Fastest way to grow your company?

[joispoi]

If you're making good money now, keep doing what you're doing....and then do it some more.

 

[928G Boy]

Yair . . . Feller I knew up north a few years back had a tandem tipper with a tag hauling his skid, mini-ex, tools, oxy and a welder.

He charged himself out at eighty bucks an hour if he's welding something thats broke, hauling gravel, spreading topsoil with the skid or trenching with the excavator.

Since he owns the gear he's laughing and he reckons it's not worth the hassle to employ an operator . . . just the very opposite of the original posters theory.

Cheers.

That would be living the dream.

 

[mitch504]

Boy I am glad to here that that side of our state is doing well, the coast is picking up a little, but still really slow, and guys are still working for peanuts to keep moving, I've mostly been sitting back and watching them do it.

Good Luck

 

[rabia]

First thing, you have to walk before you can run. Second thing, you have to walk before you can run. The only way there is to go about it is to start on smaller things and work your way up. Commerical work is cut throat when times are good. Now the way it is there are a lot of contractors just barely hanging on, and around here there have been a considerable number of failures of bigger companies too. If you are looking at municipal work getting enough bonding to do larger jobs will be a problem until you grow and are on solid financial ground. As far as private work goes, the project owner is going to be asking what you have done up until that point.

Colorado Digger is right. Growing to quickly is the fastest way to go broke. I have it happen around here more times then not.

I am agreed with your point of view. You shared nice tips.

 

[curb guy]

If you're making good money now, keep doing what you're doing....and then do it some more.

Now THAT is how you do it! That is exactly the method I have used and,it works.

 

[Impact]

I'd rather do a $100K project at a 25% profit than $250K project at a 10% profit. If you're the low bidder on a big public project with several bidders, you're telling the world you can do it bigger better faster and cheaper than anyone else. I'm not that good, so, I'd seldom be low bidder.

 

[JGS Parts]

I'd rather do a $100K project at a 25% profit than $250K project at a 10% profit. If you're the low bidder on a big public project with several bidders, you're telling the world you can do it bigger better faster and cheaper than anyone else. I'm not that good, so, I'd seldom be low bidder.

Iam with ya 100% there mate. and also the lowest bidder dose not always get the contract i think people new the the business need to remember that.

 

[bobb]

wow guys, so much negativity. lol and all for a good reason. going big is easy. bid the job, getthe job, rent or lease the equipment, hire people, do the job, end up with nothing. hiring skilled solid workers is as hard as seeing your own faults. the ratio is like 1 out of 20. keeping those workers is a job skill in itself. big jobs means lots of workers and someone or more to babysit them. if they screw you, you wont even know it till you end up almost broke. i have seen this quite a few times. i have worked for quite a few people who have the mindset that i can just hire another one of you. when i quit they almost have tears in their eyes. if you want to be the man, the big boss, by all means go for it. just be careful of how you go about it. nobody here is shooting you down out of envy. we are trying to protect you from whats out there. you wanna be big? get bread and butter jobs. they pay the bills and keep you afloat. get enough of them, build your staff, and your set.

 

[Acivil]

Wow!!!! What a thread full of experience!!! My opinion is this: for some guys a 15k-25k job is a big one, for others a 150mil-250mil job is a big one... I would venture that there are less than 10 companies in the country with capability of executing the latter with less than 5 shareholders. When I was younger and more inexperienced I had nothing but a taste for growth and grandeur and a desire to flip a bird to all of the established companies in the region, and I have seen 1000% annual growth in my business... I've also loaded a machine or two on the repo man's lowboy :throwup I've almost watched my dream go up in smoke (MORE than once) :Banghead ... The thing I've learned is that most of the time, a contractor can stay small, (less than 25 pieces and less than 15 employees) and operate their business with the entrepreneurial spirit performing bread and butter work, but also viewing some projects as deals all their own and taking those opportunities to make a larger margin, or invest in an otherwise impractical piece of iron that will yield great profit once the project is over, or even make a land investment ect. Generally I find this is the method I prefer as it includes the potential for a certain amount of excitement, and in the long run, I can see the fruits of my labor as they effect my quality life and that of my family (which I think is the whole point). The other way I have observed that seems capable of yielding success is to grow a business tight and steady eventually getting very large, but this seems to me to be a much longer game and the position of proprietor of such a business I think looks much different than the first type. In order to achieve success in the latter type, it seems to me you end up in the office tackling problems, and bringing home a good salary... Your net worth is hopefully huge, but it's all wrapped up in this one enterprise and to behave outside of the acceptable lines of that enterprise is to jeopardize everything you and the throng of capable people you have searched high and low to find then given up a stake in the company to. The only way I see any true freedom coming from the latter type is in the event of a buyout. I pick the first type. I also think that those companies which have a small executive infrastructure but large capability and resources if you look into them, generally were beneficiaries of the FHA and grew enough back then when the industry climate was much more favorable, and have behaved well since.

 

[rabia]

In my point of view it all depends upon the nature of company. company is offering products or services? what are the markets trends at that time. As environment is dynamic now. So good strategy and planning are ways to grow faster.