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Invoice for electrical work for Purchasing

today let's talk about electrical  contracting businesses and starting   your own electrical contracting business [Music]   so something that y'all are probably going  to start seeing me do more often uh on this   channel and my journey to master Channel which I'm  starting to record more content tons of you been   asking for that I have a whole project that I'm  starting that up I won't get into now but you're   going to start hearing a lot more business level  content from me so I figured this would be a good   opportunity to just start talking about some of  the things that I think a small startup electrical   contracting company should consider so here are  some things my suggestions of ways that you should   handle being a brand new company number one work  for yourself and buy yourself for a little while   so when you get a new company started up it's  kind of hard to make the phones ring you got   to figure out whose doors to knock on where  to put yourself what kind of reviews you need   where you need to like go and do stuff to get the  phones to ring there's a whole bunch of different   methods to doing this and I think you should do  them all but if you're working by yourself you   are an income earner the worst thing you can do is  hire an apprentice right away because now you have   double the amount of salaries for still the same  income so you're just going to be running yourself   ragged for a really long time if you start with  an apprentice even if you start with another   journeyman you need to have enough money set  aside that you can pay them and so I think just   working by yourself maybe the first year maybe the  first three months six months whatever until you   can save up some money and make sure that you can  really afford to hire somebody number two is keep   a balance in your bank account I like to keep no  less than ten thousand dollars so when I see ten   thousand dollars in my business bank account ten  thousand dollars means zero it means I'm broke and   if you think of your bank account like that don't  see 10 grand and be like I'm rich and I got all   this money your bank account is gonna go like this  constantly you might have 10 grand in there and   all of a sudden you got to go buy five thousand  dollars of materials to go rough in a house or   something now you only got five grand in there  what happens if you have three more jobs you got   to buy materials before you get paid then you're  like down to three thousand and now you don't have   any money that's gonna happen often so I like to  treat ten thousand as my zero and just make sure I   got 10 grand in there and then anything above that  is what I try to spend but I try to make sure that   I've got that zero always and then if I'm gonna  hire somebody I will build more than that ten   thousand and make sure that I've got the money  to hire them but I would just treat as long as   you got 10 grand in the bank you know you're okay  you can breathe a little bit but um again you're   going to get a check for 5 000 and then all of a  sudden you have to buy 7 000 materials and then   you so you're just gonna see your bank account  go crazy and that's one thing I never really   expected when I went into business now if you're  doing service work your bank is probably going   to be a little bit more steady you're probably not  going to have a whole lot of crazy stuff like that   but it depends I mean you could build a 400 amp  service and now you got to go buy eight thousand   dollars worth of gear to put that service together  you know so you you just don't know what's going   to happen you don't know what kind of jobs  you're going to take on and everything like   that so making sure that you can pay for all of  that is really important I don't recommend people   utilize credit uh and start putting yourself in  debt to run a business I think as long as you can   provide a service and it brings in Revenue I think  at first that's the responsible way to go about it   getting trade lines of credit at the supply house  and all that stuff later is fine but you could   also end up with a situation if you still have a  lower balance in your bank account that you can't   pay off the materials and then you're gonna have  a bad relationship with the supplier so just make   sure I would stay at ten thousand as your zero  and kind of build up from that and once you're   you know 15 20 grand something like that then you  can start thinking like okay I'm now I know how   the business operates now I know seasonally you  know you've gone through like 12 months of a of a   whole year to figure out seasonally what's going  on material shortages all that kind of stuff so   um this is another reason for number one why  you want to work by yourself and for yourself   so that you can really fully understand from a  business side what the field is because you as a   journeyman for the last 10 years you haven't been  a business owner so it's a completely different   skill set to shift over into thinking about  business and you need some practice and time   doing that I think the best way is just keep that  table so that ten thousand dollars equals zero in   your bank account number three hiring so I said  work by yourself for yourself for a while right   um depending on how much money you're making  and what you're doing with your money and what   kind of like Niche that you're in or anything  like that I think it's a smart idea to save up   a certain amount of salary for somebody before  hiring them so for me if 10 000 is my zero then   I want to hire somebody let's say I'm paying them  five thousand dollars a month or whatever this is   a round figure that's probably around 30 bucks  an hour if I'm gonna spend five grand a month   I need to know that I've got three months of that  put aside for me to feel comfortable because you   might hit a lull