Looking To Start A Excavating Company In South Nj Need Help Thanks

davidmiz

Hi my name is David I have been looking around the forum for awhile and it is about time I posted something. I want to get in to the excavating field and open my own company. I can get as much work as I can handle as long as I keep my prices competitive and my service good. I have experience I electric as I was a electrician for 3 years till I was in a car accident and broke my hip and so no longer can do any mayor physical labor, also I have experience in mechanics as my dad owns a mechanic shop and I went to school for 2 years for mechanics and body work and worked at his shop for a year. I don’t have any experience in excavating and so I am looking for some help I am looking at my routes on how to get started. My first route was to go buy a backhoe a truck and a trailer and do any job I can handle, once I get very busy, learn a little bit about the business and start making money I will hire a operator to work for me and buy another piece of equipment. And just continue to grow, but the risk involved with that is very high as I don’t know to much about the business.
Or my other route to go is to find a excavating company that is a little slow who I can sub out all of my work to and keep my over head down then once I have a big client tell I will buy my own equipment and hire my own operators and fade out my sub. I would like to here your comments on what you think would be a better route for me and a to go and any criticism is also welcome, also if you are or know of any excavators who would be willing to work with me and I can sub work out to in or around Lakewood N.J. 08701 please let me know Thanks David

jmic

David I don't know how you ever thought excavators didn't have to do heavy, excruciating physical work day in and day out, and to not have any experience on top of things sounds like another " Titanic " waiting to sink. I think you should put your thinking cap back on........How about if you run a electrical company and have men working for you? Sorry for the DOOM .

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Joe

tnmtn

david,
listen to what jmic says. i am doing about what you are thinking about and i can tell you it isn't easy. i have a truck and a backhoe and have been working it on time off from another job. there is no way i could begin and rely on this for family feeding income. maybe eventually but it won't be tomorrow. by your own admission you don't have any excavatiing experiance. in every job there is a period of paying your dues. excavating is no diffrent. there are many great operators and yes they do make it "look easy". believe me it isn't. moving levers in a machine is the easiest part of the learning. to get all the info you have to learn to know what your doing will take some time. during this time your reputation as an excavator isn't going to be good. REPUTATION IS EVERYTHING. they may like you as a person but all is fair in bussiness. when you lower your price in order to get work you will find you are working for free. hopefully you will find this out before you need major repairs for your machine and don't have the money for it. as a prime moneymaking bussiness jmic is right. if you can come up with a way to support your family while you are learning the bussiness that may work. but you will have a tremendous amount of overhead before you dig the first hole to overcome. unless you don't carry the proper insurances and licensing. also, the amount of hand digging is always there. plan on it. you will not be getting the easier jobs at first so you will be hand digging a lot. get to where you enjoy it. another thing to keep in mind is you will hear many people talk about how much work there is and how they will use you for their work. this should mean they will use you if your price is enough lower that they can't say no. keep learning all you can and maybe a solution will come up for you. but if at all possible try to learn on someone elses dime and reputation.
good luck with what you decide,
metin

tgeb

No offense to any electricians out there, but typical electrical work is not near as demanding on your body as typical excavation work.

David, maybe you could get into some electrical service work that might not be as labor intensive as new installations.

If you are dead set on getting in to excavating, I would recommend that you maybe line up a small job or 2 and rent equipment to see if it is something you can handle. Sitting in a seat pulling levers looks like fun, but 8 to 10 hours of it can really wear you out. Then you have to load and chain the machines (properly) move to the next job, you can kill 12 to 14 hours a day and still have things to do, that don't get done.

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Tom

www.gebcon.com

jmic

Tom you're scaring me. Am I the only one that puts in 8 hr. days? Quiet Nick!

__________________
___"Remember You Never Get A Second Chance To Make A First Impression"______________________
Joe

Dirt Works

In our current market, being competitive means working for $0.00. Everybody wants to be a excavating contractor, we make alot of money HA HA HA, more like we handle alot. I started my biz from scratch. The only time it seems I made money is when I did not have insurance, payroll, eqp. payments, breakdowns, employees, mortgages, F'n Uncle Sam But unfortunately this is the stuff you need so you can drive a fancy pick up with your fancy logo on it and pass out your fancy biz cards. GOOD LUCK .

I don't know about you other veterans out there, but don't the bad times out weigh the the good financially, just curious

Should have been a pon star or chef maybe both

denick

David,

I'm too tired to write all I would to answer your questions.

Dirt Works,

Unfortunately you are right. I know 100's of people in this end of the business. The one's that have Financial Stability, Savings, Retirement take vacations are in the 10% of the total. In the forty six years I have been going to work and observing the people in this business I have seen many a fortune lost, marriages wrecked and lives broken. More I would say than in other businesses.

__________________
Nick

"Every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving" Albert Einstein

mahlere

i think david is on to something...sounds easy enough...sign me up

btw - I have over 10 yrs experience in electrical, so I should be awesome at digging....

fhdesign

Hi David
Your business plan or ideas sound very poor...however there are a lot of successful excavating contractors that started with the exact same plan and experience level you have.
If this is the type work you really want to be involved in don't get discouraged and just ask more questions.

dirt diggler

i see your logic mahlere



alright David - take even knowing how to operate a backhoe, loader, whatever = out of the equation.

you have to know what to do with it. In other words - somebody's going to ask you to dig a foundation. Do you know how to use a transit, or a laser level?? Do you understand elevations? CAN YOU VISUALIZE???

can you stay on grade?? Without someone checking you every 20 seconds??


those things are very basic necessities.


