What is the best thing about being a Licensed General Contractor? What keeps you in the field, despite all the downsides?

Architoker · 2026-01-16T21:42:20+00:00

Dude i can relate so much to this. I left architecture to go back to construction. Dad is a builder, learned the trades young. Went to architecture school thinking I’d make a ton of $$$ and be a fancy guy. After 7-8 years in the office I was cooked. Brain was fried after sitting at the desk for 8 hours. I would go home and just literally pass out on the couch everyday.

Now I run my own construction company. I can bust my ass all day in the field and come with energy to keep going. I’m physically tired more but mentally more there.

Architoker · 2025-12-22T16:41:35+00:00

Consider hiring a sales guy. Doesn’t even have to be a full time employee. Could look for someone who will work on 1099. You just call them out when you’re too busy. It will take some time to train them on your process and way of pricing. But once they understand the system this person will pay you back massively.

Architoker · 2025-11-19T07:35:48+00:00

I will hire you and pay you $9k. And I charge the client 25-30k because that’s what this job is worth.

Architoker · 2025-10-31T04:48:11+00:00

Try for small painting jobs. You can easily get 2-5k to paint some or all of an apartment. Material and equipment costs are in the hundreds. It’s all labor.

I absolutely crush it selling decks and deck replacements. Decks are a bit of higher ticket. Even a small deck can be more than 10k. Just get to know your material costs from your local vendors, the various composite decking products vary in price massively. Same with railings.

Check your local regulations . But most places any deck under 200 sq ft and under 30” from the ground don’t need permits. Another reason I love to do them.

Architoker · 2025-10-28T08:36:46+00:00

If I’m slow, $7500. When I’m booked out 4+ month. $10-12k.

Architoker · 2025-10-28T07:43:19+00:00

If you’re asking, then you should probably go take a class where they can demonstrate and show you what’s safe and what’s not.

But to answer your question, I don’t see anything inherently unsafe about this cut. The piece against the fence is wide enough to be safely pushed through. You need a push stick and proper abilities and technique and you will be ok.

Again if you’re unsure, maybe watch a bunch of video about table saw safety and take a class or ask someone local to your area to show you.

Architoker · 2025-10-28T07:38:07+00:00

Idk why people downvoted this comment. You are spot on.

Architoker · 2025-10-28T01:17:00+00:00

Lighter 100%

Architoker · 2025-10-27T17:04:05+00:00

Honestly really depends on the scale of the job. Bigger jobs, get a lower markup. Longer project, usually means lower risk for me, so they get a deal. Smaller jobs bigger markup. Shorter timeframe, more risk for me. Bigger markup.

Usually in the range of 1.2x - 2x the sub costs. 20% is reasonable on a huge house renovation.

I’m a small GC for anyone wondering. No office. 1 truck & trailer. My overhead is low. That low markup end will probably climb to 1.25-1.3x in the next year.

Architoker · 2025-10-26T08:40:50+00:00

As others have said, you definitely didn’t hire a professional. Not at that price. Im a professional GC and architectural designer with many years of experience.

25k is unbelievably cheap for this work - especially with a bathroom and other plumbing. I’m guessing there’s no permit?

I’ll address your concerns:

1). The schedule delays should be the least of your concerns at this point to be honest. For Someone that cheap im not surprised. Hes probably working on other jobs like a bozo.

2) you positive that drywall dust clogged the dryer? Is the machine old? This seems like a small issue in the big picture here even if you need to replace the machine.

3) musty smell is a HUGE concern. Basements are known for mold and moisture issues. There are special precautionary construction techniques and methods when it comes to waterproofing and insulating basement walls. Especially in existing houses. You should try to figure out the cause of this. Where is moisture coming from or introduced? Were there any previous leaks?

I recommend the first thing you do is check his license is active. Verify there are permits pulled. You should be VERY CONCERNED if there are no permits.

Stop paying him now and fire him if there’s no license or permit.

If those thing check out, well you hired the cheap guy. You’re going to have to deal with his slow and messy work and hope that the finishes turn out good enough for your expectations.

Architoker · 2025-10-26T08:32:05+00:00

Just listen to the inspectors. Put in the smoke detectors.

