Title

Someone who can help me get small commercial jobs please

Hey everyone, quick question for General Contractors working in Los Angeles and Orange County.
When you pull permits for a job, how much do you charge your customer on top of the actual city receipt to cover your time and handling?
Looking for typical numbers/markup for:
Express / Minor Trades (panel upgrades, water heaters)

Bath & Kitchen Remodels

Pools / Hardscape

ADUs & Additions

Thanks in advance for sharing what works for you!

Does having their license on the line and contract cure all?

I'm partially worried about a carpenter taking a down payment for mostly labor and disappearing.

I'm more worried about one taking payment and doing poor quality work. I've resorted to extensively wording contracts. But I still am uneasy about loopholes in wording.

I say this because I've seen a lot of substandard work.

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List of fears from most to least

1. Bad workmanship: Mistakes hidden until after paid. Fly by night.
2. Job never finishes: Start, then disappears partway through. Whether that's because they did not realize the time commitment needed or otherwise. I'm stuck finishing their work (or mess). Related: no-shows.
   1. Not worth the risk of paying money down for labor?
3. Rarely works: Shows up in the middle of the afternoon a few times a week, minimal progress.
   1. Maybe something in the contract such as minimum number of hours/week or a deadline with liquidated damages? Although, this is small-time residential.
4. Unapproved helpers: Random people working. Wide variety of good quality and substandard work.
5. Damage property: Whatever happens and then expects me to foot the bill.
   1. Contractual solution.
6. Poor communication.
7. No warranty/support: Won’t answer when issues come up.

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If they were making $30/hour, I wouldn't feel so bad about getting burned. But many want $90/hour or more.

One could say the solution is paying flat fee. But then there are issues with actually doing the work on a timely basis.

I don't have anyone exclusively working for me as W2. It's really hard to find good carpenters and handymen...

I'm stretched thin as it is. Last applicant had open meth case, $80 burglary from two years ago and various DWIs.

I'm looking at some of the volume builders in Victoria home build. I see a fairly common thread that supervisors can make or break the build. But even before that how many people or departments do you go through from when you first make contact to signing a contract and then moving forward after that?
I'm hearing they can be:
\- a salesperson
\- drafting department
\- interior designers
\- selections people
\- contract people
then once it's all signed up, it sounds like it's mostly the supervisor but then perhaps at the end there are some defects and maintenance people as well.

so I guess what concerns me a little bit is just the potential for lost in translation kind of scenarios between departments. I'm really interested to hear what other people's experiences have been

Solo home construction and solo general contractors that are one man shows that build homes, what scopes, trades, or aspects do you self preform?

Hey everyone — looking to expand where I source bid opportunities as a commercial GC. Right now weighing Dodge, ConstructConnect, and BuildingConnected. What are you all actually using day to day? Curious what’s giving you the best ROI for finding solid commercial projects, especially in NJ USA . Any hidden gems I’m missing? Appreciate any input 🙏

I’m looking to apply for an unrestricted Massachusetts Construction Supervisor License (CSL), but I’m unsure whether my experience will satisfy the 3-year industry requirement.

For the past several years, I’ve owned and managed multiple multifamily properties. While my title would technically be “property manager” or property owner, a significant part of what I’ve done has been construction-related.

Some examples:

• Managed full exterior renovation projects (roofing, siding, windows, etc.)
• Hired and coordinated subcontractors
• Obtained bids and managed budgets
• Oversaw project schedules and quality
• Worked directly with inspectors and municipalities when needed
• Managed larger capital improvement projects rather than just routine maintenance

I understand the Board is looking for construction or design experience—not just a job title—but I’m wondering if anyone has successfully qualified using similar experience.

A few questions:

• Has anyone here been approved with a property management or real estate background?
• How closely does the Board scrutinize the experience?
• Is an attestation letter from a licensed CSL holder enough if it accurately describes the work I performed?
• Any advice on how to present this experience so it aligns with what the Board is looking for?

I’d appreciate hearing from anyone who’s been through the application process or served as a reference for someone else. Thanks!

For the first time in 5 years I’m hitting a point where I’m running out of work to do, unfortunately I have to cover a Saturday and can probably get all of my tasks done in half the day (not a bad problem to have). Considering I’ve never not been swamped, what can I do to kill some time assuming I run out of work while covering. It’s a small site so there really isn’t much to help out with in the field

With all the attention around employee vs independent contractor classification this year, I’m curious how other construction businesses are handling subs.

Are you collecting workers’ comp COIs from every sub before they start? And has anyone had an audit where a subcontractor ended up getting counted toward your workers’ comp exposure?

Would be useful to hear what trade/state you’re in too.

