Claudiu Fatu - Starting Your Career as a Contractor: How to Build and Run a Construction Business

Copyright 2015 by Claudiu Fatu

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Published by Allworth Press, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

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Cover and interior design by Mary Belibasakis

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Print ISBN: 978-1-62153-458-7

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-62153-470-9

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Introduction

It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters in the end.

Ernest Hemingway

Contractors build our homes, our offices, the roads and bridges we travel across, the parks in which our children will play, and the infrastructure we depend on for our everyday life. We build our nation one dream at a time. Our hands touch the entire world that surrounds you. The construction industry does tell many tales of arrogance, dishonesty, incompetence, and betrayal. At the core of it, however, there are many hardworking men and women who pride themselves in adhering to the highest standards. The reasons you seek to be a contractor are only answered by your own mind and heart, but answered they should be.

I wrote this book from the general point of view of a remodeler. Any type of contractor will find the key points mentioned here relevant to their line of work with industry-wide applications. Seasoned contractors will nod in agreement of essentials that echo in their minds. New business owners will gather useful information to help them build a solid company.

In the chapters to follow you will read about: standards and expectation on the home improvement business; how to get started on the office side and in the field; dealing with employees and clients; what to write in contracts and how to successfully bid on jobs; how to keep records and understand your profitability; how to take care of personal benefits that self-employed individuals need, and many other easily overlooked points to be careful of.

You will inevitably run into problems throughout your career. Such is life. Takeaways in this book might make some of your issues avoidable if you are open to understanding the message. Never contemplate and put yourself down. You need to solve the crisis and move on. Brighter days always wait ahead. Knowing in your heart you are always doing the right thing will make your dilemmas so much clearer. It is very important in this industry, as it is elsewhere, that you operate with integrity and honesty to yourself and others. Good communication solves most issues before they ever arise and tackles misunderstandings between you and your clients or workers. You must stay organized and focused on your business, handling paperwork promptly and efficiently. Maintain full control of your jobs, being relentless about trimming costs and improving quality. You will touch the lives of many people directly or indirectly. All of your actions will have consequences, sometimes unintended. Always strive to be better at everything you do and always seek improvement. As the U.S. Army once proudly proclaimed, be all you can be!

As I set out to write this book, I had imagined I would help many new contractors navigate entry hurdles in the construction business. I had also planned on helping myself evolve and systemize my thinking in business terms. Getting away from the job site gives you time to evaluate methods of streamlining your operations and make your business more efficient. I believe I have accomplished both my goals of educating others and reeducating myself. This has come at great sacrifices. As I wrote the following chapters, I was moving into a new house outside the city, we were relocating our shop and all equipment to a new location, and a fire in the building destroyed my city apartment. I had imagined a stress-free environment where I would take a few months off from working and sit on a beach writing this book. I am still dreaming. While trying to write and think clearly, I have been inundated with major remodeling jobs that my ego couldnt turn down. I unsuccessfully tried bringing my laptop on to job sites, tried hiring a manager who lost me money and turned my business into a chaotic mess, and just lost grip of my relationships with clients and employees. I do believe that everything happens for a reason that we dont yet see, and every challenge makes room for opportunity. As you go on to become your own success story, after possibly tackling many trying times, you will have gained experiences beyond the pages of this book. You will, however, find comfort in running across most of the things I describe here, giving you a leg-up on your competition.

Chapter 1

The Right Mindset

Why join the Navy if you can be a pirate?

Steve Jobs

Modern society has set itself up for an unsettling scenario. We no longer live our lives. We work our lives. We spend most of our time working rather than living our lives. As much as anyone loves what he/she does for work, it still is work. Who would not trade work hours for time spent with loved ones, or time enjoying a hobby, or personal time away from the thought of work, or maybe just some extra sleep? Unfortunately, we are stuck. We spend more time with our coworkers than we do with our families. More than half of us working people wake up every morning cringing at the thought of having to go to work. Furthermore, when you have to answer to someone else, work gets even more depressing. Most of us have thought about the freedom owning your own business brings. The thought of setting your own hours and making your own decisions, while making money for yourself and not enriching someone else, is very appealing. But freedom comes with great responsibility and getting there means walking on shaky grounds. It all sounds like a dream too far from reality for most of us to achieve. The potential is, however, here for us all. I can think of no better place where entrepreneurs have achieved greatness than here in the United States, where the playing field is leveled for us all. And when it comes to construction, if you are handy and have some business sense, I can think of no other area that is more encouraging for starting your own enterprise.

Before you go off to pick a name for your newly minted business and start building skyscrapers, I would consider a few things:

What do you really want to do in life? What makes you happy?

Can you handle the stress of running your own business?

Are you cut out for construction?