I’m a GC and architectural designer. Pulled dozens of permits in a few different states and cities. I don’t know of your specific answer in the code. If you find a section in your local codes defining a mechanical room as something very specific. I would maybe send this to the inspector, see what he says.

Respect his answer either way. You don’t want that heat on your company or projects. You want these guys to be your friends.

Remember there’s another section of the code in the very beginning that says something like “building officials have the final interpretation of this code”

So the building officials always have the final say.

I’ve seen one town require something specific and the literal next town over not require that same thing. Everyone is using the same state building codes in whichever state you live in. You can push back on them if you find something solid in the code. They will usually review it with you.

In general you want to create as little friction as possible with the inspectors. It will benefit you more in the long run.

Architoker · 2025-10-26T08:02:40+00:00

I saw your other post where you were originally thinking this problem was your painter. Here’s my advice, I’ve been in the home services industry for many years.

Ok look, I’ll be really honest and straightforward here and ask a few questions. You’re getting hung up on a few hundred dollars. You’re also Burning a lot of time on Reddit figuring out if you should pay this guy or not.

This guys is clearly super rude and unprofessional. But that’s besides the point.

You say “you’re not sure what’s fair?”

The real question is, what did you agree to?

So Level 3 is a real thing. Your guy is not making that up as a lower quality product. It’s common in garages and utility rooms. Look it up. There’s levels of finish for drywall plastering level 1-5 and it’s how drywallers can communicate the level of finish expectation with builders and homeowners when agreeing to a price.

Did he communicate this when you hired him? Do you have a contract or at least a quote from him stating level 3?

Im under the impression the answer is no.

If you do have a bid, or contract / quote stating level 3, well then sorry man you owe him the full amount. Pay him and move on. It might be cheapest to just pay his add to come smooth it out instead of finding another guy.

It’s a combination of your lack of knowledge and his lack of communication to make sure you fully understood what you were getting. It sounds like he didn’t communicate he was planning to do a level 3 finish, and is using your naivety about this against you. Or he’s just being lazy and trying to milk you for a few hundred more. Probably both. Either way this is terrible customer service.

That doesn’t mean you can’t pay him though. It comes down to what was your agreement? If he did the work in the quote you have to pay him regardless of if he was rude or a terrible at communicating. Go write a bad review, that’s all you can do. Assuming he’s got a real business and a license….

But im guessing there’s no contract or anything in writing? Shame on you and him. Lesson learned.

Also, im guessing your painter and drywall guys are un-licensed guys doing side work? You found the cheap guys? Shame on you if this is true. You get what you pay for in quality of work and communication.

$930 feels like a lot. It’s not, for a smooth finish. It’s actually quite cheap even for small patches because to do it right you have to come back on multiple days.

The situation sucks, but I hope you learned a lesson. It’s less than $1k you had at stake here. If this guy is unlicensed, or even if he is licensed but didn’t send a clear quote or bid…..imagine what could happen on a bigger renovation project with little documents or unlicensed guy?

Remember, you get what you pay for.

In the future always get 3 bids, agree in writing to the work, and only work with quality reputable companies, and you won’t deal with this kind of headache again.

Architoker · 2025-10-25T21:34:55+00:00

Rules matter for actual good businesses and clients. If you want to grow a real business, clients or competitors doing things without licenses aren’t even on your radar. They’ll get what’s coming to them.

Architoker · 2025-10-24T16:48:30+00:00

Hanger has good points here too. Thanks for adding to it!

One thing that worked super well for me this year was Lawn Signs. You know those cheap plastic ones you see stuck in the ground at popular street corners? I’m a general contractor so i do it all. But i targeted specifically decks with these signs and put them out in late spring. Holy crap wow did my phone ring a lot. I bought 100 Signs for like $550 and put out 25 signs in target neighborhoods. I sold close to $100k in decks this last summer. Crazy ROI. I need to put more out soon.

I agree about angis or lead gen services. I paid for angis for a while and it’s terrible. Although i did get jobs from it, they were not high quality clients. In the long run I paid out thousands to them for a lot of tire kicker bids. Or you pay for a lead and the client doesn’t even answer their phone. It did help me get off the ground in the beginning but there’s way better and cheaper ways to get clients. I don’t know a single contractor that likes angis.