something might happen with the  economy whatever another like pandemic happens   something like that so you need a cushion of money  to make sure that even in a lull or when you've   got some huge job that you got to spend a bunch  of money on making sure that at least the salary   portion you've got set aside so I would probably  build up if you're paying somebody five thousand   a month I would you know spend I would take 15  grand keep in mind you also have to pay payroll   taxes so from those of you that don't know when  you pay an employee right 20 of their check comes   out in taxes and goes to the government that  same 20 percent you have to pay on top of it   so the government gets double taxed for that one  employee's hours so you're gonna have you know uh   if it's like a thousand dollars a week that's two  hundred dollars taken out for them 200 taken out   for youth three months that's two four six eight  so that's that's uh another twenty four hundred   dollars that you have to set aside so 15 grand  plus 20 2400 but as little as long as you've got   their salary put aside and you've got about three  months some people disagree some people are like   no you need to have six months whatever whatever  you want to do but at least you've got that set   aside so that when you bring them on you don't  even have to really touch that money as long   as you're bringing in money and everything's fine  and you're able to float because here's the thing   when you bring in a journeyman they're a revenue  earners so they're going to be bringing in more   money you know if you can bring in five grand  a week and they can bring in five grand a week   you shouldn't have to touch that money at all you  should be able to pay with your operating expenses   but having that money set aside will allow you  to pull from it if you need to and I think it's   just more of a responsible way to go about it the  other thing I mentioned earlier is don't just hire   an apprentice as your first hire I know a lot of  people are thinking okay I have all this work and   I just need help really I just need a hand so  that I can do two-person jobs and I can charge   more money for two-person jobs but unless they're  bringing in a bunch of money and you're this small   they're gonna cost you so much more than they're  ever able to bring in they can't be left alone   plus you're gonna be sitting there babysitting  so they're gonna take your time and make you   take more time for every single thing that you're  doing so bringing an apprentice on I think should   be down the line when you've got a couple of  Journeymen and you've you've got a solid stream   of Revenue earners that are bringing stuff in so  you can afford to bring a helper along and move   that helper between whatever jobs need help to  have like just an extra hand that can learn along   the way so that's that's my thoughts about the  whole thing number four stick with what you know   uh I have done jobs that I probably shouldn't have  done and I've had situation well really just one   situation where I tried to tackle something that  was way beyond my scope of knowledge and it was   big enough and it got to the point where I had to  tell the customer I was like look I bit off more   than I could chew with this I was I know how to  figure out solutions to problems so there's really   nothing I can't do but some of this was like heavy  equipment and like really weird situations and   stuff and I the people that were supposed to do  the underground didn't do things right so like I   had to just figure out all these crazy things that  I had never done before and it just ended up being   a nightmare and rather than the customer being  like oh this guy is just terrible doesn't know   what he's doing I was just honest with him and  I was like look I bit off more than I can chew   there's a little bit beyond what I know how to  do so I'm sorry for that but I am going to find   another contractor that's another company that can  specifically do this thing and I'm gonna make sure   that I bring somebody in that can help and handle  this situation and they were totally fine with   that and the situation was resolved I paid them  to do this I had to eat a little bit of the you   know the revenue there was no profit I just lost  money on it but it was a Learning lesson for me   when I was when I just got my master license and I  was eager and I just wanted to accept every single   job out there so this idea like do what you do  really well and just stick with that you need to   find your Niche so if your Niche is industrial  don't start a residential Electrical Company   you're not going to know anything about codes  inspections you're not going to know how to wire   houses you're going to do all kinds of crazy stuff  the inspector's going to walk into your house and   be like bro you know nothing there's no way and  then you're gonna have to hire a company to come   in and like consult with you on how to wire a  house you know what I mean so stick with what   you know it's okay to Branch into other things and  do a lot of research and try to take on something   that's a little bit beyond your scope but you just  need to do a lot of due diligence and research to   make sure that you're actually doing it correctly  and having another group of people around you that   you can ask maybe some other Master electricians  some inspectors things like that so that you can   gather information about like how how should I do  this is this way too beyond what I'm you know what   I should be doing in general if you just stick to  what you know and what you're good at it'll allow   you to to grow as a company and you'll be known  for that kind of a work and you won't get into any   crazy situations where you're working outside  of what you know number five find your niche   so if you can pick rather than taking every  call that comes in and trying to do every   bit of work and every single thing