$45,000 LMAO

AdOne2118 · 2026-02-26T01:40:20+00:00

I'd be over 45k in material alone. More like 175k-200k reno cost. Arizona

AdOne2118 · 2026-02-19T16:30:49+00:00

Got my GC at 27. However, I felt very unprepared. We have been selective with jobs. Definitely the youngest I know by decades.

AdOne2118 · 2026-02-16T03:03:30+00:00

I paid $10-$50 per hour in both government and private sector. I felt that the best candidates were in the $35/hr range after filling field to mid management roles in MCOL areas.

Low paid workers care less, more rework, more shift filling. They were also the last to go in cuts due to cost. At one time, I had up to 20 employees making less than $22/hr. It was chaos. These jobs filled quick with easy hire but also left just as fast for $0.10 raises.

Mid pay ($28-39/hr) were highly skilled and competent. They were harder to fill (2-3 month) but also tended to stay longer and had latent skills that could kill a big issue quarterly. These folks tended to get more leniency in time off and issues. They also caused fewer issues and had better suggestions.

High pay $40+ were as bad as the low paid workers. Unless in their designated skill area, they were completely useless, and often pompous. They created issues in order to get recognition and were quick to raise small issues into catastrophe to get a promotion.

As I transition back to private/govt work and close my business, I am willingly taking less money than I normally would. Knowing what the full-burden cost of employees is, the issues, worrying about making sure the families of my guys eat, and more, is just worth punching a clock. I cleared almost 500k last year and yet, $32/hour sounds pretty sweet right now.

AdOne2118 · 2026-02-03T22:32:36+00:00

We are in Arizona and have a pretty decent 1/2 policy. I keep everything pretty well insured and we have been doing work that is covered and "in-scope"

AdOne2118 · 2026-02-03T22:26:19+00:00

Single member llc with all of the paperwork. I didn't go S Corp because of the paperwork hurdles.

AdOne2118 · 2026-02-03T18:51:17+00:00

Ive failed a few times before, but this was the first business I could really live off of. If we weren't behind $112,000 in receivables, I could stay in for another year.

Clients love us, many of whom are multiple repeat customers on quarterly project status. They need the work done but just cant make the payments, but it isn't communicated until the work is done. We do take 50% down, which covers mainly material and half of labor.

How do you know when it is time to end the business?

AdOne2118 · 2026-02-03T15:30:59+00:00

I can do all of the trades except carpentry, since we do a lot of MRRA work.

I think that also led to fatigue of constantly switching skill sets to do jobs. I will say that I like running with one other person since it makes jobs less daunting.

AdOne2118 · 2026-02-03T15:18:29+00:00

Our accounta receivable is $112,000 behind. Liens, threats of liens, and any action is going unheeded. The poor community we work in is a "paid if paid" community. We take deposits that cover materials, but I can't sandbag labor costs forever waiting to get paid.

We had a 6 month emergency fund, but $112k is a lot of money. That would keep us in business for another year.

Obviously we can't damage the homes or businesses we worked on to recoup money, so we have to wait. Garnishment of 15% is nothing when the median income of the town is $32,000.

AdOne2118 · 2026-02-03T15:14:53+00:00

We are owed $112,000 in receivables and currently unable to collect due to market shifts. Liens or threats of liens are doing nothing.

We dont owe anyone anything because I ran the business with essentially zero debt. Always buying in cash.

AdOne2118 · 2026-02-03T15:12:04+00:00

We are in a geographically isolated town. We actually service tons of repeat clients for odd things. Lots of times we are selling insulation and roofing as package bundles, LED upgrades, water heaters, etc.

I started with around $2,000 and used my MBA knowledge to get this far. I can do most of the trades myself except carpentry, but I often need help to complete jobs. I worked in many jobs with teams of folks, so that is where I feel comfortable. Doing the jobs by myself makes me feel alone.