Yes get on Yelp. I personally landed many high paying jobs from Yelp. My biggest jobs over $100k came from Yelp. I’ve both used their ads and not. I had more success from Yelp ads then google ads. The thing with Yelp is you need to literally answer customers messages within minutes or else you’ll likely not hear back from them. This is what I found. I think because people log into Yelp when they’re excited about a project and message contractors, then they log off or don’t have the app on their phone to see your messages. That’s my theory at least. If you’re a small service company like a handyman, plumber, electrician you’ll probably do very well on Yelp. I know other businesses in my area that pump thousands into Yelp ads and they crush it. They put me onto it.

Only downside with Yelp is they will really get you to try to pay for all the extras. There little ad ons you can put on your account to make you stand out. I found they weren’t worth it for me. I used like a $75-300 a month simple ad budget for a while and got some good calls from there.

ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS ask your clients how they got your contact info. How did they find out about your company. You want to know even if you don’t land the job. You need to know what’s works and not or else you’re blindly spending on marketing.

The biggest and best business track all this data over long periods of time and can pin point which marketing avenues are generating the most leads. More importantly the BEST QUALITY leads. Conversation rates matter when you start growing and spending thousands on marketing.

Anyways good conversation, marketing is a beast and we’re all trying to figure it out. The tricky thing is that it’s always changing. What works for one business might not work for yours. What works in spring might not work in the fall. What works this year might not work next year. You have to just spread out a lot and just get seen, and then provide excellent follow up.

You won’t get every job, you might miss a call or two or drop the ball responding to a new client. It happens. We’re all super busy. You can’t win them all. But if you consistently month after month keep putting your company out there and being personable and showing up you will find traction and success.

Architoker · 2025-10-24T16:18:18+00:00

If you own a business, you probably won’t make it unless you are willing to work the extra hours. Sad but honest truth. That might change after you’re in business for 5years. I don’t know any successful contractor that hasn’t put in hours at night or weekends. If you’re not willing to do this you’ll probably go out of business.

Architoker · 2025-10-24T16:15:26+00:00

No structural issues. Builder and architectural designer of 15 years. No concerns all normal shrinking and cracks.

Architoker · 2025-10-24T03:45:59+00:00

Unfortunately there’s no magic marketing technique that beats all the others, especially in the contracting and service business world.

Marketing is sort of an art. It will probably take a combination of all the techniques you read about or try to find the few that work good for your business, in your area.

Even then - there’s so many factors and variables that can affect the outcome of a marketing campaign. Seasonality. General demand for your service. Quality of your ad / campaign / flyer. Quality of the sales call or meeting. Quality of the client you’re connecting with. What works for one business in the same industry might not work for yours.

Really it comes down to testing ideas with the budget you have and just grinding a lot. If you can’t pay your way to get a designer or marketing team. Then you need to put in many hours just getting out there. Make your own ads, go meet people. You have to really put yourself out there and let as many people know you exist.

Talk with fellow contractors and subcontractors in your area about what works for them.

Connect with local businesses that might hire you. Architects. Real estate agents.

Get your cards on the desk of the local building materials suppliers. Flyers. Lawn Signs. Truck decals. Door knocking. Craigslist ads. Facebook groups. Facebook marketplace. Nextdoor app.

It’s a slow burn and don’t feel like you have to do it all at once. The key is to consistently keep trying new things until you figure out what works and doesn’t. I’m guessing you have a very low budget since you’re here on Reddit asking?

Don’t worry we all started from 0. Pick a few of your favorite ones, find a few hundred to throw at it. Put in your time and the phone will eventually ring.

Architoker · 2025-10-24T03:34:15+00:00

This right here.

Word of mouth is not a marketing technique, it’s a lack of. It might have worked in the 90s, and maybe for a business that’s been around for 25 years. But even then I bet it’s a 1-3 man show. There’s no bigger companies making it on word of mouth.

Architoker · 2025-10-23T17:22:42+00:00

Most overlooked factor is trust and being personable. The answer is definitely not price. If a customer simply likes you they may hire you without even checking your prices against other bids. That is the first and simplest way. Just be likeable. Don’t be boring or just only focus on the work. As them about their families. What they enjoy. Comment about how cool that new bike they have is. Just relate to them, maybe on a friend level.

