What Are We Doing Wrong

plumbingpro

Hate to get on and whine and moan about the state of things these days. But wondered what some of you who are successfully achieving in this tight economy might think. What are we doing wrong, what can we do to improve.

We have been in biz almost 20 years and are rapidly sinking. Our forte has always been, (preference) remodels, small commercial. We never did grow to gangbuster levels, in all these years. But managed to stay afloat and pay the bills.

Always had a cadre of about 8 or 9 contractors that kept us relatively busy, for the most part.

For varying reasons, most of those contractors are dead in the water or loosing far more bids than they win. Thus, we too, are dead in the water. We have just continued to struggle in this economy, hard.

We have tried to get a foot in the door to other contractors and remodel venues and thus far, typically, you don't get the time of day.

Or the other end of the equation, you get the time of day only to turn in a proposal on a project and find out that the other subs in the area that are desparately trying to do anything they can, just to hang onto personnel, are doing things so cheap you wonder how in the world they're even pulling out of their shop at those prices.

I guess the long and short of it, is that we never were gangbusters ....... thus, the hardtimes hit, we don't have the reserves to weather this economy.

Any takes on this?

SelfContract

What is "Gangbusters"? I think at least 2009 till 2010 economy will turn around. Everyone just be patient.

send_it_all

Have you been advertising, or just relying on your contractors?...how about advertising for service/repair work?

thom

Construction is down by half, more in some markets. That means, only half the man hours work to be done. Everyone wants/needs the hours/pay. Prices drop, and drop, and drop. Wages will drop, and drop, and drop. No one wants to cut wages so they go on until they lay off their help, and eventually go out of business our hire cheaper help.

Until the number of tradesmen is cut to match the work available, it will be tough. Many contractors will fail, many tradesmen will find other lines of work.

LNG24

Residential Construction is down! Thats because people can not refinance their homes and put on additions. They can't sell to buy new or bigger homes. If you are in Residential...Hang On Tight! Try doing repair work, though that will be tough as well.

My suggestion is to Refocus your business to the commercial sector. Commercial is doing very well. This might entail going to a union shop or competing with union wages and benie's but if your dead, it's worth the effort. You will have at least until November until things start to turn the corner. However, we won;t kown if we are heading uptown or downtown until we get there.

plumbingpro

Thanks for some interesting replies.

We're in the deep south and I don't know the north....or other regions, but it does seem unions are more prevalent elsewhere than is the case here.

The advertising, that is one thing I suppose we should perhaps look at. Advertising for repair. It's not been something we prefer to focus on. But I guess tough times call for tough measures. And so yes, we've relied, all these years, for the most part, on being a subcontractor to projects involving contractors.

And on the post regarding residential construction being way down. Boy, can we attest to that. What's happened, that was never our specialty or preference, but some in this area, that was their only focus (employed dozens of crews, and that's all that they did, residential new construction). And so now, they are in the market we used to target, and they are struggling to keep their personnel and doing whatever they can, and sometimes I wonder if it isn't a race to the bottom, to see who can bid the lowest (shouldn't be that way). Some of the things we bid, and loose, the prices that we've seen that folks are doing things for, we just walk away scratching our heads, wondering how. It doesn't compute, not at all. They are doing so, I'd suppose, to keep personnel on board, and doing things for cost, or less even. Have to be.

As a result, we just sputter along, not nearly enough work to sustain us.

Tough times for us.

W-Tinc

Depending on how your sitting financially its a good time to buy investment property and fix it up. You may even be able to borrow money to pay yourself to work on it.

Or work on increasing your personal/business credit.
I was never much of a credit person but went thru a bad time business-wise a few years ago and said never again, now I spend as much time on credit forums as I do here .

My heating and air guy does plumbing too, maybe you can start doing some ac work heh.

Chris Johnson

Specialize in something and run with it...

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I found a niche a long time ago...still not a lot of guys wanting to do it

Enough work still to keep me and my crew out of trouble

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Chris

nadonailer

You gotta change your niche - try getting into the high-end remodel market, or small TI's or ? But if you keep doing what you've been doing you'll get the same results

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"History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid”.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

threaderman

And then there are times when it is just plain slow and you have to cut back a little.Our business is what it is,feast or famine.I''ve had a hell of a time getting work the past 3 or 4 months and all of a sudden I have more than I can do.
I stay small so I don't have to deal with lay-offs and such,and I feel for the big boys and the guys that suck,a lot of them won't make it through the year.
I owned a home and ran a Plumbing company in the Tampa /St.Pete area,and I know how seasonal the area can be.Expand your services as some others have mentioned but be careful,there is a big difference between new construction and repair work.Good-luck.

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Joe ---International Code Council Member

Your plumbing & gas specialist proudly serving Oklahoma City OK, Moore, Warr-acres, Norman, Midwest City, Edmond, Bethany, Forest Park

Tom M

Self employment is not like any job under someone else. You never get promotions, raises, paid vacations, or a pat on the back when you accomplished the unthinkable. All you can do is stick to your ethic's and price work at the rates you need. Self employement is a very lonely feeling when things are not going great. You think about 1 million different things at trying to make a change that you likely have little control over. Sometimes we need to simply recharge. It will work itself out stay focused.