pick one  Niche so if you're going to be residential   new construction be residential new construction  if you want to handle residential and Commercial   new construction because you're really great  at both of them and you can set your shop up   and your people and everything to do that  then do that if you're industrial only   stick to Industrial like do figure out what your  thing is because the electrical industry is so   broad we have people that are doing solars we  have people that are only doing signs their entire   career they've got multiple license licenses that  you can get I mean a master sign electrician you   can be a journeyman sign electrician all you  ever touch are like pylon signs and Monument   signs and like signage on buildings and things  like that so just that's a whole career you   could be residential new construction you could be  residential service and troubleshooting which is   not new construction at all it's way different  skill set same thing with commercial you'd be   commercial new construction commercial service  you can be industrial new construction Industrial   Service you can do facility maintenance you could  do data centers where all you're doing dealing   with is like DC and power supply servers things  like that you could work in like very specific   types of facilities that have highly specialized  skill set you could work in doing generators   um you know backup power ups stuff like that for  like small scale operations instead of at data   centers and things like that there's a million  different kinds of electricians that you can   be so don't just whatever comes your way try to  tackle it you're gonna end up doing way more work   than you need to for the amount of money that you  could otherwise just make by sticking with your   thing so I will turn away a lot of work because  my methodology is I would rather charge a premium   price provide outstanding service so I will get  everybody's callbacks and I will get tons of   recommendations from people by just being Stellar  not being a bottom feeder trying to do cheap   cost cutting and then showing up and really not  delivering really well I want to be higher Echelon   than that and I want to be known for a thing  so I can charge a lot of money for doing that   thing so if I can do three jobs a week to make  ten thousand dollars because I'm charging a lot   of money I would rather do that than do 30 jobs a  week to make ten thousand dollars and burn myself   out and burn all my employees out and everything  like that and the way you can do that is being   known for a certain thing and kind of sticking  in your field in your lane and your Niche and   it's definitely okay to hire other people on who  have expertise in other things and then you kind   of Branch out into other things that's totally  fine but I think picking a niche especially when   you are fresh into this figuring out what you can  do what you're really good at charging what you   charge so you can do less work charging a little  bit more maybe to do less work but it's also okay   when I started my first electrical contracting  company I took every single call everything didn't   matter what it was I did so much work I never  wanted to touch and I burned myself out and I   tried to undercut everybody's pricing I tried to  like I just had a problem saying no I didn't want   to say no I wanted to be the one that when you  called yeah you can get me out there it's totally   fine and then I was three months backed up and  I had to keep telling people no I'm I'm out the   door for three months I can't come out there but  they might they liked my personality they liked   my kind of like bedside manner or whatever I care  about people's kids and I play with their dogs and   you know like I when I show up I show up like  a friend sort of so I'm I'm kind of a lovable   dude I think as an electrician so people just  like me they trust me they know that I'm going   to do good work they know I'm going to be honest  they know I'm always going to show up when I say   I am and my word actually means something and  that's one thing people love to be able to rely   on you and your word means something and they  know no matter what you're going to handle it   um so I like I kind of developed a reputation so  like very quickly I realized like whoa hey I'm   not charging enough I'm getting way too much work  all the time so I need to raise my prices so some   people like get turned off by it and they go away  and I need to figure out and stop taking all this   crazy stuff and figure out what are the jobs  I want to do and take all these advertisements   and cut out half the stuff that I'm saying that I  would do and just do the things I want to do and   charge more money and be like a stellar dude and  and do great work and I found I'll make the same   amount of money but my hair is not on fire and  all my people aren't having to work till like   nine o'clock at night because I scheduled this  crazy stuff and everything's taking too long and   you know everything's just on fire all the time  so def definitely figure out what your Niche is   and stick to that at least for a while number  six stop using pen and paper for everything   this is 2023 literally everything you could  possibly write down on a piece of paper is in   digital form now you can run your entire company  from an app everything all your marketing all   your Communications with customers all your  CRM which is a customer resource customer   customer Resource Management  what does CRM even stand for   customers something what are but it's uh it's  how you take in people's information so you   can run an entire database of every customer  you've ever had their address how much money   they've paid you every job you've completed you  there's ways that you can communicate with people   so that uh you know like through an app I can  actually communicate and let you know that I'm   on the way for example