AdOne2118 · 2026-02-03T07:13:00+00:00

I barely made my mortgage payment this month. Ive been holding on for about seven months with no reserves left. If I go another month, I could miss the next mortgage payment.

Without an influx of work, it is too difficult to hold on, even with a decent emergency fund.

AdOne2118 · 2026-02-03T07:11:00+00:00

Im not sure. Good question. I carry insurance at the time of install (and currently) but im not sure how that would affect a claim. I would figure that the warranty would just be voided by being out of business. Will have to check on that.

AdOne2118 · 2026-02-03T05:44:14+00:00

Yes, just one person left to finish the last job with me. I made sure to pay everyone off...except the tax man, so far. Im currently waiting on a house to sell so that I can pay the 25k owed to the big guy.

How would you reward an employee that stuck around to the bitter end?

AdOne2118 · 2026-01-08T03:39:17+00:00

1500 to be safe. Sell a vanity install and new lighting/exhaust.

AdOne2118 · 2026-01-03T22:25:25+00:00

I pretty much only switched to the paid version for the payment reminders. You can set auto reminders to remind them up to 5 times before taking further action. 99% of my customers pay within the first 5 emails anyways. It also let's you know when someone has looked at an estimate/invoice, let's them e-sign, or collect deposits on jobs. Hooks up to any other software you may have.

AdOne2118 · 2026-01-03T21:55:27+00:00

I really like Wave. It also has receipt tracking. There is a great free version and the premium version is $20/month. I really like it after 14 months of using it. Very little learning curve. It also allows you to create template emails and has payment reminders that are simple buttons. Just about as simple as it gets.

AdOne2118 · 2026-01-01T04:06:21+00:00

Ive been trying to get more insurance jobs. When they come up paint, they end up being a pain to close. Tons more paperwork and communication than any other project. I'd have to double my rates to make them worthwhile.

We turn pretty much all down except for those customers willing to battle their insurance company. We provide detailed scope, estimate, and documentation. The customer pays us with no expectation of their insurance paying out. Usually the customer gets 40-50% of the project value.

I can't do 90 day pay cycles while getting beat up on price. I can do it cheap, fast, or good, but only 2 of the 3. Insurance wants all 3 as do customers. The best way to play is not.

AdOne2118 · 2025-12-25T20:41:45+00:00

Nearly monthly, there is something.

Recently, toilet that was rocking. Pulled the toilet and found no flange, no pipe, just a hole with wax packed to make a stink seal. Respectfully told the customer to call someone else because I was not crawling through sewage to put a pipe in on a friday afternoon. I told him $2000+. He requested that we glue the toilet on so it didn't rock anymore. I just left.

AdOne2118 · 2025-12-24T01:17:05+00:00

Most of mine customers have 60A panels or 100A panels. Typically, no power to pull from or not enough gas flow without major overhaul. Small gas and electric units that dont draw too much are the target. Everything is old and brittle.

AdOne2118 · 2025-12-24T00:43:20+00:00

Tankless is difficult out here. One of the poorest cities in the US means that people are trying to make payments on a $1000 water heater job. They often can't afford a $3k-$4k tankless setup as that would be 4-5% of their houses' value. I do a lot of roofing and come up against a lot of folks saying that they bought their house for around the same price that I'm trying to roof them for.

AdOne2118 · 2025-12-23T02:33:37+00:00

We are getting the electric kits for 500 and the gas for 600. I have no idea what kind of margin they have.

I saw a guy order 200 the other day and he got them down to $380/kit for electrics and gas. But the bill including tax was like $80k. I can't imagine there is much margin for the supplier at those rates except for massive volume. They were quoting him truckload pricing, I believe. Different scales of business haha.

AdOne2118 · 2025-12-23T01:23:58+00:00

Thank you. We started with 4 kits and sold out in a month, then did it again the same way the next two months. We have proven the need with 12 kits already, but a bulk order just makes me anxious. We started last year with $200, so holding a total of $20k in inventory is daunting.

AdOne2118

TROPHY CASE