Expanding The Business

Mudman

Hello all,

I am a mid-sized concrete subcontractor. I work on mostly commercial projects, both public and private. For a long time now I have toiled with the idea of expanding my business to include the southern states. Currently I service the midwest. What I am looking for is the path of least resistence as it pertains to finding and securing projects.

If anyone has information regarding locations that are in need of concrete contractors or even GC's who are are looking for additional concrete subs, I would certainly appreciate the help.

Thank you for your time.

Grumpy

I'm curious why you have choosen the regional expansion rather than expanding your customer base and perhaps working on residential?

If you are going to expand into a larger area are you going to open more offices or perhaps hire regional sales reps/estimators who will work from their home office?

Glasshousebltr

Just Flat? Or do you do foundations as well?

If you do foundations, do you have forms?

I have about 150LF of 8 foot wall about a week and half off. What ya think$?

Bob

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Bob

Mudman

Grumpy,

There are several reasons to look outside my current marketpace. My current location provides me with a fairly large number of competitors within my contract capicity (my typical projects are $50k-$300k). The number of available clients, while everchanging is not exciting.

Seasonal weather changes make for a very choppy schedule. Often times it is extremely difficult to keep my workforce through the winter.

The residential market has two distinct areas: Walls and Flatwork. The wall market has all the major players it can handle and several minor players trying to hang on. As for the flatwork, it goes so cheap that it is more risk than reward for anyone that is operating for more than wages.

I feel that I can operate from my current location while I "test the waters". When the projects and cashflow dictate I am willing to set up a satellite office.

Glasshouse,

I will e-mail you.


Thanks for your replies.

Grumpy

Will you be relocating your crews with the ebbs and flow of business or will you be establishing dedicated crews for each location? Or perhaps selling jobs in certain areas and subbing it out to crews in those areas?

Mudman

As I do now, I will have to take it as it comes.