1-year old General Contractor: My accomplishments, work week, bills, and questions!

[mightygodam]

I'm looking for any advice to grow to the next level. Thanks for your time!

I didn't plan on starting this business, it just kind of happened and I enjoy the work, so I dove in headfirst 14 months ago. Now that I have gained all of this, a little about a lot, knowledge and have found good subs and workers, I am looking to start turning a larger profit and start setting myself up to be an $10,000,000 annual GC within the next 6-10 years (?). I have a sound mathematics background spanning up to Calculus 3, which has really helped me, but I've taken almost 0 college business classes. Luckily, I have taken Accounting 101.

Jobs I've done and how many times (actually a rough estimate) :

Fence: 10+

Deck: 4

Concrete sidewalk/patio: 3

Concrete driveway (Remove and replace): 4

Bathroom remodel: 1

Tile flooring: 2

Roof replacement: 1

Flood remodel (I live in Houston and Harvey a few months after I went full time as a contractor): 2

Removing interior walls and installing beams, sheetrock, painting, etc.: 15+

Questions:

I'm thinking about trying to get in with a builder doing all of their fencing or driveways/patios. Please share if you have any advice on how to get in the door with one and what to expect from this! TIA!

My accounting is terrible. I have the skill set to do the basics, I just haven't made the time. Should I work more and do it myself or outsource? If so, what should I look for in a CPA?

My work week:

7:00-6:00 M-F: On job, running material to job, or at appointments with potential clients

6:00-10:00 M-F: Dinner and doing estimates, submitting bids, organizing job folders (time cards, receipts, job budget)

Saturday: At least 1 appointment with a potential client and more paperwork. Beer.

Sunday morning/afternoon: Online poker tournaments are super relaxing to me and I'm not terrible, so it's a fairly stable hobby as far as money is concerned. I'll play one or two a couple Sundays a month. Sometimes I have appointments on Sunday. I have one today as a matter of fact.

Sunday evening: Make any Home Depot shopping trips for small things I'll need the following week. Usually drill bits or saw blades, etc. Get ready for the week.

How I get my work: *This relates to my question!! I hate paying for advertising!*Most of my leads come from Home Advisor ($40-$80 per lead!; I'm able to contract about ~50% of the paid leads) and word of mouth. Once every few months a random Facebook ad gets me a job. I've been using Money Mailer that hits 10,000 homes once a month for $252/ month. It brought in ~10% of my income over the course of last year. Anyone have experience with Money Mailer? It doesn't feel worth it every month when I pay the bill.

Monthly business bills:

Loan on 20' 7,000lb utility trailer: $100

Storage for tools and trailer: $85

Phone: $250

Truck note: I paid it off, so $0!!! Hell ya!

Gen. Liability: $135

Bond: I think it's ~$150 for the year

Truck Ins.: ~$150

Money Mailer: $252/month

EDIT3: I'm calling about yard signs tomorrow. I use a local sign shop for my business cards and they did my back truck window, so they have my logo and everything.

EDIT2: My truck is wrapped. It's very professional and visible. I'm surprised to hear so many of y'all believe in wrapping. All the old school contractors around my area don't believe in it and even told me not to worry about doing it. But I'm like y'all, it's free advertising!

EDIT: Adding more as I think about it

 

[ghost_eclipse]

@mightygodam And you’re only one year old! That’s amazing. I was still learning to walk.

 

[mightygodam]

@ghost_eclipse I have been waiting for this comment

 

[researchguy]

@mightygodam I have several contractor's licenses, and they all required me to be at least 18.

 

[blindspot6]

@ghost_eclipse My daughter is three and cant even drill a straight hole

 

[taddai]

@blindspot6 You have to start early. For the next kid leave a drill in the crib. They start pretty naturally if it’s with them early.

 

[antoniassi]

@ghost_eclipse I opened this post just to see if this comment gets made.

thank you

life is complete, time for death

deuces!

 

[aregbesola]

@mightygodam Couple simple things

If you don’t already, make sure you have a yard sign up in front of every project you’re working on.

Contact all your previous clients. Be humble and honest. Thank them for the work and explain you’re wanting to grow your business. Ask them to refer you to their friends, family, coworkers. Sweeten if you’d like with a $50-100 amazon card for leads.

Word of mouth is huge and most home owners don’t want to find and research a GC. Make it easy for them. GCs in general have a bad rap of being sneaky, cutting corners, etc, even though that’s probably a small percentage, and surely not you. Personal referrals will get you half way to landing the next job.

Post on Nextdoor and Facebook. Become THE GC in your immediate area.

 

[mightygodam]

@aregbesola I don't do yard signs. I don't even think I can in most of the neighborhoods I work in. I'll have to check more into that. Great idea, thanks.

Word of mouth is definitely the best! Contacting previous customers is a great idea. My insurance agent suggested I send them Christmas cards. He's an old school, super successful agent and is pretty much saying the same thing you are. I need to start contacting them next week. Thanks

 

[somer_222]

@mightygodam Put the signs up until you're told to take them down or they get stolen.

When he said be the local gc on next door, answer stupid questions, a lot of them. Those people don't want to fix things, they want to hire someone.

 

[ash55]

@mightygodam We have gotten at least half a dozen bids and repeat customers by sending Christmas cards (just counting the ones who mentioned it)

 

[khelyar]

@mightygodam If you want help with any brand image stuff, I can help you out. I can design and produce anything you’d need. Plus, I’m only a few hours away from you in Texas.

 

[deebouchie]

@mightygodam Put branding on your work vehicles. A local sign shop should be able to do both that and the yard signs.

 

[torrako]

@mightygodam I’m currently looking for a GC to build a new house. I called the GCs from other projects in my neighborhood that have a sign outside and sent them the plans. The architect I used was chosen the same way, he designed a house 2 blocks away and I saw his sign...

 

[mightygodam]

@torrako So definitely yard signs then. I'm getting on it tomorrow

 

[buithanhhang]

@mightygodam NextDoor and Craigslist have built my landscaping company.

The con of CL is that you’ll have to pay $5.00 per ad (I usually run 2 at a time and repost them every week so $40.00/mo). The upside to paying for CL ads is that less people post now that they make you pay despite the cheap cost.

I know it’s frowned upon by some but beyond replying to folks posts on NextDoor, I make an ad in the for sale section that is for free estimates (or paid estimates if you charge for them)

Facebook never worked too well for me for landscaping.

I second putting the signs up regardless. It worked great for me early on. Just make sure they aren’t too expensive of signs because they frequently get taken by cities, utility companies, etc.

 

[mightygodam]

@buithanhhang Do you attach coupons with your ads? Do you mind linking me to one of your ads so I can check it out? Thanks

 

[sriram]

@mightygodam Put the signs up anyways. Better to ask forgiveness then to ask permission. I do exterior cleaning and I put my signs up at every job the only time I ask is if I want to leave it there for an extended amount of time. In that case I ask the home owner only and make sure it’s clearly in their yard.

 

[lynettetyler]

@mightygodam Make friends with some Realtors! I am a Realtor and constantly look for reliable and solid GCs. Realtors can not only directly give you business for repairs but they are network machines. Congrats on the great start!

 

[mightygodam]

@lynettetyler I know a lot of realtors and have done this exact thing, but have never gotten single call from one of them. What am I doing wrong here? I should follow up I suppose and remind them, bring them coffee and more business cards...