After seven years of very hard graft in the construction trade, I finally decided to pull the plug a few months back and stopped everything. I took time to refocus and literally do nothing other than just enjoy life. But after a while of doing nothing other than self indulging I found myself itching to focus on building my construction business.
I'd put away enough capital to invest in equipment, approx 12000 euros. I know have everything needed to deliver good work (ciment mixer, circular saws, concrete breakers etc etc) however all the larger equipment like tipper truck and diggers I'm having to rent when and where needed atm. I'm sitting at about 5000 euros capital in the bank.
Now to get the work. I put the word out in my own circles, distributed flyers in post boxes and this month I scored my most interesting job yet; building a double garage. Then just as this happened I scored a job for next month which is building an entire house, this job alone is worth about 20,000 gross.
The conditions for me building the house are that I must have public liability insurance and a 10 year guarantee, something I did not want to commit to before as it is expensive!!! But now I have it it'll give my new customers a sense of assurance and also enable me to take on bigger jobs.
I set up a meeting with the insurers and I got full cover for about 25% less than somebody else I know but it still amounts to 322 euros overhead per month, this is more motivation to get moving and keep the income coming in. The reason I got it at a lower price however was I am 2 levels over the minimum qualification in my field and have worked in some pretty major construction firms, all of which they take into account. The cost of my professional insurance will decrease if no claims are made, this means more motivation to deliver better quality work!
So what is the barrier to entry? Well in France to open a construction company you either need to be qualified (which takes minimum 1 year for an entry level qualification whereby you go though an apprenticeship scheme, or you need 3 years experience in the trade).
Anyway, my objectives for this business are now very clear.
I'm at ground floor at the moment but I think I've learned from previous failures what I should and should not do. Internet companies are not my thing.
How do I scale construction business from a one man army?
The technical side I can do hands down but working on my own (although I can earn a nice monthly wage) is not going to cut it. I need to find more profitable clients and contracts and expand. So that is my main focus. Next week I've scheduled a meeting with a good salesman who I'm going to set out a strategy to winning new and bigger contracts. He's prepared to work on a commission only basis whereby he'll get a set lump some for every contract I sign. My aim is to scale fast. The workforce I can get from a work agency where I once worked for quite a few years. I'll try to avoid directly employing people until I have a steady flow of clients etc. I'll only employ people who are very good and are prepared to follow the systems I'm going to put into place.
This is an exciting time for and I love being my own boss. I'd never go back. I know at the moment I've got it easy because I'm on my own with nobody to manage and therefore I can mange everything with ease, but I appreciate things are going to get very different, but even still this month I'll turn over about 11,000 euros, with about 4000 profit. Which is nice.
I'll post another update here in about one month to talk about what I've accomplished with the salesman.
Below is a picture of a concrete pour yesterday that I was glad to do in time because storms were predicted and my trenches would have been flooded had I waited til after the weekend. This enabled me to get a first course of blocks down this morning.
View attachment 5279
I'd put away enough capital to invest in equipment, approx 12000 euros. I know have everything needed to deliver good work (ciment mixer, circular saws, concrete breakers etc etc) however all the larger equipment like tipper truck and diggers I'm having to rent when and where needed atm. I'm sitting at about 5000 euros capital in the bank.
Now to get the work. I put the word out in my own circles, distributed flyers in post boxes and this month I scored my most interesting job yet; building a double garage. Then just as this happened I scored a job for next month which is building an entire house, this job alone is worth about 20,000 gross.
The conditions for me building the house are that I must have public liability insurance and a 10 year guarantee, something I did not want to commit to before as it is expensive!!! But now I have it it'll give my new customers a sense of assurance and also enable me to take on bigger jobs.
I set up a meeting with the insurers and I got full cover for about 25% less than somebody else I know but it still amounts to 322 euros overhead per month, this is more motivation to get moving and keep the income coming in. The reason I got it at a lower price however was I am 2 levels over the minimum qualification in my field and have worked in some pretty major construction firms, all of which they take into account. The cost of my professional insurance will decrease if no claims are made, this means more motivation to deliver better quality work!
So what is the barrier to entry? Well in France to open a construction company you either need to be qualified (which takes minimum 1 year for an entry level qualification whereby you go though an apprenticeship scheme, or you need 3 years experience in the trade).
Anyway, my objectives for this business are now very clear.
- I do not want my business to be a job.
- I want to build a controlled company that I can build wealth
- One that I can have fun growing from a one manned operation into a highly profitable and well oiled machine
- To find good managers
- To build good teams with
- Develop good systems to keep things organised and under control.
I'm at ground floor at the moment but I think I've learned from previous failures what I should and should not do. Internet companies are not my thing.
How do I scale construction business from a one man army?
The technical side I can do hands down but working on my own (although I can earn a nice monthly wage) is not going to cut it. I need to find more profitable clients and contracts and expand. So that is my main focus. Next week I've scheduled a meeting with a good salesman who I'm going to set out a strategy to winning new and bigger contracts. He's prepared to work on a commission only basis whereby he'll get a set lump some for every contract I sign. My aim is to scale fast. The workforce I can get from a work agency where I once worked for quite a few years. I'll try to avoid directly employing people until I have a steady flow of clients etc. I'll only employ people who are very good and are prepared to follow the systems I'm going to put into place.
This is an exciting time for and I love being my own boss. I'd never go back. I know at the moment I've got it easy because I'm on my own with nobody to manage and therefore I can mange everything with ease, but I appreciate things are going to get very different, but even still this month I'll turn over about 11,000 euros, with about 4000 profit. Which is nice.
I'll post another update here in about one month to talk about what I've accomplished with the salesman.
Below is a picture of a concrete pour yesterday that I was glad to do in time because storms were predicted and my trenches would have been flooded had I waited til after the weekend. This enabled me to get a first course of blocks down this morning.
View attachment 5279
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