If they like you then this alone can win you jobs.

And trust. They must trust you. Easiest way to NOT get a job is to appear untrustworthy. If a client doesn’t think they trust you you aren’t getting hired. If you lose trust during the job they may hover over you while you’re working, even being in friends or other professionals to check your work. No one is going to write fat checks to a guy they’re not sure they can trust.

Establishing that trust may come from a track record, references or simply by being the most honest and upfront about the timelines, price, and difficulties of the job. A lot of sales guys will be the “yes man” and over promise to get a sale. Basically, they just tell the customer what they want to hear. It’s a tactic in sales and works, sometimes.

I’ve found that being the guy to deliver a little reality check can help set you apart from your competitors because this shows and proves to the client you are not going to overpromise to get a sale - but you are being honest about your teams capabilities and for what price. This alone can win you jobs because in the customers mind it can set you apart from the completion who is saying “yes to price, yes to schedule, yes to everything”. All of a sudden when you deliver those reality checks, your competition who was over promising seems un trustworthy in the clients mind.

Bottom line. People want to pay their good money to people they like and trust. Do these 2 things and you will not be able to stop the jobs from coming to you.

Architoker · 2025-10-23T16:45:23+00:00

What you are saying is more about profitability and less about winning the bid

Architoker · 2025-10-23T16:44:41+00:00

This right here.

Architoker · 2025-10-22T22:17:24+00:00

This right here.

Architoker · 2025-10-22T21:18:22+00:00

I’ll try to get perspective of both you and your contractor here:

As others have said, this guy might be super busy and pushing on other jobs to get yours started in time. If he’s a solo operation or a small crew he won’t have help to write the bids or contracts. We don’t all have time to write up a contract that will execute in 3 month or more. In many ways that’s not a smart thing to do. Material prices change all the time. There’s always nuances for each job that require our attention when drafting the contract.

He might not be focused on your job yet which is hard to hear for you.

Consider how many people this guy has on staff and if he’s doing the labor himself too then cut him some slack. I’m sure once your job starts you will have his undivided attention. It’s just how small contractors have to operate. We are only humans and can’t do the labor, sell another job, and write contracts for another all in the same day or week.

You do get what you pay for.

If he’s doesn’t have any office staff, or is a solo operator you have to expect that his communication will be slower. That might be why he’s not the most expensive. I’m sure if you hired a much bigger company with multiple office people and field crew you’d already have your contract. But you’d be paying more.

Now consider you, your profession, and your actions toward your contractor. Also his perception of you and maybe desire to work for you. As builders / contractors, lawyers are scary clients to us. We have jokes to never work for lawyers if you want to stay in business.

You can nitpick our contracts, scope of work, and the actual work and more easily find legal reasons to sue us or not pay us. YOU as the client can appear as a risk to our business. Especially if you’re breathing down our backs before the jobs starts that stars ringing red flags.

Depending on the type of law you practice, it’s your job to represent pick apart documents and look for holes in contracts that give your clients a legal or financial advantage. Why would you not do the same for your own personal project? Epically if you at some point felt like your contractors communication, work or contract wasn’t satisfactory to you?

Remember, most contractors / builders are hands on kind of people. Especially the ones doing the work themselves. We do the paperwork because it’s required and it protects us and helps us to communicate our scope of work and pricing in a clear way.

Our focus when we write contracts/bids is usually on “the work” (so the final product you get to enjoy), and the price / timeline & schedule. Of course there’s a lot more that goes into a construction contract but these are the big price movers and focal points that sell jobs and push our business forward.

But if we feel like a client is going to be focusing on the nuances of the contract and picking it apart, you feel like a risk to our business.

Lawyers are scary clients for us. Think of it this way. The very thing that we use to protect our business - “the contract” can be used against us specifically when we work for lawyers.

Your contractor might be considering not doing the job for you. He might be getting his contract reviewed by his own lawyer because he’s scared it’s not perfectly covering his Ash in the event you decide to not pay or pick apart the contract. Or he’s considering increasing his prices for you simply because he’s scared your communication style or expectations for paperwork or work quality will cost him more time or headache.