Above all that - you're going to need to be EFFICIENT.

ctkiteboarding

wow excavation = no hard labor???????? im on 21 days in a row working in the excavation field ,,,,,, my hands are sore and my back is complaining stick with electrical

Vermaraj

David,

These two lines seem to be completely contradictory. Are you saying that you have a source of business locked up and need to find a way to deliver?

Or are you saying you have no experience in excavating and want to take a flyer on this business?

Backsight

You really can't jump into this type of work having no experience with or knowledge of excavation. The simplest of tasks require a fair amount of knowledge. Dirt Diggler mentioned a few. As an example; You get hired to dig a foundation hole. Most of the time, with residential, there are no engineered plans. You need to determine what the finish floor elevation will be. You need to have the eye to determine this and know how to use the tools to verify what you determined will work. Now, whats my footing grade and how do I measure this. Then you have to dig the hole. Do you know how to handle water, what if you hit ledge, do you know where to put the dirt you dig out. Gotta build ramps for the concrete trucks. Can you identify material that will support a loaded concrete truck. Before all this, do you know where your building setbacks are? What about running footing drains...can I, if so, where will I daylight. Can you use your transit or laser to determine is you have enough pitch. What about plugging and tarring the foundation. Backfilling, building the leach field, grading the area for water runoff, the list goes on. My point is that even a simple house lot takes experience and know how. For someone starting out it only takes one bad job to ruin / eliminate your business. I think the best thing for you to do is get a job as a laborer. Try to work closely with the foreman. Learn to read plans, shoot grades, basic layout. Ask why he decided to lay the sewer before the storm, why is he putting the dirt over there, etc. The more you can help him, the more he will like you and be motivated to teach you, the faster your pay will go up, and then you will have the experience that is a must.

davidmiz

Thanks every one for your input, I look at it like this I have a bunch of job offers right now some are demolition some excavating and I dont know how to do the work to be honest, so my plan is like this to sub it out to different excavators to do the work and make a small cut on it and learn the business slowly once I know enough to go on my own, I will fade out my sub's buy my own equipment and hire my own operators. and build it up from there. I understand i will not be makeing alot of money the 1st day i open and i dont expect to. I dont have a a family to suport and i have money to live in for right now, so money is not my bigest concern so long as i am not looseing I am not looking to make easy fast cash I am looking to make money in the long run. and have a future. I dont have a problom wakeing up at 5am and working till 8pm my only issue is i cant be standing on my feet all day and I dont see why i would have to if I am subing out all my work I dont see where i would have to be doing any phisical labor. as when i was doing electrical work i was working 50-55 hr weaks in the heat/cold standing on my feat all day pulling wire . again thanks for all your input and coments

davidmiz

What i am saying is i have a source of work but no way to deliver it.

mahlere

my serious question for this thread....

do these jobs that you have lined up, pay enough to pay a sub? without worrying about a percentage for you, is there enough money in it for anyone? or are they low ball pricing?

I ask because whenever I see a statement like:
i see a line of BS coming out of a GC's mouth and a recipe for disaster...


I'm about 20 mins north of you...I do know that if your "Uncle Saul" takes you under his wing, you can do very well in your area. But outside of that, good luck..

rino1494

We spent 4 days hand raking 10 tri-axle loads of modified for 4' wide berms for some roads in 90 degree weather.

Go to school and get a good job.

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Uncle Sam wants YOU....to speak ENGLISH

dayexco

if you don't know how to do the work, you apparently don't know how to price it/bid it. why should i as an excavating contractor, sub anything from you? why not bid it myself directly and cut you out of the picture and keep this small percentage you're talking about? the contractors you will get to submit quotes to you....are probably at the level/step that you want to be where you want to fade out your subcontractors. some experience...and no work, so you have to bid stuff cheap to the wolves who are already underbidding their services to the generals who want to pick up the cheapest hooker on the corner. these same subs will leave your work half done, requiring you to fix, repair defects, and run around town paying the bills associated with the job so you don't have a lien filed against the project.
my advice?
go work several years for a successful, seasoned contractor....follow him around like a puppy dog and listen/learn to everything he has to offer. learn what makes him successful, learn the business, learn what makes him money, what costs him money. if you still have this fire in your belly, have at it!!!
..just my 2 cents

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someday, i'll be as patient as Nick.

dirt diggler

kind of another thing

take the fly by nights out of the equation


you may get a [good] excavator who meets you onsite at 7 AM ... warms up the loader and says

"alright - where do you want me to dig"

that excavator is NOT THERE to manage YOUR project/job. He's there to move some dirt. you NEED to understand that (which i don't think you do).

so YOU yourself are going to NEED to know what needs to be done. It's just not as E-Z as saying "welp, im gonna sub it out"

do whatcha want though. I fully agree here with summa da others - go work for someone a little while, learn, and then start.

denick

Gee,
I'm sorry, I should have said Hi and Welcome to E&SW forum David.

David, I think most of us are trying to express to you that there are risks to what you would like to do that far out weigh the benefits. jmic, dayexco, tgeb, rino, tnmtn, ctkite, dirt works, backsight, "read what they have written and listen to them"

Backsight, Welcome to E&SW I noticed yours was post #1 for you. Please join in whenever you can.

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Nick

"Every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving" Albert Einstein