Well I finally did it this week and gave my notice. After a frustrating year waiting for promotion that didn’t come, I started looking around. Plenty of work right now, so before long I had three offers. They were as follows:
- residential super working for developers – supervising 2-3 crews and doing interior finish work personally. 80 homes in subdivision to build over 4 years. $28/hr plus medical
- lead carpenter for small GC, 1-2 projects a year, design-build custom work. $28/hr
- crew leader for medium size custom home builder, 10-12 projects running concurrently, 700K-1.2M range, occasional small commercial work. $26/hr with wage review and medical at 3 months.
Interestingly I took the third job despite the lower initial money. Thought long and hard about it and decided it was my best chance for development toward my long term goal of being an independent contractor. The first guys aren’t really a construction company, they’re landowners who are trying t o make a few more bucks off the development. Resources and support seem pretty thin. The second guy is great to work for but offers very little in the way of business opportunity. The third option has lots of potential. Hope I know what I’m doing!
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Before I read which you took, I was thinking I would lean toward the third choice. Good luck.
Birth, school, work, death.....................
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From the descriptions you offered, it sounds like you made a wise decision in terms of your future career.
Congrats on the new position, and on making the change!
Good luck in the new gig.
I hope it works out for ya.
Sly, i was just wondering why you are not making the jump now into your own business?
Westcoast is right, but you have your reasons. Best of luck for everythinig!!I get paid to do carpentry. That makes me a professional.
If I work on my own house does that make me a DIY?
I hear that BC is booming right now, maybe you should start your own thing. Once you work for yourself, assume you do it right, you never look back.
BC certainly is booming right now and the conditions are pretty forgiving for a new contractor to give it a try. The main reason I'm not doing it is that I'm pretty raw when it comes to business skills. Having lost 100K four years back in a wine export business, I'm painfully aware of the importance of having business skills to match technical skills. I also blew away my credit rating in that fiasco, so there are practical reasons to go with the gun-shyness.
The reason I went with the employer I did - and took a few bucks less to start with - is because there are options to sub to them in the near future. It would be a somewhat sheltered environment with more or less assured supply of work. For now I am taking some night college courses in basic bookkeeping and accounting, and slowly building up my tool inventory and residential business contacts. Many years in commercial has given me skills and scope of techniques never seen in most residential work, but it has also removed me far away from the dollars and cents end of things.
The plan is about 12 months with these guys on payroll and during that time, develop with them a plan for contracting. I'd like to do finish work primarily as that is where my interests lie. The trap there is it's easy to get limited to what I can do myself. The supply is very short indeed on good finish carps. I have some ideas on how to break the work down into smaller, specialised tasks that could be done by less trained guys. That's a another thread topic however. Lignum est bonum.
Congrats on your new job. You and I are somewhat in the same boat and I ended up in what would be your job #2. You're right to go with a larger company that will give you more opportunities down the road.
It sounds like you're also on the right track taking the business classes and getting your ducks in a row before you need them.
on the business side, check out 'Running a successful Construction Company' by David Gerstel. I'm just starting out as a landscape contractor, excellent book and very readable considering the subject. And good luck and congratulations!-s
Sly, it's good to hear that you have a master plan for going on your own. I know exactly what you mean when you say you can contract off of your employer to get your feet wet first.
Best of luck in the new job
Good for you to make the break, eh.
Rumour around here is that finish carpenters are getting $60/hr in Vancouver.
I quit being employed 17 yrs ago and set up on Salt Spring Island. Raw. I learned thru trial and error, did little jobs at first for little old ladies. Gradually I built up clientel and a good rep, incorporating and employing for a while (but the paperwork was too much) then fired myself, and settled back to a fairly steady self-employed existence. The only paperwork I do right now is income tax, and as a sole proprietor I can write off many tools, van,gas etc, as you know. A book-keeper for $100 pm would save me a lot of head-aches learning that side of business, so I don't bother with the balance sheet stuff. I could, if I felt like working hard be in the $90K range, but well...I'm pushing 59, eh, and I'm not as fast as I was. Many people are pleased to pay $45/hr for my work...but sure, the phone doesn't ring sometimes for weeks, so it's good to have the larger additions etc that I prefer and excel at.
I've also thought about moving to Penticton - but, well, I kind of like greenery, even if it is wet, eh
All the best...
