I want to take over my dads small concrete business he has. I want to make it big and i know that i can make it happen. What are some things i need to know first before starting? How do i get more jobs?What do i need to get commercial jobs? ETC.! By the way im located in Austin texas.:thumbup:
I want to run a concrete business after high school?
diazconcrete
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You think someone is going to just give a 300k slab to you?
Crawl
Walk
Run
Crawl
Walk
Run
I read all of these posts and I must admit they are all true. I own a successfull roofing business and like most, I learned it the hard way!
I will tell you the same thing I told my neices an nephews before they graduated and will tell my own children when they are old enough to understand. (the oldest is in kindergarden. The world is still nice to her. Love their innocence.)
Back to reality:
Go to SCHOOL! I know, I hated hearing that too.
I don't care if you want to bake cakes or work at Mcdonalds. If you have taken 2 years of business at your local C.C. you will be way ahead of the game and advancing in your career of choice will be much easier. Everything is buisiness! Its all money. Learn the business side of it. Not the getting/doing the work side of it. You can land all of the jobs in world and piss away every red cent if you don't know what your doing. Believe me I have been there.
Pull back the reigns and whoe' that horse. We can all appreciate your chomping at the proverbial bit. What we appreciate more is a properly run business.
Take some courses in quickbooks, accounting, and whatever else your local C.C offers in business. You have your whole life ahead of you. We have all spent at least 10,000hrs perfecting our craft and we are all "still" learining the business side of it. 2 years of CC will put you ahead 10 years in the real world.
Make your dad proud and do it RIGHT.
I will tell you the same thing I told my neices an nephews before they graduated and will tell my own children when they are old enough to understand. (the oldest is in kindergarden. The world is still nice to her. Love their innocence.)
Back to reality:
Go to SCHOOL! I know, I hated hearing that too.
I don't care if you want to bake cakes or work at Mcdonalds. If you have taken 2 years of business at your local C.C. you will be way ahead of the game and advancing in your career of choice will be much easier. Everything is buisiness! Its all money. Learn the business side of it. Not the getting/doing the work side of it. You can land all of the jobs in world and piss away every red cent if you don't know what your doing. Believe me I have been there.
Pull back the reigns and whoe' that horse. We can all appreciate your chomping at the proverbial bit. What we appreciate more is a properly run business.
Take some courses in quickbooks, accounting, and whatever else your local C.C offers in business. You have your whole life ahead of you. We have all spent at least 10,000hrs perfecting our craft and we are all "still" learining the business side of it. 2 years of CC will put you ahead 10 years in the real world.
Make your dad proud and do it RIGHT.
You have a awful lot to learn & it sounds like your dad does not have the business knowledge to help you. You have a long way to go before you want to do commercial work ( those guys will eat you up ). Here's the short list on some of the things you need to do :
1) get a good accountant
2) check the laws for your location on what you need to do to operate a business legally.
3) join local chapter of ACI
4) join a sub-contractor's association
5) get ACI cert. for field tech. level I
6) get more ACI certs.
7) take drafting & business classes in high school
8) get an AA in accounting
9) then get an AA in engineering
10) ask questions all the time & never stop learning ( the more you learn the more you realize to less you know)
Just because you have a P/U with your name on it, businees cards & a few tools does not make you a business. Go slow & remember every mistake you & your employees make cost you. How many mistakes can you afford to make ? Just because you send someone a bill doesn't mean you will get paid. Good luck a remember 12 hours is only a half day.
1) get a good accountant
2) check the laws for your location on what you need to do to operate a business legally.
3) join local chapter of ACI
4) join a sub-contractor's association
5) get ACI cert. for field tech. level I
6) get more ACI certs.
7) take drafting & business classes in high school
8) get an AA in accounting
9) then get an AA in engineering
10) ask questions all the time & never stop learning ( the more you learn the more you realize to less you know)
Just because you have a P/U with your name on it, businees cards & a few tools does not make you a business. Go slow & remember every mistake you & your employees make cost you. How many mistakes can you afford to make ? Just because you send someone a bill doesn't mean you will get paid. Good luck a remember 12 hours is only a half day.
