Just Starting Out.....need Advice!

perriscat

Just rec'd my Electrical Contractor's license and live in the Riverside area of California. Any advice is welcome! Would you recommend buying insurance as a package? Do you check each city you are in to see if you need a business license for that city? Do you pay sales tax when you purchase supplies or use a resale number? Best way to advertise? Websites any good?

mdshunk

Holy cow... that's a lot of very valid questions. You might want to search this site a little bit, as most of them have been covered in every painful detail. Congratulations on receiving your license, and repost if you have any specific questions.

shopdust

Congrats from an old Berdoo General Contractor &- Concrete speciality. Yes, Most cities have their own lic. requirements. Yes, you will pay sales tax on everything you buy, unless you have a "Resale" number. If you get one, the paperwork will kill you. the quarterly reports will grind you down till Oregon looks good (Just a joke)
Advertising depends on what you want to do. New Construction? Re work? Service calls? Start with a little "Trades and Services" ad in your local P-E paper (who are great folks BTW) Avoid the Big Box Store where possible, buy from the corner guy who will refer folks to you. Get stacks of business cards and spread them like 'rehia at Sturgis (another joke, but I'm keeping my day job) The chamber of Commerce is a a great place to get known. Hopefully someone will take you under their wing and wire you in as to who is bogus.
Again, Best Wishes !!!

perriscat

I have been reading through a lot of the posts and haven't seen a whole lot said about trying to advertise to the industrial companies. I have a 25 years of troubleshooting experience working at companies such as Kimberly Clark, Seven Up, Sparkletts, Toro. This is the type of work I enjoy most. I can and have done residential wiring, so I can do this type of work to help me get going but from what I have read here on the board, most recommend that you try to specialize. Any thoughts?

By the way, thanks for all of the input you have given me, I appreciate any and all help!

mdshunk

It would be really tough getting in with the industrial/controls type troubleshooting, as 99% of all industrial establishments that require this type of work have their own staff to do so. If you were larger, some industrial design/build contractors get into this, but just starting out, that's probably out for you too. I'd look for small to medium sized manufacturing facilities that don't have a maintenance electrician on staff, and submit a "corporate capibilities statement" to them. This is basically like a resume, but it is a resume for your company rather than you personally. You MUST meet with the decision makers at these facilities if you ever expect to do any work there. You need to find the facilities manager/plant ops supervisor or whatever they are called and have a sit down with them for a few minutes or more.