responsible for a couple of outlying counties but told me I would also be getting a call from their guy who handles the county I live in as well because he had given him my name already. so that is looking pretty good. I should have some stuff coming from them early next week if all goes well.
then this evening I got another call from a remodeler that I left a message with yesterday. he is a smaller remodeler who has two full time guys working for him but at times needs extra people. he said he’d like to have me stop by the job he’s working on, kinda feel me out and if he likes how I work we could have a relationship where when he’s short handed and I’m not busy I would pretty much have a standing sub offer.
the response I’m getting from this so far has been the most promising I’ve had to date, and the upside is I don’t have to really sell anything, I just do a good job, charge a fair price and the work comes to me. if this really does work out as it looks like it might, I could end up having the problem some of you guys suffer from, too much work. wouldn’t that be great!
Replies
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Some of you have been following my trials and tribulations of the last few months and know that I have been having some trouble breaking into the industry on my own against established players.
Well I started looking at the want ads this last weekend as I was starting to think maybe I'll have to go to work for one of them. I called one home builder first thing monday morning and got an interview for that night.
When I got there I started out by telling him that I was trying to start my own business but as he was probably aware it is not a real easy thing to land those first few jobs and getting connected with the right clientelle and that I had to do something to support my family. I also told him that one thing I would like to do was be able to keep my business going but on the side as long as there was no conflict with his.
The company owner agreed and said he appreciated me being upfront about that. we started to talk about my changing from engineering into this field and I explained that working with my hands was my passion. as the conversation progressed he asked me how fast I was and I replied that I could improve a little and would with experience. I don't like to lie about what I can do because in my mind it only comes back to bite you later on.
anyway he suggested working for a 1099, in other words as a sub. I told him that I would really like that as I can keep my company entity and he could avoid the tax/benefits issue. he also stated that as a sub if I took a little longer to do something that was fine with him because it wouldn't affect his bottom line. he said he would start by having me bid on a few things in about a week and we would see where it went from there.
So I got to thinking and tuesday called all the companies that were running ads for carpenters or helpers. figuring these guys have the work and are short handed or they wouldn't be advertising.
I met with the second builder today. actually it was the guy who sells the jobs and sets up the crews and subs for the builder. he said that this would be an ideal situation because they are always in need of people to do smaller projects and that alot of times they have calls for a door installation or window job that for them is not practical to pull a guy off of a crew on a real big job to do but they could just refer them directly to me. this guy was responsible for a couple of outlying counties but told me I would also be getting a call from their guy who handles the county I live in as well because he had given him my name already. so that is looking pretty good. I should have some stuff coming from them early next week if all goes well.
then this evening I got another call from a remodeler that I left a message with yesterday. he is a smaller remodeler who has two full time guys working for him but at times needs extra people. he said he'd like to have me stop by the job he's working on, kinda feel me out and if he likes how I work we could have a relationship where when he's short handed and I'm not busy I would pretty much have a standing sub offer.
the response I'm getting from this so far has been the most promising I've had to date, and the upside is I don't have to really sell anything, I just do a good job, charge a fair price and the work comes to me. if this really does work out as it looks like it might, I could end up having the problem some of you guys suffer from, too much work. wouldn't that be great!