Hows Business For Everyone??

Dell-Tech

hey everyone, hows business for everyone? We've been in business in new jersey for about 10 years now. Doing mainly historic restorations, stabalization and hotel remodeling. Business has been going down the drain lately, We havent had a succesful bid in almost 6 months, people are really cutting it low, just had a bid on a job that a contractor bid half of ours (90k) which is the cost of material we calculated. what about insurance, gas, trucks, profit. any one else having this kind of trouble. We are pretty much kept afloat by hotels for now but now the owners are demanding lower and lower prices, and people are willing to work for those prices.

so hows business, especially in the north east

woodworkbykirk

we finished up a harti plank job, and while working on it the put out about 5 or 6 bids on other jobs, didnt get them. his brothers have a commercial construction company, their subbing us out on a house their building for a previous client, helping their guys frame it as needed, finished up the back framing, siding and trim.... we might have an addition to goto and some finish work on a couple government offices through them.

im looking into getting a few houses to trim with a buddy who has a couple ins with a couple builders if things dry up

cueball707

Business has been good for small jobs, but I can't get a larger job at all. Everytime I put a bid in I get outbid by some cut rate guy willing to do it for half price (usaully someone unlicensed) Its really frustrating. I'm making enough to pay all the bills, but that is about it. I have very low overhead (home office and just me doing the work) so my prices are very competive. The only consistant work I get is from about 5 realtors and property managers that use me for everything. Without them I would be up a creek.

BMAN

Last week I bid a huge great room with high ceilings a stairwell and upper hallway. It was walls only and he bought the paint. I bid 2 guys two days for $1125. I called back a few days later to follow up and he said he got someone to do it for $400!! This room was huge with a ton of cutting around stairs and built in bookcases etc. (the back wall of book cases was wall color too). So I am not really upset with the homeowner who can blame him, but who is the poor shmuck bidding that thing?

AtlanticWBConst

We've been going like bonkers all year.

Lately, I've had alot of clients say, that they would still like to proceed with their projects, but are going to hold off till things get more financially sound in the market. Just had one email this morning saying that.

We are busy, but I've gotten accustomed to being crazy busy. If we are not crazy busy, I get a little worried.

Lately, work has just kept coming in enough to keep us "busy", but not crazy busy. We've lost a few bids that we thought were "locked-in" (we priced them dead-right) ...That sucks, they were good money makers. It makes me a little apprehensive.

We've never had to advertise, looks like I may develop something in that area, just as an "insurance policy".

We will see how things look workwise, come Jan 1st.

Good luck to all you guys and gals.

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- Build Well -

Max Nomad

Business for us here in Virginia Beach and surrounding cities has been "affected" but still manageable. We're still a small team so, like many hearty animals that are bottom-feeders, we've still got enough trickling our way to keep us going. The bigger contractors are basically whoring themselves out to land the larger contracts just to keep something coming in. As the team's manager I'm making the most of this time to study the industry, study the market, develop our company's brand and promotional materials so we'll be good and ready once things pick up in March.

Prior to a couple of months ago, for every five or six residential estimates we'd go out to do, at least one of them would turn out to be a serious dud -- usually an HGTV-inspired homeowner that had several contractors come out to bid on a renovation job, and then scrap the idea after they realized that even the materials alone cost much more than they were willing to spend. Now, thanks to the economic slump, the estimates that we're doing lately are for people who have the money and are ready to make things happen -- but they're much more analytical and frugal so licensing/cert paperwork has to be in order (I keep it all in a PDF file ready to email or fax on demand) and there's almost no room for error or waste with whatever we quote them. Unfortunately, the slump has also made the market prime for smooth-talking "Jackleg Handymen" and scammers who seem to be out there raping and pillaging every homeowner that's willing to jump on a deal that's too good to be true.

The HGTV-inspired-but-can't-afford-it homeowners are still around too... occasionally we hear from some of them after they've either been burned by a Jackleg/Scammer or tried to do their own renovation, screwed it up, and eventually broke down and started calling legit contractors to get an estimate for how much it'll cost to fix (or finish) the job.

Ahh, to be alive in interesting times...

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Grumpy

Leads slowing down but sales rolling in from old leads. Same as every year, everyone waits until the last minute, and then blames me when I can't get the work done before winter hits... as if I can control the weather.

True North

What is this "business" and "work" you speak of?

Oh wait, it's coming back to me now, a memory from long ago...