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you think so?
I hope so :whistling
I'd bet on it.
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me and this guy should be partners :laughing: :thumbup:
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That's the funniest thing I've read today :laughing::laughing:
Take the rest of the day off too Nick
If you want to join the contracting owners community, I would suggest
finding a girl to marry first because:
A) You will need someone to support you when things get slow/ customers won't pay!
B) You won't find a woman who will deal with the a$$ho.. you have become, after dealing with the erratic Home Owners, lazy employees, broke sub-contractors always wanting money and unreasonably demanding General Contractors.
C) You will need somebody to stop you from putting your Ramset in your mouth and driving a spike into your brain because of the business pressures.....or doing this to sombody else.
D) You will need someone outside the contracting world that can talk about anything other than contracting problems/issues. This is not a career where you can things at the door, when you get home.
I wish you luck and will tell what I told my kids (none have joined the trades) Get a high level education, make sure you love what you do and become the best at what ever you decide to do and get set in your faith, you will need GOD more than you realize!
finding a girl to marry first because:
A) You will need someone to support you when things get slow/ customers won't pay!
B) You won't find a woman who will deal with the a$$ho.. you have become, after dealing with the erratic Home Owners, lazy employees, broke sub-contractors always wanting money and unreasonably demanding General Contractors.
C) You will need somebody to stop you from putting your Ramset in your mouth and driving a spike into your brain because of the business pressures.....or doing this to sombody else.
D) You will need someone outside the contracting world that can talk about anything other than contracting problems/issues. This is not a career where you can things at the door, when you get home.
I wish you luck and will tell what I told my kids (none have joined the trades) Get a high level education, make sure you love what you do and become the best at what ever you decide to do and get set in your faith, you will need GOD more than you realize!
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All very true.
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If you don't have a website get one and start promoting it, this is the best way to get more work.
Go to School after high school. At least stick with it long enough to get your AA or better. Accounting, business, and trade specific classes would be ideal; if you can squeeze in as much mathematics and physics as possible that's even better. That education will give you more of the tools you need to really make your company successful.
Think about what Chris posted too: Crawl, Walk, Run. I wouldn't hire you for the 12,000SF slab I'll be doing next month because you're still in the crawling phase. If you jump immediately to run, you are risking putting yourself out of business without the experience and capitalization to handle it properly. Stay hungry and keep after it Grasshopper!
Think about what Chris posted too: Crawl, Walk, Run. I wouldn't hire you for the 12,000SF slab I'll be doing next month because you're still in the crawling phase. If you jump immediately to run, you are risking putting yourself out of business without the experience and capitalization to handle it properly. Stay hungry and keep after it Grasshopper!
buisness
Diazconcrete; I too have read all posts regarding your question.My advice to you,do not let all of the naysayers dash your hpoes and ambitions. They would like you to believe the MYTH that success comes as a result of hard work,luck, or favortism. The reality of the matter is ,success is the result of consistent thoughts and feelings of success. Their thoughts have created THEIR reality . Do not accept their reality as your reality. The only thing working your fingers to the bone will get you is boney fingers. Work from the shoulders up. Direct your thoughts to the out come you want and harness the power that creates worlds. The naysayers thoughts created each and every aspect of their realities . Look at the glass and see it half full,not half empty.The best of luck to you. Believe me, you can make it happen,enjoying every step of the way watching it all unfold.
Diazconcrete; I too have read all posts regarding your question.My advice to you,do not let all of the naysayers dash your hpoes and ambitions. They would like you to believe the MYTH that success comes as a result of hard work,luck, or favortism. The reality of the matter is ,success is the result of consistent thoughts and feelings of success. Their thoughts have created THEIR reality . Do not accept their reality as your reality. The only thing working your fingers to the bone will get you is boney fingers. Work from the shoulders up. Direct your thoughts to the out come you want and harness the power that creates worlds. The naysayers thoughts created each and every aspect of their realities . Look at the glass and see it half full,not half empty.The best of luck to you. Believe me, you can make it happen,enjoying every step of the way watching it all unfold.
