Young And Enthusiastic Or Old And Wise?

TaitINC

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Max Nomad

With my experience in business in general across a couple of different industries, I can safely say this: your biggest concern should be with establishing a connection with the customer, hand in hand with gaining (and maintaining) their trust. That is the biggest part of the deal. As far as everything else is concerned that you mentioned, this isn't a Poker game where you have to decide which card to play. Just keep life simple and be yourself. Stay in your lane. If you're young, you're young -- acting "old" in order to present a "wise" facade would be silly. Your knowledge and experience will speak for itself and, push comes to shove, if you need a certain "Face Person in a Suit" to break through age/gender/sex/race biases in certain circles in order to win some types of jobs, then go ahead and hire such a person to play that role.

Good luck with it...

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CF Construction

I'm relatively young myself (only 26 years old). Prior to me working in the construction industry a little over a year and a half ago I worked as a Sales Associate for a major corporation. Throughout the course of this past year and a half I've learned many things and continue doing so with every passing day. One of the things I've learned is to be yourself. People see through a "false image". The fact that you're young and are very knowledgeable should serve as encouragement to your clients. A friend of mine, he's a couple of years younger and he has his own construction company (on the verge of making it a general contractor) and he has a long list of clients. All they are concerned with is that you know what you've been hired to do. You can't fault someone for their age, but you can fault them for their lack of knowledge. Just be yourself and most importantly always keep the ego in check, after all, you may know a lot of things, but you don't know everything.


Best of luck to you

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genecarp

It has been said before, its not a card game, you will connect with people by just being yourself, trust in the way the meeting is going, be yourself, and be confident without being a know it all.

PS- Regarding being yourself, this approach only works if you are not an idiot. No disrespect implied

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CrpntrFrk

I agree with gene. You need to be youself when you meet with customers. The one thing you want to avoid is being asked a question and your answer is.....UUHH. Most of the time they will call you to let you know they want you to bit on something. Ask them exactly what it will be and make sure you have or study all the info before you meet.
I am 30 years old and people are just now starting to take me seriously. That I think goes along with the industry of construction. I can't tell you how many times people either gave me a look or actually told me " Your just a punk kid! What do you know?!" I always would tell them, and still do, "I don't know anything. But I have all of Bob Vila's shows on dvd!"

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woodmagman

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Dan_Watson

I am younger than you, and seem to have no problem finding new customers. I am exclusively word of mouth/referrals, I have never advertised. I let my work and reputation do all of the work. I feel that some customers are a little hesitant when we first meet but by the end of the meeting I am usually walking away with a signed contract. I have seen your work on here, and you are pretty local so I have passed some of your jobs, you should have nothing to worry about. Keep the portfolio growing, come up with good ways of presenting it, and maintain a great list of referrals.

woodmagman

There you go....your peers see and remember you and may envy...and you did not even know they were peers.

KentWhitten

Don't feel.....know! Show your certainty about it. Enthusiasm is good.

You want to impress? Work on your punctuation and spelling. I'm not ragging on you like the spelling police. I'm just pointing out that professionalism starts with everything you do.

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TaitINC

Always- where are you located?

TaitINC

framerman- i know i'm terrible when it comes to writing...i gave up on writing my own estimates. i hand write them, than have the secretary type them. it works out well for grammar retards like myself!

woodmagman

The key word is "you get the impression"

Heritage

This reminds me of the old story of the young bull and the old bull.

The young bull sees a herd of healthy cows in the valley and says "Hey, let's run down and do one them"

The old bull says, "No, son, we'll walkdown and do them ALL"

I'm only 28 myself, but I've learned a thing or two. A few years ago when I first set out by myself I was like a racehorse with the blinders on. All I could see was the finish line.

In time I've learned to slow down, look around, and take my time. All I could think about was go-go-go, not realizing that I was really just chasing my own tail.

Planning is the most critical part of almost every endeavour. So I think that although it's good to come off as young and enthusiastic, to also be realistic with the task at hand.

I think most of my clients appreciate that I take my time with them. The ones that only want a price don't get my business anyways, I won't even give them a price. I've learned to walk away from a lot of deals.

So you have to be realistic, which is something lacking in a lot of youngsters like us. I have a lot of friends around my age running their own shops, and their biggest downfall is lack of professionalism and an unrealistic expectation for the job.

Knowing how to effectively deal with HO's is almost a science onto itself. No two HO's are the exact same. And most importantly in my opinion, you have to know when to walk away. If you go into every deal with the goal of doing/saying anything and everything possible to get their business, then you're either a greasy salesman type who only values their talents in selling and money, or you're setting yourself up for a potential disaster.

IMHO, YOU have to set the terms under which you will work. And if THAT is your mentality, then you are being yourself and having to choose between different characters will become a non-issue.

With all that being said, I think the older, wiser amongst us get the far better jobs...and why shouldn't they? They were all young and green once like us. Rome wasn't built in a day.

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rbsremodeling

23,25,26,28 years old??

Isn't there a Contractor talk rule about kids posting here???

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apkole

. . . . the older, wiser among us get the better jobs . . .

I couldn't agree more. I continue to be amazed at the credibility that some age and a few gray hairs bring. The trust engendered by age and over 40 years of experience is not to be discounted.

That being said, I'd give my eye teeth to be back in my late teens with a roofing nailer in my hands.

woodmagman

? heck does that make us wise

rbsremodeling

Aint that the truth. I tried to work with my guys this week on a fast track project. Got there at 9am buy 1pm I was headed back to the office to look for the bengay and advil

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woodmagman

my eye nailer in my ...

TaitINC

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woodmagman

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