How Do I Take My Business To The Next Step

healthyhomes

Ok, so I have been the trades since I was 16 years old. I am now 25. 3 years ago I started my own contracting company. As of right now there is myself, my number one guy, and a helper.

My problem is this: I have made MYSELF the business. I do all the estimating, costing, materials and supplies, work full days on the jobsites, handle sub trades, and of course the paperwork.

I really love the business, but I feel as though I'm going nuts. It's too much for one guy to handle.

How do I take my business to the next step? How do I handle the management, estimating, organizing, and materials without having to work labour full time on the jobsites everyday? Is there a magic number as to how much money I should have saved up before I do this? Should I be more established first? Is there anything at all I should know?

Sorry for the bombardement of questions, I just needed to get this off my chest and try for some answers!

Cory Kloos

kevjob

your number one guy and helper do they need you there all the time? I do baths and kitchens and i use subs for elec, plumb, hvac, drywal and paint and sometimes my tile guys. O fpund that when I am physically working the business suffers. Try to delegate more and hopefully free up some time for estimates etc...

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Kevin
Basement Finishing Highlands Ranch Colorado
Littleton Colorado, Basement Remodeling
Kitchen Remodeling Denver

Chris Johnson

Welcome to the club pal...what do you think most of us do?

There is no magic number...you need luck on your side

Start to deligate more, leave the job site throughout the day, do other 'business' things (Golf meetings work well), train your spouse (if you have one) for the day to day paperwork.

Rome wasn't built in a day, 3 years is a good start...keep going

Most of us are perfectionists, which makes it hard to let go and when your crew become perfectionists their additional time will kill you...eventually you relax, the job gets done and everyone is happy.

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Chris

Heritage

You're asking about the toughest transition a contractor could ever make.

My guess? You're having to put the belt on yourself because that's the only way you'll A. Make a decent profit, B. Only way things will get done.

You have to set up systems and put the right people in the right positions.

Your biggest problem? Money and reputation.

You need a good amount of money to carry you through. One very successful custom home builder friend of mine Subs ALL of his work out...100%. Having direct employees is a great way to make MORE profit on every job, but it's also a liability. They need continuous work, they need supervision

Starting out, I would suggest you sub out all your work, then charge a percentage for your management. The money that you DO have you pump into building a marketable business for yourself.

If we were talking "ideally", we would be talking about you having a lot of start-up money. Trust me, all you will do right now is just burn yourself out and chase your own tail in circles. One month will be good, next month will be bad. You'll never sleep, the months and years will fly by, you'll become a very good carpenter, but you won't ever become a business owner (honestly).

Systems, systems, systems. You have to throw a lot of what you're doing right now out the window and recreate your business model from scratch. You have to get away from having to wear the toolbelt to make your coin, or you will never have time to create a business for yourself.

Hopefully you have built up a nice portfolio for yourself by now, use that and go to work marketing your ability to HO's. Don't have employees until you are big enough and busy enough to keep them busy year round. Sub it and use your management skills instead.

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Toronto General Contractor-Renovation Blog-Contractor on Facebook-Renovation on twitter-Contractor Youtube

Mike Finley

Cory, I don't see this as being such a big hurdle. From your description you sound like you've got a lot right already.

The only thing you need to do is train your "number 1" guy. You need him to become a lead carpenter for you and that will set you free.

BMAN

The key to the next step is to hang up your tool belt. Get a blackberry and start hitting the ground to market your company more. Hire a small payroll company to handle that so you dont have to. Then advertise a little bit more and hire a few quality guys. It was scary for me to actually pay someone the kind of money a good guy makes around here but once I did I found it liberating, I didn't have to go to the job other than daily check ins, deliveries, collecting checks etc. etc. Now I have twelve full timers and we have always at least three jobs going at once. This all happened in less than a year after I put my brushes down. From three guys to twleve and the cash flow to support it. So again. hang up your tool belt or hire someone else to do the sales and marketing if you want to still be the carpenter.

ruskent

Its about finding the right lead guys. It hurts at first to pay someone 50k a year but its what you need to do. It has crossed my mind to lay off my foreman and do his job myself so I could make the extra money. Then I start to realize how many estimates I did not give the time of day just because I did not have the time.

My foreman still calls me constantly with questions. My sub that I am using right now is great. Customers acctually complained to me that the other contractors on site were to messy and that my guy was extremely clean. This never happened before!

genecarp

if you feel your lead guy is capable, start to involve him in some other areas of the biz, material lists, estimates. baby steps. also staying small is not a bad thing. a 3 to 4 man company can make some serious $ if handled correctly.

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Trimcat

Ya I agree with the key being your lead guy. Discuss with him a short and long range picture of your view of where you want to take your company, and how he fits into that view. I think it's key to make him feel like he's working towards a goal himself and that he feels connected to you and your company. OTHERWISE you could put a lot of time and money into him, and give him a bunch of responsibility and after a couple years he might think hell, why don't I just go off on MY own... I'm doing it all anyway. You have to figure out a way to make him think like a company man. In order to do that he'll have to feel like he's a valuable, intregral part. Once you have that in place, that will open up lots of time for you to do other things.