To those who know - this may be obvious. To those who don't - I hope I've helped.
Saltspring eh? Nice place to be. If you move to Penticton you'd find yourself just a little too young: we have the highest over-65 demographic in BC. Anything to do with seniors is a growth industry. Penticton is divided into two kinds of people: people who want to live here, and people who came to die here. Makes for tough business environment at times, but it still remains a wonderful place to raise a family. Finding good jobs for them once they're grown, well that's another story.Lignum est bonum.
"remains a wonderful place to raise a family. Finding good jobs for them once they're grown, well that's another story. "
Well, you could become a successful builder/renovator and have them take over the business, eh. A job fair last week in Calgary had the speaker bemoaning that fact that although a framer could make $100K pa, there was no one coming into the trades. Couple that with a report from back along that 60% of carpenters would be retiring in the next 5 years, and any kid coming into the trade could name his/her own price. Ah, if only I were young again...All the best...
To those who know - this may be obvious. To those who don't - I hope I've helped.
what do U want to do when U go out on your own?
to me ... sounds like the 3rd option would give you the contacts ... but something like the second would give you a better feel for working on your own.
crew leader for the bigger company might be more clipboard work vs hands on lead carp work for a smaller place.
but I'm basing that on personal experience locel to me ... might be different there.
either way ... a step in the right direction.
just remember ... after it all works out ... don't stay tied to that one big lead when it comes time to sub. Too many eggs in one basket is a bad thing ... too much work from one company leads back to an "employee mindset" ... on both ends.
Good luck.
Jeff
Buck Construction
Artistry In Carpentry
Pittsburgh Pa
Jeff those are some good points. As I understand it my first job will running a $600K reno at a local winery. Me plus crew of 2 or 3. Architectural mostly, a little structural. I've been talking with these guys for a while now and when they finally made me an offer I'm guessing it was this commercial job they had me in mind for. There is a project manager that I work with to set up contracts with subs and confer with me on scheduling of same. I'm expected to be on tools and work direct with crew. I do a similar job at the current employer, they just don't pay me for it....
"what do U want to do when U go out on your own?"
I look around town and see a bunch of guys doing the foundation and framing thing. They get a helper and do 3-4 houses a year. It's low risk because typically the GCs or the HOs supply the materials. If I go that route I can make money right now - the supply/demand ratio is definitely in the tradesman's favour at the moment. But long term I just can't see it working for me. Not only are there many competitors out there that will make it tough when things slow down after 2010, I've pretty much had a gutful of doing structural concrete after almost 2 yrs nonstop, and I am becoming less and less enamoured of stumbling around in a hole in the ground. As far as technical skills are concerned I can do the work, but so can many others.
I'm thinking finishing sub is more in line with my abilities and desires. Even in a tough market there just aren't many people with the head and hands to do good quality finish work over a wide range of situations and materials. I like oddball weird stuff that presents a challenge, so I'm inclined to go after stuff like that - stuff that most GCs are reluctant to take on because they're too busy with the bulk of the project. I could also expand that notion to cover difficult framing problems such as complex stairs and exotic roof designs. The trades talent pool is so depleted around here that stuff like that is becoming a speciality rather than part of the trade like it used to be.
The limitation any contractor has is how much they can do themselves - how many hours in a week. Of course the usual solution is to hire help, but as I've said there are virtually no finish carps available around here. My feeling is that there's no point in going out as a sub if I'm just a one-man show. Sure I might make a couple of extra bucks but not enough in my mind to cover the unpaid hours of pricing, invoicing and collecting. Better to stay on payroll and let someone else take the risks.
If I go alone I'll plan to have a small crew as quickly as possible, so that my business multiplies its profits based on each man's efforts - plus my own. The challenge for me is to devise ways to get modestly skilled labour to put out a quality finished product without me having to find or pay journeymen. First notion is to teach a guy how to do baseboards and nothing but. Another guy I can teach to prep and hang doors. Obviously this stuff needs a lot more thought - maybe I'll find I'm happy with the revenue as a one-man show?!
Good point about becoming a one-client business. It's just too damn vulnerable
Lignum est bonum.
Congratulations. Glad for ya.
Friend is a lead carp on multi-million$ new const. on North Shore, at $45/hr. He's been offered $55. Prolly could get more.
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