something I'm using is this  software called market so if I do service calls I   can put in all of the information that I want to  for a customer I can send invoices through the   software I can give estimates through the software  I can tell the customer that I'm on the way that   the job's complete I can completely communicate  through this entire app and I can run my business   through the app and I can track employees I can  offer lines of credit I can do all this stuff in   an app so like instead of having a calendar on  the wall and a pad of paper in your truck and   all of these things handwriting up all of these  invoices use technology like again it's 2023 we   have ai now ai is going to run the world there's  tons of company companies that are operating to   allow AI integration into things but what markets  technology does really well is it takes all of the   difficult stuff all of the different crazy pieces  all the problems that we need to solve with all   these separate things and it compiles them into  one place and you can run your entire business   with the software so if you want to know more  about it check out the link in the description   below for Market rad software definitely check  it out number seven use reviews to your benefit so a lot of the old school cats don't like having  the ads out on you know like reviews and stuff   like that they don't like keeping up with it they  don't want the kind of work that comes in in the   service calls and the things that come in that  are review based they'd rather have their Core   group of builders that they deal with than just  have a relationship that's based off Word of   Mouth which is great might take you 20 years to  develop that to get the kind of business that you   want reviews that's how people search for work  now in today's modern world we use technology   which I just talked about to say Hey where's an  electrician near me boom pop-up results those   results have reviews I always sort by top rated  so if I'm in the map view of Google and I see all   these companies pop up I sort by top rated and  it gives me the highest reviewed thing and then   I can go in and read reviews and how these people  work and everything so I actually use reviews to   hire other people if I see somebody with like  17 reviews and they have a two star rating I   ain't hiring you I don't care if you're like  Triple A Electric because you're trying to hack   the alphabetic stacking of ranking of things but  you're actually terrible like I don't work that   way so I use reviews in my business because I know  that it matters to customers not because like oh I   don't want to deal with it it's just stupid well  it's yeah there's a lot of things that are stupid   but if you want phone calls and you want business  this is how people search the internet right now   the unfortunate thing that's a little irritating  is that companies like Angie Home Services Home   Advisor stuff like that house Yelp they are so  good at SEO that their results will come up before   all of the real results from actual people so like  my electrical contracting company it's never going   to be first on Google because Angie's is going  to be like top 10 rated electrical contractors   near you and all the people that pay them they  SEO push and pump those names in there so their   list is going to be the most relevant top of the  list and then you got a you know Home Advisor is   going to be next and then house is going to be  next and then Yelp is going to be next so all   these paid lead feed services are going to have  the top ratings and only the companies that work   with them are on their site so you won't even  show up unless you're using those sites and you   can't out SEO this size of companies that these  things are you could you could probably be a mad   con a Content House of of you know like constantly  putting stuff out and just outpace them with SEO   but the sheer volume of customers that they all  have means that there's always going to be a money   collector that's in between you and your customers  and that pisses me off like no other but rather   than being mad at it and just being like I'm not  gonna do it no I'm gonna do it because it's the   only way that I can make sure that I'm relevant  no matter where they click when a customer is   looking for an electrician everywhere they click  my name is so that's me gaming the system and just   taking the bullet and even though it pisses me  off I still do it I don't fight it I respect it   because it's the way things are number eight treat  people well this is huge I know some old school   cats that try to answer phones and they're like  yeah and it's like bro is that a customer yeah   you say yeah to your customers answer the  phone be like hey so-and-so electric what   can I do for you today be like presentable  like this is business right this isn't you   drinking with your buddies be a nicer version of  yourself when you're on the phone with customers   when you're talk when you go into somebody's  house if it's like an elderly people understand   where they come from they're probably going to  want you to take your shoes off or they're going   to see you at least taking your shoes off as a  sign of respect because that means something to   their generation there's some cultures where also  taking your shoes off at the door is respectful so   if you see a pile of shoes at the front door like  outside and you go up to the door at least ask be   like hey would you like me to take my shoes off to  come into your house and they will love it they'll   be like yes the fact that you thought of that like  thank you so much you can even say is it okay I'm   gonna have to keep coming in and out of here and  I got all these boots I don't want to lace this   up and keep on doing this because I'm in and out  would you be okay if I just put some like booties   on and took them off a lot of them will be like  yeah that's fine but the