BKFranks

Let's see...Home prices down over 28% here, worst in the nation making it impossible for homeowners to pull equity out of their homes for remodels or home improvements. Pulling permits down by 94%, so needless to say it sucks here.
Orand County Register - Home Prices off 28.9%

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bighammer

We have slowed in the house framing, however, we have been lucky to be an ag-community and have been switching to post-to-truss buidlings...there is always a rainbow after the storm.

dougchips

The bright side:

The lines at our dump are nice and short since they are not clogged up with contractors.

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Aggie67

We're somewhat fortunate in that one of the partners is, hands down, one hell of a rain maker. When we "break the glass in the event of an emergency", he gets us excellent bids to work on. The down side is when we're crazy busy (like the last 16 months straight), he's mammary glands on a bull. He ends up just doing busy work (infuriating) most of the year. But the man can find work.

As a gauge of how busy we are, we track what we call slippage - labor hours that don't go to a project. Two guys might be between projects for a week, and instead of laying them off, we have them in the shop cleaning or painting, or helping other job sites. We budget 80 hours of slippage a month at the average hourly rate (no overhead included), and make sure our overhead is covered in the rest of the working hours. Sounds like a lot, but we have 20 men in the field. It works out to be only 2.5% of the hours we work in a month. We haven't had slippage since the spring of 07.

One problem we're working on is taking on too much work. We don't have a mechanism in place to say "whoa, hold on there." We're like the dog that eats the whole bag of spilled dog food. That got us in trouble this year on 2 sites. We stole men from one site to work another, and both projects ended up suffering big time.

wellbuilthome

This week i did not get a lead until saturday morning most of the time i get a call or two on wed and Thursday ? I have not had many people buying ? December is looking dead but i start a job Jan 1st and i have three jobs lined up thru may I hope things get fixed by spring but i think we are in for a bad time.

TRICITYCONCRETE

Here in SC and NC its fell off dead.Im to the point i dont know what to do most of my contractors are sitting on houses and the rest of are barely makeing it there self and some of the others you are nevous about not getting paid,All i know is something needs to change and quick or most of the small companys like my self are going to lose everything.

SLSTech

As of Thursday, I completed my last job, with no new leads or jobs to work on, 1 Insurance Estimate completed & awaiting for the Insurance company to figure out what they want to do (that will take at least a month if not more to get the approval probably). At last count, 1 full house remodel, 3 kitchens & 2 bath jobs were all placed on indefinite hold due to the economy.

On the plus side, everything is paid till the middle of January, I have more time to work on my web site, complete some marketing projects, do some maintenance on my tools, and work on some of my business procedures & systems. Hopefully, I will get a couple of I need my Bath or Kitchen done by XMas... Sales were barely up this year & I figure they should be about the same if not better next year. My average sale to lead average has stayed around 1 in 5, which isn't bad seeing everyone is getting multiple quotes & I always seem to come in towards the middle of the pack. I will definitely know the economy is improving when my leads out number the amount of "Are you hiring" calls I get.

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5_Star

My business has been almost 100% foreclosed homes. I am in Riverside CA, which has one of the highest rates of foreclosures.... and many more to come. Other than that, the phone does not ring.

Shellbuilder

I've been busy in VB for a while,,,actually 35 years, great place to be in construction.

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buildpinnacle

East TX has 'held off' the monster somewhat due to the 'oiling' around here. With oil dropping below $50.00 per barrel, it is starting to rear it's ugly head more and more. I saw it coming a few months ago and started to store nuts for the winter. I moved almost completely away from our 'expansion business' of additions, decks, etc. and went back full bore into what we do best...insurance work and roofing. We are still getting about 7-10 leads per month from the local hailstorms earlier this year, but it will dry up soon. We have a ton of good clients in Amarillo and DFW if they get a big storm next spring to go and service. We have a good commercial client that is in the gas industry that has kept us busy for the past three months on interior/exterior reno work and we just settled a large burn out on a gas station that we will start in a few days that should carry us to the early spring. We have been fortunate, but make no mistake...tons of starving contractors here and big work is almost at a complete stop for most. The next months (years) will definitely weed out the week or under financed. Stay strong, smart, and good luck to all.

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harrybusinessma

I think home business opportunities may require research into business law as it relates to home business opportunities.

Can any one guide me the best home based business opportunities.

Have a look at the marketing strategies which has interesting information.

Thanks.....

True North

I couldn't agree more