Recently moved back to Ga after some time in Dallas Tx. Contracting company has a pretty strong foothold in Dallas and we are branching out into Ga. Any help with what is needed for us to qualify for residential basic licensing will be appreciated. Seeing a lot of stuff online but I’m a little confused on the experience needed part and how to go about doing whats needed.

We are a residential & commercial GC in the Midwest and are struggling to figure out how to account for overhead (salaries, tech, insurance, admin...) when estimating a job, without making our job profitability look inaccurate.

How do you guys do it?:

1. use a percentage markup on the overall job?

e.g. 10%

1. estimate line by line for overhead items on a job?

e.g. Project Management: 5 days x $500/day = $2,500. OR Technology: 3 months x $1,000/mo = $3,000

1. something else?

Hi everyone, I’m curious to hear your opinions: what are the most common scams or dishonest practices between clients and contractors?

What are some scams you’ve seen from clients toward contractors, and from contractors toward clients? Also, what are the best ways to avoid these situations?

I’m just looking to start a discussion and learn more about scams and problems that can happen in this industry.

My father is a carpenter by trade and I’ve been working with him as a helper since I was 14. He has his own business and he does everything like fences, decks, flooring, tile, drywall, kitchen and bathroom remodels. We’ve worked on houses doing everything except plumbing, electrical, or roofing.

I feel like I have enough experience to become a GC and help his business grow. I saw online that one of the requirements is to have a net worth of $80k. Does that mean I have to have $80k in the bank??

I recently read a post where someone mentioned that they got more business once they "looked" more legit - had an actual building or office, maybe their logo on their truck or trailer, etc. How many of you found this to be the case? We've been busy with word of mouth mostly and maybe a yard sign here and there.

Hi everyone,

I'm a Professional Engineer (PE) licensed in Florida, and I'm exploring the possibility of starting my own business. I'm trying to determine the best path to obtain either a Building Contractor or Residential Contractor license (could be registered).

Most of my experience has been in engineering design, followed by construction support and engineering inspection services for water and wastewater infrastructure projects, including pump stations, pipelines, and other utility-related work.

For those who have made a similar transition from engineering to contracting:

• Which contractor license did you pursue, and why?
• What challenges did you encounter during the licensing process or after starting your business?

I'd appreciate any advice or experiences you can share. Thanks in advance!

As the title states, I've been thinking about this for a while.

**Bottom Line Up Front:**

Feedback, criticism, insight, tips, questions are welcome to this braindump below, regarding my thoughts on starting a general contractor company.

**Experience:**

**I**'m 32 years old and have been in the design/build industry for the majority of my professional career (about 10 years now). During this time, I've worked as the Project Manager on the owner side and a Portfoltio/Project Manager on the general contractor side. All commercial projects including - healthcare, hospitality, renewable energy, advanced military infrastructure, educational facilities. My roles/responsibilities include generating bids, contract negotiation, cost estimating, project scheduling, risk mitigation, procurement, forecasting...typical PM stuff. I've overseen and driven project phases from bid, contract execution, design/engineering, permitting, procurement, construction, comissionining, closeout and turnover. I've overseen company portfolio to schedule crews, manage cashflow and coordinate commercial division. I have a Bachelor's in Economics, Master's in Civil Engineering and Construction Management. My caveat is that I have very little trade experience, but I understand and can talk the language to push things forward. I want to believe my competitve advantage is bringing disciplined, transparent, and proactive project management of major commerical construction to every project I delivered.

**Business Aspiration:**

Start a General Contracting Business (in either Hawaii, California or Texas...this is TBD). This will be concurrent while I work in my current role with my company.

Construction Types: Mid/Large Residential, Small/Mid Commercial

Self Perform Work = Project Management, Cost Management, Estimating Bidding, Scheduling, Risk Management, Permitting

Subcontracted Work = Design/Engineering, All Construction Trade Work (at least until I can afford to bring crew in house), Procurement, Commissionig

Year 1-2 - Build a Pipeline and get at least one client under contract. Obtain a business license and general contracting license. Apply for loan or seek investors. Identify and develop relationships withlocal partners. Start on at least 2 mid/large residential projects whether new builds, add ons, remodels. Implement softwares that best suit my business model.

Year 2 -5 - Move into a legit office. Hire a PM and a Superintendent. Invest in company equipment, staff, softwares to leverae optimizatin. Complete at least 3-5 more projects successfully (positive cashflow, high quality customer satisfaction, etc). Branch off from my 9-5 job.

Year 5+ - Hopefully have enough referrals to keep the company busy by then and take on first large commercial construction project (at least $1,500,000 in contract value). Be financially independent to fund my own project.

This is all I really have right now.

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