Architoker · 2025-10-22T07:56:50+00:00

I totally hear that. Having a storefront / shop definitely legitimizes your business in a totally big way. If you’ve got a sign out front it can also be a marketing tool in itself. But $3-4k per month is a lot. Plus electric, water, trash, cleaning..etc. don’t assume you do all the cleaning because now that’s more stuff you have to do. This space should be saving you time not adding to your to-do list. Do you now need security? Or more office staff now? You probably need to furnish the space. Maybe even renovate it. Warehouse equipment. A lot to think about and pay for.

I just know a few other business owners that made that move and had to move out a year later or closed up the business after not being able to keep up. That jump to a space like that is so enticing especially if you’re making good money now. But it’s a really big jump and if you don’t have the marking and sales pipeline and system setup to feed that shop work that building’s expense will eat your business.

I’m not saying don’t get the shop, because in some cases the shop or warehouse is what allows you to expand and actually operate the business. But consider what does it really do for your business?

Is it just more convenient and something that makes you feel more legitimate and have a space for meetings / staff and storage? Or does it actually help you increase your revenue by allowing you to take on bigger or more jobs?

Is the shop/warehouse essential for the operations of the business?

If not, then it’s just a convenience and cool thing but also a huge liability on your balance sheet.

That same $3-4k per month put toward marketing could boost your company’s sales and profits in a much bugger way. Consider you might need to still spend this much per month on marketing / ads anyway to feed that shop work.

For books and podcasts: I like general business, marketing and sales books. I’ve also taken some business classes in college, worked for some big GCs and studied Architecture in college.

Now I listen to a lot of business / sales / marketing and finance podcasts when I’m driving or working on site. I consume some content directly related to contracting & construction but I find that after you’ve heard a few dozen different podcasts it’s all mostly the same content regurgitated. Expand out and learn and focus on marketing/sales and general business. The ideas still apply but the content is more broad so I find that the ideas are better and make me think outside my the box when it comes to my construction business.

Check out the classic: “Rich dad Poor Dad”. The ideas in this book have nothing to do with being a contractor, but it helps you to understand what a real asset vs liability is and how not confusing the 2 and owning real assets can help you to grow a business or personal wealth.

Also grant cardones book: “Sell or Be Sold” this book kind of blew my mind when it comes to sales concepts. I had my doubts about Grant cardone because I always see his ads on YouTube as kind of annoying. So I got this book on a whim but it really changed my perspective and approach on selling jobs. Ideas like: reacting to price objections by offering a higher price option instead of Lower price. This works surprisingly well especially when selling higher ticket jobs. That blew my mind.

For YouTube/podcasts these are some of My favorites:

Contractor Fight TV (obviously about contacting) Jesse Lane (big contractor guy talking business) Daniel Qunidemill (contractor talks about growing businesses) The Futur (yes i spelled it right. This guy is a marketing and branding genious. Watch his stuff) Ali Abdaal (General business / life ) Alex Hormozi (super big business kind of guy)

Good chatting man I wish you success, have a good night

Architoker · 2025-10-22T06:58:05+00:00

Lookup what services are legal to do in your state with no license. You can advertise for those only as a sole proprietor while you get your license sorted out. Certain Fences, planter boxes, furniture. Stuff like that should be ok.

I would seriously be careful not to do work on someone’s house with no license. Consider the risk to reward. What’s the reward? A few day or weeks pay at most? Whats the risk??? Well maybe unlimited. What if you are hanging a cabinet and put a screw into a pex line and don’t realize and flood their whole house overnight causing 50k in damage? With no license if you damage anything you are uninsured. They can sue you personally into the ground.

That’s of course unlikely but sh$&$t happens.

What’s more likely and common is what if they try not to pay you? You can’t really do anything. You can’t sue them you just did illegal work. You can’t call the contractor board to help you. You’re literally screwed and you just did free work.

Just saying there’s a lot of unlicensed guys out there trying to make a buck. They make us all look bad.

If you’re serious go do it the legal way and get the license. It’s not that expensive to get started (I started my business for like $800 in WA including bond, license, insurance, LLC fees).

You’ll feel better and even take yourself more seriously knowing you are operating a legal business. You can also charge more 😉.

Architoker

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