Work with the crew. Learn every damn thing about the concrete business. Learn the codes, learn better practices. Learn form work until you can do it with your eyes closed. Same with grading and finishing. Learn everything you can.
Then learn the business side. Go to night school and take the classes you need.
Learn to network. Get active with sub contractors associations, builders associations, ect. Do what you say you will when you say you will.
Then learn the business side. Go to night school and take the classes you need.
Learn to network. Get active with sub contractors associations, builders associations, ect. Do what you say you will when you say you will.
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I would not be so eager to jump into commercial concrete. I am in OKC and work for a large commercial contractor. It is a vicious market in Texas right now. However, if you were to make the appropriate steps to become a 100% E-verified company, there is a ton of money to be made on military bases. Small projects with the COE (Core Of Engineers) have great Proffitt margins. This would be the ideal way to build revenue and reputation, before moving into the commercial market. There are very few companies that are 100% E-verify, and they are raking in the profits.
While family businesses can and do work, it complicates things if you don't have the proper relationship with your business partners. Family businesses have some advantages in that there is usually more trust among the partners, and also it can in some instances make business discussions more frank and honest. At the same time, it can put stress on the family if the family members involved don't have the right personality type. One common symptom of family business models is that they became a hydra, a multi-headed monster that is constantly in contention with itself.
I've worked with my father in the past, but after a certain point I learned all I could from him and it was time to move on. It wasn't until I went on to work for other contractors that I started to re-expand my knowledge. I was able to bring that knowledge back to my father later on, and currently we're on the right track. I also improved my skills as a tradesman, and have a much higher work ethic than when I was younger. Business is improving beyond what it was, and we are showing marked growth in areas we weren't before. Another thing that has helped is that he has taken a more back-seat approach, as I now have more experience with more successful businesses than his had been in the past.
But what makes us work? We're very honest with each other, and can have an argument without resenting each other. We hold nothing back, and aren't worried about hurting each other's feelings because this is business, not personal. We can transition quickly from having a heated discussion on a particular business strategy to working side by side with our eyes on the prize. We both realize that we argue with each other because we care about the success of the company, and how it can benefit us as a family as well.
My advice to you is this:
Don't try to take on too much too early. You're in highschool, so you haven't seen enough to run your own trade business just yet. Work for your dad for awhile, and understand the labor side of things. Also try to observe how your dad handles the business side of things. Then, if your dad's business isn't successful, I would advise to work for others, or at the very least, study other companies that are doing the right things. Taking some courses in business simultaneously would help immensely as you should have a basic understanding of accounting, marketing and business in general if you want to be successful outside of labor.
I've worked with my father in the past, but after a certain point I learned all I could from him and it was time to move on. It wasn't until I went on to work for other contractors that I started to re-expand my knowledge. I was able to bring that knowledge back to my father later on, and currently we're on the right track. I also improved my skills as a tradesman, and have a much higher work ethic than when I was younger. Business is improving beyond what it was, and we are showing marked growth in areas we weren't before. Another thing that has helped is that he has taken a more back-seat approach, as I now have more experience with more successful businesses than his had been in the past.
But what makes us work? We're very honest with each other, and can have an argument without resenting each other. We hold nothing back, and aren't worried about hurting each other's feelings because this is business, not personal. We can transition quickly from having a heated discussion on a particular business strategy to working side by side with our eyes on the prize. We both realize that we argue with each other because we care about the success of the company, and how it can benefit us as a family as well.
My advice to you is this:
Don't try to take on too much too early. You're in highschool, so you haven't seen enough to run your own trade business just yet. Work for your dad for awhile, and understand the labor side of things. Also try to observe how your dad handles the business side of things. Then, if your dad's business isn't successful, I would advise to work for others, or at the very least, study other companies that are doing the right things. Taking some courses in business simultaneously would help immensely as you should have a basic understanding of accounting, marketing and business in general if you want to be successful outside of labor.
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The arrogant tone of your post is gonna catch you some **** :whistling
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