Help! Need Advise On Keeping Steady Work

mmexcavation

I'm tempting to keep a small excavation company alive in Western North Carolina, I just cant seem to keep steady work. I do advertising with Yellow Pages, Yellow Book, it seems to help. I purchase mailing lists and send out mailers just anything I can think of. I think the key is going to be networking with the general contractors, just not sure how to do that. I have my repeat customers, everyone I've ever worked for loves me and wouldnt use anyone else but its just not keep'n us afloat. Any advise you pro's could give this new guy? Any advise... even if it's "run for it"

tgeb

We were just getting ready to ask YOU the same question.

But seriously, it has always been what I call "feast or famine".
When I have work, it is so busy I can barely keep up, and when it gets slow, I can't find anything. Sort of like a roller coaster ride.

For me personally I think when we are busy, I don't have the time to put in on following up new job leads, I am concentrating on getting through the backlog of work and end up letting new leads get cold.

I do have 1 or 2 guys that will wait out my busy periods for me to do some odd job type things for them, it helps but I agree it would be nice to "even" things out.

It is the nature of construction to have these busy/slow swings. Word of mouth has always been my best source for jobs, never had much luck with the Yellow Pages, I found mostly price shoppers calling from those adds.

Welcome to the site, tell us a little more about your operation.

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Tom

www.gebcon.com

Vinny

I would think as long as this housing / mortage nonsense exists, it may continue to be very up and down.

I dont know the market your in but most diggers are in the market of working for GC and builder types. I would say then you need to broaden you network. If builder A knows Builder B, ask for an intro.

You may also look for a niche in a market. For instance, if basement water is an issue there, specialize in pump systems. There is a company here that all they do is sump pump installs. They have a good system of doing things and they are doing very well at it. And this is something that can be marketed directly to home ownwers.

You may also need to expand your abilities. I mean if you dig foundations, you may consider doing the concrete too. Biulders out here love guys that dig and pour. The scariest part for a wood guy is getting out of the dirt. So if you can solve that issue your in.

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The Right Way Driveway Company
If you say you cant, your a loser. If you say you wont, your a quiter. Which one do you want to be?

rino1494

We work for 7 different general contractors and developers. We never had to go out and get work, it just came to us. Now with the housing market crunch, we are forced to actually call people back and deal with "outside" people. It is alot more work returning phone calls and meeting with people to go over the project and bid, but you gotta do what you gotta do. We went from very little work, to right now being booked all the way into July.

My advise to you is use your connections with local contractors, quarries, supply stores and yards. Tell people that you need work and if they hear of anything swing them your way.

What type of work do you actually do? Maybe you have to switch gears a bit and diversify yourself.

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ruskent

When you are busy you need to spend the $ on advertising! I am booked to around July first and I keep on upping my monthly advertising budget.

Whats blows is my advertising is not working to well this year. I have more work signed this year then I did all last but it is all referals and repeat customers!! I am 5k in the hole on advertising and only have 1 lead I am currently persuing from that 5k. But I am still dropping the money on advertising. I am going after big jobs. I have no proablem with spending 15k to sign one job.

mmexcavation

Well heres a lil about me. I'm 24 and I've been at this for 2.5 years now, so far my work has been directly with private parties. I dont have any contractor connections. I know thats where I've gotta be to bring in the steady work. Where do GC's turn when they need people? How do I meet these guy? Introduce myself and what I can do for them? I will do just about anything dealing with dirt. I'm a certified septic installer, I do lot clearing, foundations, general site prep., drive repair, I'll do stack block retaining walls, never liked to pour concrete much. I love to start with a raw site, clear it, dig the stumps, cut the roads, dig the foundation or set up the pad, install the septic, run waterline. Just carry it all the way thru. I generally just work myself and one other guy, I carry insurance, just a small operation. Seems like everyone around here is in the biz. They rent equipment and do work for nothing, in doing so they take work from me and end up losing money themselves, and overall drive the prices down. Also screw it up about 60% of the time. Rental companies are supplying home owners with equipment to do it themselves, which looks cheaper til their inexperience takes them 3 times long as expected. Nothing wrong with rentals, I use them too, but you've gotta know whats going on and charge fairly. Thanks for all the feedback way more than I thought I'd get. Keep it coming.

rino1494

As far as having alot of competition that work for nothing. That happens everywhere in every trade. The only way you will succeed by charging a profitable rate is doing quality work in a timely manner. Call local builders and meet with them and explain to them what you can offer. You can offer a complete package of lot clearing, digging the foundation, backfilling and installing utilities. That is what builders are looking for. They don't wanna be bothered 4 different contractors.

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pottsgroverc

We are a medium sized contractor. We have the same problem. Doesn't matter what size you are, we all have it. Just the bigger you are, the longer the waves tend to get. Basically, the bigger you are the longer period of time it takes to turn it around. We have found the best way of preventing the (what we call) "rubber band" effect; is to know your backlog very well. When it is going to wind down, (key is doing this before it happens) you may have to lower your bid profit percentage to keep that continuous flow going. In the long run we found it is better to bite the bullet early rather than in desperation mode.