reason that they take   their shoes off is because they view their houses  like a sanctuary and it's a respectful thing to   take shoes off to be in a household so you just  like understanding things it kind of just means   caring about people right like not just showing  up like being a filthy dude looking in people's   homes if you're full of grease and stuff like  that go to a gas station wash yourself up real   quick before you go to your next service call you  don't want to show up like a dirt bag you don't   want like have respect for people when you when  you deal with people most of the work I get and   the reason why I have so much damn work I don't  know what to do with when I'm out doing my thing   is that people just love me it's like and I'm  not sitting here trying to be braggadocious or   like self you know like full of myself I make it  a point to care about people and not pretend that   I care not be out here fronting like I really do  care about people when I go to a customer's house   I'm asking them stuff about their life like hey  so what do you do for a living you know there's   a game to it I'm trying to figure out stuff that  I can remember about them so the next time I do   business with them I can be like hey how's your  kid like you told me he was doing the football   thing last time or whatever and I'm actually  listening I'm not asking a question and then   my mind's over here doing other stuff I'm like  I'm talking to them eye contact smile and being   like a decent person because you have to think of  things not from your perspective you have to think   of things from the customer's perspective you're  the strange person in their house if a strange   person that doesn't talk much is really Gruff is  filthy and doesn't want to talk to me is coming in   and out of my house and then just hands me a bill  and leaves I will never have that person back ever   but if somebody comes in and they're like hey man  how you doing today oh my gosh thank you so much   for the opportunity to be here what's your problem  oh you know what like I am such an expert at this   thing like I you have no problem I'm gonna take  care of you I know what the problem is or even if   you don't know the problem be like you know what  I've never run into that before but I'm really   good at figuring stuff out and I've got some you  know let me do a little bit of research and I'll   get an answer back to you instilling confidence  in people when they're sitting here with you   coming into their house most of the time it's  kind of a scary thing for customers not for you   who understands trades and those around trades  people and gets it but like even trades people   coming to a house is kind of a a scary thing so  like how you show up matters if you're wearing   nice clothing and you're clean and if you've  got you know like you're really attentive when   they're speaking and you care about things and you  sit and listen and respect them and think about   ways to respect their homes even another elderly  example I take my hat off when I go into elderly's   people's houses a lot of people from you know like  my my parents parents my grandparents generation   it's a thing they don't have you don't wear a cap  at a table when you're sitting down to eat dinner   when you're in inside my grandma used to be like  hey we don't allow woodpeckers in this house you   know like take your hat off it's just a respect  thing so just little things that you can do to   turn out to try to respect people's domicile the  better um don't pretend like you know stuff when   you don't be honest and say you know I actually I  have no clue but I I will find an answer you know   God I'm really good at finding stuff out so uh  let me do a little bit of research and I'll see   what I can come up with but instilling confidence  into people is huge as long as you are constantly   showing up and being like a great human outside  of your trade and your craft and the things you   know and the tools you're wearing be a great human  being with other human beings they will love you   for it because 80 percent of the people that are  showing up it's obvious they don't care they're   just there for money and you're gonna get all  the callbacks because they're gonna be like yo   sister so so and so I just met this  great human and they're an electrician   I'm going to give them to you because if you  ever need an electrician or if they've hired   five electricians and you're the one that shows up  and you're like super awesome to be around they're   gonna always remember you with someone their  boss is like hey do you know anybody that's an   electrician they're gonna be like oh dude there's  this guy I met he's such a good electrician such   a good person like oh my God you're gonna love him  boom get the business every person I meet can say   that about me and I just know that about myself I  know I fully give myself to everybody any of you   that are like followers that have met me in person  I'm pretty sure if you ever ask them would agree   like this version of myself is the same version  I am everywhere no matter who I meet if you're   a follower and I'm sitting there talking to you  and we shake hands and you're talking I'm asking   you about your business and what do you do and  what kind of electrician you are I give a [ __ ]   I really give a [ __ ] about the people that I'm  around and so I think if you do that if you kind   of mirror that behavior really show up really be  present really think about how you're coming off   um I think it's really important if you want  to continue to get calls and get great word   of mouth and get great reviews so that's  all I got for you let me know if there's   anything I missed and there's probably 30  other things I should have talked about   but I gotta stop this at some point so  love you crazy people thank you so much   for all the support for always watching  leave your comments below talk soon bye