Joined
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7 Posts
Hello to everyone out there, I'm new to the website, and still learning the industry to some extent. This is a long post so bear with me.
I'm in the middle of a hellish project at this time and am really on the losing end of this thing. First off, this involved several aspects most of which have nothing to do with the business. We decided to pick up and move 350 miles from the DFW area to a tiny hellhole west of Odessa, TX. This was in conjunction with a move to Colorado. There is nothing here except a gas station, school and a few houses. The reason for picking up and moving was simple, my wife's aunt wanted me to remodel her house and it presented an opportunity for a large project enroute to our new destination. Before anyone says you shouldn't do business with family, we already know and regret that portion of it which is a whole different story.
I began a little remodeling to their house and they said if I could, "I should get some other jobs while the market is hot". OK, so I did. The fact that I am a 120 mile round trip from the epi-center of the oil boom in Odessa should have been a clue. That is a ton of fuel back and forth for any job, no matter how big. Anyway, I took a job in Odessa that in the DFW area would have netted a large profit. Or if I had been living in Odessa would have been very profitable. I barely broke even on it due to added costs for having to run around Odessa/Midland to track down materials etc and for fuel that I just plain did not account for.
So I took another job, this time in the little town where we were staying, remodeling a few of the teacher houses the district offers for their employees. I bid them as I normally do, not really thinking about or realizing the fact that I am at least 30 miles from the nearest hardware store and 60 miles from Lowes or HD and that NO ONE will deliver here. I can't even get subs at a decent rate because NO ONE wants to come out here. I'm losing money every day, not to mention the fact that I ended up moving my family BACK to DFW instead of to CO where we were trying to go.
Fortunately I've been able to make up a little on some of the unforeseen stuff that has come up that they wanted me to fix. I started adding in some trip charges for materials and stuff but it still isn't panning out. The biggest problem is that I can get ahead time wise but then something comes up and I end up losing HALF A DAY chasing down materials that may or may not be in stock at any particular store. Not to mention the miles and fuel burned up doing that. So I lose the time I was ahead, fuel in my truck, all of which burns my profits as now the project is behind schedule.
Is there anything that you would do, bring up to the district to try and recoup some of the losses? I never figured that my overhead would be that much more out here and that time was so easily lost in this place. I really would like to get out of the remainder of the contracts and go back to DFW, where I already have some other work lined up. I honestly don't know how I could get out of them or if I would in good-faith. I know this is a hard lesson learned business-wise that's for sure.
I'm in the middle of a hellish project at this time and am really on the losing end of this thing. First off, this involved several aspects most of which have nothing to do with the business. We decided to pick up and move 350 miles from the DFW area to a tiny hellhole west of Odessa, TX. This was in conjunction with a move to Colorado. There is nothing here except a gas station, school and a few houses. The reason for picking up and moving was simple, my wife's aunt wanted me to remodel her house and it presented an opportunity for a large project enroute to our new destination. Before anyone says you shouldn't do business with family, we already know and regret that portion of it which is a whole different story.
I began a little remodeling to their house and they said if I could, "I should get some other jobs while the market is hot". OK, so I did. The fact that I am a 120 mile round trip from the epi-center of the oil boom in Odessa should have been a clue. That is a ton of fuel back and forth for any job, no matter how big. Anyway, I took a job in Odessa that in the DFW area would have netted a large profit. Or if I had been living in Odessa would have been very profitable. I barely broke even on it due to added costs for having to run around Odessa/Midland to track down materials etc and for fuel that I just plain did not account for.
So I took another job, this time in the little town where we were staying, remodeling a few of the teacher houses the district offers for their employees. I bid them as I normally do, not really thinking about or realizing the fact that I am at least 30 miles from the nearest hardware store and 60 miles from Lowes or HD and that NO ONE will deliver here. I can't even get subs at a decent rate because NO ONE wants to come out here. I'm losing money every day, not to mention the fact that I ended up moving my family BACK to DFW instead of to CO where we were trying to go.
Fortunately I've been able to make up a little on some of the unforeseen stuff that has come up that they wanted me to fix. I started adding in some trip charges for materials and stuff but it still isn't panning out. The biggest problem is that I can get ahead time wise but then something comes up and I end up losing HALF A DAY chasing down materials that may or may not be in stock at any particular store. Not to mention the miles and fuel burned up doing that. So I lose the time I was ahead, fuel in my truck, all of which burns my profits as now the project is behind schedule.
Is there anything that you would do, bring up to the district to try and recoup some of the losses? I never figured that my overhead would be that much more out here and that time was so easily lost in this place. I really would like to get out of the remainder of the contracts and go back to DFW, where I already have some other work lined up. I honestly don't know how I could get out of them or if I would in good-faith. I know this is a hard lesson learned business-wise that's for sure.