I'm starting my own electrical contracting company.

[scottieb]

I'm just beginning to do this. I'm staking it out on my own to have more freedom to control the quality of work done, the pace of the work, the amount of workload, and to better treat, and provide for, employees (when the time comes to hire). I really should have done this years ago.

There's lots to do for this to happen. I think by spring I could be up and running. Any advice, recommendations, or experience is appreciated.

[BrendanB]

Get a professional looking presence online and get some customers to write honest (but hopefully good) reviews for you online. Get some content up on facebook/instagram, talk to lots of general contractors and get your business on their radar and be willing to get them out of jams and you will earn loyalty. small biz owner here too. good luck!

[Chappy]

MCB believes in you!!

[Cdn_Cuda]

Makes sure you have your ducks in a row for the billing/account side of the business. It's the unpleasant part of having a small business, but you gots to get paid! So you need to make sure invoices are being sent out and tracking that they're being paid. Good luck!

[BrendanB]

Your signed estimates / form should have small print that says something to the order of: All invoices are due net 30 days / 8% APR interest for any late payments.

[Cdn_Cuda]

And put an end date on quotes, something like quotes are valid for 30 or 60 or 90 days.

[Stunlokftw]

To piggy back off what Cuda is saying, with the volatility of the market, I wouldnt hold anything past 30 days right now.

[cellophane]

• Get an accountant (and possibly lawyer.)
• Set yourself up as an S-corp (verify that with the accountant.) The biggest issue with an LLC is that first L: Limited. The costs to establish the corp are the same, might as well add in some extra protection.
• Don't undersell yourself with your rates. Keep in mind that you might not have 40 hours of work all the time; your rates should account for some of that downtime (plus vacation, emergencies, new tools, savings, insurance [business and personal], taxes, retirement, etc.) I'm going through something similar, and my accountant recommended that your billing rate should be 15%-20% more than your current income as a contract worker (I'm in architecture/tech, that % might be different for you.) I.e. - if you take home 100k gross currently, bill so you can gross 120k. That extra 20k covers all the stuff.

[Memornix]

So far all the advice has been on the dollars and cents part which is obviously important and possibly the scarier part than actually doing the work. That being said, no matter what you do, do good work, treat people well and don't be afraid to turn away from jobs which are not suited to you or that customer really can't afford so you have to cut corners. Also, don't be afraid to bill what the job is actually worth.

In the short term, this might mean less work but in the long run, if you do good enough work, you will get jobs and customers will return.

[coyote]

You would have work from me today if you were in my neck of the woods.

[scottieb]

I'd do it and take payment in food. Your food posts always look so good!

[coyote]

I would never pass up the opportunity to share a table with such fine company.

[MrKittyCatMeowFace]

Got an uncle and his brother who have an electrical company. I can ask him if you would like. His big thing he goes on about now is the competence crisis. Just the double digit IQ's and corruption on every level you have to deal with that will drive you to drink. Not talking about employees. It's your job as a boss to weed out the dumb chuckle f***s.

It's everyone else from city/county workers and officials, suppliers, project cordinators, tradesman/contractors you gotta work along side with, the clients, goverment and regalatory bodies and commissions, insurance and financial corporations... etc. You are entering a world that has long be f***** up and has and will continue to deteriorate till some sort of paradigm shift occurs.

You can do it though. Just gotta have a head on those shoulders and keep it on a f***** swivle 24/7. I would work with you. You obviously have inteligence and probably the connections already. That will put you above most people. .

[Mr. Hick]

Make sure you talk to multiple insurance agents to correctly configure your liability, and in case you need it, health insurance. Expect good health insurance to cost you about 3k a month. For you. just you.

[Grendel]

Good luck striking out on your own. Make sure you are a good boss to your number one employee (you). It is easy to take on too much and expect too much from yourself. Remember you work to live (have a life) you should not live to work. Owning your own business is not for everyone, it wasn't for me, I was a horrible boss to myself and expected myself to be working all of the time.

Again good luck, I wish you the best (success).

[autococker04]

Don’t lick the black wire.

I’m not sure what sort of business you’ll go after, but as a consumer who has people come over to work on the house for things out of my element - showing up on time and dressing/ carrying yourself in a way that doesn’t make me think I should keep an eye on you while your in the house - will go a long way, probably for you and the customer.

[Memornix]

Make sure you talk to multiple insurance agents to correctly configure your liability, and in case you need it, health insurance. Expect good health insurance to cost you about 3k a month. For you. just you.

Not to mention workman's comp, what a process that can be.

[Paintslinger16]

My son is a Sparky, are you going to be more commercial or residential?

[scottieb]

I do it all now, but initially the focus will be on residential. There's so much work out there in residential.

[Paintslinger16]

Ok, so I would invest in a nice looking professional shop attire, uniform with a jacket, with your logo embroidered or screened, just basic, you want to be remembered as being professional, some hand out stuff, fridge magnet with your quotes, also buy the disposable booties that realtors have, if you traipse through someones house put them on at the door, and change them if you back to the truck/ van. Hopefully you have a decent shop vehicle, I always pay attention to what you have, you don’t need a lifted 1 ton with gobs of aftermarket but I do want to see that you have something decent and you maintain it.

Side note, this spring my wife hired someone off Angie's list, to put a replacement sliding door in, supposedly all vetted, well he did a horrible job ruined the replacement door, and it also wouldn’t slide. Had spray foam and fingerprints from said foam all over.

I was still in NY at the time, I asked her what did he drive, some POS truck that leaked all over. No logo, nothing. Like he just started doing this..anyway our small claims court date is 11 Dec,

[JeeperCreeper]

I'm no electrician, but I recently made the same move, working for myself. My advice: set aside time every week for paperwork. Don't let it pile up because then it becomes a hassle. It's easy once you have a system for writing down all your expenses and mileage, and profits. Good luck!