Keeping a Positive Additude

Question

Hello I am Gregg Hahn owner of 3G Electric based out of Northwest Corner of Ohio.
I am just starting out in my own with just 2 months in full time. I’ve been working as an electrician for 10 years. I took this step because of some life choice happening I had the flexibility of going on my own and feeling I could succeed.

I was wandering how people felt on the first couple months/ years when they started out. Where do you find the patience to keep grinding when you feel things are getting rough. I have a good clientele base and a lot of my jobs are getting started this summer just need to keep a positive mind.

I am still trying to figure out pricing and bidding bigger jobs. That I feel is the hardest part of being your own person doing the work/estimating/billing.
the work is the easy part the office side of it is what stinks. However, I feel like it will just take time.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

anthonysalazar · Answer

Honestly, I think what you’re feeling is pretty normal for a lot of owners during the early stages. Especially when you go from being “an electrician working for someone else” to suddenly being:

the technician
the estimator
the salesperson
billing department
scheduler
customer service
collections department

The actual trade work usually feels familiar. The mental load of running the business is what catches people off guard.

I remember feeling frustrated early on because I thought: “If I’m good at the work, the business part should naturally fall into place.”

That was not my experience. Pricing was stressful. Estimating felt uncertain. I second guessed quotes constantly. And some days it felt like I spent more time replying to people and organizing work than actually doing the work itself.

One thing that helped me mentally was realizing the business side is its own skill set. You’ve spent 10 years becoming skilled as an electrician. You’ve only spent 2 months being a business owner full time.

That perspective helped me be more patient with myself.

Something else that helped: I stopped expecting the business to feel stable emotionally all the time.

Some weeks you feel unstoppable. Some weeks you question everything. Sometimes both happen in the same day. Especially in the beginning.

As far as pricing and estimating bigger jobs, I think almost every owner goes through a period where they underbid simply because they are afraid to lose the work.

Then eventually you do enough jobs to realize:

some jobs took longer than expected
some customers consumed way more time
some projects were not worth the stress
and cheap pricing creates pressure everywhere else

A lot of pricing confidence just comes from repetitions and reviewing your numbers honestly afterward.

3gelectric · Answer

The most stressful thing I also am dealing with is making sure I have money to support my family. I went from a weekly 45-50 hour check to barely having 30 billable hours. I just trying my best but &nbsp;just not patient enough for the money to come in. Any one have advice on that?&nbsp;

4tservices25 · Answer

Hello! I appreciate you all sharing your thoughts here. I am in the same boat. I have been up and running since September of last year and while business has to picked up, I still have some trepidation about bidding work. Most times I feel like I am way too cheap, but think of I raise my price I will lose the work. I'm much better out with the machine doing the work. I would really like to invest in some of the available software to help bid jobs, create invoices, and help track hours, parts, etc. I just am not making enough money to justify the expense. Anyway, I just wanted to add my struggle since you guys were good enough to add yours. Thanks again for sharing. Good luck!&nbsp;

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Keeping a Positive Additude

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