Chris

House Repair Talk

Help Support House Repair Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

frodo

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 5, 2008
Messages
3,067
Reaction score
1,204
have you thought about selling your co. instead of dissolving $$$
 
I have. I hired an estimator and project coordinator so I plan on keeping it for at least another year or two. I will be starting another branch after I move and once that one gets going I will just transfer all my tools up.
 
Days like today are a reminder of why I am doing what I am doing. Day started out good. Then I get a phone call from an association I do work for and they are mad because my guys did not take enough pictures of a fence repair we did. Never been a problem in the past. This fence line is a hike and a half. 45 degree angle on most of it in rocky billy goat territory that niether them or the super rich that live inside this fence are willing to hike. The homeless like to cut the fence and come in and break into these homes since most are left empty most of the year, these are roughly five million dollar vacation homes. They are threatening to cancel our service and blah blah, none of which I really care about. Then I get a phone call from the golf course we are doing saying that we broke one of their communication wires while we were digging (now this is easy as it is a 14 gauge wire direct buried, they don't believe in conduit) and that my new valve is leaking, guy was very upset. I called my guys and found out the yes the valve leaked when they first turned the water but fixed it right away, a fairly common thing when you have these stupid paper gaskets that need a couple hundred foot pounds to torque down. but what got me is that my foreman knew he broke the wire and didn't say anything and already backfilled. There is no excuse for that in my book. Then I had a good client come to me and wants be to do a job that is on the other side of LA or a 2-3 hour drive in traffic each day for bottom dollar and wants me to start now when I am already swamped with other jobs.

I really can not wait to move and be done with this rat race here.
 
Darn Chris. That's a mess for sure. Glad you are working your way out of it.
 
Sure is nice getting out at 330 and not thinking about a thing until 7am . I tried starting my own thing when I was younger . The long nights and the complaining customers and the battles to get my money made me decide agianst it .

I was reading about people who take a year off and travel the world . Not sure how these people afford it , guess I should keep reading .
 
Well... when you say yes to the long drive job, your just letting them run your business.. why.
Tell them the price,is the price and if it doesn't work out , just wait.
I do only high end work because I had to turn into a jerk..in their book. where as they were the ones to start by trying to beat me down.
Never again. I work less, and make more. If your truely good at what you do, folks will pay., and new employees are found when they cannot do their job. Its not bein a hardass, its doing whats right. And that is always our own fault, believe me, it took me a leap to figure that part out.

Give your guys a talking to every week, company meeting..remind them of why you guys are the best, try to keep it positive, and always pull a guy aside to talk to them, never yell in front of others, thats my advice.
Never easy, and sometimes your wrong, just remember, its your business.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top