How do contractors line up consistent work and avoid gaps between projects?

Question

I have been in the framing industry for over 20 years before opening and starting my own contracting business. Although I know how to build a house with ease and quality, I still find it hard to get new contracts with builders and how to line up several months of work.
I tend to "rush" through my projects with ease, never sacrificing quality, and be done well before my next project. I ask to get fillers from my current builders and can never be accommodated. So I sit for weeks in between waiting. I cant sustain that as a new company, and beyond that I just wanna go to work everyday, sitting at home is death.
How do you successful framing contractors line up work?
It it just a matter of who you know and not what you know?&nbsp;

awcllc · Answer

Be aggressive. Call realtors and ask if they know local builders, drive around jobsites, and ask for the GC's number. Do a local search and find licensed general contractors in your area. That's the best way to find repeatable clients. If you want custom builds from one-off customers looking for your work, that's where marketing comes in.

pestfreecanada · Answer

"I know how to build a house with ease" That kind of skill and confidence can't be held down for long.

Real tangible work is hard to come by these days, a lot of people have more money than skill and pay well to those who can build or take care of problems. I would take the downtime and build your business base. Not everything we do for the business necessarily makes us money, there are things that just need to be done. Marketing, creating a logo, building a website, creating a strong plan...I know you are probably doing this, but its a grind man. Nothing comes easy to those who decided to ditch the safety net and fly on our own.

One thing I learned early on, and I pass on to others quite regularly on here is to start small. Take on smaller jobs, less crew, less material, less overhead. Ask for a deposit to keep yourself going and use personal credit cards if needed. Chip away at it bit by bit and build yourself up. Not everything comes instantly, its a hard push out here sometimes. Keep your head up and press on man, you will be just fine.

I hope you look back on these days and think "I wish I had as much free time to do what I want/need to". Or look back and remind yourself how hard work and determination pays off and pass that on to others.

mtlcontractors · Answer

Honestly, I’d focus **bleep** smaller and mid-sized GCs doing additions, custom homes, structural renovations, cottages, stuff like that. Those companies are way more likely to need extra framing capacity than the big production builders.

And get aggressive about relationship-building honestly. Not in a pushy sales way, just being consistently present.

A lot of builders already “have a framing guy.” That’s normal. But projects pile up, schedules slip, crews disappear, quality drops, guys get overloaded. If you stay top of mind with enough GCs, eventually you become the first call when they need help fast.

Instagram honestly matters way more than people think now too. Some of the best subs we’ve found as a GC came from Instagram. Not even polished marketing necessarily, just seeing someone consistently posting clean work, showing up every day, interacting with builders, commenting on projects, being visible.

A guy posting framing progress regularly already feels more real and established than someone with zero presence.

And once you get in with a GC and make their life easier, answer your phone, hit deadlines, communicate well, keep sites moving, you usually stop needing to chase work nearly as much.

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How do contractors line up consistent work and avoid gaps between projects?

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