Advice / Reccommended Books For New Contractor

brianmvp

Hello my name is Brian. I am a Carpenter by trade and consider myself very good at my job. Work is begining to slow up a bit and my job is unstable at the moment... a week here a week there.

Its always been a goal of mine to be successful and work for meself.
So ive decided the time now to set on up my own.
Any advise would be greatly appriciated by members?

I have two very important questions i need answered
1) What would be the best way to advertise my services?
2) How do you estimate and price jobs correctly? (this has always been a difficultly for me in the past)

So ppl please post recommended books, and advice please? Thanks very much in advance

Any Season

You can find both of these on Amazon:

2008 National Remodeling Cost Estimator

"Markup and Profit"

Remodel Bud

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mark the coach

Hello

Books for the contractor;

Michael Gerber; The E Myth Contractor

Michael Stone; Mark up and Profit

Tim Faller; The Lead Carpenter Handbook

For goals and success training; Napoleon Hill Think and Grow Rich.

For people skill development; Dale Carnegie; How to Win Friends and Influence People.

Hometec Advantage; website has lots of useful information on pricing, handyman and lead carpenter.

To get started look into joining a referral group like BNI or your local chamber of commerce. BNI can be found online. (Business Network International). These groups are all about generating referral business by helping each other in the network. The cost is very low and it is usually easier to sell referrals than cold leads.

Hope this helps.

mark the coach

brianmvp

Thanks everyone for the post there very helpful to me
I going to buy most of the books as reference.
Bought Markup and Profit today, so far so good
Im having problems gettin leads could any contractors please inform me how to get consisant leads???
As im only starting off I only get calls from time to time and closing the deals is a bit of an issue to me.
Is it word of mouth?
Flyers Paper ads
Internet ads
Yard signs?

Im interested in you guys in the business for years have to say to me
Thank very much keep it up

TimSim

Welcome to the forum Brian. Nice lists of books too guys.

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DavidC

Markup & Profit, excellent first choice. Welcome to the forums.

Good Luck
Dave

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